An evening without silence

TW Classic, Werchter 20 June 2009

Recently I visited the latest edition on TW Classic in Werchter. It wasn't really a classic line-up but it turned out to be unforgettable.

The first artist I saw that afternoon was Tom Helsen. He's a Belgium singer, who I got to know through his collaborations with Milow. His music is a cross between Milow and a Dutch band called City To City, which had their moment of fame in 1999 when they scored a number one hit in the Netherlands with The Road Ahead. So not a very special sound a bit like middle of the road music but a nice opener. I missed Motor so I can't tell how they were.

Setlist Tom Helsen:

Sun In Her Eyes
Bring It Home
Change Yourself
Longface
Numbers & Figures
Shades
Night And Day
Easy
Slowly
Home
Out Of Something
Every Little Thing
When Marvin Calls

Next in the program was Duffy. She became known to the public through her singles Stepping Stone and Mercy. Her first album Rockferry refers to the sixies, a period Amy Whinehouse like to refers to as well. On the album Duffy sings with a very mature and nice voice, but live she sounds like a thin high pitched girl with a lot of annoying vibrations at the end of every singing line. The only impression left after her performance was the clothing she wore. Since at that time it was turning colder, and she walked around on stage in a short and on high heels.

Setlist Duffy:

Rockferry
Hanging On Too Long
Rain On Your Parade
Serious
Stepping Stone
Cry To Me
Breaking My Own Heart
Warwick Avenue
Stay With Me Baby
Delayed Devotion
Stop
Mercy




My first highlight for the day Keane was the next. Since their first album Hopes and Fears I've been a great fan of the trio from Sussex, who delivers a great sound for a threesome and delivers great singles which become hit after hit. I was hoping for a good setlist including a lot of the singles, and I wasn't dissapointed. To be honest, although I'm a hugh fan of Depeche Mode for over 25 years now, It was the best performance of the day. Every song was brought with great enthusiasm and the band tried to play as much songs in an hour as possible. Although the standard of the performance was very high, there were highlights: Perfect Symmetry, one of my favourites of the last album, Is It Any Wonder? one of the singles from Under The Iron Sea and Under Pressure the Queen / David Bowie song that Keane first performed for the War Child curation concert in 2007. A very positive point towards the band was the great interaction between Tom Chaplin and the crowd.

Setlist Keane:

The Lovers Are Losing
Everybody's Changing
Bend And Break
Spiralling
This Is The Last Time
You Haven't Told Me Anyything
Is It Any Wonder?
You Don't See Me
Perfect Symmetry
Somewhere Only We Know
Crystal Ball
Under Pressure
Bedshaped



Moby had to do a good job to impress me. I'm not that familiar with his work, except for the singles. Thank god he played some, and also thank god for not playing a set full of dance and house songs. His setlist turned out to be a bit rocky, and although the bass was loud throughout his performance, it was acceptable once you were off the festival ground. I spend the duration of his concert mostly outside the vences where the drinks and food were cheaper. It was a pity because I had prefered Keane standing on the spot having an hour and an half to play their music instead of Moby.

Setlist Moby:

Extreme Ways
In My Heart
Go
Sitboth
Raining Again
Bodyrock
We Are All Made Of Stars
Mistake
Porcelain
Pale Horses
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad
That's When I Reach For My Revolver
Walk With Me
Find My Baby
Natural Blues
Lift Me Up
Feeling So Real



The last band for me was Depeche Mode. This was the band where I bought my ticket for in the first place. When they annouced in October 2008 that Depeche Mode would be the headliner of TW Classic 2009 I had bought my tickets quickly. I was anxious to hear the new album, but was a bit disappointed about the new songs, certainly because I like the sound of Playing The Angel a lot, which unfortuantly was only featured with one track: Precious. I already knew that probably five or six songs of the new album would be in the setlist, but well that's just one fourth of the tracks they presented during the nearly two hours they played. They played a decent setlist, with some of my favourite tracks like Home, brought solo by Martin Gore, In Your Room, Enjoy The Silence and Stripped, and tracks going back to halfway the eigthies. But what I missed, and witnessed during earlier tours in the eighties and nineties, was the interaction with the audience. Dave Gahan used to stir up the crowd, but now he was more interacting with the band than with the audience. Now and then they tried to do some audience anticipation time, like during Never Let Me Down, when the audience waved their hands from left to right. I remember the old days when a concert of Depeche Mode was More Than A Party (a track they should bring back in the setlist btw). Still the acoustic evening closer Waiting For The Night gave me the creeps and completely satisfied I returned to Leuven and sat down on the terrace of one of the pubs, where while drinking some La Chouffe beers, I relived the concerts of Keane and Depeche Mode, and felt really satisfied.

Setlist Depeche Mode:

In Chains
Wrong
Hole To Feed
Walking In My Shoes
It's No Good
A Question Of Time
Precious
Fly On The Windscreen
Little Soul
Home
Come Back
Peace
In Your Room
I Feel You
Policy Of Truth
Enjoy The Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore #1
Stripped
Master And Servant
Strangelove

Encore #2
Personal Jesus
Waiting For The Night (Bare Version)