Lamb. Support : The Ramona Flowers at Paradiso Amsterdam Following their show in Luxembourg earlier this month, I had somewhat mixed feelings about attending this show. We skipped the Ramona Flowers altogether as we were running a little late with dinner, and they had not really convinced me at the previous show.
We got to the venue about 10 minutes before Lamb took the stage, and the venue although not sold out was quite packed, contrary to the show in Luxembourg which had only a tiny crowd. The Paradiso is such a neat venue that even though I was not totally blown away by the show at the beginning of the month, I still had high expectations, as Lamb has always had an intimate relationship with the Paradiso, where they also recorded their farewell gig when they went on hiatus, so I was hoping they would add a little something for this show. The stage setup however was exactly the same as in Luxembourg so right upon entering the venue my expectations were lowered a little.
The band was heavily applauded upon taking the stage, and Jon Thorne (now walking with crutches, but still rocking out his soul a few songs into the gig) had a face that showed his pain. As in Luxembourg they started with In Binary, but luckily the Paradiso has a better sound than the venue in Luxembourg, and with that the sound seemed fuller, but still in my opinion is missing a full back-up band which in the early 2000’s rendered their shows even more powerful and their sound more organic and driving. The light show was also pretty much the same, but due to the height of the Paradiso had a much stronger effect when during Satellites the entire venue was covered in white dots reflecting of 2 mirror balls, almost magic.
The set list was identical to the one in Luxembourg, which considering they even mentioned their special relationship with the Paradiso was a bit of a letdown, and a little something extra would have earned them even more massive cheers.
For me the highlights were the final songs from Nobody Else onward, a few of them with Andy on a limited drum kit, and Lou pounding a tom, right away felt much more alive and organic than the rest of the show, so even with a small drum kit the sound went a long way, imagine it with a full band, and you’d be blown away. Gabriel was a great performance as usual, but to me the song has sort of reached a saturation point where even the live performance does no longer blow me away. Overall I’d say it was still a great show, but I have seen Lamb where they totally blew my mind, for example last year with the Amsterdam Symphonietta, or back in the day with a full band. If you have not yet seen them, absolutely do so, but if you have been blown away before, you might consider keeping the better memories.
