Melua's Music

These past few days have been rather different, and quite musical. On Thursday almost everyone from the residence here went to a classical concert at the Vredenburg music hall here in Utrecht. Shamefully I haven't been there yet despite the fact that there's usually something on every day or evening. But this time, Yu (who has sadly broken his knee-cap and is now in a full leg plaster cast after an unfortunate bicycle accident) was singing in the choir, so along we all trotted. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as it's not usually the sort of thing that I'd go along to, but the line up of Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner sounded impressive, and indeed it was. I only knew one of the pieces, but it didn't matter and it was a nice evening. We all came away saying that the classical music had finally made us feel Christmasy, even though it wasn't Christmas music...

Yesterday though I went to a slightly different type of concert. I went to see Katie Melua play at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. I found some tickets for €44 and thought 'why not?'. I'd never been to such a concert before, so had no clue what to expect, but I thought I'd better get there in plenty of time. So I arrived two hours before the start and only had a few people in front of me in the queue. The upshot of this was that I got to stand in the front row right up against the barriers. I had to wait there for two hours, but it was worth it as I'd forgotten how tall some Dutch people can be. Had I been much later and had to stand further back I fear I'd have seen little at all. There must have been about six thousand people there by the time it started in earnest which all contributed to a fantastic atmosphere.

Firstly the support-act came on, I can't remember what they were called but their music was pretty decent, if a little bland and warbley:


Finally Katie Melua came onto the stage and the Hall exploded. I have to confess that I only know a few of her songs, and I felt like an imposter and slightly guilty standing right up against the stage in front of people who probably had more right to be there:



I had a fantastic evening. Hearing music sung live like that was incredible, and being so close to the stage only added to that. I can't believe how quickly it was all over, but it felt like a lot had been packed into the time and I wouldn't hesitate to go and see her again, or perhaps, buy her CDs!

In more mundane news, I've got to write 5000 words in the next four days for my moot. So after a nice and relaxed four months, everything has suddenly come down to the final week. Why does that always happen?