08-07-2007 Björk

Supports: Jamie Lidell; Venue: Westergasfabriek
By: Sabine van Gameren

  Björk was about to give a concert in Netherlands. This was big news, since
  Björk did not play in the Netherlands for 5 years. The fans really expected
  to see a great show. The show was about to take place at the Westergas fabriek
  in Amsterdam. There, event organizer Mojo, placed a festival area where several
  concert took place in the past two weeks. Besides Björk also James Morrison,
  Peter Gabriel, John Legend, the Scissor Sisters and Keane gave concerts here
  this month. It seems like not only the Dutch fans but also many fans from France,
  Belgium and Germany came to Amsterdam to see the Iceland beauty perform. But
  after 2 hours waiting we had to watch a support act first.
  Jamie Lidell was the one who suppose to entertain us. When I watched him walking
  onstage I recognized this guy as the guy where my mom always warned me for,
  when I was younger. His hair looked messy; he was wearing a long raincoat and
  a horrible shirt under it. I think he would definitely scared young children
  when he walks on the street like this. His music was pretty electronic. The
  first 5 minutes I was able to listen to it, but every minute after that I started
  to realize that it sounded more and more the same. And… quite boring. When
  he started singing the words “I am a question mark” I saw people around
  me losing interest as well. I even saw people who turned around and show their
  backs to Jamie Lidell. Since I was bored as well, I did the same. That gave
  me a good opportunity to see what kind of people went to see Björk. Most
  of the people there looked artistic. Like art students. Seems like they did
  not like Jamie Lidell as well since I saw people sitting on the ground.

  45 minutes after Jamie left the stage Björk started exactly on time. Like
  she was holding her watch to it. First, all the other musicians which also contained
  a choir entered the stage. The choir was placed in line at the background. Each
  member of the choir had an own flag. The stage was filled with colorful flags.
  Then Björk herself entered the stage in a white with red dress. The first
  song she did was “Earth intruders”. It sounded awesome. Especially
  with the choir. Unfortunately, the sound was not good in the beginning. Not
  due of Björk, but due the festival setting. I hardly heard the vocals.
  It got loads better after a few songs.
  During the show she got applause all the time. Even during the songs. Songs
  as “all is full of love”, “Innocence” and “hyperballad”
  really got the audience attention. When reaching the end of the show, a laser
  show started of and there was more dancing in the audience. Too bad that this
  show was outside, so the effect of the laser show partly faded away. A funny
  thing to tell is that Björk was drinking some sort of home made drink in
  between the songs. I wonder what the receipt was. At least it worked perfectly.

  After she left the stage, people gave her a lot of applause. Of course we wanted
  an encore! And of course we got one. She came back to sing “Oceania”
  for us. She wrote this for the Olympics in 2004. We got a little different version
  of it, it sounded more up tempo. For me, the best song of the evening. At this
  point I got goose bumps all over me and the words “She is an artist”
  came in my mind. As final song “Declare Independence” was played.
  And then she really left.
  Björk, please don’t let us wait so long again!!

Links:
  Westergasfabriek
  Jamie Lidell official
  Jamie Lidell Myspace
  Björk offical
  Björk Myspace