De Melkweg, Amsterdam, Holland

Two years ago I saw The Cult for the last time but now it was the evening of The Holy Barbarians. It was rather difficult to get the tickets, we have to buy them at the post-office but in the beginning of the month October the tickets could not be ordered because the concert was not available on the computer system. After 5 days and a lot of telephone calls we finally were owners of the desired tickets. The Holy Barbarians gave their concert in "de Melkweg" in Amsterdam, in the MAX. This MAX was a small hall and so this concert was like a party for members. I guess there were only a few hundred people. Ian, Patrick, Scott and Matt entered the hall together with the visitors. No Artist entrance for them but a relaxed atmosphere between the band and the audience. It started around 22:00 and we (my girlfriend and I) were standing in front of the stage about 1 meter from Ian.

As usual they gave a good show with a lot of energy, and so they started with Blind, Dolly Bird, Cream and so on. After a several songs there was a little incident. One drunk fucking guy challenged Ian for a fight, but Ian turned the whole situation and said some negative words about this guy, and challenged him to come on stage. So he climbed on stage but was pulled back by a friend and he fell from stage. So the show went on and after 9 songs they wanted to quit. Ian apologized for "the bullshit", but the audience of course wanted more. So they returned after some minutes to continue the show with another 4 songs. One of those songs was Helter Skelter, they covered it in a very good and hard rock version. The last song was a Cult Classic, Wild Flower. After about 75 minutes the show was over. We enjoyed the show very much and we will wait for another concert of The Holy Barbarians with the football loving and tambourine kicking Ian Astbury.

On 21st October they played in "Nighttown" in Rotterdam also in Holland

Richard Aardenburg - 106061.137@compuserve.com

Setlist:

Blind
Dolly Bird
Cream
The Witch
Brother Fights
You Are There
Space Junkie
Bodhisattva
Midnite Exspress
Magick Christian

Encore:

Helter Skelter
Wild Flower