December 16th 2003, Vooruit - Gent BE

Just like the paradiso-gig yesterday, I didn’t manage to get tickets for the Gent-show. My plan was to stand at the door of the Vooruit and scream “I need a ticket”. But in the afternoon, I had a call from heaven (played by Johan) who had fixed something so I could be on the guestlist. Another lucky day in my life. I convinced another girl to come with me. She bought a ticket for €30 (instead of €21).

  Before the concert I saw Michael walking in the direction of the “Zuid”plein. Some people were looking at him and were talking like “OMG, it’s Michael Franti!!!”.

At 20h45 the band came on stage. It was their last concert of the European tour, and it was obvious they wanted to make a party that night! The setlist was almost the same as Paradiso. But now they played “Sometimes” acoustic, with Michael Franti walking and singing in the crowd. “Sometimes” got an electric version later. There were a couple of acoustic songs. During those songs, Dave could show that he’s a really good guitar player. His solos are always a little bit different. Best moment during the show was when a guy gave his mobile to Michael during “Rock the Nation”. He sang in the phone, putted it in his pocket, turned it to the crowd and then gave it to Dave. He used it to play guitar with it (with his left hand, to take the chords). I saw him doing it before with a bottle of beer, but that mobile was really great!

Hearing the poem about the soul and the body that was made out of mud for the third time was a little bit boring for me, but the rest of the crowd was really quiet, and loved the story (just like I did the first time I heard it). Michael also mentioned that the Vooruit was a really nice venue.

  Michael Franti told us a story about their trip to Istanbul. I forgot to mention that in the Paradiso review, he told it there to. The management called the band, and said that they’d understand if they didn’t want to play over there because of the bombings. Every member of the band had to decide what he wanted to do. Only Michael and Carl did go. The others didn’t go, because of their families and other personal reason. Michael and Carl respected that. They took 3 musicians from the Netherlands with them and rehearsed the whole day. They got stuck in an elevator in their hotel (“elevator terrorists”-funny story-) and played some great shows. The music wasn’t perfect, but the people there were very thankful because the band wanted to come and play some music. Next song was … “Everyone deserves music”, acoustic and the album version.

  The 3h20 concert was even better then in Amsterdam. It was their best concert I’ve ever seen. The girl I was talking about wasn’t a big fan, but she was –really– smiling all the time. I must have had the same feeling when I saw them the first time at Pukkelpop a couple of years ago. After the concert, she said she really wanted to see them again, but first she wanted to listen to their albums. A new Spearit is born! The crowd was very loud and sang, clapped and jumped the whole time. The band agreed that this was the best show of the European tour. It felt great when they said that. It’s not like other bands who say that evening after evening …

At the end of the show, he asked the technicians and tour manager on stage. She was so emotional that she was crying on stage. Again a touching moment.

  The after party in café Sioux was great too. The band came there for about 45 min. Their bus left at 1h30, at 1h40 they left the café… Dave was drinking Duvel! Respect (-:  I met some other nice people over there, the atmosphere was very nice.

Well, ‘till Werchter I hope. Meanwhile, the cd’s will do, and the bootlegs of course!!!

(Thanks Pedro for this lovely review!)