Mountaineer, Reb Fountain and Marlon Williams live, Sunday 13 November 2022

Photo: Wout de Natris

What a memorable day 13 November 2022 already is. First and excellent and totally magical, spell-binding living room show by Amsterdam band Mountaineer and a few hours later in Paradiso a great show by Reb Fountain and, for me the biggest surprise of the evening, a perfect show by Marlon Williams. Three absolutely great shows within seven and a half hours from start to finish.

Mountaineer should have played in May already but the show had to be cancelled at the time and rescheduled. HareD has written about the show yesterday (read on here: http://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2022/11/mountaineer-live-haarlem-13-november.html), so I will just repeat here how good the band played and underscored that its album 'Lewis & Clark' is one of the great albums of 2022. One observation. We may have set an age difference record at the show with a two year and a 93 year old present. Nearly a century difference. If not a record than certainly noteworthy.

Reb Fountain toured as support for Marlon Williams in the past months through the northern hemisphere. On the back of two albums, 'Reb Fountain' and 'Iris'. Two albums that both are among my favourites of this decade. The singer creates an atmosphere that is special on record and slowly but surely grew to being absolutely special on stage as well. With shamanic moves she captured more and more of the in part unsuspecting audience. Her band of three, drums, bass and guitar/keyboards and beautiful backing vocals by all, followed hr every move, reaching to soaring musical heights.

Photo: Wout de Natris

During the show the presence of Reb Fountain grew and grew. I was thinking that it is just as well she wasn't around in 15 or 16-something, as she would have been pointed out as the local sorceress for sure. I can't think that, I told myself. After the show my girlfriend, posing as my +1 tonight, said the same thing. There must be something in the way she moves. The music simply grew and grew with Reb's movements and performance. Her voice took command of all else and the band followed her every move. Subdued even in full climax.

With an immaculate setlist that built the mood one stage further upwards be the song, we as audience were ready for the pièce the résistance. By then "we the fuck knew who she was alright". 'Do You Know Who I Am' slowly but surely went to its climax. A slow song can for sure have one of those. By then all the promises made on record had been fulfilled. Reb Fountain is ready for the next step in her career.

Of the three acts Marlon Williams was more or less the question mark. "We can always go home early", I promised my +1. Williams stepped on stage, grabbed an acoustic guitar and with only a drummer hitting the hi-hat, vaccinated and cured Paradiso of "the Dutch disease". I could hear a pin dropped. It was the start of a show where I fell from one surprised into the next. His band played fantastic. The guitar/keyboard/violin player doubled with Reb Fountain and seemed to have at least three brains. Speaking of multi-tasking. Switching between his guitar and keyboard multiple times during a song and singing in between. Beyond outstanding his performance was.

Photo: Wout de Natris

Marlon Williams has a beautiful voice and an extremely easy going but total command over his audience. A giggle here and there suggested a short stopover at the neighbours down the road of Paradiso. Williams could have been a rock and roll star in the 50s with Elvis like poses, mixing influences from all sides. His band can rock, play ballads, country music and play covers like the best cover band in the world. Barbra Streisand, Smokey Robinson and then the whole band starts singing in perfect harmony. The show ended with a slow blues in the style of Led Zeppelin's 'Since I've Been Loving You'. Man, by then you could have floored me.

I have never been truly impressed with his records. Being familiar with his first and third is the best I can claim. On stage this man can go with the best - and his band as well. This is the top.

What also struck me is how good this combination of artists was. They fitted on one bill extremely well. Although Reb Fountain was supporting, she got every opportunity to shine. For both artists the sound was perfect and so well balanced. Far from what happens to some support acts. There's a clear mutual respect for each other.

Being the last show of the two and a half month tour may have led to some extra energy and fun on stage. Certainly Marlon Williams was relaxed and totally out there telling his stories and along the way learned the word "boeien". We all got home a little wiser.

When I came home, I found my team had won and leads the league by three points. As I wrote, what a memorable day.

And when I went to bed, tired but totally satisfied, I had 'Impeached' in my mind, I noticed. And that is an obvious compliment to Mountaineer, the first band of the day.

Wout de Natris