Defeater + Carpathian + Striking Justice, Eindhoven

Hardcore show number 2 for me this year and one that sold out in presale. Since I helped putting the kids in their pj's I wasn't on time in Eindhoven to see Striking Justice play.

However I was in time to inhale all the smoke that was in the bar. In my opinion it really sucks that lots of people are starting to smoke in venues and bars again. Please keep that shit outside.

Australia's Carpathian released a mediocre record called Isolation some time ago. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing special about it as well. It's Modern Life Is War meets the lyrics of Ian Curtis with a Deathwish touch. Therefore unsurprisingly the band couldn't hold my attention on stage. Yet to see so many Dutch kids go wild was a good thing.



The only band that mattered today though was Defeater. Debut record Travels is an okay record but the Lost Ground ep really opened my eyes. When the acoustic track 'I don't mind' found it's way on the internet I was sold.

Suffice to say expectations were high for this show but Defeater made it real. Opening acoustic and the rushing into songs like 'The Red, White and Blues' and the new song 'Dear Father', causing mayhem on stage with singalongs and stagedives and an overall intense feeling made me enjoy this show a lot. I somehow got the same feeling as I had when watching Touche Amore in Belgium last year. Another newer band setting a new generation of kids in flames with an intelligent approach to hardcore.
(Though it still is kind of strange seeing teenagers singing that they're lying in the trenches of World War 1 etc.)



I picked up the new Defeater record, which surely isn't dissapointing as well.

This is the ending of the Defeater set as taped by Nico Welmer:


Pics by Anne Carolien Kohler. Go here for more pictures.

Ceremony - October 13th - Eindhoven

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the This Is Europe fest. So when the opportunity came along to go and see Ceremony a few days later I jumped in the Reflections van and went for it.

The Dynamo youth centre is a great place for hardcore shows. But you never know how the Dutch audience will respond to a band. Will it be 'let's stand and see' or 'let's have fun together'?

Midnight Souls opened up the night. Despite my review and interview the Dutch haven't warmed up to this band so far. Which is a shame if you aks me. Besides the bad sound and a bit of an apathetic crowd reception Midnight Souls played a pretty solid set.

Next up were Sabretooth Zombie. By far the worst band I've seen this year, though other people seemed to think differently. The riffs and weird song structures just aren't my thing.

So Ceremony. I actually only like their latest record a lot and was a bit sceptical about tonight's perfomance. Which soon dissapeared after the band pressed go and went for a highly energetic, entertaining set. A lot of younger kids went wild on the band. Massive pile-ons, weird stagedives and even weirder dances were introduced this night. All around mayhem. With suprisingly Get The Most/ Devotion drummer Aaron behind the Ceremony drumkit.

A nice way to spend a wednesday evening.







All pics are by Anne Kohler. See more here.

Up next: Bane this saturday in Gent and The Real Danger, The Fake Boys and Dave Smalley in Tilburg this sunday! Good times!

Still here, sincere, after all these crazy years

H20 in a small club. Any hardcore and punkkid in the right mind would love to see that. So it was no surprise to me that the venue was sold out on this sundaymatinee.
What did surprise me however when entering the venue together with the fine people of Shield Recordings was the absence of H20 merch.

First band Noyalty opened on time and did an impressive set of American Nightmare meets StretchArmstrong songs. Personally I didn't like the full sound of the band. On the record the melodies are way better than live.



When Noyalty was done, there was still no sign of H20. People were getting itchy and more restless by the minute (the ones who weren't drinking at least). Cindy of All For Nothing couldn't bring a better message than 'H20 are in the building'. But first All For Nothing was up to show the Netherlands why all over Europe their early Comeback Kid hardcore with a female singer is recognised as awesome. I guess the Dutch are finally learning as well since there was plenty of crowd movement and singalongs.

After 10 hours in a small van, the last day of the tour, away from family on mother's day we all got a more pissed off and aggressive H20 than I've seen in years. From song 1 the whole place exploded. Divers everywhere. Massive singalongs, fingerpointing, moshing. Sweat, bruised knees, people on the floor. Hardcore 2010 can be as excited as the first H20 shows 15 years ago.



The band played a lot of songs from their latest record as well as some old hits and covers. Their Cro-Mags intro was hard!

Ofcourse I was x-ed up and waiting for one of my favorite songs 'Still Here'. When that one came along I did my best to singalong and do some stage dives (My first in I think three years).

I sticked around up front and decided to do some more dives on the last song 'What happened'.



What a sunday. If you told me 15 years ago I would still have much fun if not more at a H20 show I might have looked a bit confused but this was definately one of the best shows of 2010, hell of everything the recent years.

pics by Live Your Heart Photography.

Here's a short clip from the show:

State of Affairs - March 27 - Eindhoven - show

Out of step at this show!!!

You ever had that feeling of alienation, of not belonging, of not fitting in with the crowd. I sure felt that way last saturday when we played the Dynamo in Eindhoven with Bodyshot and Tech 9.

Originally meant as a show in smalltown Brabant, that one got cancelled but the nice people of Dynamo offered to put up the whole package in their club.

We had to do the soundcheck (which wasn't a big succes) and then waited backstage for the doors to open. Quickly the place filled up with very big, bald guys sporting. This sure wasn't your regular youth crew or hardcore crowd. This crowd bared more resemblance to the people who go see bands like Cock Sparrer and Sham 69. Great bands but not a crowd for us to play with our '88 harcore sound.

Despite all this we gave our best shot, making fun on stage and looking forward to the next show on April 2 with This Routine Is Hell. Hope to see you there.

Some pics from backstage: