Rock4 - Bring on the Night (Dutch premiere)
24th October 2008 - Theater de Lievekamp, Oss
I've missed Rock4! It's been a long time, but tonight we'll finally see them again. During the day I check their website and I discover it's a new website. I definitely should check it more often! After a few clicks, I end up watching a few movies on youtube, which gives me a first impression of the new show. I'm really looking forward to it even more! They'll sing songs from the Police and Sting. Some years ago, I listened to Sting a lot, so I'm really curious!
We drive to Oss, which takes 1,5 hours for us. But I expect it'll be worth it.
The foyer in the theater has been rebuilt and it's really beautiful now. It's
become one of my favorite theaters actually. We drink a cup of tea and coffee
and then find our seats on the balcony. For some reason I always order tickets
too late and until now, we've always been sitting on the balcony in this theater.
But it's not that bad, because the places are good.
When the curtains open, Rock4 is standing on the stage already and they kick of with Voices inside my head and Walking in your footsteps, both songs from the Police. I notice a little tension and I guess the four men are a little nervous. It's a very special night for them, because it's the Dutch premiere! But I immediately love the sound of their voices again and get drifted away by the rhythms.
Peter welcomes us to this special night and he tells us we'll be hearing songs from the Police, which are a bit punk, new wave style, and we'll also hear songs from Sting, which are more romantic, melodious and often better known.
Russians> is a beautiful song, but unfortunately there are some false notes in it. I'm not used to that, dear Rock4! Most of the time Peter sings a second voice, often using his beautiful falsetto voice. But in this song, he's singing the lead, using his chest voice. I'm not convinced by it yet...
They continue the show with If you love somebody, set them free. At the end of the song, we're introduced to the four singers. The classical man: Peter! The groove master: Luc Nelissen! The most beautiful man on earth: Nico! And the man with not only an impressive voice, but also with impressive looks: Luc Devens. Luc Devens takes this opportunity and demonstrates his huge vocal range and volume. Peter just comments this with: "Ok, are you done now?" The audience laughs and by now, the little tension I felt at the beginning is disappearing. Peter tells us, he heard the audience in Oss loves to sing along. I feel a slight hesitation in the audience, like everybody is thinking "oh no... what are they up to, what do we have to do now?" But according to Peter it's a little early to sing along. The night has only just begun. We'll get to the sing along part later. The next song will be a very familiar song, but it's been changed in such a way, that most people won't recognize it at first. Unfortunately, this doesn't count for a large part of the audience tonight. There are many Rock4 fans and they recognize this song right at the beginning, because Rock4 has already sung it in an older show as well. It's Roxanne, and I love it so much, I almost can't remember how Sting once sang the song.
So Lonely is in my eyes also a typical example of the unique identity of Rock4.
The arrangement surprises me, it's refreshingly different. I almost expect a little
battle between Nico and Luc Nelissen again, but that's something they've done in an
older show already. The next song, Fragile, is again sung by Peter. This time
I love his voice, it's much better now and I'm convinced.
Luc Devens is indeed an impressive person. But not only his voice and looks are impressive. He actually is impressively sweet and funny as well. He's got something important to say now, but there's something between his teeth which is irritating him.
This spontaneous announcement makes the audience laugh and believe it or not, a woman in the first row has got a toothpick for Luc. Gratefully he takes it, puts it in his pocket, to use it during the upcoming break. But first, he thinks it's important to raise the cultural level of the show. Sting also wrote poetry, so Luc will read a poem for us. It's the spoken part of the song Be my girl - Sally and if you don't know it yet, you should read it (just google it). With severe persuasion and a flawless British accent, Luc reads the poem to us and the audience chuckles. There's only one song I can think of which matches to this poem and they conclude the first part of tonights show with it: Everything she does is magic.
After the break, Luc Nelissen sings the lead in Desert Rose. I think it's one of the most beautiful songs tonight. It's perfect in all ways, and I also love it when Luc Nelissen sings a lead every now and then. Next, we finally get a small chance to sing along during Spirits in the material world. The next song is Tea in the Sahara. It's a beautiful, calm song, but I get a little irritated by some tiny sounds Luc Devens tends to make time after time. According to Luc himself, he tells me after the show, he's just a fan of psychedelic music, so he can't help it much ;-) The song concludes with a small part of the song Walking on the moon.
Peter welcomes us back. He wants to tell us about their home city, Maastricht. They are not the only 'famous' people from this city. Then Maastricht also has André Rieu. And every year, on New Years Eve, he is on German television with his music. And Rock4 isn't. That's a bit irritating and weird. After all, Rock4 also has a man with nice hair. Peter tells us they wanted to look at this phenomenon in a scientific way and therefore they contacted a research office. Of course, the people in Oss want to know all about the results of the investigations. The conclusion is: Rock4 uses texts and André Rieu doesn't. Yes, it costs a lot of money, but in the end, you get what you've been asking for. To know for sure that this is the solution, Rock4 will now sing an instrumental song from Sting. We just have to check WDR2 on New Years Eve, to see if it's succesful. They sing Saint Agnes and the burning train (Peter has no idea why the song is called that way, because it has no lyrics, but after a quick research in the internet I found the answer) and they try to sing it in an André-Rieu-way. It's really funny, they really imitate the violins for instance. And it sounds good as well. Now all we have to do is wait until the end of December...
The next song is the well-known Shape of my heart (another lead for Luc Nelissen) and after that the less known Deathwish. At the end, Luc Nelissen stays behind on stage alone, to show us his vocal percussion. It's always amazing to hear this. During Message in a bottle we can sing along with both Lucs. Peter and Nico are still backstage, enjoying a little break. The audience repeats the refrain. After the song, Luc Devens asks the woman who gave him the toothpick, if she wants to hear a nasty detail... He has shared the toothpick with the sound technician... but luckily he broke it in two before using it.
The show is almost coming to an end. But not before they've sung Every breath you take. I like this song a little less, because Luc Nelissens "pada pada padam" in the backing vocals are a bit too loud if you ask me. Bring on the night on the other hand is fantastic. A perfect song to end the show with. The four singers give it all and there's so much energy bursting off the stage. Passion pure!
After a huge applause and standing ovations, they sing one extra song. I burn for you is a pretty unknown song, but according to Rock4 we'll remember it after tonight! But what I'll remember most is the unique sound of these four voices together. I just love to hear them, especially every one of them with their own specialty: Luc Devens as fantastic lead singer, Peter with his splendid second voices and Nico with his low bass. Luc Nelissen is talented in all ways, his vocal percussion is not inferior to his beautiful voice. So if I could wish one little thing, I'd wish a few more leads for Luc Nelissen. To conclude this report, I've got to get rid of two more compliments. First, they use a big turning fan with a spotlight behind it on stage, which is really cool. I don't think they've used such big stage parts before. Second, good styling men, I love the clothes!
After the show, it's like there's a small a cappella friends reunion in the foyer. After all, the Netherlands are small... and we're having a really good time!