30-10-2011

State of Gedaan (AKA I'd rather be at The Fest 10)

Friday night is a well-known night for punk rock shows.
Last Friday State Of Mine played their last show. Aw.

Hogwash opened. They are from France and they couldn't decide on speaking English or French. No biggie. Hogwash, my friends, rules. They seriously blew me away. One of the guitarists is insane in the membrane and kept going on & off of the stage, partying, making funny faces, the whole lot. Guys are super-talented and combine catchyness with a technical style of playing. Be sure to check it out. I bought 3 CDs, I know de Rak did too, you should too.

Then State Of Mine came to say goodbye. I'm not particularly a fan of their full length, but their first batch of songs (the demo + split with the Octopussys) I found to be pretty great. Saw them a fair amount of times but tonight was definitely a blasting show. The last party. Lots of people partying, great atmosphere. A Bigwig cover. Old songs, new songs. It was cool to see them one last time.

Now, I'm not a skatepunk kid whatsoever, but apparently MUTE is the best motherfucking band in years. They're from Canada, land of Belvedere/This Is A Standoff and play this really energetic, metalriff-induced skatepunk that is not really my thing actually. Other than that, I sang along to 5 words I think, those were the only ons I knew, and the last song, which was a cover of Head Under Water (Surfers, obviously). The rest of the set was good and the audience was off the fucking hook. I tried to dance at multiple times but found myself too fragile to mosh amongst the massive 20- to 30-somethings going absolutely bonkers. And with bonkers I really mean all-out keh-razee. Such a fun show. Gotta love the punk rock.

Hangouts are always great. Lots af drunk geezers.

26-10-2011

The "Dope, man!"s

You might remember The Dopamines from such releases as Expect The Worst, unarguably the best release of 2010. You probably also remember them from one of the best releases of 2008. It was their self-titled album. It's called "The Dopamines".
Anyway, on their first and since then last European tour they ran out of records to sell so they sold/gave away "Discography" CD-Rs. I bought one at one show and got one for free at another show. Weird, right?
This blog post is dedicated to that CD-R, which is basically everything except for Expect The Worst, the split with Dear Landlord and the split with Till Plains. But because it is so wicked, I will  get into their side of the Till Plains split as well.

"The Dopamines"
I'm blasting it right now and it's been way too long. PUNCH DRUNK = DOPAMINE. I still can sing along to every word and I still stumble my tongue over half of the lyrics. Amazing. I want to turn it up as loud as possible but I'm in my student/dorm room now and I don't wanna disturb my fellow housemates. Even though they'd probably have a revelation over how good this is. All irrelevancy aside, The Dopamines are trashing my stereo with their first album. Because it is so good. It's pop punk but it sounds so much fuller than most pop punk. It's not generic at all. Jon W is one of the more talented bass players in pop punk music and his bass sounds bad-ass.
Damn, I'm at track 5 already. Fun Tags, it's called, or "that song with the 'party plates'." I'D RATHER GET A DUI, THAN GIVE UP THIS LIFE. I'm actually totally clueless about most of their lyrics but there's no denying this remains a lyrical masterpiece. Sometimes incredibly simple and accurate, but sometimes mysterious, far-fetched and all-out incomprehensible. Whether it's about being drunk for the x-th time or about a deceased pet dog, these guys know how to pull off intelligent stuff. For example, the song title "Beer Telescope" obviously refers to "beer goggles", but it extraposes it to the Dopamines degree, and that's not smart or intelligent, but it's witty and clever for sure. That's an important part of writing songs.
The punchy, hardcore-punk influenced music creates to-the-point songs that are in fact better expositioned in live shows than on CD or LP or whatever. At such occasions it's also evident what amount of passion the Dopadudes put into their music. It's their thing and you can absolutely hear that. Of course, it's wild and loud and fast and punk, but it's also angry, heartfelt, passionate and fragile. YEAH LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES, TRYING TO MAKE EVERY WORD RHYME. WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. Both the searing guitar sound as well as the half-retained/half-shouted vocals make this a perfect band for those who have always thought punk rock needed more alcohol and more desperation.
The album closes with Navigation Point, which on this CD-R and on the CD in electric, but on the vinyl there's an acoustic version of it, which is absolutely amazing.

