michael baars - by e-mail - 290604:

thumbs up for your review! i was there too and in my opinion it was the best concert for years. and i did see quite a number of good concerts. what i also liked very much, was the - as you have mentioned - 'adult' audience. or should i say that there were a lot of old farts loitering around? well, then i'm one of them, too.

my younger brother was there too. he keeps up with modern guitar and noise bands. but yet he contentedly determined that many guitar boys could learn something from it, as for effort, sound and skill.

detlef jürgens - by e-mail - 010704:

gut getroffen! (right on!)

rob cloos - by e-mail - 010704:

yeah, it was a very nice evening! for a long time my skin crawled again - which doesn't happen too often these days.

there hung substantial cannabis fumes, indeed. to be honest, that sure was sweet, too. i don't blow for years any more, but i still like the smell.

the music and the singing was really good. quite soon i forgot that, so to speak, captain beefheart should have been present. john french did excellent work.

unfortunately, there occurred a problem with the camera which was supposed to take tens of photos! so i had to call in the help of concert visitors who made pictures of the performance. and to my relief, it worked....

i received two sets of digishots from which i have made the selection you find on these pages about the concert. the 'angels' who i like to thank for their kind collaboration are frans schellekens and bas schelfhout.

denny walley / feeler's rebo - picture by bas schelfhout

by the way, (se)bas(tiaan) also gave a short impression of the gig:

I enjoyed the show very much. Although, I have to admit that I'm more into Frank Zappa, and I actually had come to see Denny Walley play - and perhaps speak him. Which happened, indeed: I spoke with him outside the venue, before the performance. Super!

I now regret that I have never seen the Captain live. I was aware seeing some living legends at Paradiso. Fantastic!

apart from that, he also posted the complete set to the frank zappa forum, where he told his fellow-fans:

So, I went there yesterday, and met some nice Scottish and English fans who came especially for the show at Paradiso, Amsterdam.

I was too early, and while waiting with a friend for the doors to open, a man stepped outside. "Mr. Denny Walley", I said and yes, Denny smiled and immediately came up to me to shake hands. Wow! We had a nice chat, and Denny signed some CD sleeves. He told us he had a good soundcheck, and he remembered playing Paradiso before with 'Don' and 'somewhere else with Frank' (incomplete memory! because he díd play in amsterdam with captain beefheart - on 021175, together with john 'drumbo' french - but the venue was the concertgebouw - t.t.).

The band played really good, great musicians, the crowd was pleased and shouted for more, more and more. Me, personally, I am not a 'Beefheart specialist', I have never seen the captain live, but I had a good time. My goal was to see, hear and meet Denny Walley and that was a success already. [...] So it was a great (Frank Zappa'ish) evening, and after that a long night in Amsterdam...

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mark boston / rockette morton - picture by frans schellekens

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dutch PRESS REVIEW 1

muziek: the magic band, paradiso, amsterdam, 22 juni
GROOTSE VERTOLKING BEEFHEART-KLASSIEKERS

door gijsbert kamer
uit de volkskrant 240604 holland

het moge duidelijk zijn: don van vliet alias captain beefheart zal nooit meer terugkeren op de concertpodia. een groot gemis, vooral voor al diegenen die zijn reputatie kennen uit de overlevering en pas kennis hebben genomen van beefhearts onmiskenbaar geniale platen, toen de man zich al uit de popmuziek had teruggetrokken (na het verschijnen van 'ice cream for crow' in 1982).

van vliets stem zullen we niet meer horen, maar is zijn muziek reproduceerbaar zonder al te veel aan kracht in te boeten? de muzikanten die hij in zijn magic band versleten heeft kennen alle partijen noot voor noot uit het hoofd, dus zo gek was het idee van drummer john french (drumbo) niet om samen met wat andere gewezen beefheart-begeleiders nummers van bijvoorbeeld het als complex maar uniek geboekstaafde meesterwerk 'trout mask replica' (1969) opnieuw in te studeren.

het stel bracht als 'the magic band' een volstrekt overbodig (nou zeg! - teejo) album uit - back to the front met beefheart-covers - maar bleek in paradiso in staat bij vlagen beslist iets van magie te creëren. john french zong niet alleen precies als van vliet, ook gebaren en motoriek bleken goed bestudeerd. misschien wat al te goed.

leuk french zo te zien in de rol van captain in 'click clack' of 'the floppy boot stomp', nummers die bovendien voortreffelijk klonken. maar pas echt spannend was het toen 'drumbo' zelf achter de drums zat in plaats van zijn plaatsvervanger, die nooit in de magic band heeft gespeeld en vooral is ingehuurd om french als zanger en bandleider vóór op het podium alle ruimte te geven.

met french als drummer bleek hoe meesterlijk beefhearts composities van vooral 'trout mask replica' in elkaar zitten. 'drumbo' moest zich op zijn drumspel concentreren, zodat 'my human gets me blues' en 'steal softly thru snow' zonder vocalen bleven. maar die bedachten we er zelf wel bij....

zulk raffinement aan maatwisselingen, het ragfijn verweven gitaarspel en de energiek stuwende ritmiek maakten het concert tot een onvergetelijk schouwspel. geen imitatie maar een minutieuze vertolking van grootse klassieke popmuziek.

john french / drumbo (and gary lucas) - picture by bas schelfhout