Still somewhat tired from the Bane show the night before, my wife and I decided to go and support Shield Recordings by attending the show they'd set up in Little Devil.
Because of dinner we missed Ravens but were right in time for Swiss punkrockers Hateful Monday who played a very nice set of uptempo punkrock.
Gert and Fieke of Shield Recordings had been on tour for two weeks with The Fake Boys and this was their homecoming show. Though I like The Fake Boys on record, their live shows are a bit too boring for me. I do have to confess that I've spend much of the time behind the Shield distro selling records.
The Real Danger were up next and ripped through a set of their best songs. It's always a pleasure to see this band. Uplifting, energetic, catchy punkrock.
As a last minute headliner of the show, Dave Smalley of DYS, Dag Nasty and Down By Law fame took the stage, for an acoustic set. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was good. Dave played songs from Dag Nasty as well as Down By Law, shared lots of anecdotes on his past and played some covers by bands that inspired him. In the end I ended up doing his merch at the show. Which is always a good way to spend a night.
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.
The Real Danger shouldn't need an introduction.Dutch melodic punk band THE REAL DANGER are DESCENDENTS and LIFETIME enthusiasts, and the styles of those two bands propel just about everything this band does. is what Pastepunk say in their review of The Real Danger's excellent new full length 'Making Enemies'. If there is one record worth the title Summer Record of 2010 it is 'Making Enemies'. Enough flattery let's talk with frontman Michiel Walrave.
It seems during the shorter period that the band exists as The Real Danger you’ve gained more recognition than when you guys were doing Uppercut. Don’t you ever feel you should have done The Real Danger sooner?
Not really. We did already start The Real Danger when we were still performing as Uppercut. As far as I can remember we did a couple of The Real Danger songs as an encore at one of our last Uppercut shows. We already knew that we were done with Uppercut at the time. Still I think we couldn’t have started The Real Danger at a better moment than we did.
The main difference between Uppercut and The Real Danger, besides the style of music, is the addition of guitarplayer Sharkee. Why did you get him in the band?
Sharkee played in Uppercut for a while when our guitarplayer Robin accidently tried to saw of his hand. Me and Sharkee go back a long time. We were in bands together when we were 15 years old. He’s also been in bands with Robin. I don’t know anyone who is better in playing guitar so it wasn’t a hard decision to ask him to join The Real Danger.
‘Making Enemies’ the new record receives awesome reviews. Wouldn’t your rather be in a band that is able to tour for months in a row, thus really being able to promote the record.
To be honest I don’t. Playing every weekend and short tours are perfect to me. There’s nothing I like better than playing shows, yet my job is as important and as much fun. Besides we knew when we started this band we wouldn’t be a fulltime touringmonster. We play in Belgium and Germany every now and then and we’re able to play in Austria, Italy, Spain and French on two tour. We do have plans for more.
There’s one coversong on ‘Making Enemies’. Why that song?
That song ‘Skip Steps 1&3’ by Superchunk is a personal favorite of both Sharkee and me. I found out about the band in the early nineties through Alternative Nation on MTV and loved them for the start. My sister bought the record ‘No pocky for kitty’ and at the time it was the only thing I would play. To make a long story short, it’s nostalgia and a really great song to do.
You’ve done artwork for many bands like Mental, No Turning Back as well as venues. Still the artwork for The Real Danger is done by other artists.
I did design some Real Danger shirts. When it comes to the artwork for our records I think it’s more fun to ask someone that I think is a great artist to design it. I have a pretty good idea how I want to visualize The Real Danger and try and find the right artist who fit my ideas. In the end I’m still in control of the art direction.
Has Fat Mike already got in touch?
Some American labels did contact us, but Fat Wreck wasn’t one of them. So far we have released three records on Shield Recordings and the good thing about it is that we know them well. Even more important is that it are great people, they work hard on the label and releases many great bands. The communication with the label is very good. Gert and Fieke just went on tour with us and I don’t think we could have a better deal.
Did you make enemies on the latest tour?
We only made friends. The bassplayer of The Fake Boys, whom we were on tour with, did throw out some moron out of a venue in Innsbruck. But that guy tried to put something in someone’s drink. As for us we behaved like the good boys we are.. I think.
Ten years ago it wouldn't be special going to multiple shows in a week. At this stage of my life however it is special enough to write about it.
After cleaning the house and the car on friday I drove to Merksplas, Belgium for a show together with A Strength Within and This Routine Is Hell. The drive there was really nice. Because Merksplas is right across the border I was able to avoid the dull highway and drove through small villages and stuff.
The show was well organised and a good amount of people came up to see us play one of our worst shows so far. Probably because bassplayer Marijn thought it a good idea to get tattooed on his elbow just hours before the show. And that might be the reason he didn't hit all the right chords. Despite all that people seemed to be into our set. Which left me pretty exhausted to be honest. Since things were already behind schedule I decided to skip the other bands and head home cause with kids you just knew that it will be an early morning. I heard This Routine Is Hell brought the house down. And I can't wait to see them play on May 7.
Saturday: no show
And then it was sundayevening. Time to get off the couch and head to the Little Devil venue. Gert and Fieke of Shield Recordings had been on the road with The Fake Boys and The Real Danger the past weeks and it was nice hearing about the tour which came to an end in Tilburg.
The Fake Boys played a decent set, somehow reminding me of Serpico. And I wish I could tell you more about The Real Danger (other than that their new record kicks ass and I bought a shirt) but I can't since I left before they started to play. (Don't blame me but a bunch of Americans who heard there was a coffeeshop close to the venue so they got back late).
However there is footage of the show wherein The Real Danger does a Misfits cover:
Frank Turner had the honour to close the list of shows on monday. And he did a great job. The band was having fun on stage. They interacted with the crowd. Turner said some funny and some serious things. He played all the 'hits'. He's just one of the newer bands I really like. It's great that his liveshows are even better than his records. Because where his records have their dull moments, live there is enough going on to keep your attention. I also picked up his 'First three years' record.
And then it was sundayevening. Time to get off the couch and head to the Little Devil venue. Gert and Fieke of 
