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My first trip to Amsterdam was very tourist-y. I bought an Amsterdam citypass and hit all the main sites (sights?); the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank’s house, the Heineken Brewery…
One place I was interested in visiting was The Paradiso, a smallish but well-known venue just outside of the city centre and just a short walk from my hotel. Lots of great bands have played The Paradiso over the years and I was looking for an excuse to go. Scanning the events calendar left me with few choices, so I bought a ticket to see Pink Mountaintops with openers Sleepy Sun for May 13th, 2009.
The show was in the smaller, upstairs room. The main hall was empty but at least I was able to walk through it on my way upstairs. The main room sure looks like a great place to see a show; round, wooden, and just overall epic-looking.
I was entirely unfamiliar with Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops aside from the fact that it is a side project to Black Mountain (or is it the other way around?), a band I had seen a few years earlier at a festival in Norway. There was a good crowd in the small room and the drinks were flowing fast as many audience members kept popping out to the smoking area (it was Amsterdam after all). The show was good but not much stands out for me all these years later.
I have only the vaguest memories of the opening act; it’s like my memory of them wears an Impressionistic Monet-filter. There’s a fair chance I might even be conjuring that image entirely out of my imagination – it’s entirely possible that I missed the opening act altogether.
It was Amsterdam after all.
Todd Man Out 