punk/no punk

Tuesday night was a great night. i went to Mechelen to check out the punk rock and also not the punk rock.

The punk rock was provided by an opening band I didn't catch because I had dinner later than expected, but also by River Jumpers, a band from Brighton in the UK. They were good. Definitely. Surprised me. Made me nod my head. A real fun band, they wanted everyone to dance but that didn't really work out. Sometimes people don't dance. It's alright.

Next band for the punk rock was Struggling For Reason, a band from Namur I think. It was better than the name made me expect. Kinda the Walloon version of Homer, I guess. Fun show. They play in suits and look kinda goofy but the music was good!

After the punk rock came and went, it was time for dudes with guitars 'n' shit. Mark McCabe started singing and wow. Just wow. This dude's amazing. I wish I had heard about him earlier. Strong, punchy songs with a celestial voice singing words that are as honest as... something that's very honest. He did an Against Me! cover of Reinventing Axl Rose, saying something like that his view on punk rock basically comes down to that song, and I can really relate to that. It's a great song with an amazing message of DIY and punk, and Mark did it justice. I was kinda singing along but I was also reluctant cause I can't sing for shit and I was afraid I'd sing too loud so people would hear me.
Anyway, great dude, great show, check him out!

After Mark, PJ Bond came up. I met PJ on his last trip to Belgium in October/November or something so I was really excited to see him again and chat a bit. Such a nice person. Either way, he started doing his thing and as usual it was great. His songs are nothing short of awesome and he is a great musician. I mouthed/sang along to some of the stuff. he was like "what do you want to hear" and I said "a song" and that's basically it. I just like to hear him play songs, that's enough. Also I'm really excited for his upcoming split with Brian Bond, he played a song off of it and it sounded really good.

This might have been the first punk rock show where I wasn't as stoked for the punk rock as I was for the non-punk rock.