TED NUGENT  ROLLING THUNDER TOUR 2008

MELKWEG AMSTERDAM  07-12-08

Man, I was exited! Ted Nugent playing in a venue as small as the Melkweg! (1500 people max). That’s as upfront and personel as it’ll ever get. We (me & my wife) made it to Amsterdam in the afternoon where we were about to meet other Nuge fans. It was awesome to meet those guys: instant friends. I found it quite amazing that the love of (Ted's) music generates such camaraderie. Come to think of it we were the only two Dutch in between (a lot of) Germans, Belgian & British folks. After a bite, we got inside, and being with people that had met the Nuge before and had received a guest sticker, we waited up front on the left side of the stage. Nothing happened until the show started, so when the band took the stage it was three steps to the right and we were front row! Right in front of Uncle Ted’s spot, we pretty much had the best seats in the house.  Opening up with Snakeskin Cowboys the band ROCKED. I was told there hadn’t been a soundcheck so Ted used this tune to adjust a few amplifier knobs here and there and that was it. Went full throttle into Wango Tango, telling the crowd he was gonna teach us how to dance, tonight. Went straight through Free For All & Stormtroopin’, before going into the love-song mode. “This is a Detroit love song, ‘cause I love each and every one of you….. exept you motherfucker, you’d be my dog. Go fetch! “Ted pointed to the right and it was fun seeing all those heads turn to see wich poor bastard he picked on, while he said  was just joking, and started Dog eat Dog.

Now Ted’s joking around ( when I was a lil’ black kid back in Detroit… ) combined with the sheer enthusiam of the band playing, made it a soulfull & remarkable event. From the third song, all through the show he made the crowd cheer for Mick Brown & Greg Smith. You can tell that Mick’s been playing with Ted for a number of years by their interaction and Greg got to sing Need you Bad & Hey Baby. By the way the KLSTRPHKME riff is incorporated throughout the set makes you realise how well these guys play together. Rawdogs & Warhogs, Need you Bad, Weekend Warrior, & Wang Dang let up to Love Grenade. And altough I’d loved to hear more of the new album, I was especially delighted to hear Need you Bad live.

Ted payed hommage to Bo Diddly, B.B. King & Stevie Ray Vaughn and jammin’ around, playing clean even treated us some jazzy soloing before going into Baby please don’t Go which had Geronimo and Me combined fluidly. What a treat! Emphasizing on Motown the band continued with Soul Man, going straight into Hey Baby. The zebra striped P.R.S. came out for Fred Bear, which unfortunatly  had a disturbing sound going through the last part of the song. I’ve got no idea where that came from but it sounded rather disturbing. Which I felt sorry for, since this song means a lot to me. Cat Scratch Fever, introduced as his second greatest lick, and Stranglehold as his greatest, followed. During the Stranglehold solo I realised I was just standing there, looking like a fish, with a half open mouth. I grew up on that song, seen Ted play it nummerous times, but see the man play it from first row, it gave me shivers.

I realised later that  Maryln Brown was taken pictures from behind Ted’s amps. IF I’m on one of those, I’ll look like a moron. After a change of the back-drop ( Ted riding the middle finger ) we got the Great White Buffalo. And with one smoking finale, that was it. Now to me if it’s a great show you’re awareness of time is off. You feel like you’ve had an hour of great music and it turnes out you’ve had two. So when my wife turned to me and said: It’s over, right!? Cause I feel like it’s just been a thirty minutes or so…”, I knew this was a GREAT one.

Altough Ted’s bow was set up on stage, he never shot it, In fact the show element was kept to a minimum. But that’s exactly what was GREAT about this night. It was, to me, what Rock n’ Roll is about: being blown away by the feel & energy coming off the stage. I had a blast.

Marksmanship with a Byrdland & a rhythm section with an incredible groove, two full hours of full Bluntal Nugity, wham bam and thank you, good night!

To experience this together with friends made it even more special. It was great meeting these people and share our passion.

To top things I ran into a roadie, while making my way back home. He said he’d been looking for me and handed me a Ted Nugent guitar pick. He also took our names and phone number to see if he could get us on the guest list for the next gig. I guess our enthusiasm showed.

I’ve seen A LOT of bands, but never experieced this kind of behaviour towards fans by people surrounding a band. It made me realise the Nuge is REAL.

So, from the heart, thank you: Ted Nugent, Mick Brown, Greg Smith, the road crew,

all the Euro Dogs, (especially Volker, for getting us together) for a great night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s been a real celebration!!!

Slish.

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