by Martijn
For some months, loads of rumors appeared, saying that a number of Tooth &
Nail bands were coming to The Netherlands (or other European countries). Bands
that were named are ZAO, Stretch Arm Strong, The Huntingtons and Selfmindead.
Zao, who were going to do a short European tour including 3 gigs in Holland
(they were to be headlining the Peacedog Festival),
cancelled the entire tour without naming a clear reason. Stretch Arm Strong had
to cancel most of their tour, because of the jobs of some of the band members,
but at least they took the trouble to get here! The Huntingtons and Selfmindead
are said to play in The Netherlands in September (Huntingtons) and December (Selfmindead).
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When i found out Stretch Arm Strong were going to do 2 gigs, one on the 30th of June in Enschede, and one on the 2nd of July in Arnhem, i was thrilled. First of all, because they were finally going to play over here, second because those cities aren't that far away of where i live. Arnhem is the capital of the province where i live (the province is called Gelderland, it is the biggest province of The Netherlands and is situated in the center of The Netherlands). |
There was only one problem: the show would take place in the evening, at that same time the big final of the European Championship Football would start. And, since i was convinced my favorite team (the Dutch National Football team of course) were going to become the new European Champions, i was afraid i wouldn't be able to make it. So i was planning to go to Enschede, a city that is farther away than Arnhem and is located in the East of The Netherlands. At the last moment, i found out the Stretch Arm Strong show had been moved to 15:30h because of Euro 2000 and i could to to Arnhem and see the big final anyway.
Together with a friend of mine, Arjen, who is a huge S.A.S. fan, we borrowed a car (thanks dad!) and went to Arnhem. It was a really hot day, i would say the hottest day of the Summer of 2000. The place where it was all going to happen, the Goudvishal (= Goldfish hall), is a nice place, covered with graffiti. Outside, a lot of people were sitting on the road and the merchandise stands had been moved outside because of the heat.
A band called El Niño opened the 'hard core matinee'. El Niño is a 4-piece band from Friesland, a Dutch province in the North of The Netherlands. They sounded okay though in my eyes they don't have that special thing that will make a band famous.
Then ToDieFor was up. I got the idea that this band is from the U.S.A. and that they had 2 French guys (the bass player and one of the guitarists) temporarily joining them for the European tour, but i'm not reallt sure. ToDieFor sounded great, playing Hard Core in the like of ZAO (in their 'The Splinter Shards...' fase anyway). The singer was screaming and kneeling on stage, which was quite impressive to see. The kneeling also had disadvantages, since he got hit in the head by one of the (bass) guitars because he was sitting like that. This band sounded great.
Finally, it was time for Stretch Arm Strong! I had bought their album 'Rituals Of Life' as soon as it was released and it's a great album (click here for a review). They played almost all the songs of 'Rituals...' and some songs i didn't know. There was even this song that sounded really great and everybody was yelling along and i still didn't know it. Later, i found out that this was the last song on 'Rituals...', but somehow it's not on my CD! How stupid is that! Anyway, the concert was great. There was a lot of stagediving, crowdsurfing and jumping. I just love it when a singer lets the audience scream the songs in the microphone! One of the guitarists even turned out to be a fan of the Dutch football team, since he was wearing an orange Euro2000 shirt (the Dutch team always plays in orange, their nickname is 'Oranje', which means 'orange'). This was S.A.S.'s last show on their European tour, and it seemed as if they wanted to give their all because they ROCKED! During the concert, the singer asked if anyone had lost his car keys. Jan, one of our friends of the Sinapu Hard Core Site, http://go.to/sinapu, climbed up the stage. Then he took the mic and proposed to his girl friend Leonora. Great! Our congrats, Jan and Leo! Jan and Leo are driving forces behind the Dutch Spirit Filled Hard Core scene and it's great they are getting married!
The Dutch Record Company Reflections Records released a Stretch Arm Strong EP called 'It Burns Clean' as kind of a 'treat' for the Dutch fans and perhaps as a souvenir from the Dutch shows. It's a CD with 4 Stretch Arm Strong songs. I must say, all these songs are also on 'Rituals', 3 of these songs are different versions (demo's), the 4th song goes with a video made by the band members themselves on tour in the U.S.A.! If you're interested in getting yourself a copy you can contact Karel at charlie.s@iname.com and he'll give you the details.
Anyway, it was a great afternoon. It was a shame i had to go home right after the concert, to be able to see the big match between France and Italy. The Dutch team lost in the half finales of Italy, by penalties. This was a traumatic experience, since the Italians don't seem to appreciate nice, offensive football and Oranje wasn't able to punish them for their defensive play because they didn't know how to take penalties. (you Italians should learn how to play REAL FOOTBALL instead of defending for 90 minutes! I'm GLAD France beat the crap out of you in the finals!).
Martijn
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