Luna Negra in concert in Gent, Belgium - March 23, 2011

Probably I should start my short review of Ottmar's concert in Gent last Friday by saying how happy I was when I learned last year that he will finally tour Europe with Luna Negra. The times I attended a concert, Ottmar performed either with a string quartet or solo. Needless to say that those concert were great to witness nonetheless! So this spring 2011 Ottmar came to Europe accompanied by Jon Gagan on bass, Michael Chavez on drums and Houman Orei on percussion. I went to Gent late Friday afternoon (I am currently working in Brussels), in fact the first time ever that I visited Gent. I had heard a lot of positive things about the city, especially that it was more dynamic and more full of life than other cities in Flanders. From the tram I could see a lot of pubs but in general there is only one thing I noticed on first view: that the city was tidy (but probably I am biased since Brussels cannot be described as being so). Anyway, tidy, huge, renovated, that was what the venue looked like as well. The venue being the Handelsbeurs at a place called Kouter. There is a nice little restaurant part of the venue and, probably not surprisingly, when I stepped in there, the whole group of Ottmar's company sat there having dinner ...
The actual concert room was like a cinema or theatre with seats going down, looking down on the stage. Quite big the room, actually, which might be a reason why it was not completely full. One also must acknowledge that it must have been the first time ever for Ottmar performing in Belgium so it was really like a starter, good for advertising. And that it was indeed. The architecture of the room had another effect, a very positive one, since it made for an excellent acustics.

I sat in the first row but I heard that the music and the arrangement of the instruments were heard very good in the back as well. The musicians had left some space between the instruments, a bit removed in a sense but added to the impression of Ottmar' music being laid back, even when it heatens up.
When the concert started (in time!), the very first moment I thought, "oh my god, the drums are really loud!". But that was only a moment and even in the first row the harmony of the four instruments was wonderful to listen to. As for Michael and Houman playing together I had the impressions that it worked very well. In fact, one of the parts I enjoyed the most was the beginning of "Turkish Night", which was extremely groovy ... It is amazing how soft Michael can treat his instrument, take his playing during "La Luna" or at the end of "Dancing Alone" as an example where at times the drums sound as if fading out. If I am not mistaken, Ottmar had to broadly grin about this at one point ... As for Houman, cool percussion playing, funny how he followed the others constantly with his eyes, good harmony between him and Ottmar at the beginning of the second set, I would say ... It was good to finally see Jon play again - the last two times he took care of the sound when Ottmar played solo in Europe. I dig his bass playing, especially the parts in "Dancing Alone". I dare say that I also would have loved to hear the bass whale of "Garden at Dusk" live! :-) As for Ottmar, what can I say, his guitar playing and the sound of his guitar is unique, no? I heard people around me saying so and I had company who mentioned that as well. I am lost for words to describe that better ...
The guys played an amazing lot of old songs, five or six from the first two albums, if I counted right. Well, five from "Nouveau Flamenco" and one from "Borrasca" it should have been. "Passing Storm" sounded great in this combination. Three songs from "Petals on the Path" and I swear that it sent cold shivers up and down my pine when I heard the first notes of "On the road to Shiraz". What a fantastic song! "The Scent of Light" did not appear on the setlist, unfortunately, especially since this album was sold during the intermission. But hey, at least they offered something to acquire this time and I had the impression that quite a lot of people bought it. Speaking of the audience, I am not sure how many had heard some of Ottmar's music before. In the beginning it appeared to me as if they were visitors in a museum, regarding a painted masterpiece with the respectful distance. But when you looked around during the concert, you could see the feet teete and the heads nod rythmically. Those who were there will come back for sure ...
And then, yes, there was one thing where it became evident that the audience did know some of the tunes, the encore it was, when you could hear the people grunt affirmatively, you know what I mean, the first two notes of "Barcelona Nights" ... :-) After that, I nearly wanted to beg them to continue clapping since I knew that Ottmar might come out again to play "Silence", but they did not, they did not believe, not yet ...
A quick chat with Michael when it was over and then I had to catch the train back to Brussels. But it was okay, those guys were really tired after days of travelling. Off to Istanbul on Wednesday and hopefully (I do not have tickets yet) see you again on Friday night ...