The Stranglers (22-11-2007, Mechelen, Stadsschouwburg)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I'm pretty sure most of us know The Stranglers even-though not every-one may be aware of it. They've made some very well-known classics in the (late) 70's / 80's like "Always the Sun", "No more Heroes", "Strange little Girl" and of-course "Golden Brown".
They were actually considered punk in those days even-though you can here more blues/jazz/classical influences in their songs than in most punk-bands I've ever heard.

We've always loved their songs so it was a great opportunity to see them so close to home. As the concert was in a playhouse with seats we kind of expected a playhouse-audience: quiet, older, well-dressed and frankly a bit boring. But we were surprisingly mistaken!
The playhouse-audience was there all-right but the band had also attracted their own very drunk British Stranglers fan-club. They were standing and shouting even before the band began playing. During the show they tried to sing along with most songs, especially one guy (the most pissed one) and to which one of the Stranglers remarked: "Many people who follow us around tell us they could be in a band too but YOU bloody well couldn't!".

The friendly banter between the band and their drunk but good-natured fans made this a very funny and special performance. The band was clearly having a lot of fun also joking about the fact that Belgium doesn't have a government and things like that. They played extremely well too (even-though the percussionist had the "shits" as another band-member kindly told us, hehe).

So if you ever have a chance to see this band live you should just try it because I'm sure you'll have a great time!
Check out who they are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranglers
Their official site: http://www.stranglers.net/

Oh and for all the native English speakers: try to pronounce Stadsschouwburg. The band tried it and it was very funny for us Dutch speakers ;-)

Galleries in Mechelen

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Some interesting galleries you could visit if you are in Mechelen:

Pin'Art is a actually a wine-shop which also has a nice small gallery upstairs showing very nice (recent) works of young & old artists (see pic).
Check the site.

Art Studiois a small 4 storey gallery with interesting recent artworks run by a female artist. Her site.

Transit also has nice exhibits. Check out: http://www.transit.be/

Vienna-Brussels, The Secession Years (La Loge, Brussels, 3-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

"The Secession" is the name for the Austrian version of Jugendstill / Art Nouveau. All of these are slightly different movements but they have a lot in common.

It is not widely known that the secession-movement was influenced by and had influence on Belgian Art Nouveau artists. This exhibit shows those influences, mainly on design and architecture.

The Loge (see earlier review) isn't very big but there are some great things to be seen. We love the designs of this age and we are still wondering why not all houses are Art Nouveau because they are so beautiful!

Check out: http://www.aam.be/ (only French and Dutch!)

Gallery Aeroplastics (Brussels, 3-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Aeroplastics is a really cool gallery in an extremely beautiful old mansion in Brussels. The exhibit we saw has ended but I'm sure the next one will be worthwhile too.

Check:http://www.aeroplastics.net/
If you want to see the house you can do a virtual tour; it's fun!

Arcade Fire (Forest National, Brussels, 2-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Any-one who says a hurdy-gurdy (I love this word!!) doesn't rock has clearly never seen Arcade Fire live and that's a real shame because they are brilliant!

Their music and performance is a celebration of the chaos of modern life but the great thing is that there is still a clear structure in it. There are so many sounds (violins, keyboards, drums, percussion, an organ, voices, etc., etc.) to hear but they are all part of the whole picture. Everything is essential: all the instruments, all the musicians, all the images, all the chaos and all the fun they are so clearly having.
Definitely a worthwhile experience!

Check them out at:http://www.arcadefire.com/flash.html
Or just ask Quietlaughter: she has all their albums ;-)

The Grand Atelier (Bozar, Brussels, 1-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia.Europa exhibit

There are 4 exhibits in the Bozar at the moment: 2 paying, 2 free. For 17 euro's you can see them all ;-)
Thursday is the best day to do this because they are open un till 21:00. And during these two Europalia exhibits the Bozar is also open on mondays!

The Grand Atelier is an exhibit about European art between the 5th and the 18th centuries. Many well-known (Da Vinci, Dürer, Rubens) and unnamed masters (ivory carvers, book illustrators, goldsmiths) are included.
If you want to see what us Europeans have brought to the world of art this is THE exhibit.

It certainly made me proud to be part of Europe because we really made some beautiful artworks. Especially the ivory carvings from the time of Charlemagne (around 800 AD) + the early medieval Irish and later 12th century book illustrations are simply divine.
The exhibit includes a vast amount of illustrated books by the way so if you are interested in those, like I am, this is a great opportunity to see them.

At the end (or the beginning) you can see the film installation "27x27x27" with interviews about art in Europe and pictures of the 27 European countries. The pictures made by Michiel Hendryckx are great!

Melting Ice/Hot Topic is an exhibit about climate change. Artists made works on the title topic.
This is the most redundant exhibit I've ever seen. If you let a class of 17-year olds make works on the same topic you will get more interesting works!
I think just two of the pieces were visually interesting but nothing more than that...
This would get no stars so I'm glad it was a free visit.

Encompassing the Globe (Bozar, Brussels, 1-11-2007)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another Europalia.Europa exhibit

There are 4 exhibits in the Bozar at the moment: 2 paying, 2 free. For 17 euro's you can see them all ;-)
Thursday is the best day to do this because they are open un till 21:00. And during these two Europalia exhibits the Bozar is also open on mondays!

Encompassing the Globe is an exhibit about Portugal in the 16th and 17th centuries. Portugal was a global empire back then and the exhibit shows some of their influence on their colonies and vice versa.

Many foreign products and strange beasts reached Europa for the first time because of the search for trade-routes by seafaring nations like Portugal.
This exhibit shows many many interesting artefacts from those times.
Also very interesting to see are the artefacts from the colonies that portray the portuguese themselves, especially the ivory objects from Nigeria (see pic).

This is a great exhibit for any-one who likes to see beautiful objects and learn something about Europe/Portugal and their relation to the rest of the world in the 16/17th century.

The void: a free exhibit about the architecture of G. Byrne + Aires Mateus. The scale models and pictures look nice but the buildings don't always look too practical.