20-05-2012

3 days of Direct Hit! and Pee Dee Es

So, let's take a look at what I witnessed last week. Direct Hit! came to Europe to tour for 3 weeks with the Priceduifkes. They're playing about 6 shows in Belgium, of which I managed to check out 3.

1) The first one was in Herenthout. 't Verschil was hosting an entire punk rock weekend, including a punk rock quiz on Friday. Our team, the Kings Of Metal, came in 2nd on that quiz, so that was cool. I also got really drunk, fell asleep and my teammates colored my head and arms with a red marker. That sucked.

Anyway, the next day was reserved for punk rock music. A nice little show of some of Belgium's coolest bands and the kick-off of the Direct Hit! tour.
First band up were de Tantras. They were not exactly in form (dutchism), oh dear. I like their songs but the performance wasn't up to scratch, unfortunately. The show had its ups and down, definitely. A couple of covers, a couple of songs from their own repertoire, possibly some new songs (I'm not sure, but if they were they sounded pretty good). So yeah, not a great show, but a fun band nonetheless.

Time for The Dutch Rudders. They sure have progressed. It was the first time I saw them as a four-piece, and it worked pretty good. Jelle is a good person. They played quite a few new songs and they ruled the pans of the roof (dutchism overload). Very strong Dopamines/Red City Radio kinda vibe. I loved it. Great show, great guyzz, and so on.

Face The Fax. Sharp as an axe. Everytime I see them I like them a bit more. They take some time to enjoy, because they're a sophisticated technical skatepunk band rather than a silly 3-chord poppunk band. But they're great. The new stuff is definitely cooler than the old stuff. Whoo!

The Priceduifkes were up next. First dance moves of the night to another classic PDS rock'n'roll show. They played all sorts of songs and people sang along and pushed eachother and danced around and all that jazz. Good show.

Direct Hit! finished the night, and boy, are they tight. They hit their guitars, drums and bass super hard yet delicate anough to be melodic and punk rock. It was really short set, though, but I very much enjoyed it. They've been one of my favourite bands ever since I heard Werewolf Shame off of the Mixtapes split. Super cool. Great singalong stuff, some dancing, a couple high-fives. I was a happy man.

The crowd attendance was rather low though, which sucked a bit. Well, that's what you get when you played 6 shows in a small country such as Belgium, I guess. Afterparty was still pretty cool, though.

2) The second show was in Roeselare. I probably wouldn't have though of going to Roeselare if it wasn't for Sidewalk Summer's third first show and the fact I could crash at Jef's place, but it was totally worth it.
Sidewalk Summer played their shit. 4 proper songs and a bunch of cool cover songs. They don't have a singer yet so Jef sang and he's not that good. Hopefully they'll find a singer soon! (If you live in West-Vlaanderen and you can sing, contact them!) I like their songs though. They have this 3-second song that's all like PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA and then there's this song that's slow at first and than faster but just has this really good riff and then there's these other songs that I don't remember how they go. Ricky (P)D(S) sang the Riverdales' I Don't Wanna Go To The Party Tonight cover. Anyway, fun show, couple o' mistakes, forgivable.

Tarmak played next. 80's style pissed of furious hardcore punk. Good show. Pissed off. Not much to add.

PDS played another good one. Started off with a Beastie Boys cover, coolness. Fun fun fun.

Direct Hit! also slayed again. Cool show, wack shit. I ripped my pants while I was holding the guitar dude on my shoulder's. Lotsa dancing. Super fun show, such a great band. Really, such an awesome band. I hung out with them later on and they're really nice dudes as well.

Afterparty was dope, homes. Great music by DJ Cubli/Tim/Creepface and great hangouts with people. I love punk rock shows.

3) Third time's a charm. The show was in Ghent. Cool.

The Dutch Rudders played again. Pretty much the smae shit, different day. Coolness!

The PDS also played. Same shit, Different day.

Direct Hit! also played. Same shit, different day.

Still all really awesome, though.

Also check out Devon Kay & The Solutions.

11-05-2012

RPP is fucking dead.

Refused reunited this year and Refused Party Program is quitting their game.
Thursday night, 't Stuk gave the stage for the last performance of the Belgian tribute band to The Shape Of Punk To Come. I went to take a look and dance a dance.

