Bettie Serveert – live at Amsterdam Paradiso – April 4, 2011 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Bettie Serveert this weekend. With 10 albums to their credit and together since 1990, they are one of the more successful bands to come out of The Netherlands in recent years. Named after the biography of Dutch tennis star Betty Stöve (who made it to the ladies final at Wimbledon in 1977), Bettie Serveert have had the good fortune of widespread critical acclaim since the release of their debut album, Palomine in 1992. And it was the positive reaction (from both press and the audience) which led them to gainer bigger word of mouth since then.
From their Wikipedia page:
In 1995, the group released their second album, Lamprey, which also was well received, and this aided them in obtaining tour slots alongside the likes of Belly, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, Superchunk, Come and Jeff Buckley.
On July 2, 1997, Counting Crows kicked off a co-headlining tour with The Wallflowers that continued through September. This tour included opening acts by Bettie Serveert, Engine 88, Gigolo Aunts, and That Dog), with each opening band touring for a three-week stretch. While touring with Counting Crows, The Wallflowers were also playing their own headlining dates when the Counting Crows tour was on break (Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz experienced swollen vocal cords and had to back out of several shows in July).
After releasing the full-length album Dust Bunnies in 1997 and the 1998 Velvet Underground cover album Bettie Serveert Plays Venus in Furs and Other Velvet Underground Songs, Dubbe decided to leave due to artistic differences. He went on to form his own band, Bauer.
In July 2001, van Dijk and Pascal Deweze of Sukilove released their self-titled album as Chitlin’ Fooks. They followed it with Did it Again in January 2003.
Various drummers (such as Reinier Veldman, who played drums in the Bettie Serveert proto-band De Artsen) replaced Dubbe on their next album, Private Suit, later followed by Stoffel Verlackt, Jeroen Blankert and Gino Geudens who played drums on Log 22 and Attagirl. Bettie Serveert continues to tour extensively through Western Europe, Canada and the United States.
Their cover of the Bright Eyes track “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” was featured in episode 18 of season 3 of the FOX show The OC. Palomine’s title track can be heard playing in the background during episode 4 of My So-Called Life.
The band also covered Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine” for the soundtrack of the 1996 indie film I Shot Andy Warhol.
Bettie Serveert released an EP, Deny All, on Second Motion Records digital only, on 26 January 2010 in the United States. Their ninth full-length album, Pharmacy of Love, was also given a US release by Second Motion on 23 March of that year.
2017 saw the release of Damaged Good again to positive acclaim. A pink vinyl version with gatefold cover limited to 1000 copies was released as part of Record Store Day of that year.
This concert comes between the releases of Pharmacy of Love (2010) and Oh, Mayhem (2013) and was recently rebroadcast as part of Paradiso Amsterdam‘s 50 year anniversary celebrations by VPRO as this concert was part of the 20th anniversary of Bettie Serveert originally getting together.
