It has been a long, hot weekend and I've seen two fabulous concerts. The thing with concerts is, you can never tell which ones are going to be fabulous. No matter how many concerts you've been to, no matter how good you know the music being played, you can sometimes predict that this band or that band is on a roll and might be good, but it being memorable depends on so many little things. The weather, the day of the week, the alignment of the stars, the setting of the venue, the persons standing around you, their smell, the temperature in the room, whether you need to go to the toilet or not, whether you're thirsty or not, whether you had a bad day at work or a stressful ride to the place of the concert or so many more things. No way you can predict which ones will be worth their money twice and which ones you will want your money back. It's a gamble, time and time again.

When a friend asked me to come along to Tindersticks, I wasn't too enthusiastic at first. OK, I used to be a fan and OK, it's still great music, but when was the last time they amazed me? What was their last release worth spending your money on? That last album was shite, or at least it didn't impress me much anymore. I had suffered from Tindersticks overload and they weren't helping by releasing mediocre albums, so I stopped listening to them. But I went anyway, I took the bet.

Turns out the last time they did something amazing was right there, in The Cirque Royale, and I was a witness. We were way up, in block O which means you should stay home if you suffer from vertigo. There is no block P, block O is the furthest of the furthest and more specifically, the highest of the highest. Almost like listening seats, but not really: you can still see the concert and you get a good overview.

But the music! Plus de liaisonsshouted a French speaking member of the audience, and Stuart A. Staples responded promptly something like "I won't go in to that, I don't want to stir up an argument". Rightfully so, because if this music is the result of Stuart's solo liaison, I would be in favour for them to do more of that. The new songs were like the old Tindersticks, but even better. And the old ones sounded just as good all of a sudden again.

A song called Mother Dear has a strange guitar lick in it that seemed to randomly go somewhere away from the song but still worked wonderfully well and added a twisted layer to it that could maybe best be described as daunting. The title track of the new album, The Hungry Saw, was at least as frightening with it's lyrics that make you think Stuart might be an American Psycho in the deepest of his thoughts. And Boobar Come Back To Me is another new song with such beautiful vintage Tindersticks sound.

And lots and lots more that I probably would be able to describe if I had the playlist handy. I still missed the female voice in Travelling Light, especially since there were female voices present that sounded beautiful enough to be able to sing the part. That hasn't changed. But it was so good to rediscover this great music and I can only wish they continue to make such beautiful music as they do. I will make sure not to overdose on them again.

Oh, and that other concert ? Well, that was equally fabulous, but for so many different reasons. Suffice to say: summer has begun, and it couldn't have begun in a better way!