The Urbane Rocks The Paradiso!
Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland, 4 January 2002

I had been looking forward to the H Band gig at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, for weeks. About an hour before the concert started I found out that The Urbane was the support act. Then I knew for sure that this was going to be a great night! Unfortunately, I was not the only one who didn't know that there was going to be a support act. Because of that, the Paradiso was not even half filled when The Urbane got on stage and the weak applause they got sure wasn't what they deserved.

The first song they played was Fading Out from the album Neon. It sounded good, but the volume of the vocals wasn’t quite enough. This song ended with an instrumental part of Don't Stand So Close To Me from The Police.

The next song was Give It Away. This is a song from their upcoming new album. The guitars on this song sounded particularly good, John voice was more than okay, but unfortunately the volume level of his microphone was still not great. The audience started to pay more attention to what was happening on stage and they liked what they saw and heard. I could see that the band was feeling more and more at ease.

Immaculate was the next song they played and this is one of my favourite songs. On the band's website I read that this is also John's personal favourite. You could actually see and hear that in the way he played this song, his voice and guitar sounded great! But personally I'm not really fond of playing along with a tape. I realize that if you don't, you'll have to drop some instruments out of the arrangement, but I think that I would have liked that better.

After that they played Staring At The Sun, which again sounded very good. The band was really rocking now and it looked like they were having lots of fun, and so did the audience.

Glitter is another new song and hearing it made me very curious about the new album. It sounds cheerful, it has a nice tempo. The lead and backing vocals sound great and it is very varied. It's a pity that they could only use such a small piece of the stage, because I could see John trying to jump and dance around, but there was not enough space!

The last song they played that evening was Try. I like this song but the tape they were playing along to was a bit to loud and shrill. Nevertheless it rocked! The vocals were a bit raucous sometimes but exactly in tune and very high sometimes. I think that John showed everyone at the Paradiso that night that he's not only a great guitar player, but his voice sounds great too.

Unfortunately that was the last song they played, but I had a really good time. I think that this band really has a future and I hope that they will be playing in Holland again many times. I'm really looking forward to the new album!!

By: Mijke Campschroer