Despite being a lifelong music geek, I wasn’t familiar with the Dutch band NITS until this past year. It’s not like the band has been hiding under a rock for the fifty years of their existence, and I’m not ignorant of Dutch pop, having been a Gruppo Sportivo fan since 1982. But in any case, I’m not the only American music fan who’d never heard of them.
NITS, originally “The Nits” (they dropped “The” in 1989), may have come onto my radar when one of their albums turned up on a list of used records from a Finnish record store I follow, and I was prompted to check out a few tracks on Spotify, starting with “In the Dutch Mountains.”
Better late than ever.
Listening to “In the Dutch Mountains” alone gives an idea of the quality of what you’ll find when you dig into their catalog. It’s the tip of an iceberg whose bummock is fuller of rewards than its hummock (to follow the iceberg metaphor to its conclusion.)
Over the past year, NITS went from being unknown to me to being one of my favorite bands.
The Nits were formed in 1974 in Amsterdam. Known for their sophisticated and experimental approach to pop music, they were popular in the 1980s, achieving success with Omsk (1983) and Adieu, Sweet Bahnhof (1984). Over the past four decades, they have maintained a dedicated European fanbase, though they never exactly broke anywhere, least of all Stateside, where I lived until 2012.
Their biggest hit is arguably “Nescio.”
NITS songs could easily find a place on any playlist from the 70s, 80s, 90s, or the past twenty years, and in the fiftieth year of their existence, they have just released arguably one of the most beautiful records of their career, 2024’s mini-LP “Tree House Fire.”
British DJ and presenter Chris Evans once commented that Nits might have been another XTC or Prefab Sprout had they not been so geographically challenged. (As I noted from the first episode of their podcast, Dial Nits, the band might take issue with that, promoting the benefits rather than the costs of hailing from Holland.)
Like Prefab Sprout and XTC, however, they never sold out. They continued to evolve, experiment, and challenge themselves, ignoring advice that might have helped them make hit records.
The Nits sang in English like their compatriots Gruppo Sportivo. There is an overlap, of course, as Holland doesn’t have that big of a music scene. Robert Jan Stips, the keyboard player from the Nits, produced the Gruppo Sportivo records: 10 Mistakes (1977) and the follow-up Back to 78 (1978), and the Nits opened for Gruppo Sportivo a few times early in their career.
Sidebar: Other Dutch pop bands that sang in English you may have heard of include Golden Earing and Bettie Seervert.
A few weeks ago, while doing some random Spotify listening, I discovered that Nits were playing a gig at the Savoy Theater in Helsinki, where I live these days, on Wednesday, September 18th.
The Nits are no strangers to Finland. A track on their 2015 live album, Hotel Europa, was recorded at the Savoy in 2009. They have an album called Alankommat (Finnish for “The Netherlands.”), and a song with Finnish lyrics (Yöpöllö) that appears on their album Quest (1995). The song “In a Play” on In the Dutch Mountains has the singer speaking of flying to Helsinki. They also used the Finnish word kiitos (Thank You) to welcome the applause after each song on Wednesday evening. Before the break, they suggested people stand up, stretch their legs, or drink at the bar or ravintola (restaurant). Finnish audiences appreciate foreigners’ efforts to speak the language, so these words probably made them a winner with any Finnish fans seeing them live for the first time.
The Nits are one of those bands you must see live, so I’m glad I stumbled across their 50th-anniversary tour. They are maybe 33 percent actualized as just a studio band, as they have made it a habit since the beginning of re-imagining their songs for live performances. And with about twenty-five albums of material, the songs are insanely solid. I went down a rabbit hole to listen to them all and found I could keep it up for days or weeks, listening to quality song after quality song. How many bands can you say this about? For how many bands can you create playlists of great music containing well over 100 songs?
The stage set included a model of their studio that burned in 2022 and a modest but effective lighting installation. They played through their Treehouse Fire EP to start the show, and over the course of the night, they delivered the same setlist they had in Tampere two days before. Two shows in Finland is another sign of their popularity here. The Savoy show was not sold out, and I scored a great seat in row two at the door that was released on the day of the show.
Artfulness and taste are the two main words that come to mind when describing their performance. Robert Jan Stips’ piano-playing and additional keyboards were exquisite. Rob Kloet’s drums layered additional texture upon the songs. Band leader and vocalist Henk Hofstede was present, energetic, and grateful, wearing a long shirt and a jacket and acting as master of ceremonies. As a trio, this band is greater than the sum of its parts. Not having a bass player is not missed.
If there is a point to this, it’s my hope that you dig into this band post haste if you have not before, especially if you like the other bands I mentioned here. Drink deeply from their catalog, and please see them live if they play anywhere near you. I’ll never get to see XTC or Prefab Sprout, arguably two of my favorite bands, so at least I have righted a wrong by finally seeing Nits.