Tindersticks continues to amaze

For their 30th anniversary tour, the successful band Tindersticks played in Belgium for the second time in less than 3 months. This is to promote their double ‘Retrospective album 1992 – 2022 – Past Imperfect’, which was released in the spring. After performing in May in Brussels, Bozar, with full orchestra and Terry Edwards on trumpet, the band is now on a summer tour as the 6 original members on stage, including Stuart Staples’ son as the third guitarist on stage.

The concert took place in the very cosy centre of Leuven at the M-Idzomer festival organized by Het Depot, an open air mainstage and two small indoor stages to see more ‘intimate’ performances by Belgian bands. We had the chance to see Sohnarr (Patricia’s new band, ex Balthazar) play twice a beautiful 30-minute set in the Museum Room” of the building, with very soft and very intense songs from her first album. A must-see and hear! Also, Isbells on the main stage was a must, just before Tindersticks, which gave us beautiful and melodic pop/rock tunes just before the sun went down.

The day’s heroes were, of course, those of the main programme. The Brits of Tindersticks, which played almost 80 minutes. A set that mainly consisted of songs from the albums ‘Something Rain’ (2012), ‘The Waiting Room’ (2016) and ‘No treasure but hope’ (2019). They were conscientious not to play their “too quiet” songs at this “open air” event but gave a selection of more up-tempo songs. And so the concert was very different from the one in Bozar at the time. This is to the delight of the regular fans who have followed them closely since their first time in Belgium in Botanique in February 1994.

When we say ‘up tempo’, you also end up with the Tindersticks. It’s never really “up”, but they played it yesterday in a more “energetic” way and maybe a little “louder” than usual. Handy, because that way no one was disturbed by the people in the audience who were unfortunately frequently talking.

Stuart himself never talks much between songs, but he seemed very happy with the response from the audience. Everyone in the band looked like they were really having fun playing. It was a beautiful evening with the romantic music of the guys from Tindersticks.

Photos (c) Christophe Dehousse