3 days of Direct Hit! and Pee Dee Es

So, let's take a look at what I witnessed last week. Direct Hit! came to Europe to tour for 3 weeks with the Priceduifkes. They're playing about 6 shows in Belgium, of which I managed to check out 3.

1) The first one was in Herenthout. 't Verschil was hosting an entire punk rock weekend, including a punk rock quiz on Friday. Our team, the Kings Of Metal, came in 2nd on that quiz, so that was cool. I also got really drunk, fell asleep and my teammates colored my head and arms with a red marker. That sucked.

Anyway, the next day was reserved for punk rock music. A nice little show of some of Belgium's coolest bands and the kick-off of the Direct Hit! tour.
First band up were de Tantras. They were not exactly in form (dutchism), oh dear. I like their songs but the performance wasn't up to scratch, unfortunately. The show had its ups and down, definitely. A couple of covers, a couple of songs from their own repertoire, possibly some new songs (I'm not sure, but if they were they sounded pretty good). So yeah, not a great show, but a fun band nonetheless.

Time for The Dutch Rudders. They sure have progressed. It was the first time I saw them as a four-piece, and it worked pretty good. Jelle is a good person. They played quite a few new songs and they ruled the pans of the roof (dutchism overload). Very strong Dopamines/Red City Radio kinda vibe. I loved it. Great show, great guyzz, and so on.

Face The Fax. Sharp as an axe. Everytime I see them I like them a bit more. They take some time to enjoy, because they're a sophisticated technical skatepunk band rather than a silly 3-chord poppunk band. But they're great. The new stuff is definitely cooler than the old stuff. Whoo!

The Priceduifkes were up next. First dance moves of the night to another classic PDS rock'n'roll show. They played all sorts of songs and people sang along and pushed eachother and danced around and all that jazz. Good show.

Direct Hit! finished the night, and boy, are they tight. They hit their guitars, drums and bass super hard yet delicate anough to be melodic and punk rock. It was really short set, though, but I very much enjoyed it. They've been one of my favourite bands ever since I heard Werewolf Shame off of the Mixtapes split. Super cool. Great singalong stuff, some dancing, a couple high-fives. I was a happy man.

The crowd attendance was rather low though, which sucked a bit. Well, that's what you get when you played 6 shows in a small country such as Belgium, I guess. Afterparty was still pretty cool, though.

2) The second show was in Roeselare. I probably wouldn't have though of going to Roeselare if it wasn't for Sidewalk Summer's third first show and the fact I could crash at Jef's place, but it was totally worth it.
Sidewalk Summer played their shit. 4 proper songs and a bunch of cool cover songs. They don't have a singer yet so Jef sang and he's not that good. Hopefully they'll find a singer soon! (If you live in West-Vlaanderen and you can sing, contact them!) I like their songs though. They have this 3-second song that's all like PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA and then there's this song that's slow at first and than faster but just has this really good riff and then there's these other songs that I don't remember how they go. Ricky (P)D(S) sang the Riverdales' I Don't Wanna Go To The Party Tonight cover. Anyway, fun show, couple o' mistakes, forgivable.

Tarmak played next. 80's style pissed of furious hardcore punk. Good show. Pissed off. Not much to add.

PDS played another good one. Started off with a Beastie Boys cover, coolness. Fun fun fun.

Direct Hit! also slayed again. Cool show, wack shit. I ripped my pants while I was holding the guitar dude on my shoulder's. Lotsa dancing. Super fun show, such a great band. Really, such an awesome band. I hung out with them later on and they're really nice dudes as well.

Afterparty was dope, homes. Great music by DJ Cubli/Tim/Creepface and great hangouts with people. I love punk rock shows.

3) Third time's a charm. The show was in Ghent. Cool.

The Dutch Rudders played again. Pretty much the smae shit, different day. Coolness!

The PDS also played. Same shit, Different day.

Direct Hit! also played. Same shit, different day.

Still all really awesome, though.

Also check out Devon Kay & The Solutions.