18-09-2014

beke zenuwachtig misschien?

Rockczfé shows are always fun. This time I didn't have a room in Leuven anymore so I decided to head back home by train.

I managed to see You Nervous?, who played a fun but long set of punk rock jams that I expected to be boring but turned out really cool. Fun band. Just don't overdo it.

Mad Choice from Isreal played as well and they ruled, as does every band from Isreal that i've seen the last couple years. They've got some cool bands over there, and I love that they're touring more often, or that I'm exposed to them more often. Very good, nice dancemoves as well!

Went back home, got side-tracked to a bar in Antwerp and got shit-faced.

Bad Bides

Man, remember when I was young and vibrant, full of enthousiasm and energy? Young and goodlooking? Remember that? These days I'm 23 and I don't give a shit anymore.

Just kidding.

Couple weeks ago I went to Rotterdam to check out the album release of the Bat Bites' first full length record. I can safely say it's a great record, full of fun, quirky and sometimes edgy pop punk tunes. Much like The Copyrights, for example. Just to name one example. One very random example.

Not Scientists opened the show with a kick-in-the-butt attitude and an arsenal of jolly fine punkrock songs. With a lead singer resembling the infamous Ricky D, you can't go wrong. French dudes who know what they're doing, goshdarnit.

Next up, the Nobodys. First time back in Europe since forever, dudes played like 20 minutes. Of which I missed a couple in the beginning. Crazy show, crazy good, crazy fun, crazy short but for me it didn't need to be longer. They're a fast punk band so yeah. Classics. Very cool to finally see them play.

The Copyrights have been one of my absolute favourite bands of all time since long and seeing them again was an absolute delight. Tight set, all hits, some old songs like Button Smasher and some new songs like Keep The Change. They all hold up to their standards and the new record is amazingly stupidly good.

The Bat Bites came on in their mysterious outfits - who are they? - and played their new album front to back, plus a couple old jams. They even had FUCKING KURT BAKER ON A BIG SCREEN PLAYING ALONG TO HEARTBREAKER. That was amazing. Loved it. Great, great show. I yelled at them way too much, I'm sorry. Album rules, pick it up from Monster Zero Records.

I met Merel's mother and proceeded to hang out with our Dutch friends. Great night.

15-09-2014

overdue

So let's get a bit up to date with this thing. It's iether that or giving it up, and I've given up a lot of stuff already so let's keep this going.

A few weeks ago I set up a show for two French bands called Homesick and La Rupture. My friend Elyas, who sings for Homesick, asked me and I was into it. I booked the local youth house, booked other bands, made a flyer and all that and failed miserably to get any people at the show.

Seriously. it sucked. But okay. The bands were great.
Outline played a rad set, despite a microphone technicality. The technicality being it didn't sound good because of a cable defunct. It got fixed after their set. Luckily no one was there to watch the band so no harm done (it's easy being cynical when all's said and done, haha). Their new EP is rad, though, and it came over very well live. Wouter, the new drummer is a great addition.

Homesick played a set without one of their guitar players, because he had to go home early for work or something. I can't remember correctly. Anyway, it sounded cool with the one guitar so it should be great with two. Cool set, very Lifetime/Kid Dynamite/None More Black-like (notice a theme here?). Cool dudes as well. French is difficult.

I was very impressed by La Rupture. They blew me away, really really strong sound and songs. They said they weren't very pleased with their set last night but I though it was great. So I'd love to see them play actually tight. That should be awesome. Cool dudes as well. French is difficult. Their singer looks like my dear friend Domien.

The Priceduifkes played an amazing set after their 2-month break and were equally bummed so little people were attending. They deserve a good crowd. The show was good though, 2-3 dudes were really into it and they played Getwood City for me, whioch made me feel special and appreciated. Raddest band in Belgium and beyond.

Midnight Tattoo closed off the night and they did good. Not really my style of punk but they're in for a party so that was fun.

DJ Lode spun some tunes to send everyone home and everything was done, cleaned and packed in time cause there was no one to send home. Bummer but it was a fun jam. Met some cool French dudes, and I got to see the Apers the day after anyway.

01-09-2014

Murder, Intruders, Cops and Monkeys

I caught 3 shows of the Murderburgers/Masked Intruder tour last week. Do I love Masked Intruder that much? Nah. I just really like the 'burgers.

Tuesday was my birthday and they were playing in Antwerp with F.O.D. and the Priceduifkes. Needless to day I got really drunk and had a lot of fun. Danced a bunch, hung out a bunch and stuff.
PDS played a solid set, despite being only the second time they played since July. Fun times.
Murderburgers rules as always. They have the Walking Targets' drummer as a temporary replacement, and he seemed to be doing a fine job. They played some new songs that absolutely slayed. There's this song called The Waves which is brilliant. Check it out acoustically here. The outro is just so captivating. Anyway, great set, at one point they said they were "the only three-piece band on the line-up" and someone pushed me on the stage to be fourth member. It was really awkward and embarrassing but also really fun and stupid.
Masked Intruder were really good. I was really drunk by then. Hits, hits, hits, amazing cover of Your Love, police officer moshdance. party, and more. Just fun in a bun. (Oh shit, that's actually a Murderburgers pun.)

Wednesday they played on a boat In Rotterdam. Just the Burgers and the Intruders. More fun in a bun. Fun on a boat.

And Saturday I got to see them in Luxemburg, in a venue no bigger than, say, the Frontline in Gent. Weirdly the venue was never really packed either. Anyway, it was a cool show/fest thing. I saw the Blurghers rip it up (calling themselves the Luxemburgers, hilarious).
The 1000th Apers show was also that day. It had been ages since I saw the Apers play, so it was definitely refreshing. Kevin Aper is still the best and most hilarious frontman alive. The new song are incredible. That Jamie Oliver song, "I Don't Wanna Be A Mozzarella No More" and that other one they played were all very exciting. 
Bad Cop/Bad Cop played but I wasn't too captivated. Cool punkrock, nothing special at first hearing though.
Then some grunge band and some ska band played and lastly Masked Intruder played a helluva show. Crowd went nuts, they did a Teenage Bottlerocket cover (Repeat Offender, obvz) and it was just all-round fun in a bun.

Fun in buns.

Short update

I've been to a couple shows tha last couple weeks. Let's recapitulate.

First one was Gnarwolves in Zoersel. Support was provided by Coma Commander, who I missed and The Dutch Rudders, whose set was sloppy as usual but filled with great songs. Gnarwolves rules but the crowd was pretty tame. I could've destroyed shit but I cut my finger pretty badly the day before so i decided to stay safe. Good one.

I put on a show for Misgivings about 10 days ago. Two Minutes Hate opened up & played a rad set. Their record is real good, ya guys. Harsh Realms spit hits like fuck-all and blew the couple of people that came down away. Misgivings are great friends of mine so I was delighted to see them again. They may not yet live up to a band like Harsh Realms but I thoroughly enjoyed their set and their EP Delete History, that's supposed to drop in November, is really good. Afterparty was rad. I have some black holes and everyone kinda got lost. Fun night.

Two days after that I went to see Grim's last show. They were huge, considering they were only really around for like 3 years. Kids went apenuts. It's cool I guess. Time for new stuff.

In that context, I got around to rehearsing with my band (temporarily called BADGER) again a couple times, it's heading into a cool heavy direction so I'm stoked. (Little bit of early self-promotion can't hurt, right?)

On Monday I went to the Misgivings show in Oostende, together with The Mostly Whites, a new garagepunk outfit that sounded really cool and promising, and DRS, the household name for Western Belgian hardcore. Fun show, fun afterparty, long ride.