I was at the Maneskin concert in Amsterdam last Monday - no, unfortunately no interview for the mag, we've been trying for years - and I was very surprised and pleased. And Victoria has a new fan.
Let me be realistic and also mention the cons. There are some songs that are similar, there are some riffs 'borrowed' from well-known songs, playing your hit twice with the same kneel and jump moment with the audience is a bit too much, and how often can you adopt certain rock poses and spontaneously walk into the audience? I briefly thought of The Darkness' first performance in NL in the Melkweg, with catsuits, rock poses and where, despite the Spinal Tap content, I also watched with a big grin.
What I particularly liked was that there was just a singer, bassist, guitarist and drummer on stage. The Who has two keyboardists and an extra guitarist with them, Muse has an extra guy. But now nothing, no pre-recorded tracks, no guest musicians, no extra keyboardist whether behind the scenes or not. Just four people, a drum kit, two Ampegs, two Marshalls, a couple of relic Fenders, a wah pedal and Victoria with three different Longhorns and a Dano DC. I do think her fuzz was kicked on for her, though.
A lot of songs are carried by bass riffs and she can do that. Minutes of playing a repetative riff, with some guitar over it. Nice runs, nice high notes, nice melodies. She has a lovely fat bass sound, lots of fuzz and she really carries the band with that thick layer of bass and melody and despite all the poses, sprints across the stage, dives into the audience and two hours of playing, I think I heard her miss exactly one note and at that moment she was on top of the audience. Props! Truly a machine, in the good sense of the word.
The guitarist was also convincing. Besides playing sone good solos, he did a song with a talkbox, one with an ebow, he built up a long solo with a loop station.
Otherwise, it was a good show, with a small acoustic stage in the back of the Ziggo Dome (sold out, 17.500 people) for a couple of songs. A moving light-rig, dropping down for a more intimate atmosphere, real fire at a song, the singer shining on the guitarist with a portable light system, giving you that 60s/70s atmosphere. They have a lot of good songs, the outfits were good and I repeat now: I thought it was especially cool that it was so pure and energetic, with just amps on stage. The audience was relatively very young and that anno '23 bands like this attract and encourage young people and that they just see a real rock band. I already know girls who started playing bass because of this band. I had a very good time for two hours with that very audible bass!
