Seen Live: Boudewijn de Groot

Together with my sister, I went to see the extension of Boudewijn de Groot’s Vaarwel, misschien tot ziens farewell tour. Last year, at age sixty-something, he was done with large-scale tours, so he let himself be pestered into doing a whole new series of shows a year later, at age sixty-something and one. So when I saw that his extended farewell tour had a stop in Amersfoort, I had a “well, if I still want to see him live sometimes, this would be the right time” moment, and so I ordered two tickets. One for me, and one for my sister, who is a fan.

I’m not what you’d call a fan. I have his albums, of which I like the older ones—including his full-on pot-smoking, tree-hugging hippie phase—best. Things like “Heksensabbath” from Nacht en ontij tick a lot of my boxes. Not that he played that, however.

From what I’ve been told, this was a fairly typical show. Not being much of a fan, and despite the set list consisting of a lot of bona fide classics, I couldn’t place about half of the songs. But given the performance of De Groot and band, that didn’t matter much. Personal favorites included “Avond”, “Berlijn” (which, ironically, are among his later work) and especially the intimate couple of songs he played with his son Marcel after the break. Two musicians, with two guitars, singing their songs. I wouldn’t mind seeing them doing an entire show like that.

It was a pretty swell night. I’d go see him again, but, you know…

Seen live
Boudewijn de Groot with “Vaarwel, misschien tot ziens” (reprise) at Theater De Flint, Amersfoort on October 25th, 2013
Set list
Strand / Canzone 4711 / Eva / Het land van koning Jan / Spelende meisjes / De engel is gekomen / Het eiland in de verte / De vondeling van Ameland / Avond / Jimmy / Ballade van de onsterfelijkheid // Christoffel (vocals Marcel de Groot, cover Maarten van Roozendaal) Beneden alle peil / Verdronken vlinder / Testament / Het is mooi geweest / Berlijn / Moeder / Achter glas / Meester Prikkebeen / Een meisje van 16 // Vrijgezel / Het land van Maas en Waal