Flame vs. Rock

I went to this one-day festival called Vlamrock this weekend. It was fun. It's a hardcore/metal merger fest.

Comme toujours, I arrived alone. But, comme parfois, I hung out with some familiar faces. Hardcore/punk brings out the most social skills in me.
Anyway, after a while the first band took the stage. It was Violent City, local old school hardcore dudes. Great, great set. I can't say I'm a big fan of that style of hardcore (I mostly like lame melodic hardcore for pussies), but Violent City has the right stuff. The right attitude, the right riffs and the right performance. Vocalist Anthony is a cool guy and he knew how and when to spark the audience. They got quite a few moshers moving, considering it was only 12 pm. Awesome. Daan Adjective did a dual vocal song with hem, which was cool. I can't remember which song. Anyway, they also played Judge's Fed Up, which has been a staple in their set for quite a bit, for the last time. And their own songs are pretty good as well, of course! Back To Basics reminded me a lot of the likes of Carry On and such, which was cool. I forgot to but the new CD, but I will do that next time!

Next up, Soul Control. I've been a Soul Control fan since I saw them in the basement of den Eglantier a couple years ago. Saw them a couple of times after that, but it had been since last summer already so I was stoked. They play really groovy, grung-y hardcore, but not too groovy. It's heavy and it's damn good. I very much enjoyed the show. I even sang almong to a few songs I remember some words to. For some reason I think these guys are one of the best in modern hardcore around. The new 7" slays, once again. Pick it up, it's called Bore Core, so that predicts a lot of goods (dutchism).

Saw the majority of Ritual's set, who are currently playing their last shows as a band. They're breaking up after that. Which is a shame, cause they're really good. They played a good mix of older and newer songs, all with the trusted passion and deliverance that they're known for. Also really heavy. Everytime I see them I wonder how they manage to be so heavy. But I love it. The guitar player still wears silly outfits, but that's not really important of course. Very enjoyable show, I'm gonna miss seeing them.

Then, uhm, I spent time hanging around, catching up with people and generally having a good time. Until at 4:30 pm Midnight Souls started their set. The place was packed, which was cool, but I barely managed to get in so that was close! Anyway, once again a great set from one of my favourite Belgian band around. They give it all every time they play and at the end of each set they have no hearts left cause they played them all out. I admire that.

Polar sucked pretty much. But Pianos Become The Teeth made up for that by being awesome. Musically inspiring, vocally enticing, generally awesome.

Didn't see anything after that until Verse. I saw a bit of Cruel hand but that was too brutal for me. Verse hit the spot again though. They were not as mindblowing as what I thought of them at Groezrock, but they're so damn cool. Such a great band. A solid setlist, a good performance. I loved it. Better than Have Heart.

Defeater, the headliner, didn't really catch my attention though. It could've been my state of mind, my drunkenness, my wandering thoughts or something else, but I didn't get grasped by their set. They played Prophet In Plain Clothes though, which made the entire set worth it. They're a good band but I kinda stopped paying attention to them so I guess that conveyed to their show.

Then I had a weird of sleep and no sleep, but it has been a fun day and I was happy.