24-04-2014

I thought that you might like this...

Have I told you about the millions of bands I didn't see at Fest last year because I was either too drunk, too sexually active, at another band's show and/or not willing to wait in line? Well, one of those bands was Laura Stevenson And The Cans. That same night, in a sketchy hotel in Gainesville, I actually had a dream that I saw her perform with her band. That was definitely weird. So I kinda saw her, but only in my subconcious.

Anyway, last night she came through Leuven, without her Cans though (I will refrain from making an obvious vulgar comment for the sake of keeping this blog as sexist-free as possible). I only saw the last couple of songs by The Neverending Story, who was this talented guy who didn't like to go to Duffel. I understand.

Laura Stevenson blew my mind. I mean, I expected her to be good, but her show was just amazing. Her voice is so fragile yet so intense. She flies through her lyrics as if every song consists of one single but extremely long word. Most of the songs where from her album Sit Resist and the new one, Wheel, which are both very good records that you should buy. She played a cover from a band I don't recall. And she played A Shine To It, which is still one of my favourite songs of her, probably sorta due to the Bomb The Music Industry! cover, which made a very sad song into a cheerful-sounding one.
Most, if not all, of Laura's songs yesterday were sad songs. And if they were cheerful, they had this sad undertone. One song was an angry one, but you could argue that the anger came from sadness. Anyway, lots of sadness going on but I couldn't stop smiling. Her guitar skills are impressive and as far as I know, she didn't fuck up. She was seemingly flawless and very likeable.

More like Brand Old amiright?

I like Brand New. I consider myself a fan. I really like The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. I'm very fond of Your Favourite Weapon. I dig most of the songs on Deja Entendu. I haven't heard Daisy. Let's just say I'm a fan.
So when a bunch of friends planned on driving 2-3 hours to Zwolle to see then in a proper venue, I decided it'd be fun to go along.

I was really excited when I remember The Front Bottoms were doing support for them. Except for the shortness of the set and the way overpriced merch I really dug the show. Their songs are superfun and it was the first time I saw them, after missing out every time before due to disinterest or work or whatevz. Anyway, fun band, drummer was wearing a weird mask. That is all.

Brand New played for way too long. But they played a rad show. Started out with a buncha new songs before getting into the old shit. Classics, if you will. No Sowing Season unfortunately, but I'll take it. I don't know, very tight set, bass sound was amazing. The second drummer gave extra power to some of the tunes. Kids went sorta nuts. That's what you get for not coming to Europe for a while and then cancelling a tour and then coming after all. Kids go nuts.
So yeah, fun show, but a 1,5+ hour show is way too long for any band in my opinion, let alone one of the punk rock kind. It's cool they didn't muck about though, they have a neat set put together where everything is measured out, the vibes are taken into account and it sequences almost seamlessly. Not my thing of course, but for a band of their calibre I guess it's important to impress people. And they did that. Thanks.

The ride home was intense and insane and funny and also I slept for a bit and stuff. Then we accidentally went drinking till 5 am.
Whoops.

19-04-2014

Spazzers

The Spazzys are in Europe! Rejoice! I went to see them on Wednesday in Geel. It was a delight. Yeah. A definite delight.

The support band was the Bat Bites, which is, as you know, the best band the world has to offer. They played a lot of songs. They played a lot of new songs. Almost exclusively, actually, beside 2 old ones and a cover or 2 maybe. I'm really excited for their album, which should come out in 2 months or something if I remember correctly (I seldom remember correctly though). The verse in the second-to-last song, Let Her Go, strongly reminded me of a Dear Landlord song, but I don't know which one. Anyway, fun set, great bat costumes, but mostly great tunes!

The Spazzys came up and got into Divorced right away. Way to kick off a show after spending 33 hours on an air plane! Because of that fact they sounded a bit sloppy or messy sometimes, but regardless they were pretty dang amazing. The vocal harmonies were insane, the pop sensibility, the punk attitude... It was just such a fun and happy show. Awesome. They played a bunch of new and old songs spanning their career, some slower jams, some faster ones. Cool show, got a bit cut short due to tiredness I assume, but that's totally alright. Dumb = forever.

17-04-2014

THEWORLDISABEATIFULPLACEANIAMNOLONGERAFRAIDTODIEDIEDIEMYDARLING

What do you do when you're done working early and you wanna see a band with a really long name? You thank fuck you're done early, hop on your bike and ride it for a small hour to Zoersel. Because that's where bands with long-ass names play all the time.

I missed Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), but apparently they're good and they have a really long band name.

They're no match for The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die though. They took the cake that night. But enough name-dropping, or name-sermoning in this case. I got to know The World Is... through a mixtape that my Floridian friend made, and so I knew they were really good.
They did, however, exceed my expectations. Amazing. show. I'm not sure why. But it just felt like a really good performance. Something you get dragged into. They played for like 45 minutes to an hout I think, but it didn't bother me. I knew some of the songs from the mix, and the other songs were just equally intriguing and entertaining. It's a band of 7 people, so they were all put together on a small stage, but they managed to put down a tight set, got the crowd into it, formed some sort of energetic interaction and it was just really nice. They closed with Getting Sodas I think, which was marvelous.

The bike ride home was very tiring but I was a very satisfied dude.

Whew

Whew. Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been too busy being busy. I have a girlfriend these days. Do you know how much time I lose because of that? Exactly as much as I need to keep this blog updated. It's sad, actually. Also coincidental.

Anyway, a week or two ago my new-found friend Steve was playing a show with his band The Swinging Party. I had heard him reference Replacements and power pop when describing their sound, so I was stoked. On a  through-the-week-ish (Dutchism!) Wednesday I got my butt to Antwerp, cafĂ© Cabron, to drink Geuze beers and watch some bands.

The Swinging Party were up first. I was very much impressed. Definite (later) Replacements vibe, Joe Jackson/Elvis Costello kinda songwriting. Great guitar harmonies and drum beats. I love that kind of music. I love power pop. It's so much better than any other kind of music. It's made for dancing and singing and smiling and  feeling things. And the Swinging Party did a great job at all that. Loved the show, would gladly see them again. Buy their self-titled EP.

The Light Brigade came all the way from the Northerlands and put down a more than decent show. Tight musicianship, solid show, all-round enjoyable. The same deal music-wise, so hooray for that!

Yay Wednesdays!

02-04-2014

Party at 219

I had never been to Venue 219 before. Quite the shame. But Sunday night was the night. The night. After getting slightly drunk at a family get-together in the afternoon, I decided to keep on drinking at the punkrockshow. Also I didn't eat so whew. Sorry for being drunx.

First up was the amazing Silver & Gold. Great set with lots of new jams, and a Husker Du cover. I love this band. One of the few typically beardy punk bands of the area. Good show.

Lots of friends at the show. Cool.

It was the second time I saw The Kids' Crusade. Really good. It's not necessarily original (yet), but I love their sound, the melodies, the grungy vocals, the absolutely bummer atmosphere. That's cool. Or not, maybe.

The Real Danger rules obviously, but I was pretty drunk at the time. They played some of my favourite songs so that was fun. Things happened.

Whew. Dang.