The Hayderooches

So, yeah, the Heideroosjes haven't played in 1,5 years, and then, suddenly, yesterday, they played in Essen, a town 10 miles from my home. I actually would have gone to Vogue, Social Circkle and Bite Down in den Eglantier but for this gig I had the company of my bandmates and of course, it was a lot closer. So, that made the decision. And it's been a logn time since I've seen the Heideroosjes.

The opening 'band' was Aux Raus. They consisted of 2 guitar players, a crazy-ass singer and a drumming/programming machine. At first I was like: wow, this is pretty awesome. Then I thought: What the fuck is this? And then again: Yeah, that's cool! But also: This sucks. Their 'thing' is to mix happy hardcore with punk hardcore, and they've actually succeeded in bringing these opposites together. But nonetheless, it is a very acquired taste. I had no idea whether to 'hak' or to headbang. I seriously had no idea whether to like it or dislike it. All I knew was that the guitar players were pretty kick-ass, weren't mixed right and should probably start a real band. I love real bands.
I did enjoy this, but not alllllllways for the right reasons.

Then the Heideroosjes took the stage. My friend's a big fan of them, I'm just a big fan of everything punk rock so I was kinda excited, but I didn't expect all too much. But, au contraire, they pulled off one hell of a show.
The singer looks like Toby from H2O nowadays, the bass player was fucked up as fuck, the drummer seemed pretty stoned and the guitar player was alright actually. The first thing that's weird -for me, personally- is that they played more than an hour and I didn't get bored. Partly because I had fun company and a couple of beers, but also partly because their set was pretty rocking! It's hard to imagine a punk rock show longer than 40 minutes or something, but they still exist. The Heideroosjes pulled it off to get the crowd dancing, singing along, all those thing that are done at shows.
Well, yeah, they had a great setlist. All of the classics, some new songs and a couple old ones that they hadn't played in a while. Also, as their 3rd song or something, they covered 'Don't Drag Me Down' by Social Distortion. Surprisingly and sadly, I seemed to be the only person singing along to this. Surprisingly and sadly as well (for me, that is), it was one of the only songs I knew all the words to. I know my Heideroosjes classic songs like Iedereen Is Gek (Behalve Jij) and I'm Not Deaf (I'm Just Ignoring You) among others, but many songs were pretty unknown to me. Either way, I partied a lot, showed the Rex venue how to punkdance and I crowdsurfed on their second-to-last track, which was an acoustic one. Basically, I, and another guy as well, got lifted during this sentimental song. It was weird but a great laugh!
Soooo, the show was a lot a fun. A lot of dancing, great music, the mistakes were limited and/or corrected fast and the energy was flowing off of the stage. They may be older, but they still got the feeling. They even covered Black Eyed Peas' big hit 'I Gotta Feeling', which was pretty awesome to hear. Despite the fact they hadn't played in a while, are growing old and so on, this show was above my expectations. Fun, like it should be.

I'm also still surprised when I find out punx still exist. Are mohawks still allowed in modern-day society?  Is that really necessary?