"Soap And Lampshades"
I hope you like fast and short cause that's what you get on this. 5 songs of about a minute or maybe 2 and 1 eponymous magnum opus. Operate. Jon Has Anxiety. Fuck my life. Ryan Has Anxiety. And I drink myself to sleep. Worstest Case Scenario. So wake up. Structural Failure. That's when it hits. Soap And Lampshades. Probably one of their bestest songs. Washing my hands with the bestest of friends.
Songwriting-wise this is probably better than the self-titled, generally speaking. I don't know shit, of course.

"Songs About Fucking Up"
This is from a split with The Copyrights, with whom they've been compared to death. The comparison isn't even accurate, but hey. On this split they definitely seperate themselves. Try This Kids At Home is awesome and so is October 24th, a song that ended up on Expect The Worst. I can feel the frustration dripping off of these songs. Pretty much a teaser for Expect The Worst, the album on whoch they have perfected their sound.

"August Eyes"
This is a cover song of The Seedy Seeds, a Cincinatti pop band. At first I thought they had maybe included a new song on this Discography but it isn't. That means they've done a pretty damn good job. I reckon.

"The Dopamines/Till Plains"
Not on the CD-R but just so damn good. This includes the best Dopamines song EVER, and that is of course Car Trouble. That's about as much as I want to get into this release. Get it, get it now and listen to it numerous times. Plz.

18-10-2011

Radio-o-o

I noticed I hadn't posted about this yet. So get this:
Normally I wouldn’t advise you to listen to the radio, but if you live in the Leuven area, you might wanna tune in to Radio Scorpio this year. On Thursdays, between 8 and 9 PM, a This Ain’t Noise radio show will be on the air. Hosted by yours truly, Domien and Bram, helped out by Maarten.
That's about it. Check it: http://www.radioscorpio.be/thisaintnonoise

17-10-2011

What's new in de Kempen pt. 2 (southwest of Lier)

Some totally new EP's released by punk rock bands! Whoa!
Tantras EP is out since October 1st and 15 Minute Powernap EP is out since October 8th!

Tantras - Tantras EP
DIY, 2011

1. Bitchkrieg
2. TNT-Show
3. Heartbreaker
4. Danny Is On Heroin
5. I Wanna Do You
6. Old Generation



"Tantras coming down your town!"  This Sint-Katelijne-Waver band (sounds cool, right?) have finally released their first demo/EP. Whew!
The cover/logo already makes clear that this is a rock'n'roll band inspired by the Ramones. The first song, an instrumental one, proves that. Bitchkrieg is a perfect first impression for the Tantras. Fast, melodic, punk and rocking! TNT-Show is like the standard "bandname/punkrockshow" song a lot of bands in the genre have going on. It's good. I'm digging the vocals, not too special but that's not always what I'm looking for in a band.
Heartbreaker is easily the best song on the album. It has a pretty high early-Blink 182 vibe. Really catchy. The next song is the standard "[name] is on [drug]" song a lot of these bands have going on. Works a treat because Bart has studied farmacy, so he knows his drugs.
I Wanna Do You tells a lovely story of meeting a girl, wanting to have sex but getting shit outta luck. Fucking girls (pun unintended). Finally Old Generation looks down on the new generation of emo kids. Fucking emo kids.
Good EP, I'm expecting more from these guys. Nothing too out of the ordinary but look at the first songs the Priceduifkes or the Crackups put out and see where they are now. Tantras might as well be the next sensation in punk rock Belgium, or beyond! We'll see!
In the meantime, I'll be spinning this EP some more and trying to catch some TNT-shows. They're awesome and fun! Check it out!

