This is my first encounter with five of the Switchfoot species which I have been admiring from afar for about more than 5 years. I chanced upon them randomly by zapping TV channels and seeing the Meant To Live video (probably the only time it was ever seen on Dutch television). Somehow I became a fan, ending up buying most of their albums and getting sucked into the awesomeness for years. My most favorite album is Nothing Is Sound, although Hello Hurricane may be surpassing it soon. The most loved song has to be Faust, Midas and Myself for the musical imagery. They were at the beginning of my passion for (listening to) music. I barely listened to music before that. They’re really inspiring and are pretty much the only musical artist I have an emotional tie with so far.

Before the concert I spent the day at my younger brother’s place where I was staying for the night, ’cause I wasn’t going back to my own place at the ungodly hour of 1 AM. Blah blah blah. We ate spaghetti. Blah blah blah.

Anyway, here’s my review of the evening. This marked the first visit to the Melkweg, which was somewhere hidden in an alleyway and the GPS on my phone wasn’t working. Can I blame the weather? We got in and went to sit on the left balcony where we got a pretty good view if we craned our necks to the side.Another fellow from San Diego, Phil Wickham opened up for the band. I only heard him by name and not from his music, and I thought he was pretty good. Although my brother who had listened to a couple of his songs was slightly disappointed for whatever reason. I suppose he did pale in comparison to what came after him.

Then many long minutes occurred before the band came up, until then we observed the crew setting up the stage.

With the appearance of four of the band playing Needle and Haystack Life, Jon suddenly appeared on the balcony directly opposite us! Yeah, first time I regret sitting on the wrong balcony lol. Anyway, he did many things like jumping into the audience, stealing some dude’s sunglasses and pretty much boggling us how he kept going on singing perfectly during these antics. I remember shedding tears of joy halfway through the song, because I couldn’t believe the concert was happening. More tears rolled during This is your life and Your Love is a Song. My emotional connection with the songs got hit pretty hard there.

We learned a couple of unbelievable things about Chad, or already knew from wikipedia. The first that he had been playing with a chronic shoulder pain and secondly that he was born on a boat in a canal behind Amsterdam train station. Then Jon said that this was his homecoming and the crowd cheered for the drummer.

The crowd was absolutely wild and there was a really good atmosphere. It was incredibly packed, much more than I thought there would be. Never before have I seen that many Switchfoot fans in one place. Man, everyone was so crazily enthusiastic, singing along and having fun. Exactly how it should be.

Setlist:

Needle and Haystack Life
Mess of Me
Stars
Oh! Gravity.
Gone
Your love is a song
Enought to let me go
Bullet soul
This is your life
Free
This is the Sound (John M. Perkin’s blues)
Yet
On Fire
Awakening
Meant to Live

Encore:
Hello Hurricane
Only Hope
I Dare You to move

I’m unable to choose a favorite, but I remember that Only Hope was particularly wistful.

Then it ended, I went home with a sense of relief (yes, within those 90 minutes me and many others confirmed with own eyes and ears that the guys are really that awesome) and an euphoria that still lasts until this day.

Overcome I tweeted:

@switchfoot: perfect, crazy, amazing, passionate, connected and I cried. so many things I can say. Thanks guys.

It was incredibly impressive.

Tot de volgende keer (Until next time), Switchfoot!

ps. my brother wants to know the title of the song that played just before the concert began. It has an addictive bass sequence.

Photo credits: Xnoizz