Donna Blue Live. Patronaat Café, Sunday 29 May 2022

Photo: Wout de Natris

Bathing in light so red Donna Blue played on a stage where I expected Twin Peaks' the Red Room Lilliputian to walk in and do his mysterious dance. The association is not outlandish, as the music Donna Blue plays must have been inspired by Angelo Badalamenti as well.

Donna Blue played in Haarlem as part of its first headlining tour of The Netherlands showing it is more than ready to play as headliner. The growth the band showed since the previous time I saw them play is tremendous. Besides having a whole album, 'Dark Roses', filled with new songs, the band has, despite the Covid period, more mileage on its meter, something so important for a band to gain.

This manifested itself in a few ways. It start with standing on a stage itself. The band members appeared to be more relaxed and comfortable there. This resulted in moments of total abandon. Just letting go and go with the flow of the song and the beat. Donna Blue was able to escape the tight confine of a song when it felt like it and just let it rip. So interesting to listen to and to watch.

Descriptions of Donna Blue's music all sort of wind down to the same thing: 1960s south of France, Serge Gainsbourg, imageries of Brigitte Bardot movies, etc. Add a surf guitar style of playing, a huge echo and Twin Peaks. It's all true. Listening to Donna Blue is like entering a time machine to another place, where, seen from a nostalgic point of view, life was simpler, easier. I would prefer not to add better, as it wasn't. It was good, true. What is added to the nostalgia in the music, is modern technique, making the music sound better than ever possible in 1965.

Photo: Wout de Natris

To see the band play up close, showed a few nice details. How the drummer plays from a flick of this thumb and not from his wrist or arm. His drum stick halfway in his hand and not at or close to the end. So delicate and still forceful. How singer Danique sings, plays a keyboard and percussion, sometimes all at the same time. Her role has grown considerably as well in the past years, as there's more to play for her. Seeing all the riffs and lead lines Bart plays on the guitar with about a truckload of reverb on the sound. All comes with the veneer of a great, plopping bass sound. As an aside, John Paul Jones' hairstyle has come back in fashion as well, I noticed.

The music of Donna Blue is a beautiful mix of desire, longing and dreaming. It is also developing itself. On the one hand the sound is deepening, becoming ever more sophisticated. On the other hand more radical 60s music is finding its way into the sound as well, as The Velvet Underground's influence can be heard. It gives the music more depth and variation. This really showed in Patronaat. Donna Blue is setting giant steps and it's about time the national radio starts playing the band's singles. It would be well-deserved.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order 'Dark Roses' and the three EPs here:

https://snowstar.bandcamp.com/album/dark-roses-2