15 Minute Powernap - Wake Up Call
(Thanks But No thanks Records, 2011)

1. ShinG
2. Pen And Power
3. Virtual Existence
4. Stay Focused
5. Run Away




So, 15 Minute Powernap is from Duffel and they make punk rock not unlike in the 90s. I guess you need a 15 minute powernap to fully be recharged for this bands shows and EP.
This shit is catchy, melodic and wicked. Unlike 80% of the bands I listen to, they used more than 3 chords and a lot of intelligent ideas about songwriting. The EP starts off with ShinG, a upbeat song about some ShinG. I have no clue what a ShinG is. Potential hit song, that's for sure! Pen And Power is awesome, but it's really a song criticizing what I do, so I'm puzzled. Will these guys hate me because I'm reviewing them? I hope not. Oh, well, at least I listen to the music I write about, which seems to be the main issue. Good song, great composition. They got the whole stop/start thing going on, and a lot (a lot!) of awesome melodies, solos and drum parts. Songs are mostly socio-psychologically themed, such as Virtual Existence, about social networking "als daar zijn Facebook.". Stay Focused is also a serious song but even if it's serious it's still light and digestible. It could get me dancing for sure (if I'm focused, of course).
The album ends with Run Away, one of the better songs. Could be an Iron Maiden song. I know that sounds weird but I really think so. But what do I know, right, "[my] so-called music knowledge makes [them] lose credibility".
I'm into this. Get into this. For fans of pop punk/punk rock that doesn't dound like the Ramones.

What's new in de Kempen pt. 1 (northeast of Lier)

There's some totally fresh Belgian punk rock album on the market that you need to check out!
If you don't feel like checking it out, no worries! I already did that for you!
New Crackups is out since October 14th & new Priceduifkes is out since October 15th!

The Priceduifkes - Can't Lose
(Monster Zero, 2011)

1. Puke For Breakfast
2. Break Stuff
3. Stuck
4. I'd Rather Be In The Jizzhut Tonight
5. Bye Bye Love
6. Trainwreck
7. Start Drinking
8. Frogprince
9. I.K.A.W.



The PDS have been one of my favourite (Belgian) bands for a long time. The coolest thing about this band is that they still sound the same as ever, just waaaaaay better. I can't stress that enough. You can't say that they "have gone back to their roots" or some shit, cause they're still there, at their roots. It's amazing. Also, this is the longest release they've ever done, clocks in at about 25 minutes! Insane, right? Totally!
Can't Lose is named after the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose. I vaguely remember seeing that show once in a while when I was younger but that's about it. After a "Gentlemen, synchronize swatches!"-quote from that series, the Duifkes start drinking - I mean: they start singing about drinking. Puke For Breakfast is a well thought-out concept of eating "glass sandwiches" (Dutchism: glazen boterhammen) instead of a proper meal and then passing out and throwing up because you drink too much and waking up to a pile of puke. Something like that. It sets the tone alright.
I feel like they have spent a real good amount of thought and time into these songs. They're structured to perfection, with various climaxes and crescendos and other fancy musical terms. Everything sounds great. VS's drumming's tight as fuck, Mambo's guitar work stands out on a lot of the tracks (I'm thinking Bye Bye Love, Trainwreck, Stuck, ...) and Ricky's bass punches you in the face while he himself spits at you with his lyrics. Mambo's backing are far more present on this recording, which is really a good thing because it adds more to the songs that some earlier recordings lacked.
Some of the best lyrics are on this as well. My favourite is without a doubt the Jizzhut song. I can really relate to it. Just imagine sitting in a stupid bar or club and not being able to beat your meat to "some slut chok[ing] on a cock". I'd write a song about that too. That's deep, man. Other than porn and beer, there's also a lot of love-related songs. I think there's definitely some frustration going on. Bye Bye Love is a perfect epitaph for a van, Break Stuff is better than the Limp Bizkit song (by at least a mile) and Frogprince just confronts you with the truth. "You thought I was your frogprince, but I'm just some fucking toad."
And then the album ends on a high note: I.K.A.W. aka I Know A Wookie. This may come as a surprise or act of blasphemy, but I'm not a Star Wars fan. I've seen a couple of the movies though so I know my way around it. Anyway, this epic of 'intergalactic coolshit' would make George Lucas a proud man. Best song to come out in 2011. Approximately.
As for the album, I could probably say it's also the best record but maybe that's not true. I don't know.
Major kudos to the PDS boys for this magnum opus, though!

