Sophia - Feb. 09 '97: Centre Nerveux, Ottignies (B)

Setlist I’d rather So slow Are you happy now Another friend Woman I don’t think I’ll ever change When you’re sad I can’t believe the things I can’t believe The river song Is it any wonder Death of a salesman Last night I had a dream Directionless Review Hi all, another message about the overwhelming Sophia gigs in Belgium. Fourth concert on our tiny territory in four days ... all four sold out (well maybe tonight's show wasn't completely sold out). Yesterday in Brussels, they even had to move from the Rotonde to l'Orangerie, the biggest venue at La Botanique (capacity of 600, normally hosting bands like Suede or Afghan Whigs). Tonight's show was in Ottignies, some forgotten town in the Walloons (the French-speaking part of Belgium). After a long search for this venue, finally arrived just in time to see the support : two cute local girls doing folky sing-a-long-songs. Sophia got on stage, but at the same moment the P.A. got fucked up. Well, ten minutes and some acoustic improvisations later, the show could finally start. Not very different from the show I saw in Opwijk (the forgotten town in Flanders - the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) last Friday. First song was a new one (I think they didn't play this one on the other shows), followed by 'So Slow', 'Are You Happy Now' and 'Another Friend' (*my favorite*). Then again that delicious new song called Woman ! Woohoo gooseflesh once more ! Another new one, probably called 'I Don't Think I'll Ever Change'. These new songs are much like those on 'Fixed Water', maybe even better, hope they get released somewhere soon. Some people taped the shows, if quality is ok, I'll try to get some excerpts on the website so you can all 'enjoy' them. Someone filmed tonight's show, I'll try to contact him (and someone who can transform video into mpg - hell, I don't know anything about these things...). Well, on with the show: an astonishing version of 'When You're Sad', again followed by 'I Can't Believe The Things I Can't Believe'. As all previous shows, this one too ended with 'Going To The River'. Strange, but everyone seems to agree that this is just like a God Machine song (I don't think so), well it maybe has some of the atmosphere in common and the end reminds a bit of The God Machine's 'Temptation'. Robin comes back to do the three acoustic songs ('Is It Any Wonder', 'The Death Of A Salesman, Last Night I Had A Dream') and the audience gets really wilder and wilder. Robin leaves, but the band can't do anything else then returning a final time to do another song. It's the song they started with on Friday and I think it's called 'Losing My Directions' (well, that's the lyric that's repeated over and over ...). Very nice song, let's hope it will soon be released too. Found no ride back to Gent, but someone took me to Brussels and as a lucky hitch-hiker, I immediately got picked up by some nice people who dropped me of 200 meters from here ! Christophe, Purity-list