So, tonight there’s no Krutch, no Do Or Die and no Subzero. And, as the icing on the cake, I have no idea who the first band was. They played fast hardcore punk, which sometimes almost sounded like power violence. No youthcrew influences or anything, but pure leftwing punk, early eighties style. They’re OK, but after ten songs (during half of which I had to look at the singer’s not-so-tasteful beer gut) I had enough of ‘em.

Strife
After a ridiculously long pause Strife was up. This was their first tour after they temporarily split up and their first tour in years anyway, so expectations were high. They entered the stage, began with a lot of smoke and feedback and burst into ‘Waiting’, the first song on their previous album, ‘In This Defiance’, followed by some other old songs.

Sound and stage presence were excellent, and the band sounded tight as hell, even though they have a new drummer and bass player. Most old songs were played a bit slower than on the records and the band did well in making contact with the crowd in between the songs.

Because the band gave up their drug free lifestyle, they didn’t play their straightedge anthems from the first two albums, although they still did ‘Grey’, ‘Overthrow’ and ‘Wish I Knew’ and a couple of other songs from ‘In This Defiance’, and ‘Through And Through’ from the first album, ‘One Truth’. The rest of the songs were from the new album, ‘Angermeans’.

The songs from the new album are generally a bit slower and more metallic than the old stuff, and apparently not as well-known, because the crowd didn’t react to them as well as to the older material. Singer Rick enters the crowd for the last song, and finally there’s a bit of moshing and singing along.

Good show, even though Rick wasn’t in his best shape.

Born From Pain
After another hour of waiting (in which I interviewed Strife bassist Chad, check out the interview section for that) the stage belonged to Born From Pain. They’ve played throughout the entire country already, so I think everybody knew what to expect: tough, pissed off and more metal than a fucking scrap yard.

Most songs they played, like ‘Final Nail’ and ‘When We Were Kings’ were from their full length ‘Reclaiming The Crown’, although they also did a couple of new songs and ‘Immortality’ and ‘Fallen Angel’ from their first MCD.

This was one of the first shows with new guitarist Karl and the last show with second guitarist Marijn, so I hope they’ll be able to keep a steady lineup for a while now. BFP always plays well, and today was no exception. Too bad the crowd wasn’t really into it, although I don’t mind not getting kicked in the stomach by some fucking tough guy.

Tasker
Next up were local heroes Tasker. I had already seen them rock out live a couple of times, but they didn’t impress me back then as they did now. They also played typical oldschool hardcore, but with more modern influences then the first band (I just found out they’re called DanDare, never heard of ‘em).

Tasker’s stage performance was great, lots of energy and I always love to see a band really get off on stage. Tasker’s CD isn’t out yet, so few people knew the songs but most people had a good time.

Maypole
Fifth band of the day was another Dutch band, Maypole. They’re a pretty young band, but they’ve been around for a couple of years already. They played fast and tight euro-style hardcore, and most songs were from their ‘Contradictions’-CD, I think.

A lot of hardcore-bands have two singers nowadays, but Maypole does is a lot better than most others; I especially liked the high, almost hysterical voice from one of the guys. After a good set they left the stage to crossover-legends DRI, but since I had to catch a train home I didn’t have time to see them. But, since this year is their 20th anniversary, I guess they’ll know how to rock a crowd.

Overall, this was a really nice show, although I could have done without the two hour-long build-up periods. (The damn show started at four o’clock, and still someone manages to let the thing end at twelve with only six bands playing, for crying out loud! So much for matinees!)

(Review & Pics: Jasper Klein)