This ain't noise.: We'll always have Sikome Beach.

Dear God. This weekend, guys. This last weekend. Who would've guessed that some of the coolest bands around would play in a shithole like Houthalen-Oost? Not me, but it was sure worth the trip to the far country of Limburg.

Of course I'm talking about Crossbone Fest 2011, put up by the awesome Lost Youth crew. Everything about it was awesome. As for the music, check it out:

Friday
…was a hardcore day. There were hardcore kids, hardcore bands and some punkers. There was moshing, slam-dancing and singalonging.

First up was Violent City, a fairly recent band, playing hardcore to my liking. Not too tough, but pissed off enough. Elements of late 80's hardcore and some new school influence, I think. Vibrant set, a cool Negative Approach cover and their singer wore a Natalia t-shirt. Releaseshow 29the of April in Tessenderloo!
The next band was Rebuild, from Houthalen/Getwood city. I had heard their demo and thought it was quite good. Their show was awesome. Lots of energy, great songs, a lot of new stuff. I danced a bit. Cool band, cool live performance, interesting to say the least. They also have a 7" coming out sometime soon, "I will Sing Like A Bird While I Fly Away From You", or something like that. I'm digging the title already, hopefully the new recordings are equally as good!
Cracks In The Wall play fast, pissed off, raging hardcore/punk. They didn't hit any cracks in any wall, but sure as hell tried their best. Not that into it, but if it's fast and hard and I've got a couple beers in my tummy I'll dance to it! Aight!
Citizens Patrol was basically the same thing, but different guys. I guess I danced a bit harder since I was a bit drunker by then. Cool band.
Sunpower ended the night with a cup of old school hardcore-punk similar to Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and the likes. One of the best bands out of Belgium. Great for punkdancing, sing-alongs, hugging punx, bumping into people, pogo-pogo and shouting words to songs I don't know. Also great cover songs, as always. We're just a minor threat.

The afterparty was crazy. 'Nough said.

REBUILD

CRACKS IN THE WALL

CITIZENS PATROL

SUNPOWER

Pictures: Jeroen Put http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?id=1115863659&aid=2083348

Saturday
…fun was killed by Friday night. Not exactly, but that's how the song goes, isn't it? After a deep plunge in the depths of Hengelhoef swimming pool, the punx were refreshed for a whole afternoon/evening/night of punk rock fun!

