Hello! Welcome to this no-review! Take a seat, I’ll try to make it short, but I don’t usually stick to this promise more than Charlotte does ?
After almost two days on the road (including multiple stops and 8 work hours of “working from home” in the van ?), we finally arrived to Haarlem! We drove near Patronaat and we saw there wasn’t anyone waiting yet, so we went to park and to find a café because… We had some needs (TMI Jess! Ok, sorry, but it really was kind of urgent).
Maybe half an hour afterwards we walked to the venue and SURPRISE! There’s a good bunch of people already. Not gonna lie, I was a bit bummed haha but it wasn’t that bad, I thought second row would be good enough.
The doors opened and yep, we could find good spots in the second row. Well, I had a nice (I’ll come back to this later) and not too tall woman in front, Rafa had a giant ? but he found a way and had kind of a good view.
Charlotte’s cool Spotify playlist started setting the mood, and meanwhile we talked a bit with our neighbors and apparently we kinda knew each other with 3 of them (hi @passedseasons, the-nice-not-too-tall woman is also a Patron and with another girl we follow each other on instagram ?) Small world, smaller venues!
This time Blackbriar let Running up that Hill play entirely and then they came on stage. I had never seen them live and I had only listened to some of their songs, but they did great! Only downside, from where we were Zora’s sound was sooo low and drums soo loud that it was difficult to hear her at times.
During Blackbriar set the nice-not-so-tall woman told me she would like to switch places with me, as she wanted to be a bit further from the stage to take better pictures and she knew I really wanted to be front row ? at first I thought she meant only for Blackbriar’s set, but nope, she meant forever. She even had to “fight a bit” with a girl that wanted that spot and the woman was like: no, no! It’s for her! ❤️ Angels are Dutch, now I know!
After some pause in between sets with a very ghostly company coming closer to us…
… the moment of Truth had arrived!
The Ouverture starts to sound, the guys come out to the stage, Charlotte starts playing the clarinet, and 5 seconds later the concert is over. At least that’s how it felt ?
Now seriously, from the first moment, everything was, both sound wise and visually, beautiful and enchanting. I loved how they used the screen during the first songs, when it still was covered by the red robes in October. I’m a nerd for shadows and lights, so the dancers behind the screen was totally my thing.
One thing I must say about Charlotte is the beast she is on stage. From her first step, you know she owns it and she will do whatever she wants with it. And oh how I love her voice. All the musicians only add to that, with their savoir faire and good vibes. You can tell they are giving it all and having fun.
This time she did speak some English, but many times Dutch just came out naturally. It was funny because she said Good Dog was the next song, we awooo’ed and she was like: oh, I’ll explain it in Dutch because you already know what to do ?
The songs went by, I sang (well, something similar), moved and danced non stop, and the moment I was waiting for the most arrived… the duet with Aafke! I absolutely loved it, their voices sound so good together, and that’s not easy when two people sing together for many phrases / almost the whole song, not only the chorus! And excuse me… Aafke’s shoes and the whole outfit? ?
But I have to tell you, one bad thing about my first row spot was that Joey and Elianne were totally eclipsed by a sound monitor. This is the view I didn’t see during the whole concert ?
If I was lucky sometimes I could see this much of Elianne ?
But when Combustion started I HAD to witness Joey going nuts, and by the looks of it… He really went crazy ?
Tbh, sometimes I think I would prefer another Charlotte song instead of Combustion, but then it starts and I’m like: hell yes, this is awesome!! ?
The end (well, first end) of the setlist was approaching, with Charlotte’s speech about Doing the Thing and the cutest Lego pic. She said she missed him, like she didn’t see him hours ago? Haha but I get it, I often miss a frog ??
Then the first notes of Soft Revolution started and oof. I don’t know what kind of witchcraft this song does to me but it moves everything in my insides and someone starts cutting onions. I just love it and leaves me exhausted but in peace.
After the break they came back and it was the turn of Against all odds. Something strange happened here, I’m still not sure if Charlotte briefly forgot the lyrics or she wanted us to sing. I must say I thought the audience (can’t compare it to Weert) was not very fond of singing, they weren’t too enthusiastic and shouty… Or maybe I’m used to more loud audiences in Spain ? or I compare it to October where we all were really into it and it was an amazing audience.
Anyway, I tried to sing a bit but was too shy, and after the (completely false) accusations of me being the out of tune note in All U Are in Utrecht I tried to sing quietly all the time ? It was a beautiful acoustic moment nonetheless, and then saaadly the last song arrived, another one that touches me very deep ❤️ hah, it’s randomly playing right now (weird eh?) and I’m having goosebumps.
And the best 5 seconds I’ve had in a long time were over. The concert I had looked forward to for weeks (and worked hard to be able to make it) was already in the past, and not gonna lie, I was a bit sad haha. My post concert blues is strong, you can see.
They all were HUGE, although I only could capture it properly with Otto ?
Ah, I wish I could live it again right now! Being in a concert like this one is really one of the best things ever. Sometimes I wonder if artists are aware of this power they have: they can send us to heaven for a while, the sad thing is we have to go back to our routine (aka hell ?) afterwards.
As a little extra in case you’ve read this far (I’m surprised, really!), some special moments I could capture:
Elianne thinking about how many wine bottles Charlotte will have to buy her for the performance:
Members of the cult worshiping non stop the leader, as it should be.
And some familiar faces ? This was the sweetest ending! 
PICTURES
