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De Dijk at Paradiso Amsterdam, 14 December

Yes, here it is. The much anticipated (uhuh) post about the De Dijk concert in Paradiso. Just for the foreigners and youngsters among us: De Dijk are a Dutch rock band that play rock, blues and soul. They have been around since 1981. Their name means ‘the dike’ and is named after a street in Amsterdam ‘de zeedijk’. All their songs are in Dutch and their setup is quite ordinary: singer Huub van der Lubbe, bass player Hans van der Lubbe (yep they’re bros), guitar players Nico Arzbach en J.B. Meyers, drum player Antonie Broek and keyboard player Pim Kops. The absolute icing on the cake is the horns section, the Hot Haarlemmer Dijk Horns: Roland Brunt on tenor sax and Peter van Soest on trumpet (who recently replaced Mr. Blue Lips Mike Booth who returned to New Zeeland).

Huub is one of those true song writers. He’s an absolute poet and just loves to write beautiful songs. It’s not like Shakespeare style poetry but song texts straight from the heart about everyday life. He’s what we call in Dutch a ‘volksdichter’ a poet who writes for and about people. So his songs are about the pleasures and annoyances in life and of course about love.

It goes without saying that I like their music, I even have all their albums. However what makes them absolutely one of the top bands are their live performances. I’ve seen them perform maybe over 20 times and am still not bored. I think this gig was probably even one of the best of the past years. Why are their live performances so special you may ask? ‘Cause they make you feel good. It’s like one big De Dijk family coming together to sing their guts out along with the band. The band itself, although most members are almost 50 or beyond, still have a lot of energy and they always seem to enjoy themselves a lot while on stage. You see them smiling at each other, joking around and just loving it up there. And of course they are just damn good musicians. The audience just simply gets swept away in this warm vibe of happiness and utter joy. I think the best compliment for the band is that even people who really don’t like their music that much experience this vibe. And in the end everyone goes home with that little De Dijk sparkle of happiness in their eyes. Thanks guys.