by Martijn
The announcement of a new, alternative, Christian festival called Peacedog got
me excited. The number of cool Christian festivals over here in the Netherlands
is limited to +/- 5 (Brainwave, Flevo Totaal Festival and a few others). One of
the organizing people of the festival is our very own Karel Smouter, who lives
in the city of Ede and who figured we could use a great, new festival over here.
Since he had tons of time to spend on it, he and his friends started the
festival out of nothing. Soon, they were able to book some really great bands.
Peacedog (http://come.to/peacedog)
rose expectations which they fully realised!
After a
one-hour drive i finally arrived in the city of Ede. I didn’t have an accurate
description of how to drive, but by coincidence, i drove right to the youth
center where it took place, a place called De Kei (= The Cobble or The Stone).
This is a great, brand new place, the festival was the first event ever being
held there. The main room can hold hundreds of people, i guess about 400
(don’t hit me when i’m completely wrong!). Then there’s a smaller room,
where perhaps 100 people can be at once. De Kei also has a nice bar, where you
can get your drinks and it’s even possible to buy hamburgers, fries,
frikandellen or kroketten there (the last 2 things are fried, Dutch delicacies).
A lot of festivals use special festival coins and so does Peacedog. The name of
the coin, ‘dokkie’, should be changed i think, cuz that name’s quite a
lame one… (sorry guys!). There were also some record companies and other
vendors in the main stage area, promoting and selling their stuff. I even got to
talk to the president of Burnt Toast Vinyl (USA), who told me he’d been
touring with The Lionheart Brothers. Also, the entire Sally Family was present.
The Sally Family? Yes, the people of Sally Forth Records (http://www.sallyforthrecords.com),
the Dutch record company who is going to be the European version of Tooth &
Nail Records. Be aware, T&N, they already signed Selfmindead, Soapbox, the
Lionheart Brothers and Kryptonite Garden!
Well, enough
about the place, let’s talk music!
The festival
featured a lot of great bands like Glorybox, Soapbox, Kryptonite Garden, One
Truth and Beyond Infiniteeh. Karel opened the festival with a little speech
about the upcoming bands, a change in the time schedule of the festival and, of
course, by wishing everybody a great time over there. Well, Karel, i was already
convinced i’d have a great time!
Since i
don’t remember the exact order in which the bands played and since i’ve just
moved to another city last week and wasn’t able to retrace the time schedule,
i’ll just give you my opinion on the bands i have seen. I must say, i have
seen ALL of them, but with some bands i left after a couple of minutes or a few
times i bumped in when they’d already been playing for a while. I actually
really wanted to see Glorybox, Soapbox and Beyond Infiniteeh, and i was quite
curious what the Lionheart Brothers would bring us. The people i spoke with were
all really looking forward to Soapbox, the Swedish punk/hardcore band, so i was
getting curious how they would be. Karel recommended Glorybox, a Danish/American
band in the likes of Portishead, and One Truth, an Italian Spirit Filled Hard
Core band.
Let’s
begin with the last one. I hadn’t heard ONE TRUTH
before, but they played a really tight set with great, fast, (sometimes)
sing-along hard core songs. Unfortunately, they had to perform on the small
stage, i think they would also have done great on main stage. Anyway, they
played a great set. They even did a Strongarm cover and a cover of a Seven
Seconds song, on which Jan (our friend from the Sinapu Hard Core Site http://go.to/sinapu)
played the drums. You did great, Jan!
THE
LIONHEART BROTHERS took
some time to do their sound check and to put up a camera that would tape their
gig. Then the 3 Swedish guys appeared wearing overalls, a blue one with the word
‘water’ on it, a white one saying ‘spirit’ and a red one with
‘fire’. It looked okay, these guys tried to entertain the audience. So i
thought. The music they make has influences of Roadside Monument and Frodus.
This could work out fine, if it weren’t for their songs. Their songs don’t
really have clear beginnings or ends, it’s like they just play on and on. In
one song, the drummer suddenly walks off the stage while the other 2, both
playing the guitar, keep on playing, not seeming to notice their drummer
missing. I thought this was a hilarious action, i was surprised, but then the
guitarists kept playing their parts, without singing, and it just kept going on
and on. And on. And on. After 10 minutes, or something like that (which seemed
to take forever), the drummer returned and the next song started. In short:
these guys disappointed me. Perhaps my expectations where too high or perhaps i
was too tired to like this band (since they played in the evening). Anyway, i
walked away when they still had half an hour to go because i couldn’t take it
anymore. Sorry guys! Since they’re all 18, i guess they will progress and
perhaps in some years they will make great music. Not for this moment,
though.
