CONCERT REVIEW: Enter Shikari Play Intimate Show In Haarlem
Usually, Enter Shikari thrive in bigger productions, with big light productions and huge crowds, so tonight’s venue is very intimate compared. Serving as a warm-up to their upcoming festival shows, they announced this one headlining show in Patronaat Haarlem two months ago, after having an astronomical night in Amsterdam back in February.
The evening starts with a very excitable crowd, wondering what might be in the setlist of Enter Shikari for the only full-length show they’ll do in the next couple of months. There’s not much time to speculate though, as the support act Blackout Problems comes on at 7:50 pm, only 20 minutes after doors opened. The German band opened for Enter Shikari on their last tour, and given they have collaborated on a song too, they did a good job in warming up the crowd before.
During the first song lead singer Mario Radetzky already climbs into the (at this point still slowly filling up) crowd, and this became a regular thing for him during the set. Close your eyes and he’s back at the sound booth in the back, turn around and he’s up on the balcony, and back on stage the next second. The energy the band gives the crowd is happily returned by us, although you can tell the crowd is saving most of their energy for Enter Shikari. After a glittery outfit change for the last couple of songs, they also remind us of their upcoming show in Paradiso in October. With the way they get the crowd going, anyone going to their show will have an amazing time then too.
By the time Enter Shikari walks on stage, the crowd instantly breaks into a moshpit that doesn’t stop until the show is over. The intimacy of tonight’s smaller venue makes for a crowd that’s elated to be there, as it sold out in mere minutes. Everyone there has been a fan for years, which also makes for a very good energy amongst each other. The vibes are immaculate, everyone is dancing and singing along to every word.
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The visual performances and production quality the fans have gotten used to over the last years are missing for tonight’s warm-up show. With the setlist being mostly overlapping with what they played on their last tour, it almost feels like they took a step back. Nevertheless, the intimacy of this show more than makes up for the lack of lasers and fireworks. The band looks more comfortable and maybe even more confident to perform for this smaller crowd. They’re having a couple of laughs in between songs, and there’s an edge of familiarity to them they usually don’t get to show off that much anymore. After the dance party that is satellites* *, they play the intro of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff, showing how relaxed the band is feeling for tonight and their upcoming festival shows.
The on-stage banter in between a couple of songs and the solo the pressure’s on by singer Rou Reynolds on the balcony, also make for good breathers in a crowd that constantly moves, before they go into yet another crowd-favorite song. A big testament to the band is the way the people everywhere in the room are looking out for each other. There’s a lot of joy to be found from the front row to the balcony as if it’s being passed around by the crowd-surfing fans. The entire floor is swept up into a circle pit the size of the venue by the encore. We are the goldfish, Enter Shikari is the bowl, we are simply under their control, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. Catch Enter Shikari at one of their upcoming festival sets to see if they got warmed up enough at this sweaty show!
Special thanks to Laura Visser for providing us with the images used on this page. You can find more of her work on Instagram right here.
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG REVIEW: Looking Back To A Great Weekend
When We Were Young festival has taken over the city of Las Vegas for the weekend and you can find it everywhere you look on the Strip. There was nowhere to run from the swarm of alternative kids- wait, scratch that, we’re not really kids anymore. When we were young(er), we had to ask our parents for tickets to see our favorite bands, but now we are all adults and we get to spend adult money on stupid things like plane tickets to Las Vegas for the same bands that we grew up on.
The festival this year was a very hot one, with a lot of people only coming in after dark because of the heat. Usually around October, the weather in Vegas goes down a little bit. Last year, they even cancelled day one because of heavy winds. The temperatures today do not go well with this crowd for obvious reasons (who does do well in this though?), but luckily there are a couple of shaded places with fans and misted water to keep us cool. You can’t really do a festival with just legacy acts the entire day, so there are a couple of bands on the line-up that are very recent additions to the genre. Bands like Games We Play, Magnolia Park and Knuckle Puck have tough spots on the day, but they still got a small crowd around them.
Later in the day, during the headliners, there are a couple of other newer bands to play- which is an even tougher spot really, because who can compete with Blink-182? Waterparks and Set It Off make it happen, and their energy sure makes for a great alternative. Say Anything, Bowling For Soup and Less Than Jake are in this weird purgatory as well, but I’d almost say the party there was bigger than the ones at the green/pink stages.
There were some bands on the line-up that haven’t been performing in a while, but riding along to the nostalgia wave we’ve been seeing lately, we get to enjoy bands like Something Corporate, The Academy Is…, Gym Class Heroes and Good Charlotte for the first time in a while. The nostalgia hits especially hard on their biggest hits, and there’s a lot of those going around. There’s also a set by Sum 41 that no one wanted to miss, since they’ll stop performing as a band soon too.