I missed Arizona.

Homer played a good set. One of the best I've seen I think. I still can't pinpoint any genre. They're like a punk rock band with metal riffs and hardcore rhythms. I don't know. Somewhere in the between. The guitarist always looks angry, the bassist always looks happy.
So, great! The instrumental outro was wack!

Refused Party Program was, as expected, great! Although the entire album is pretty much amazing and genious front to back, it does have its highlights and it's mediumlights and that's particularly noticeable when it's played live. Nevertheless, the fact that these guys play such an accomplished, such a complicated album live in its entirity, is out of sight. The set was nearly flawless. The closing song was Rather Be Dead.
Well, Refused Party Program are fucking dead.

07-05-2012

We are the Copyrights, We are the Murderburgers, We are the Arteries

We are the Cashiers.
We are Delivery Boys.

Apparently I haven't blogged on what was the coolest show in a while. So here it is.

Imagine being a teenager, finding out about pop punk music. All sorts of bands. It's the coolest thing you've ever heard. And then... Remember MySpace? Well, it was on MySpace that I first heard the Copyrights. I clicked the play button and I heard a noise and suddenly I THOUGHT I'D NEVER EVER FIND HER, I THOUGHT SHE DIDN'T EXIST. I THOUGHT I'D NEVER EVER FIND HER, SHE TURNS IT, SHE TURNS IT UP.
Hooked. It was the best song I had ever heard. So loud, so fast and so catchy.
Other songs up on the MySpace were Weapons Of Math Destruction, Stuck In Springtime and maybe Kids Of The Black Hole. Not sure of the last one, though. Man, I played the shit out of that MySpace page.
They were a sort of gateway band to the music I now dearly love.
Some time later they announced a euro tour and I spent 4 months being siked to see 'em and I saw 'em and it was one of the best nights of my life. The played the Priceduifkes release for She Spells Disaster, Zatopeks and Murderburgers were also playing. Awesome.

Now I'm an adult. No wait, now I'm a 20-year-old teenager and I got to see the Copyrights at Groezrock, on a big-ass stage. And it still ruled the fuck out of everything else, despite the shitty sound.
Then I had exactly 4 days (rather than 4 months) to be siked for the next show, which is the one I really want to talk about.

This dude Lenny set up a 'secret show'. Relatively secret, yes. Because the Copyrights played Groezrock, I guess they weren't supposed to do another Belgian show (cause festivals work like that), but thanks to punk rock ethics it worked out fine, ending in a show in the chiro of Joeng Leive in Nijlen. Awesome.

After eating a big-ass friet, we arrived there pretty early. Some people were muurkeklopping, cool. After a while more people started showing up, and the place was supposed to be packed. I think less people showed up than expected, which is weird for one of the coolest line-ups/shows around, but anyway.
The Arteries were up first. Really cool band, but I can't really get into the vocal part. Kind of squeeky and I don't like that. But their set was great. Tight, on-the-spot, energetic and loud. Thank God I had my earplugs.

The Murderburgers are on tour with the Copyright dudes so they got to play next. I think it was just Fraser actually, I didn't recognize the bass player or the drummer. Not sure. Anyway, they played fast. Holy smokes, did they play fast. You know how they normally play fast? Well, imagine they played even faster. And they played faster than what you're imagining now. The show was basically Fraser yelling an incomprehensible song title followed by a shredding song with a fluttering stream of lyrics. Shit was off the hook. Awesome show, also: Braindead!

Lastly, the Copyrights. I felt the same way as I did a couple years ago in the Kroenkel, eagerly awaiting to sing along to some of my all-time favourite tunes. Started with Shit's Fucked, and well, shit was fucked. People went nuts and I remembered why I fell in love with them to begin with. Catchy riffs, strong songs, huge singalong stuff, anthematic choruses, and the motherfucking harmonies. Man, the harmonies. Beautiful. Anyway, they played a whole bunch of songs, all really good. No really old songs, but a nice mix of past and present. I was pleased as fuck, dancing as fuck, happy as fuck. They played an encore of 2 songs I think, the last one being Sleepwalker. Awesome.

"Tell me something new."

Last night

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