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BLACKMORE'S NIGHT Amsterdam, The Netherlands October 14 
Tonight was the second night of the (second part of the) European tour. Just arrived in time for a beer and to catch the last one and a half song of the support act The Geyers. And that's more than enough. These German guys have no stage presence, play ancient instruments and actually look pretty ancient themselves. Just before they started their last song, which was actually their version of "All For One" or as they call it (in German) "Was Wollen Wir Trinken", they were begging to buy their CD. It might be Ritchie's favorite band, it certainly is not mine.After a short break it is time for The Man In Black. Over two hours of mainly acoustic songs. Only in the encores Ritchie picks up his Strat to start rockin' to end the show with some very decent acoustic stuff again. There's a lot of humour on the stage goin' on. Early in the show Candice tells Ritchie he's had his last beer of the evening. And then he replies he is only admiring the guitars. And when Candice asks where he get them from, he replies "they are rented". Laughs all over the place. We get another Eminem story from Candice, this time it's they wrote "Soldier of Fortune" with Ritchie. Ritchie plays pretty decent without real highlights. After a few songs he claims that his shirt stinks and wants to change it. Very entertaining. And there's more of this like the renaming of the DVD to "Castles And Screams". And halfway the show he tells Candice he wanna stop and go and watch a movie. Candice has a lot of fun, sings fine, but sometimes makes pretty noticable mistakes. The solo of Tudor Rose is pretty boring, she plays her violin very well through the show but she has no stage presence at all. Same goes for Bard David, he's okay but nothing special. He does a funny "Drink" song in "Home Alone" but his keyboard solo in the encores is hardly interesting. Bob Curiano is still a fine bassplayer, certainly the most professional player of the hired guns in the band. The drummer Malcolm Dick is allright without really putting his stamp on the band. And last but not least there are The Sisters of the Moon, the background singers Madeline and Nancy Posner. They give the vocals just that bit extra they need. Highlights were "Ghost Of A Rose" and "Ariel". The Geyers joined, like so often before, Blackmore's Night on Stage for "The Clock Ticks on" and "All For One". There were some new songs (from the new CD that, Candice stated, maybe is going to be released in January) with "Streets Of London" (which sounded like a remake of a familiar song) and two in the encores; a cover of Joan Osborne's "St Teresa" plus one of the Bee Gees called "First Of May". All in all I think this was one of those average Blackmore's Night concerts. Not that it was bad, there was loads of fun goin' on onstage with a good, over two hours, performance. But somehow it just didn't have that spark that Ronnie James Dio delivered last week in The Netherlands. That was much more impressive. Maybe it's just his fault ;)
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