The Amsterdam band De Dijk celebrated its fortieth birthday twice this weekend with a sober party. In a largely sold-out, reopened Ziggo Dome – 75 percent of the maximum capacity of 17,000 visitors was present on Friday – it was an unadorned concert, without fireworks or guest singers. This evening revolved around what it has been about for forty years: the music. In just under two and a half hours, De Dijk swung through his own oeuvre, which has been built on since 1981.
In the early eighties the music was still influenced by the atmosphere of punk and new wave, later soul and blues would come to the fore. From the beginning, Huub van der Lubbe sang in Dutch. As he noted Friday night: “People who knew about it said it was stupid. We would never get a number 1 hit in America.” They were right, he said, his band had never had a number 1 hit in America. But they had had a lot of fun in the Netherlands and other places.
trump card
The lyrics are one of the trump cards of the band. Van der Lubbe says what many others say, but slightly differently. Friday opened with the new ‘Goed Je Weer Te Zien’, a warm-blooded ballad, in which the reunion after a year and a half sounds more melancholic than festive. “How did it go for you? Or should I not ask. It doesn’t even matter”, Van der Lubbe sings, accompanied by rustling horns and wry crackling guitar playing. He seemed to address everyone present with his arms outstretched.
Later followed ‘Inside Without Knocking’, containing one of Van der Lubbe’s most beautiful lines: “She came in without knocking.” The words can refer to a loved one, but also to music; on the sensation of surprise that a song or concert can deliver.
Restrained mood
That feeling of overwhelm lasted a little too long on Friday night. De Dijk was in the Ziggo Dome for the first time. The stage is large, also for eight musicians. And the distance to the audience is great. The musicians each stayed in their own place and Van der Lubbe also moves little. This stood out, on the wide stage.
The combination with mainly slow songs in the first hour made the mood subdued – although there were musical highlights: the lush tinkling piano and tough saxophone solo in ‘Onderuit’, for example. The festivity eventually blossomed at the end and in the many encores, with songs like ‘Als Het Golft’, ‘Wat Een Vrouw’. And anthem ‘Nergens Goed Voor’, in which Van der Lubbe showed a series of comical dance steps.