Dove Ellis is an Undeniable Force in Amsterdam
08.20.26 - Amsterdam, NL
It’s a miraculously blue-skied Thursday evening outside the Tolhuistuin. After a week of rain, the clear sky seems like a good omen for the night ahead. Many concert-goers arrive via ferry from Amsterdam’s Centraal Station, where the venue sits along the IJ River.
Dove Ellis’ debut album Blizzard, released in December of last year, is a stunning premiere effort. The anticipatory mood in the room suggests I’m not the only one who’s been counting down the days for this show.
It’s Ellis’ first time playing in Amsterdam, he announces as he takes the stage. He emerges solo and immediately launches into an acoustic rendition of Away You Stride, Blizzard’s closing ballad. Within the song’s first thirty seconds, we get a taste of his hauntingly beautiful falsetto. His stage presence could be called unassuming until he starts to sing. Then, he is magnetic. His voice is meant to be heard.
The song ends, and the crowd is rapt.
“Good evening, everybody. How are you?” He shyly greets us.
The band joins him onstage, and my favorite song from the record begins: Little Left Hope. This tune is Blizzard’s opener, and I wonder if the choice to start at the end and immediately head back to the beginning is a conscious one. Hearing the lyric 'So maybe we'll start a band’ with Ellis’ own ensemble harmonizing behind him is a decidedly perfect moment.
The next few songs in the set fly by, and Ellis heads to the piano. He plays an unreleased song first, then a rousing rendition of Heaven Has No Wings. He then introduces another unreleased track, saying: “I don’t know where it came from, what it’s about… anything.”
The meaning may elude him, but he sings it with all he has.
The power of Ellis’ voice is almost jarring. I’m looking around to make sure everybody else in the room is hearing what I hear. It seems they are, as the crowd is completely in his pocket. There is a hush that falls over the room when he starts to sing, no one daring to interrupt.
After the block of tunes at the piano, I know that Love Is has to be coming soon. His poppiest track undoubtedly contains Blizzard’s catchiest refrain, and it’s also the highest point of energy in Ellis’ set. To The Sandals immediately follows, and the tenderness of his voice is a mesmerizing force.
The band exits stage left, and Ellis returns to the piano for the night’s final serenade. It’s another song I don’t recognize, an unreleased track that again highlights his strongest instrument: his voice.
He mumbles an earnest thank you to the transfixed crowd and leaves the stage without any dramatics.
The audience wants more, cheering for a few minutes in hopes of an encore. But Ellis doesn’t come back. The house lights come on, and we’re left with the memory of an emerging artist singing from his soul.