Check it: http://thepriceduifkes.bandcamp.com/

The Crackups - Animals On Acid
(DIY, 2011)

1. Rich And Cool
2. Cuba
3. The Only Cure Is Alcohol
4. Trashed
5. Teenage Alcoholic Junks
6. Off With Your Head
7. Secret Plan
8. Work Sucks
9. Drunk With You
10. A Girl Is Only Good to Fuck
11. The Bitch Is Back

The Crackups come from the same area as the Priceduifkes do, but they take a different direction. They're heavily set in yearning, reckless rock'n'roll and fast senseless punk rock. It's been some time since their first album so I've been really looking out for this one. Their songs have become way more elaborate and melodic than before. Let's see how this goes down.
This starts out with an electronic disturbing noise, then goes right into the riff of Rich And Cool. "Give me some money for a nice blonde hooker." is the first thing I hear. I'm glad to hear they haven't been writing good lyrics. The lyrics are the mainly criticized point for The Crackups and at first, I as well was put off by it. But by now I've grown to like the simplicity, banality, absurdity and blunt sexuality of the songs. It's all part of it, y'know. It works.
With Cuba and The Only Cure Is Alcohol they continue to rock hard. Cuba is actually re-recorded with a slightly different solo, I noticed. It's probably better but I'm used to the other version so it's weird. The Crackups rely on both heavy and deep guitar riffs as well as high and screeching melodies. The rhythm section supports this really well, their drummer is one of the sickest I've ever seen/heard. Sometimes I think I'm listening to Zeke playing Mastodon songs. It's super fast and super heavy.
Listening to Teenage Alcoholic Junks gets me excited to go drink excessively. It's one of the catchiest songs on the album and the end is just... thunderous. Amazing finish. You can hear the professionality dripping off, compared to the self-titled. I get a little lost with the outro to Off With Your Head, though. Not bad, but: "heh?"
They've put 3 songs of the Bloody Bloody Kempen split on Animals On Acid, and I think they're all re-recorded and of course re-sequenced so it's not like they haven't put any effort in it. The songs fit the album's general feeling of.. well, alcohol, laziness and bitchezzz. If I would take this as a concept album, then I'd say its theme is "alcohol and its effects". That would at least explain the artwork. It's awesome.
But this is not a concept album and The Crackups just do whatever they like. Drunk With You slows down a bit (which is a relative notion in CRCKPS terms) and seems to be a love song? Could this be? Wow. I'm impressed. Anyway, they completely destroy the image of romance with the best song in the entire world: A Girl Is Only Good To Fuck. I'm not lying, I'm fucking serious, please buy this record so you can listen to this song. So much truth in this. Who knew the Crackups could be so intelligent about gender issues. This one song solves all those years of struggle and obsolete feminism. Thanks, dudes!
The album ends with The Bitch Is Back, a fast song. Always good to end with a fast song.
In sum, The Crackups have become a powerhouse of punk rock on Animals On Acid. You should probably take acid if you're gonna listen to this so you can start trippin' balls and maybe you'll understand where these 'songs of alcohol' are coming from. Wowie.

Check it: http://thecrackups.bandcamp.com/

16-10-2011

Unsober in October

Holy fucking shit. This weekend is a definite competitor for best weekend of my life.
You might've had a cool weekend, y'know, you probably went out to a bar or a club and drank, like, beers or something. But I, my friend, I went to Summer In October Punkrock Fest. Actually, if you're reading this, that probably means that you were there as well or would have liked to be there.

So this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down...

FRIDAY
I arrived at the Kroenkel fairly on time. First band was due to play at 8 o'clock, and that band was The Dead 70's Show. I think they've only been around for a few months, and I've only seen 'em once before, but I'm damn excited about this band. Standard 3-guy line-up and a general feel for fast melodic pop punk. Their songs are just really catchy, and the guy's voice tops it of. High-pitched and stuff, I'm into it.

The City Rockers played a reunion show. Off the hook, right? I haven't had the luck to see them before, actually, so this was my first City Rockers show, and one of their last City Rockers shows. Totally weird. But awesome as well, I'm glad I had the chance to see 'em, cause they FUCKING RULE. Super cool punk rock, with yelling and solos and harmonies and all that shit! Cool covers that I don't really remember anymore. I remember Teenage Kicks, but there were others as well. Anyway, kick-ass show, sad I haven't seen 'em before, y'know.

Next up was Psycho 44. The place was packed all of a sudden. Psycho 44 have like a radio hit and stuff, so they're probably an odd-one-out on the line-up. Good show I guess, but I was busy making up alternations on the hit song All My Demons Have Distortion. The most obvious being "All my demons have abortions", but we thought of some funny punk-inspired ones as well. Can't really remember them. Go figure.