At 4:30 pm, The Dutch Rudders took the wheel (haha, get it?). They play songs with velocity and melody, but primarily velocity. Not always as tight as it should be, but I like these guys, they play my, my, my, my kind of music. Songs about porn, girls, some other stuff and a Descendents cover which I sang along to. Bought a shirt 'cause I was there. And they're cool. Also included on page 4 of This Ain't Noise magazine, check it!
Lawn Mowing Sundays followed up, a local band. Not bad, but for most people not really interesting as they are not an exact Ramones copy. Sorry guys! I did enjoy some songs and their singer looks kinda like the Strike Anywhere guy.
After another hamburger, which were actually frikandellen/curryworsten, I was motherfucking blown away by The Bat Bites. Not that I expected anything bat (haha, get it? - okay sorry.), but apparently their songs on cd are just terribly produced. I've calculated that their live performance is about 25 times better than the CD version, with a margin of 7. Really powerful pop punk songs from Rotterdam punk rock city. Another plus to the live show: there's a girl! Yes! And she's fairly fair! And her full name is 2 animals. It doesn't really get any better. Fun band, lots of good songs, lots of new songs, lots of awesome, and a medley of among others the Queers, Green Day, the Beatles and the Rembrandts to finish off the set.
Luckily for the pop punk/punk rock fans they were just the beginning and set the tone alright. While the punx were drinking another beer, Deecracks took over the stage. Great band. Last time I saw them was at Monster Zero Mash 2009, When they just released the Beach 90 EP and played some Ramones and Weasel covers. Now they have a full cd out (since last year, actually), with an abundance of great songs, quite a few of which they played. Scrapy vocals go hand in hand with 3 well-chosen chords of some well-chosen major scale and become sing-alongable anthems such as Beach 90 and Monkey Boy. great set, fun to watch and a Ghoulies cover with Kepi himself. Kepi is one of the coolest people in the world.
And the -bam!- BURGER TIME. The Murderburgers started and they didn't stop until their set was over (haha, get it? - yeah, I'll stop)! Same formula as always, superfast playing, 2 short guys and a tall drummer, a ginger singing incomprehensibly and a lot of punkdancing going on. They played probably one of the best sets I've seen by them, now that I think about it. Maybe I'm wrong, how the hell would I remember? They should lose the "Scottish" gimmick and just talk English, though. (Joke!)
Saturday was actually the only day of the week with slightly off weather, but The Hotlines brought the summer back in da house (actually in the Bassment). I guess infectious is the right word here. I don't understand why they don't seem to play Take The Wheel, but their set was awesome. Cool old songs, cool new songs, something for everyone. A lot of hit songs, a lot of dancing. The Beach Boys would be proud. They speak (kinda) normal English, great relief!
Guess what happened after that? Guess what the fuck happened AFTER THAT? 'CAUSE I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! Seriously, The Priceduifkes tore it up. Literally, both my pants and my shirt got completely torn apart. These guys have more fans than they can handle, so they have to come up with something good every time. This time: movietheatre announcement cardboard boards. Great idea. I got into a tube-like one and fell down and a lot of people fell and was stuck but I really did my best just to give it a rest. People were dancing around like savages, moshing to their infamous Buzzcocks/Gorilla Biscuits-cover and going crazy to their re-performance of the infamous Ramones-medley, first introduced at the release show of She Spells Disaster. Not to mention their infamous original tunes and new songs got some crazy crowd response. Really excited for the new album! Weppa!
The Real Danger got a different crowd, but fuck me, what an awesome band. They played most of their best songs, an Undertones cover that I didn't recognize and they answered my prayers to play their cover of Guest List. I think I went apeshit when they started playing that. I'm pretty sure. Probably yelled something about Ben Weasel and punching girls, but just for fun 'cause Screeching Weasel is one of the best bands in the world (*was). The Real Danger is definitely one of the best bands in the Benelux. Good fun!
I watched The Zatopeks from a distance, as I was tired and had to regain energy. I'm not the biggest fan of the Zatopek boys, but they have quite a few cool songs and their live shows are always great great fun. A lot of energy in this band and an incredible sense to party. City Lights is one of my favourite songs, that's for sure (I don't need your eeeeeeeeyes!), and Mary Lou's always cool. Good show, but for me it was cooling down from previous bands and warming up for Chixdiggit!
What? Wait, what? WHAT? CHIXDIGGIT! PLAYED? WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING FUCK? Oh yeah, they played. And they slayed. They killed it. They killed everything and then brought it back to life with some of the best overall musical tunes ever written. Super nice guys, alot of stage banter and applauding but I dug it (although I'm a dude). I must have clapped my hands about 10 000 times. Give a hand for Chixdiggit!, everybody! I don't think I have ever been as happy as I was there, on the first-slash-second-slash-third row, singing along with KJ Jansen (I'm super gay for KJ Jansen), air-guitaring with Mark from Chixdiggit!, air-bassing with Kepi Ghoulie, air-drumming with the drummer whose name I don't remember. But I remember you, the best friend of a girl I dated. Too bad they didn't remember how to play Going To The Peelers, but they played so many awesome songs that it just doesn't matter. Quit Your Job twice. A Ghoulies cover, maybe 2. I approximately sang along to every word. It was the best show I have ever ever ever seen. Well, I'm just still super excited, but definitely top 5 coolest moments in my life. I may not have been there in Schaffen, but now I can at least say I was there in Houthalen. All my friends will gasp in awe. (Actually, none of them will care 'cause they all listen to radio crap.)

I interviewed KJ afterwards, here's the result: