Circus C-mon & Kypski
Tivoli, Utrecht
21 January 2008
They did it again. C-mon and Kypski must now be confirmed as the premier entertainers in the Netherlands, if not the world. They’ve got the tunes - Chemical, The Lumberjack, Bumpy Road, Shitty Bum - they’ve got the skills, the charisma and the sense of theatre that turn a concert into a show you’ll never forget. Who else would get away with sawing Pete Philly in half with a chainsaw or have the vision to come up with the whole circus idea in the first place?
The party mood was set from the moment the fully gilded ringmaster emerged to introduce the band who proceeded to romp through Where the Wild Things Are with Jiggy Dje and Spacekees and it didn’t let up until they finally departed after their second encore which saw the Amsterdam Klezmer band enter the ecstatic crowd to blast out the Circus theme one last time.
In between, the much trumpeted special guests were, well, special, but unlike at Lowlands, they weren’t the stars of the show. This time it was all about the four boys from Utrecht who showed they don’t need any help to rock a crowd, as the incendiary closer Wildfire and the stomping Evil Needle proved. Even the reserved beauty of In And Out Of Days brought the house down.
Its Arabic influence also highlighted just how many styles C-mon and Kypski embrace, a fact underlined by the variety of their guests. How many artists could seamlessly blend the rock stylings of Voicst, Benjamin Harman’s jazz, straight up hip hop from Jiggy Dje and Pete Philly and the balkan brass of the Amsterdam Klezmer band and not hit one false note?
It’s what makes C-mon and Kypski such an exhilarating experience, as they make a mockery of the boundaries that hold lesser musicians back and revel in doing so as much as the audience. Sadly this was one of the last of their circus shows before they go off to conquer the rest of the world (and hopefully lay down a new album). The good news is that for those that missed it, there’ll be a dvd released of the show the following day at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. If it’s half as good as the Tivoli show, it’s well worth copping. And you might finally be able to work out how on earth Kypski does those drum/scratch solos....
The rather wonderful photo is taken from renieronline’s flickr stream, check it here.