OPEN HEARTS AND BLOODY GRINS

GREAT NEWS EVERYBODY!
I have furlough. I don't have to work anymore for the next 3 weeks. I have worked for basically 4 weeks with as little as 2 or 3 days off in between. All cool and well and very lucrative, but I haven't been able to go to shows or work on the zine or enjoy much free time for the past few weeks. But now I'm back at it. Back on the punx front. Back "at it". "In the picture". You catch my drift?

I'm back. Last week, though, I had a day off (thank fucking God) and I got to see the Flatliners perform. A happy coincidence. I went to the Flatliners' show at the Sojo last year and if that was any indication, it was supposed to be good. Packed, hot, sweaty and very good. And it was.

The wheater was alright so I went early to grab a beer in the last sunbeams and hung out with the early birdos. Great Mugicians started at 7h30. They're a Sublime cover band. My friend Ari sings and plays guitar in it. He's really talented. He also has a solo project (Boomboy) that I wanna plug cause he's really cool. Anyway, the Great Mugicians were very good but yeah, I'm not too high on Sublime (see what I did there?) so yeah... Hanging out.

There was another band that played. Let me think. Oh yeah, Uncommonmenfrommars from France (not from Mars) played their last show on Belgian soil. I had heard a lot about them, but never really took the time to listen to them. Turns out they're really good. What what!? Cool. I don't know. Spent the show hanging out in the back, dancing and talking to babes. Whaddup.

Then, the Flatliners were "up". Up on that shiz. I've seen them 4 times now and I still haven't listened to any of their albums after the first one (Destroy To Create), when they still played ska-influenced punk, and my favourite (and therefore objectively best) FLS track, Open Hearts And Bloody Grins, off of the Ska is Dead comp. Since they have changed up their game a tad towards the no-frills fast melodic punk genre, they don't play many songs from that period anymore. They did play Fred's Got Slacks, if I'm not mistaken. Which was to only song I stagedived to and I knew the words to when I sang along. I sang along to every other song as well, the difference was that I didn't know the lyrics. Only when the chorus came back I could actually sing the actual words.
But fuck me, the Flatliners are a thunderous live band and the crowd was in it to have the most fun one could have on a Tuesday night and holy fuck I had fun. That was just what I needed. A great band, a great crowd and dancing to the tunes. Release some shit. Toss people in the air. Mosh it up. Smile unconditionally.
Amazing show. The encored with a song which was called, as I would learn later that evening, Shithawks, which has one of the raddest drum parts I've heard in punk rock these days. Holy fuck, that's fucking tight, right? Makes you wanna take on a rhino or something.

Post-show hangouts ensued, lots of familiar faces, some new faces, always a treat. I love being into punk rock.
I love it.
I need it.