You're thrown back and forth between the Four Tops and The Temptations. Notable is the lack of electric guitar, but there are plenty of other instruments to compensate.ĭeliciously swinging songs pass by like the outstanding ' Moneygrabber'. They succeeded very well in reviving that old sound. Singer Noelle Scaggs on the other hand has a big fat soul voice with powerful cries and together they sound great. And so you can hear echoes from the past, bits of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' like in title track ' Pickin' Up The Pieces'. Front man Michael Fitzpatrick has a bit of a thin voice mostly, but now and then he comes really close to Marvin Gaye including the "oohs" and "whoos". In their case this means a plopping bass drum, jingling pianos, a bubbling bass guitar, a swinging organ, exuberant horns and nice harmonies. Fitz and the Tantrums also go back to that time and try to approach that old soul sound as close as possible on their album Pickin' Up The Pieces.įitz and the Tantrums - Pickin' Up The Pieces (Ronald Says 7 out of 10) A good example is Raphael Saadiq who has been quite successful with it. But where they are bringing a kind of new soul mixed with R&B and hip-hop, there are now also artists that go all the way back to the old sound that we know so well from Motown. Artists like Joss Stone, John Legend and Amy Winehouse became famous with it. The last couple of years there has been a true soul revival going on. Official Website | MySpace | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify Hopefully their show on Lowlands will give that little extra magic. Maybe it was the location, maybe it was the crowd, I don't no. This time I missed that little extra spark. Contrary to what many thought was a bit of a disappointing show, I thought they were excelling that night. It wasn't as brilliant as the last time I saw dEUS play in 2008. When they play a great rough version of ' Morticiachair' and an aggressive ' Suds & Soda' as an encore the audience becomes more vivid. Still the place stays pretty calm which is a bit unexpected. Songs like ' Sun Ra' and ' Turnpike' become even more vicious and threatening than they already are. What becomes clear is that they changed from the experimental band they used to be into a rock monster. Maro Pawlowski is bringing a huge amount of cool to the stage that would almost make you forget he can also play some mean guitar. Singer and dEUS' driving force Tom Barman looks like he's having fun, using big gestures and moving about. The band members are giving it their best. The other two seem to lack the power and impact of the older songs, but that's maybe because they haven't played them hundreds of times and also may have to grow on you. Especially that last one sounds promising. They throw in three new songs: ' Second Nature', ' Constant Now' and a heavy rocking ' Dark Sets In'.
There are few surprises in the set list but it never gets old seeing them play favourites like ' Little Arithmetics', ' The Architect' and of course one of my personal favourites ' Bad Timing'. And they have plenty of great songs to choose from. The album is now planned for release after the summer. So this is not a tour to promote that album. The way they sing at the end without instruments is so well timed by all the musicians.ĭEUS had to delay their last album's release date. The last song they play ' Blood Like Wine' still doesn't fail to impress me. They play a few new songs that fit in nicely with the songs of their first album. Although they don't get a lot of response their songs sound even more solid and confident than the last time I saw them. When the place fills up it's clear this isn't the best location to see a band and not the best set up if you want to get drunk since the bar can be hard to reach.īalthazar do a great job warming up the crowd. It's mostly used as a club for dance and DJ nights.
In the small but long hall where the old print machines used to be there's now a stage on one side and a bar on the other end. An old building of Dutch newspaper Trouw (alas the name). No wonder tickets sold out in no time.ĭEUS at Trouw Amsterdam, (Ronald Says 7 out of 10) When their support act is one of Belgium's most promising bands Balthazar there's even more reason to go. They are probably one of Belgium's best bands ever and their live shows are always on a high level. When Belgian band dEUS is playing you know you'll get your money's worth.