Hi all, just a short review here of a thoroughly enjoyable gig I had the pleasure of attending here in my hometown of Nijmegen last Saturday night. (Nov.1st, 2008)

Location: Café Allicht,Hertogstraat 47
6511 RW Nijmegen . www.muziekcafeallicht.nl

Salient detail: check out the ceiling in the photo,at first I thought wood panelling, but later saw that they're all doors! Finishing touch: a small portrait of Jim Morrison   (not visible in the photo)

Normally I don't venture into the realms of the three piece rock band any more. Strange, considering the fact that I started out as big fan of the three piece format. Nr 1 was the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the very first album I ever bought was "Axis Bold as Love". In the second place came "Cream", and a good third place was occupied by the band "Taste", featuring the late great Rory Gallagher on guitar and vocals. Jethro Tull was basically a three piece band with this amazing front man who also played flute turning them into a quartet. The early Tull sound with Mick Abrahams on guitar was very much to my liking. When listening to these guys I had already begun to find the Beatles a bit too soft and melodic!

This thing is getting out of hand here, I'm supposed to be writing about the last gig I was at.

Anyway, the reason I went was because my bruv was over visting with his son, who's a guitarist and we thought it would be fun to check out a live band. The drummer in the band is Thomas Calis, a colleague of mine at  a music school where I teach, and with whom I've had the pleasure of playing on several occasions.

He warned me that it might be too loud and not exactly my bag, but we settled in with some local brew ( the brewery in Nijmegen is called "Heaven")

Absence play all original work written by front man and guitarist Piet van Tienen. The first half of the show I used the free earplugs placed on the bar, but by the second half I had abandoned them. All three musicians were excellent players,and the material was well written and performed. You could sense the connection these guys had playing together, which they've been doing for some ten years now.

I have to say that though this is a genre I don't usually listen to any more I thorougly enjoyed the whole evening. One of the songs was called Already in Heaven, and that is what this felt like. If the video footage of the gig comes on line I'll post it.

I forgot to mention: the bass playing is in the very capable hands of Maarten Dekkers

Meanwhile you might like to check out the bands web page:

http://hardhatarea.com/absence/index.php

John D. www.john-devitt.com