Then Sunpower came, saw and conquered en the party got going. Sunpower is awesome, everybody knows that! God knows what songs they played. Palm for nen euro and pintjes for nen euro twintig gets you pretty drunk. Great show, I danced, I had fun. Whoo!

The Crackups fucking killed it. Their release show for the first album was one of my first real shows I think, back in 2008. Now they released Animals On Acid, the second album and probably the best. Definitely the best. Again, I know they played a sick set, but don't ask me for anything particular. I know they played A Girl Is Only Good To Fuck which is really the best song in the whole world. There was a whole lot of crazy dancing and singing going on. Awesome vibe.

Afterparty was pretty cool, didn't last too long though. We headed off to the Swing but it was full of old people so I went to bed.

SATURDAY
Friday night killed Saturday fun. Kind of. The worst hangover, man. Anyway, had some fun playing games in the afternoon, hanging out, drinking a couple.

At 5 o'clock suddenly the festivities started again. Cool. Off The Charts soundchecked with Off With Their Heads' Clear The Air. Saw half of the show, was awesome as always.

Missed Cani Pazzi because of hangouts and helping the PDS mark their CD-Rs. Kind of a shame. Missed The Griswalds cause I'm not into them. Saw like one song and got back out for burgers, beer and hangouts

Then Shredder played. The classic "welle zin Shredder" followed by multiple blasts of trashcore or whatever it's called. Cool show. Odd-one-out though, but who cares huh?

Joe Atom brought his Spazzy Bangers with him, which were really just Ricky from the PDS and Fraser from the MBS. They played 6 Atoms songs without any rehearsal and it wasn't that bad. Props to these guys. Fun show, The Atoms are pretty cool!

The fun continued with The Murderburgers. Not really a noteworthy set but I had fun and the Murderburgers rule so yeah. Joe Atom on bass!

DeeCracks ruled. Weasel & Riverdales cover: been there, done that. MUGWUMPS cover (with Ricky D): best thing ever. Thank God their own songs are wicked cool as well so a GREAT set alltogether. Joe Atom on bass!

Then the madness began. Priceduifkes CD release. Starting out with some long-ass intro and then banging into the show. They played close to all -if not all- songs of the new record, which was AWESOME because that album is awesome. Can't Lose will probably end up on my top 10 list. So fucking good. Just like the show. It's actually better live because it's faster. The crowd went nuts, me too (not all the time though, that shit is dangerous). They had brought a organ, which MC Ferdi played, to cover Cool Kids (Weasel) and Apekermis (Novtales). Other covers included Gainesville (D4) and that was of course off the hook crazy and super relevant. Great show, new album rox my sox and it will rox your sox too!
Get into it. For fans of drinking beer, porn sites, Star Wars, love and materialism. Now that I come to think of it, thematically this is very similar to the demo songs, but the songs are like 32 times better. More or less.

Red City Radio kept the rocking going. Amazing band, amazing live peformance. Even more punchy on stage than on the record. They covered ALL by the Descendents, great choice. A set full of fun, singing along, air guitars, and so on. Stellar band!

Whoo! The Apers started playing some goddamn songs, including One More Second Chance, which is cool because I don't think I've heard them play that one live. I love those guys and I love Kevin Aper.
Suddenly Wimpy Rutherford came out and -of course- they hit up We'd Have A Riot Doing Heroin. What else, right? Now, when I listen to the recordings, from like 1984, of these songs I don't get too excited. But Wimpy is definitely the man and with The Apers backing him up in 2011, with a more modern sound-age and an amazing live performance this became one hell of a show in no time. I'll be honest, I like Joe Queer miuch better than Wimpy but it's just something different really. Anyway, of course I sang along to hits like This Place Sucks (I had expected to hear it 2 times, but 3 times was even better), Didn't Want None, I Want Cunt and all the other hits. Ramones covers. A new Apers song. Another Apers song. Awesome set.

The afterparty was the best afterparty ever. Hit after hit after hit song and there still was a lot of people dancing, singing and drinking beer so I had so much fun. Thanks to Jelle Gommers for spinning a good deal of Parry Gripp/Nerf Herder songs!
Got to meet some people, made some new buddies, saw a lot of old buddies, had the most fun ever.
God I love this shit.
God I love this shittown.