GLORYBOX
was the last band to play at the festival. The band has a female
singer, the rest are men. Half of them is from Denmark, the other half from the
United States. Or something like that. This band is okay, they make alternative
rock with hard edges. Although it was getting late, they made a good impression
on me and i will keep track of this band. The fact that they played the Flevo
Totaal Festival 2000 says enough about their potential, i think.
My personal
favorite of the festival, despite the fact that they had to play at the small
stage, definitely was BEYOND INFINITEEH !
Granted, i know their bass player Jan Anco and their drummer Wouter, so i
can’t really be called objective. But i’m convinced i would have chosen them
too even if i hadn’t known these guys, simply because their music is so
original and played really well. Beyond Infiniteeh has 4 guys and a female
singer. Wouter on drums, Jan Anco on bass guitar, Wouter and Joey on guitars (Wouter-the-guitarist-guy
sometimes even plays the bugle!) and finally, singer Els (sister of Wouter-the-drummer-guy).
Els is quite the singer, she has a really great, matured voice that she uses in
the right way. The songs of Beyond Infiniteeh, all written by Wouter-the-drummer-guy,
are a combination of really slow, relaxed tunes and really fast hard core
guitars. So one moment, you’re dreaming away on Els’ voice, the other moment
you’re jumping up and down and into other people because of the harder parts.
It was quite funny that Els introduced the band to the audience, telling
everybody that the 4 guys are from the city of Groningen, while she herself is
from the city of Ede, where the festival took place. I guess she had expected a
lot of people from Ede there, but she barely got response… oops! I think most
of the visitors weren’t from Ede… Although i wasn’t really objective, to
me this was the festival’s highlight. If you wanna check them out yourself,
surf to http://www.beyondinfiniteeh.com,
where you can find some mp3's and where you can pre-order their cd. Karel:
Beyond Infiniteeh on main stage next year ??? :-)
Oh yeah, i
almost forgot, Beyond Infiniteeh is still looking for a record company, so: GO
SALLY, GO SALLY, GO SALLY! (hint hint, wink wink)
After Beyond
Infiniteeh, i hurried to the main stage, where SOAPBOX
had already begun. It was obvious that this was the band most of the people came
to see, the place was crowded. The hard core of Soapbox sounded great, but i had
just seen the amazing Beyond Infiniteeh, so this band couldn’t top that. I
would like to hear their cd though, because i really think they’re great
enough for the main stage!
Kryptonite
Garden is a Dutch, girl fronted band making rock music
similar to e.g. Bon Voyage. They’ve been known in Holland for some years now
and just finished a new record, which will be released soon (or has already been
released?) on Sally Forth Records. Their performance seemed a little static, the
singer just doing her job. Their songs reminded me of Bon Voyage, but the songs
seem more complicated than Bon Voyage, which could be an advantage or a
disadvantage. I think in this case, some of the songs could use a little
simplicity to make them easier to listen to. This is, however, not the case for
all songs, there are songs that are great the way they are. This is my own
opinion, and i’m not an expert, i haven’t even made a cd or something, so
perhaps i’m wrong… These musicians know how to play their instruments
though, and when i get the chance, i’ll see them again.
What can i
say about Fort
Knox ? They’re from Amsterdam, they play a mixture of
ska and punk, they played on the small stage, which was completely filled with
people, and i only saw one of their songs… although i really wanted to see
them, i didn’t get the chance this time, i took the time to finally get a
moment of rest and talk with some friends.
Satellite7
opened the festival. This Dutch band, signed by Sally Forth Records, plays
alternative guitar rock. Sounded great on main stage, especially the
faster/harder songs. Please don't wear your own band shirts, next time on stage,
guys!
Salutary
is a Dutch metal band. Since i’m not really into metal, i only heard one song
and that was enough for me. The small stage area was loaded with people though
and lots of them were headbanging and moshing and stuff like that.
Swirl
is a Dutch, alternative rockband. They played for a way too small audience on
the small stage, on the same time as the Lionheart Brothers. I guess everybody
wanted to see the Lionheart Bros... i already told you that i left early with
them, i went to see Swirl and they sounded quite nice though they played at the
wrong time.
In short: the first edition of the Peacedog Festival was a huge success to me. My top-3 for the 2000 edition of the festival is
1.
Beyond Infiniteeh
(NL);
2.
One Truth (IT);
3. Glorybox (DEN/USA).
Runners up:
Soapbox (SWE), Kryptonite Garden (NL), Fort Knox (NL), Satellite7 (NL).
Biggest disappointment: The Lionheart Brothers (SWE).
Hints for next year: Selfmindead, Royal, Slick Shoes, Element101, The
Juliana Theory, Cruise Control :-), cheaper drinks…
Karel,
thanks for a great festival! See you next year!
Martijn
p.s. In case
you were there: i'm the guy with the Element101 t-shirt and the chain around his
neck.