Nick Van Waes tiene un pene pequeño

The weekend of the 22nd of April is a special weekend for everything punkrock and hardcore. And that might just be the things I'm really excited for.

"Do you know the Punk Rock?"

You probably don't care about the hassle it took me to get there, the rising sun, the 3 stupid hardcore-hipsters at the bus stop or the posters I had to try to attach to the fences (which appeared far more difficult than expected).
I only went Saturday. I didn't care too much about Friday.
I did hear that Millencolin was good and they played pretty tight, so I'm bummed out I missed that. Further Seems Forever didn't get a lot of audience, Craig's Brother wasn't all what people maybe expected and they were tons of presumeably bad deathcore bands. That's what I heard.

Anyway, here's the report. I might tell some more in the upcoming zine edition (coming this summer hopefully).
I didn't get to see everything I wanted, mostly due to laziness and beer drinking at the campsite. Nevertheless, It was a wonderful day and I saw the essential.

The day started off with Dead To Me. They've been around quite a few times, and god damn I'm glad these guys were on the bill. It's a shame they had to open the festival, but it's cool they played. And how!? (Literally translated from: "En hoe!?") Great show. The guys were tight as fuck at 11 am, played with enthusiasm (at 11 am) and got a considerable audience together (at 11 am, that's right!). Some dancing, some singing, mostly waking up and enjoying a top class punk rock show, with a hint of ska/reggae every now and then. If I were them, i'd stick to punk rock.
A band that have always stuck to punk rock is Teenage Bottlerocket. Now my mind is blown, one of the best band in the world play at noon. Weird shit. Anyway, fun story: I had to pee right before the band started, so I'm at the pee booth, and I hear the drummer started Skate Or Die, so I fired every drop I had into the 'pissijn' at full speed and nearly shit myself doing so. Luckily nothing got dirty, I ran to the front, started dancing my ass off and crowdsurfed incidentally before the end of the song. Such a great band. The next 30 minuted they treated us with a setlist of awesome songs, some everyone knows, some less famous, but all equally good, fast, catchy (!!) and punk rock. It's weird to see them on such a big stage after their show in Nijlen a couple of years back. I think they're getting bigger than Kiss, one show at a time. They played a lot of awesome songs, including Todayo (last song), Lost In Space, Bloodbath At Burger King, Welcome To The Nuthouse and I Don't Wanna Go. I also noticed I need to do more sports. I had to rest for 2 songs after each circlepit. Fucked up, innit? I enjoyed the show anyway, awesome band!
Next up was a dance party for 2 (hundred) at 12h45. Streetlight Manifesto got the swing going in the tent. Asses were danced off, lyrics were sang along to and melodies were wooh-ed along to. Great party, talented musicians, and a safe mix of songs from their original albums. At the live show, their songs definitely sound longer than on cd, on the border of boring/less interesting. Their songs are incredible, but sometimes I thought they were playing the same thing for 10 minutes, which wasn't the case. Aight, I had a lot of fun, it was actually the first time I saw them and they made me happy.
I wanted to see Piebald, but I forgot or I didn't care all too much apparently (I really only know 1 CD, and not really through and through). The opportunity for beer arose, so that must have played a role as well. On a related note: Later that day the guys from Piebald were doing a signing session, and we were actually waiting for the Descendents who would follow them, but I decided to get Piebald's signatures as well. Because I didn't have something cool like a record of theirs, I asked them to sign the Alkaline Trio cd I had just bought in the merch market (From Here To Infirmary). Cool story, innit? Piebald was like "Yeah, this makes sense. What the heck!". Cool guys, now I'm starting to regret that I missed the show.
So let's move on to the second best show of the festival. That one was performed by Dear Landlord. There are a couple of reasons why their show was as good as it was. 1) They played the small podium/tent, so no barriers or gay distances; 2) They were given 40 minutes to play, which means they could and have played about every song they wrote/recorded up to now (excluding Crashing, Neighbours and maybe (not sure) Lost Cause); 3) On top of that, they played motherfucking Sleepless In St Paul (wow, seriously, that made me so happy) and Avoidance Learning (both songs originally by Rivethead); 4) Dear Landlord is the best band in the world; 5) Lots of mates partying along, always cool. So, in sum, awesome show, great atmosphere, best songs, best band, absolute love. I really really really love this band. That should cover it, I think? Hah.
Then I got to the Descendents signing session, saw some Goldfinger songs, got pretty bored and felt like drinking beer at the campsite. Guess what happened?
Due to sheer laziness I didn't check Dashboard Confessional, nor No Trigger, nor Boy Sets Fire, which wasn't the best decision I ever made but because of the band following them I wasn't all that bothered.
That's right. Descendents entered the stage, and after I shoved two pizza baguettes into my stomach I decided to go dance and sing along in the front rows. I was so happy, so really really genuinely happy to see the Descendents, one of the first punk bands I and many with me got into as a teenagers. They started off with Descendents, then got into a whole bunch of songs, some of their best ones, some I didn't expect but was pleased to hear and some of their other best ones. Solid setlist, I didn't have one single problem with it. They made my day, week, year. It sounds cheesy but singing along to those songs really means something. It must be pretty cool to know you belong. I hope my day will come. I'm not a loser. Even I like food - food tastes good and thou shalt not partake of decaf. Wow. Really overwhelming.

Sitting there with your mouth full of beer. Your eyes are glazed, your face is red. Who's gonna pick you up and use you for tonight?
And when you're on the streets with a needle in your arm, selling your body for another fix, who's gonna pick you up and take you home with them tonight?
Not me.

Again, I skipped a band I initially wanted to see but because of not caring and so on I didn't see Saves The Day, nor H20 or The Used for nostalgic reasons.
But I did went to see NOFX, and I got what I expected. A lot of babbling, although it seemed alright and not too much this time. Good setlist, not unpredictable but neither predictable. They keep the show interesting, I must admit. Always fun to hear their songs, I should listen more NOFX. A lot of dancing, singing, partying, cool show! Theme from a NOFX album to finish, good idea!

So, a lot of other things happened, I met a lot of people, some cool, some less cool, kissed two girls by deceit, got rejected a couple more times, the sun was shining, I had tons of fun, smelled like shit today.

Hooray for punk rock!