14-10-2011

Australian Youth

Saw Stolen Youth yesterday. Awesome band, stellar performance. Blew me away, and I was in the back so that's something! Bought the latest album but haven't had the chance to check it. Pretty excited though.
For fans of hardcore-y punk rock.

13-10-2011

Intergalactic Coolshit Lovers

Did you know I have a sensitive side too? No? Well, I don't, so you couldn't have!
Anyway, I went to check out this mainstream band tonight, which is really weird. They're called Intergalactic Lovers and they are indie/pop/rock/music kinda stuff. They have a pretty girl who sings.

Fun fact: I think I recognized the bass player from The Dead 70's Show, so that made at least 2 punk rockers at an Intergalactic Lovers gig. They must feel so weird.

The show was great though. I don't really know any of their music. Well, apparently I did, I knew their two hit songs but I didn't know they were theirs. They started with Shewolf, which got crowd, well... sitting still. It was in a big lecture room so it was kinda weird but after a few songs some people got of their their lousy seats and the atmosphere was less tight and all. A couple of songs really sounded the same which was kinda lame.
The singer has a really typical voice, the instrumentation was awesome, the drummer especially, really good drumming. They went through a set of slower songs and more groovy, dancy songs. I didn't lose my interest which is a good sign. It was a fine show. No complaints. I can enjoy other music than punk rock as well, y'know!

I'm not mindless, I'm not clueless...
Contrary to a great deal of the other students attending, who were probably just there because it was free if you had a Culture Student Card (I don't have one, by the way) and so they could see a band with 2 hit songs and a pretty lady and tell their friends they went to a gig.

ANYWAY GOOD SHOW I HAD FUN I'M NOT A PUNK I'M JUST A GUY Y'KNOW.

Carpe Noctem

Monday night was a show night in Carpe Diem, Hasselt. I got pretty drunk at the show but mostly later. But you don't care, do you? You don't. You wanna hear about the music. The bands. The shows. The party. That kinda stuff.

Well, the night started a little later than it should've, which had its usual consequences of me not seeing the entire show.

Anyway, Off The Charts opened and as per usual they played really good. Same set as Sunday night kinda. Gijs did guest vocals for the Title Fight song again. The brand new song really kicks ass, I'm digging the way they're going. I heard something bout a OWTH cover but that didn't come true, probably due to time circumstances.

Rebuild surprisingly came to play some songs as an extension of the weekend tour with OTC. Killed it again, great songs, great musicianship, great band. They've been having problems with the release of their EP but it should be out some time soon now. Get into it. They sing "lovely words".

DeeCracks played next, and I love 'em. First time I saw them it was Monster Zero, and tonight they played their Weasel cover again, plus a Riverdales cover (respectivily Highschool Psychopath and Back To You). Of course their own songs are awesome as well. Solid show, bad sound though. Backup-vocals through the same mic, it's fun. Reall catchy band, Ramones pt. 16284748 but it's good (of course it's good).

The Murderburgers fired up with some hits songs but I had to leave them pretty soon. I've seen them so many times already and I'll be seeing them at the magnificent Summer In October Fest this Saturday, so that's okay.

I listened to House Boat on the train and sang along cause no-one was in my part except for me and my Cara Pils.

Up the punx.

10-10-2011

ROCKTOBER

I love Sundays.
Tonight I was in Mechelen.

I didn't catch the Blowjob Benny Boys or Benny Blowjob Boys or Boyjob Blowbennys or something but they have a cool name and did start a running gag with that name that evening. Good job Blowbenny Jobboys.

I saw Rebuild perform though, and boy, I don't see them often but when I do I always think "they keep getting so much better". The show was awesome, lotsa passion, lotsa mosh. Hardcore as I like it. Great songs overall, no comments.


Off The Charts played next and they killed it once again. I've seen them a good amount of times but I think this was the first time I really danced along. So that was a lot of fun. They played some awesome new songs, a Title Fight cover and a Misfits cover. Such a great, great band.

This was the last night of a shot weekend-tour for Rebuild and Off The Charts. those band really love eachother (that mioght sound gay and non-punx, but it's really not). So that ensued in fun shows, small but great response and participazione.

