The Mavericks in the Netherlands
by Gert-Jan Heijnsdijk
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Hi,

I have been subscribed to this mailing list for some time now, but haven't
posted so far. My name is Gert-Jan Heijnsdijk, living in the south-western
part of The Netherlands. I've been a country music fan for about 7 years now
and that's also how I got to know about The Mavericks.

The reason for "delurking" is a pretty good one I thought...;) I got to see
them last night for their first show over here in The Netherlands, so I
thought you all might like a little report from that show.... So here
goes...

The show started just after 9pm. For the first six songs of the show they
kept the same order as the new CD, so starting with "Dance the night away"
and then up to "I've got this feeling". Then they did "Tonight the bottle
let me down", which now also has the horns in it, which makes it even
better.

After that everybody except Raul left the stage, so he could do "Dream
 river" all by himself. When the band returned to the stage after that
Robert brough some cups and bottles of water to distribute for the people
standing in the front rows, which is where I was too.

They continued with more songs from the new album, including a great version
of "Dolores". Definately different that one from the album, but I loved it.
They also used this song to have Paul do some great drum-solos. Really liked
this version of this song. One of the covers they also played was an
incredible verion of the Tom Jones song "It's not unusual". This is really
the kind of song that suits Rauls voice and the band in this setup.

After just under an hour they closed the set with "Save a prayer" after
which they left the stage. Off course everybody wanted to hear more from
them, so we just kept yelling "we want more" for a while. And off course
they came back. Robert explained that when they where working on the setlist
for the new show they had decided that they really needed a second one to do
which included some of the older stuff. And then they continued with a great
version of "What a crying shame", which was about the only song they did
without the horns. Some other older songs got a great new version with the
horns. I especially liked what they did with "There goes my heart".

I also really loved the great way they did the Spanish song "Volver, Volver"
. I heard you folks talk about this one on this mailing list, but I had
never heard it before. What a great song that is.. And the way Raul and
Jamie Hanna harmonized in this songs was just awesome. After this set we got
them to come back two more times for encores. The last song of the night was
"La Mucara", the great Spanish tune that is included on the European version
the the new Album.

There where a lot of people in cowboy outfits in the audience and you could
see that Raul was a little worried during the first songs of the night,
about the way those people where gonna like the show. I do have to say that
what they are doing now has very little to do with country music, but that
doesn't mean I don't like it. Absolutely the opposite, I love it!! Robert
off course was his usual nice guy self, posing for pictures during the show
moving around the stage so people could take his picture together with the
other band members and moving out of the way if somebody wanted to take a
picture of Jamie Hanna, who was standing behind him on stage.

After the show everybody moved back to the lobby of the theater to have
something to drink, so it was pretty busy there, so me and the people I was
with decided to stay inside the theater. This turned out to be a pretty good
move, as after about 45 minutes some of the band member came out in front of
the stage for autographs and pictures, including Raul. So I had a change to
tell him how much I had enjoyed the show and had my picture taken with him.
Also got to talk to Robert for a moment and chatted with one of the horn
players for a while. He was the guy that is standing closest to Paul, I
think I've seen people talk about him here before. He really seems to be
enjoying himself during the show. He told me he was just having the best
time touring with the Mavericks and seeing Europe. Seemed to me a really
nice guy.

So for me definately one of the best shows I've seen, and I'm gonna see them
again on Monday, in Amsterdam this time.

Take care!!
 

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Gert-Jan Heijnsdijk  - The Netherlands
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Cash On Delivery Homepage: http://people.zeelandnet.nl/gjh/cod.htm
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