Review: Skunk Anansie’s Wonderlustre tour in Amsterdam

By Little G on Saturday, March 5, 2011 - 22:26

While taking a break from The Great Lunenburg Schooner Race last year (I was crew on the Avenger), I received an e-mail from my friend EJ.

He wanted to know if he could count me in for a ticket, since Skunk Anansie were planning on touring Europe with their new album. I figured I’d be in the Netherlands, and I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity like that. I could hardly wait for February 25th, 2011.

The Virgin Marys, fellow Brits, were Skunk Anansie’s opening act. The music was alright, albeit mediocre. The singer’s vocal abilities were pretty much limited to one style of singing, and I was wondering how he could have been performing all this time without completely losing his voice (especially, after noticing how he sounded like towards the end of their set). Anyway, I think the drummer was entertaining to look at for a while (think ‘Animal’ of The Muppets). With The Virgin Marys playing it wasn’t really showing the SA concert had sold out: there was plenty of empty space towards the back - in front of the seated area. (Have a behind the scenes peek of the venue here, with guitarist Ace joking around a bit at the end.)

Then, finally: Skunk Anansie time! After an intro where the band made a grand entrance, they kicked off with a song off their debut album (check out the Amsterdam set list here). It was obvious Skunk Anansie was ready to blow their audience away, and that they had planned on having a good time. By the time the band finished their first song, the venue was packed.

Singer Skin needed about three songs to get her vocal chords properly warmed up. Little time was wasted in between songs for meaningless chit chat, which only added to their high energy performance.

Their second song (Charlie Big Potato) is one of my favorites off the Post Orgasmic Chill album: after a drum n’ bass inspired intro, the song takes you on a little musical roller coaster ride. (If you haven’t checked out the video through the set list, you might want to do that now to get what I mean.)

I Can Dream is another one of my SA favorites (Selling Jesus is my other fave off their debut album, but they didn’t play that one) and is blatantly sexual. When I heard the opening riff to Twisted (Everyday Hurts) I was super thrilled: that bass line still kills in my opinion.

The band made up an excellent set list in my opinion: up-tempo rock songs were followed by poppier songs or ballads in an inconspicuous way. The crowd was in for the ride and having a great time. I noticed that the Dutch audience just seem to love their ballads, which I found interesting. I was glad it didn’t turn into a cheese fest.

Skunk Anansie treated us to a new song (I Don’t Want To Kill You), which I found to sound promising (another SA album in progress?).

Even though the sign to NOT crowd surf was clearly visible, Skin had no problem ignoring them, and the audience in the front rows love her for that: they made sure she didn’t fall. She did, however, trip about halfway through the show and came close to landing ungraciously on the floor. But she quickly regained her balance and continued singing.