Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Melkweg Amsterdam, November 5th 2002

We saw the Flecktones two weeks after this is London and despite the fact we had to fly to the gig in Amsterdam, typically for British public transport it took us the best part of three hours to travel from Brighton to central London. This is pretty much the same amount of time it took us to get a train, then a plane, and another train to get to our hotel - in another country! Anyway this particular gig was just a joy from start to finish, with the amazingly well laid out Melkweg's excellent sound, cool sunken floor, so that everyone got a good view, plus a balcony, and one of the finest bands on the planet sounding better than ever. We went for an absolutely delicious curry at a restaurant near the venue and as we were about to order Béla Fleck and Jeff Coffin walked in and sat down to eat. We didn't get a chance to speak to Béla as he left after a brief bite but Jeff was pleased to see us saying "Beautiful!" when we told him we were going to check out the gig later. The spicy food obviously did the job as he played up a storm later on. All in all a great experience and as the venue was so close to our hotel we could take our time hanging out afterwards and even hitting a late night coffee shop for a hot chocolate and a doobie, oh, to be in Holland more often. Next year we shall return…enjoy the pics.

This gallery is dedicated to John's lost hat that left his head mysteriously at the end of the gig, not that he was running around like a nutcase at all...see the last picture for proof that he has it on his head earlier.

Click here to listen to Vic and Béla exchanging blows on 'Throw Down At The Hoedown', from the gig in Amsterdam!