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Bettie Serveert / Evan Dando: The Man With Egg On His Face

Two blasts from the past: One ex-Lemonhead and a few Dutch hopefuls.
21 december 2000, Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)

Tekst: Marjolein den Hartog

Publicatiedatum: 21 december 2000

They were two personal favourites in the early nineties. Now they were playing together on one night, so I had to be there: Bettie Serveert, one of the best Dutch bands from the past decade and Evan Dando, the guy from all those beautiful Lemonheads songs, accompanied by just his acoustic guitar. Sounds good, you might agree.
Well, in the case of Evan Dando it ended up absolutely disappointing. Songs like 'The Great Big No', 'The Outdoor Type', and 'My Drug Buddy' should be extremely fit for an acoustic performance. But Dando was extremely uninspired, with the result that all these beautiful songs didn't live up to their promise.
Not only did he disappoint the ears, also the visual performance wasn't as expected. All the time Dando tried to persistently deny his so-called sex appeal, pulling his red knitted hat ever so much further over his eyebrows, looking suitably annoyed and miserable. Though it didn't hold back all those teenage girls from screaming when he finally pulled off his cap. This short moment of full ecstacy for many ended up in the absolute letdown of Dando's performance: pouring a bottle of Fristi-like [Fristi is a Dutch pinkish yoghurt drink! - Ed.] drink all over his face. A very pathetic action, leaving him looking like a comic character caught in a very bad horror movie. The only good thing about it were the nice pink spots that were left on his bright purple jumper, forming a beautiful pattern. I still wonder why someone answered Dando's call for a towel by throwing him his (or probably her) own sweater. After using the sweater to remove his pink mask, Dando finished his set with 'My Drug Buddy', which ended up in an unnecessary noisy guitar solo. Luckily he saved face a bit afterwards with the beautiful duet with Bettie's Carol van Dijk of Gram Parsons' 'Juanita'. I wish he'd put some comparable passion into his own songs. They definitely deserve it.
Another favourite from the early nineties: Bettie Serveert. Still going strong, with their last album 'Private Suit' being highly praised, I still think they never exceeded 'Palomine'. The magnificent 'Brain-Tag', 'Under the Surface', 'Palomine', and all the others still appeared to give me shivers. They all were pulled out of the closet and were played in a solid and powerful way. But never did it sound boring or even predictable, which was probably a result of the alternation of new and old material.
From one of the earliest Bettie songs 'Kid's Allright' to the newest 'Private Suit' ones, all of these songs more than held their own. Carol sings them all with her warm and massive voice, now and again vocally supported by guitarist Peter Visser and bass player Herman Bunskoeke. The new songs also perfectly fit into the Bettie sound, in spite of some new elements like Peter Visser playing keyboards on a few songs and Herman Bunskoeke pretending to be some kind of human beatbox.
Never did I miss Berend Dubbe's drum part. Reinier Veldman, Vissers former chum in De Artsen, turned out to be a dignified successor. Not only did he play his part in the new songs in an excellent way, he also made himself perfectly familiar with the older songs. 'Brain-Tag' is still one of the most beautiful classic rock songs from the Netherlands, which can truly hold up to the all-time greats.
All together it was a strong and exciting conclusion of their tour and makes you long for more Bettie. Next summer we will hear from them again, but I wonder if Daryll-Ann's Jelle Paulusma will still be there acting as roadie/guitar assistant.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/bettie-serveert/bettie-serveert-evan-dando-the-man-with-egg-on-his-face/309/
Meer Bettie Serveert op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/bettie-serveert