The Living Daylights closed the night and they are and awesome band who I have discovered wy too late (only 1,5 months ago). The covered True Believers and I went apeshit.

Shout out to Jordi Ostir who is probably the funnest drunk I know. (I've only seen him sober one time I think. Maybe twice, probably not though.)

The Get Off Kids

I was downloading porn and getting ready to hit the hay but I figured I couldn't keep this blogspot (up)dateless so yeah.

Friday night I was superstoked because for the 3rd time in my life I had the chance to see The Get Up Kids live on stage. For the first time they' play a club show instead of a stupid festival.

Playing support were Get Off My Shoes, who I missed and Eastern Conference Champions who I watched because the bass player was a fair lady and they did some cool drum stuffs. Not very interesting otherwise, sorry.

The Get Up Kids let me down with their self-proclaimed best album of 2011, "There Are Rules". But I'm not one to give a fuck and let that withstand me from having a good time and checking them out on tour.
They started the show with Your Petty Pretty Things, which is ok. The rest of the setlist was generally awesome, sometimes slowed down for the good cause, sometimes slowed down for a less good cause. I remember a good deal of Four Minute Mile/Something... era songs, which are obviously my favourite. Some touching stuff (and with TGUK, 'touching' has a totally different meaning) like Out Of Reach and Campfire Kansas. Replacements cover of Beer For Breakfast. I heard a good song from their last album and about 3 or 4 bad/strange ones.
The show itself was really cool, the guys were into it. There were some bass problems for a while but they handled it perfectly. Jokes about knowing no jokes. A Slayer riff. Mindless stage banter. And very tight playing. They might've been drunk, they were still almost on top of their game. I don't care about mistakes being played because, you know, "every mistake that [they] make, [they] couldn't have made without [us]". I love this band and they just confirmed why I love 'em.
Remarkable was that the audience sucked balls. First of all, there really weren't that many people, which is really weird. Second of all, were these people really into the Get Up Kids? There was this girl all the way front stage and she didn't move, nor sing along, nor even smile. What the fuck? Weirdest audience I've ever witnessed during a band of this grandeur.
Anyway, I could probably describe this show in a thousand different ways which would all conclude to "YEAH AWESOME" so yeah.
If you wanna hear my rant for 10 minutes about how I love the Get Up Kids, hit me up personally!

03-10-2011

NASPOWTHCIV

Hey, I'm getting behind on a lot of stuff but here's a quick show review from last Thursday. I'll hopefully put up some more interesting music related stuff here in the future, but I'm busy etc. It seems I've only been doing show stuff.
Just make sure you check out the bands who seem cool, aight?

So, there was a show at Hof Ter Lo (which is now Trix). Fun fact: there were 2 shows and at first I ended up at the gay metalcore show with BlessTheFall and some other gay-ass bands. Fun anecdote: some skank was asking if there were signing sessions. Who the fuck cares about signing sessions at a show. That shit ain't worth the suffix '-core'.

So, I got on the right track then and I ended up downstairs, for a punk/hardcore show.
Not Afraid opened the night, and while musically this is really good, I don't seem to adapt to the vocals. Fans of True Colors and youth crew generally will probably dig the hell out of this, but yeah. The stage is way too big for this kind of bands anyway. It was too big for 3 out of 4 bands who played that night. Weird, innit? Fuck you Heartbreaktunes.

Sunpower kicks ass but they were totally out of their comfort zone on that big-ass stage. About half-way through the set Mike jumped off stage and people finally came closer. Not really dancing, but the atmosphere was definitely better. Sunpower is an awesome band and I managed to interview them for our This Ain't Noise radio show (this thursday, 20h-21h on Radio Scorpio, Leuven, more info in a later post).


Off With Their Heads was the band I came for and they kind of slayed. Zack didn't come on tour so it was only one guitarist, but it was awesome. All the hits, lots of stuff from Hospitals, which was awesome. Overall awesome show. They should've headlined but because hardcore is way more popular they didn't. Whoo. Great singalongs and a small-scale dance party. Stupid dutch dude.

CIV headlines and they were the reason that there were so many old guys who asked to work with 'de late' on Friday and had to leave their children with the mom for 1 night. Good show, but I'm not into it. Sorry, don't fucking patronize me, old dudes.