Report: Rage Against The Machine @ Sportpaleis, Antwerp

Everyone must have some kind of a Best Concert - Top 10, but the thing is: how do you decide which goes on top and why? I have to say, I've seen a lot of gigs the last 15 years, and had some very special moments: Billy Joe Armstrong singing 'Time Of Your Life" in his underwear while the full Green Day-equipment (including amps and drums) literally goes up in flames behind him at the end of a crazy show, Faithless at AB and Pinkpop (check out the second half of the "God Is A Dj"-music video, taped during that gig, still glad I was there :)), Muse at a private showcase for 500 people in Brussels, Smashing Pumpkins in Ghent some 10 years ago, Madonna in Amsterdam, the Peppers in a small venue in Paris, Tool at Ozzfest, Beastie Boys at Rock Werchter '98, The Prodigy at Torhout '96, Junkie XL in Cactus Club, Nine Inch Nails in AB, and I'm probably forgetting a bunch.

One I'll never forget and ranked very high in my personal top 10 is Rage Against The Machine in '94 in Torhout: 4 guys in a Red Devils-shirt (we still played the world cup back then) walking on stage hand in hand, before dropping a massive bomb on the crowd... What a gig! My only (lucky me) near-death experience I ever had, trapped in the crazy crowd, gasping for air, but it was worth it.

And yesterday, they were back: they rocked back then, today they rock more than ever! From the first notes of "Testify" untill the final riff of "Killing In the Name": a blast of energy, turning the Sportpaleis in one giant moshpit & sauna. It took me only two songs to be exhausted (I'm not 21 any more, oh no), but the music and the fantastic crowd gave me the energy to hold on untill the very end. I don't recall the tracklist, but they must have played about all of their hits. Maybe Phantom can help me out here with his report ;)

Some impressions: (didn't shoot any vids myself this time, no occasion to do so ;))

Crowd going wild during "Testify" at the start of the concert:

"Testify":

"Bombtrack":

"Killing In The Name":

Some more things:

The crowd was really amazing, never seen so much people going wild, but being so friendly at the same time. To the crowdsurfer who landed in my neck and apologized twice: no probs, dude, no permanent damage :). To the guy who lost his glasses and was protected by 10 guys while looking for them: hope you've found them unharmed. To the girl and boy I've launched crowdsurfing but didn't get far: hope your backs don't hurt too much today. To the girl who didn't let go of my arm during the first 5 minutes of the gig: hope you survived ;)

Oh, and I finally have that molotov-shirt I wanted since back in the mid nineties :) Although the 'Battle Of Antwerp" - shirts were very neat too... The fact that I was soaking wet was a very good excuse. (my pants and shirt still aren't dry...)

I guess this Rage - concert will be on top of my 'Best Concert' - top 10. If I ever decide to make one... I'm still hurting all over my body, but it was totally worth it, just like back in '94!  One more time: Rage rules!!!

PS: some Dutch critic gave the Rage-concert at Pinkpop only a 6/10 "because it was slow, musically not OK, all songs sounded the same" and thought Rage was something for Pinkpop Classic. Huh!??? 60.000 people at Pinkpop, and 15.000 at Antwerp proved you wrong, mister!

Report: Justice @ AB, Brussel - Elektro is the new Rock N' Roll

Yesterday evening, it became crystalclear to me: elektro is the new rock n' roll. Or at least a perfect cross-over. The cross of Justice between a massive wall of Marshall - amplifiers, tracks of Rage ('Killing In The Name'), Rammstein ('Du Hast') and Metallica ('Master Of Puppets') in the mix, a crowd that loves to rock on the unique sound of Ed Banger's biggest. It was the fourth time I was at a Justice-show, and it must have been the best. They turned the (hot!) Ancienne Belgique upside down with their classics, came up with some suprising mash-ups ('We are your friends' vs Rammstein, see the video below) and both Gaspard and Xavier definately had fun watching the crowd go wild. Only negative point: the show was too short: 75 minutes? This can be better!

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed yesterday's show! For the festivalpeople: check them out at Pinkpop or Rock Werchter!

The videos:

Take-off:

Phantom:

Stress (Auto-remix):

We Are Your Friends vs Rammstein / Waters Of Nazareth:

Report: Polsslag, Hasselt

The goal of Polsslag Festival in Hasselt is to give a flavor of what's hot in music land, an indoor version of Pukkelpop but limited in space (4 rooms in stead of 8 stages), in time (1 day in stead of 3) and obviously with less big names (Metallica won't show up here, they'll be in Hasselt end of August). I wasn't fan of the line-up on the Main Stage and Marquee: a lot of unknown bands, The Breeders are lovely, but it has been 15 years when they were smoking hot. I've never heard of headliner Angels And Airwaves, the band of Blink 182 - singer Tom DeLonge, but I guess there's a reason they're playing top of the bill.

On the other hand, the Boiler and Dance Hall - line-ups were great. Not the hot, hot dance acts, but however some of my heroes were present (Erol, Boys Noize, MSTRKRFT) so this couldn't go wrong. A small overview of our 'parcours':

Bloody Beetroots: I knew them from a couple of very good remixes (Escape - Toxic Avenger is their best), and in the middle of the afternoon, they played the best set yesterday, pretty hard, a lot of variation, they really hit it off.

DJ Mehdi: the only representative of the Ed Banger - crew at Polsslag, and didn't impress me at all. Decent, but no more than that.

MSTRKRFT: really good set, heavy as usual, with some really great nu rave - tracks. They rule!

Dr Lektroluv: the most crowdy set of the day. The man with the green mask brought a brand new pumping set, including a reworked version of my all time favorite Walkman and a remix of the new Subs-single 'Papillon', the one I wrote about last week.

Boys Noize: a lot of people for the German DJ as well. I've seen him 3 or 4 times before, and he hardly changed his set, so the magic is a bit gone for me. His tracks and remixes still rocked the place however.

Alter Ego: I can be short about them: boring. So didn't stay longer than 10 minutes.

Erol Alkan: still my favorite DJ, played 3 tracks I know (and that must be a miracle), including Vitalic's 'Newman', Brodinski's 'Bad Runner' and Dusty Kid's 'The Cat'. We left after half an hour, since we were exhausted (with pain in my heart, but hey, I'm getting older, you know ;))

Overall, a satisfying first Polsslag-edition: really good sets of Bloody Beetroots, MSTRKRFT, Dr Lektroluv and Erol Alkan, lovely beautiful people, good vibrations, good beer (Grimbergen!), easy accessible stages and only 2 euros for parking (respect!). Only negative points could be the line-up: I expected more hot new acts in boiler and dance (why Carl Craig as headliner?) and maybe a big name in the main room? And I start feeling a bit old in there: a lot of kids who are half my age, and 12 hours of shaking is apparently the maximum I can handle these days :) But it was a nice day out in Hasselt, thanx to Phantom for the tickets!

You can find more videos on my YouTube - channel. Enjoy!

Report: SebastiAn @ Cafe Capital, Antwerpen

I have to admit: I'm a freakin' fan of SebastiAn. Ever since I discovered the still amazing 'Walkman' in one of Erol Alkan's podcasts. Even more since I've seen him at Dour Festival, Pukkelpop and Les Transardentes. So I couldn't wait to see him playing nearby, in a small club. 

And yes, once again, he rocked the place! From Ed Banger-classics, over the finest pieces of rock to smashing gangsta-rap: the crowd went wild once more. Check the videos I shot with my mobile below!