“Even street wise and well prepared girls like us sometimes manage to step into the wrong bus and get lost.”
“Even street wise and well prepared girls like us sometimes manage to step into the wrong bus and get lost.“
It was a big adventure for us just to get to the Patronaat. Even street wise and well prepared girls like us sometimes manage to step into the wrong bus and get lost in the big bad city of Haarlem; but we got there on time, amazingly.
Woodstar are a band from Ireland comprising of five members. You have Fin Chambers (vocals), Al Sheahan (keyboard), Doug Murray (drums), Ronan Considine (bass), and Kieran Calvert (guitar). We were told beforehand (by me! of all people! I said it first! Ed.) that this band is really talented and have a good chance of ‘making’ it, with their music being compared to Mercury Rev and Coldplay.
On stage they started off very relaxed and played soft, delicate songs. Fin even had time to pick up his cigarette between tracks and have a leisurely smoke. They built up their live dynamic from slow and relaxing songs to something a bit louder and rougher very well and there was a great variety in their set. Overall we found them very interesting indeed, really something you’d want to keep listening to. This had all to do with the quality and structure of their determined performance, showcased well by Fin Chamber’s voice which was very relaxed and smooth. We got the impression they were very well tuned to each other. We tuned into them.
When Woodstar had finished it was time for GEM, the main act of the evening. Being hailed as the Dutch answer to Oasis and The Strokes, we expected quite a lot of them but they started off very loud and went on like that for the rest of the gig. This was quite annoying as there wasn’t much variety. Gem just sound too familiar. We recognized some influences from the Jets and the White Stripes but their music wasn’t very innovative or particularly different from the hundreds of other bands that have been likened to Oasis and the Strokes lately. Still, the lead singer seemed to be quite confident while he was jumping all over the stage, but on reflection, that was kind of annoying as well.
There are some good things to say about GEM. The lead singer’s voice is very distinctive, which might also be nice for some softer songs. The music they played had a quality of sorts, so we’ll be charitable and say it is just a matter of preferences. We’re not really fans but you might be if Oasis style Britpop is your genre of choice.
Words : Anamieke & Madeleine