What is it about a man who rocks out with a dirty ironing board that makes good entertainment? Opening for Mindless Self Indulgence, a spastic, bowa-wearing, Capa instantly grabbed the attention of an impatient audience. As a one man band Capa switched between synthesized keyboard, to heavy guitar, to singing crazed lyrics, and then to breaking it down a little by dancing. This chain of events was highly amusing for the audience as people found themselves unable to take their eyes off the scene on stage. Capa gave the audience a reason to dance and successfully wound them up for the main act. For his last song he played his keyboard so hard that it fell off his glitter covered ironing board (probably stolen from his grandmother's basement) and screamed as loud as he could. Without an instrument to play and the synthesized back beat still going strong Capa gave the audience a show of a life time by putting the ironing board up over his head and continued to dance psychotically.
A mix between indie and electro rock, Capa knows how to rock. With a voice sounding like a mix Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon, and Alex Huntly from Franz Ferdinand, Rene Beerens gives life to his music. He is undoubtedly worth checking out if you're into the likes of Mindless Self Indulgence and Super Fun Yeah Yeah Rocket Ship.
Check him out on Myspace at www.myspace.com/capamusic
Capa was a great surprise for me. After my second day of waiting outside for hours to see MSI and the disapointment of the night before Rene's performance made my friend and I unbelievably happy. I saw him play in Eindhoven at De Effenaar on October 13, 2007 and will be seeing him again at the Meander in Amsterdam with his band Capacocha. At the end of this month they will be playing in New York and New Jersey. Once they return they will begin work on their EP. Get excited, this is just the beginning for Capacocha.
As a disapointment to their live audience, The Two Gallants broke down during their 2006 Roskilde performance. With an audience to match their badass attitude, the Two Gallants played a grand total of 30 minutes before passing out on their microphones and kicking over their drum set. The band continuously stopped the show to ask for less flashing lights and forced the crew to lower the sound to a point where even the front row had to lean closer to hear. The drummer, Tyson Vogel, rested his head on his microphone and hid behind is long hair for the majority of the performance . Guitarist, Adam Stephens followed suit by throwing his guitar down and walking off stage. As The Two Gallants stormed off they left behind a somewhat aggressive audience yelling for more. Currently on tour this blues-influenced band is definitely worth listening to. With chilled out tones and compassionate lyrics Vogel and Stephens recreate folk music to fit the modern times. Here's to hoping they finally got their live act together.
www.myspace.com/twogallants
For more information and tour dates: www.twogallants.com
I was super excited to see this band as I love their song Anna's Sweater. I discovered them on a mix CD I have called Ny2lon (worth checking out! has tracks from bands like The Subways, Giant Drag, and The Ordinary Boys). After pulling two of my friends to wait with me front row I was greeted by disapointment. They seemed to be on something, either that or they just weren't in the mood to play. I kept hoping it would get better yet within 5 minutes my friends had left me alone to watch the band fall apart. They will be playing in Amsterdam at the Melkweg November 23rd and in Groningen at the Vera on November 25th. I passed up the chance to see them again though, The Two Gallants are one of those bands that I respect more while rocking out to them in my room.
Like a true cover band, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes take the most melodic songs and convert them into raging punk. You think it's not possible to mosh to Annie's The sun will come out tomorrow? Now it is. Me First is all about pleasing the audience with old school hits in revised form. Each song starts out with the band proclaiming that this next song...is, you guessed it, a cover. Not afraid to destroy a song, this band takes classics from the likes of The Eagles and Led Zeppelin then speeds them up to a pure rock tempo. With a theme to match every tour, such as country and American white trash, the pop punk band gives a good live act. Me First and The Gimme Gimmes is a band to see if you're in the mood to rock out to the ultimate music classics.
Picture taken from www.myspace.com/mefirstandthegimmegimmes
I saw Me First on June 26, 2007 as a birthday present from a friend. They played at Melkweg The Max. Located on Lijnbaansgracht The Melkweg is a great and intimate place to see shows. With two different halls, The Max and The OudeZaal, The Melkweg gives you the ultimate concert experience. Many of the concerts I go to are at the OudeZaal which is about half the size of The Max with a super low stage and a good, chilled atmosphere. For more information on Melkweg go to www.melkweg.nl
I wanted to make a place where I could keep track of all the shows I’ve been to, all the bands I’ve seen live, and as a way to remember how the shows and festivals were. I decided to start my blog today so I could begin critiquing bands, festivals, concerts and such. I plan to add pictures, videos, my travel information, favorite music halls, lyrics, set lists, recommendations and much more. To date I’ve seen over 100 different bands live, and quite a few of those I’ve seen multiple times. This blog is open for anyone to comment on, feel free to tell me what you think and recommend more bands. All titles of entries are song titles or lyrics and will usually relate to the band I talk about. "An Attempt to tip the scales" is the title of a Bright Eyes song and today's entry title "Last time I tried to rock your world" is the title of a Mindless self Indulgence song.
First show? Peter Paul and Mary (August 5, 1990)
Most memorable shows? Mindless Self Indulgence at Powerfest in Amsterdam (April 21, 2007), The Subways in Amsterdam (February 20, 2006), Garbage in Amsterdam (June 2, 2005)
Worst Band seen live? A local dutch band called Monkey Beats Donkey. I saw them on October 12, 2007 as an opening act for Mindless Self Indulgence. They where, undoubtedly, the worst band I have ever seen. A mix between pop rock, rasta, ska, gothic rock and a little bit of metal they where unable to gain the respect of the audience. The lead singer had a boner for most of the performance and at one point laid down on stage and refused to move. Monkey Beats Donkey did nothing but piss off the audience and confuse them with the continuous changes of music genre. As the band ignored the yells of “get the fuck off the stage” and “burn in hell” many of the audience members literally turned their backs to the stage. Monkey Beats Donkey could be a good band if they stuck to one genre and sounded a little less like an animal undergoing an epileptic seizure in a musical form.