A lot of the bands today also get to bring on special guests, which is something a European like me can only dream of happening at a festival. The Academy Is… brought Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship), Yellowcard had appearances by Pierce The Veil and Cassadee Pope (Hey Monday), Good Charlotte brought Lil Wayne. New Found Glory found themselves out of a guitar player without Chad Gilbert, so Dan O’Connor of Four Year Strong and Dave Knox (Real Friends) filled in. Simple Plan welcomed Jax and Jared Reddick (Bowling For Soup) to their stage and All Time Low invited Avril Lavigne on.
The fans and bands alike have likened When We Were Young to Warped tour, the only thing missing is a giant inflatable with the times on them and bands doing stupid shit on the festival grounds with us (although I think plenty of them did stupid shit on the festival grounds anyway). Some of the excitement that I felt was really special, seemed to be normal for the American crowd. I at times thought the crowd was quite tame, not really participating a lot, but that can also be very much due to the 35/95 degree weather we had.
Now we ended the day with two of the most iconic bands in the history of the genre. Even though they’re a big part of the nostalgia, they also both released new music in the last week to get really excited for. Blink-182 have just released their new record One More Time… and played a couple of those songs in this weekends’ show and Green Day performed their new single The American Dream Is Killing Me. Pair all of this with a lot of pyro, confetti and fireworks and you’ll get a night you’ll never forget. This day is a hard one to top. Everything from the production value (great screens with different visuals for each band), sound quality, the music played, the way the festival was set up, the food, you name it, it was all done really well.
FEATURE: Unmissable Acts To Catch At When We Were Young Festival
When I was young, I found a space in music that I couldn’t find around me. Bands like Green Day, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan and many more helped me feel less alone and more understood. The emotions I was dealing with weren’t that uncommon, it was just where I grew up that didn’t match with me. It helped me look for other places to call mine. I grew up, my bones hurt a little more than my heart nowadays, but the music stays a part of me. Now imagine my response seeing 90% of those bands on one single line-up. It only seems appropriate that When We Were Young takes place in Las Vegas, as a small piece of home in the middle of nowhere.
Something Corporate As a teen, I used to watch a drama show called One Tree Hill, which was the source of a lot of musical discoveries for me. Jack’s Mannequin, the first solo project by lead singer Andrew McMahon, was featured on the show, and from there on I found out about his earlier band. The band went on hiatus in 2004, getting back together for a few short stints over the years, but they haven’t performed together as Something Corporate since 2011. This is one of the first times a lot of fans will be able to see them play songs like Punk Rock Princess and I Woke Up In A Car together, which is something I’m really looking forward to. I’m secretly hoping for some solo songs by McMahon too, since he never seems to tour Europe either.
Good Charlotte Speaking of bands that haven’t performed in a while: Good Charlotte’s last live shows were in 2019. The Madden brothers have been working hard on other projects/companies in the last couple of years, with the platform Veeps as most successful. I’m really excited to go see The Anthem, Lifestyle of the Rich & Famous and I Just Wanna Live. Screaming along with their lyrics has got to be very healing for my inner teen, and I bet I won’t be the only one. They’re hardly a hidden gem, but you’ll never know when your next chance might be!
The Veronicas, Michelle Branch, Tigers Jaw, Beach Bunny The Veronicas clash with Something Corporate, which absolutely kills the 17-year old girl that listened to Untouched for weeks on end (if not months). While hanging at the Stripe stage, you might want to stick around for Michelle Branch and Tigers Jaw as well, as they all perform back to back from 1pm until 2:40pm. Beach Bunny will be on stage a little later during the day on the Ghost stage (4:50pm). You might recognize some of their songs from TikTok videos, but don’t mistake them for being just pandering to younger audiences. Their indie rock has gotten some widespread accolades, including Best Album lists.
Joyce Manor If the headliners aren’t your thing, you won’t get bored with any of the bands performing at the Ghost and Stripe stages during the Blink-182 or Green Day sets. It can’t be easy to be clashing with a band you’ve been noted to be inspired by, but if any band can do it, it’s Joyce Manor. Musically I’d say they’re closer to Weezer and The Smiths in comparison than Blink-182, so if their music isn’t for you, Joyce Manor very well might be.
Green Day Ok don’t @ me, but I’m including my favorite band in the recommended list. A girl won’t go by the name ‘christine road’ for years (after their song Christie Road off their record Kerplunk), only to not recommend seeing them perform, right? Their 2-hour long set is likely going to include all of the hits like Basket Case, American Idiot and Good Riddance, but they might play a new song or two from their upcoming record too, if we’re that lucky. The teen version of me is already crying, let me be for now. I swear I’m having fun. I’m home after all.
CONCERT REVIEW: Destroy Boys Impress With First-Ever Dutch Show
Friday night is the first time Destroy Boys performs in The Netherlands, even though the band has existed for about eight years already. It’s a bit of a weird night because usually, concerts start at about 8 PM, but tonight’s start time is 10 PM, which honestly makes for the perfect Friday night activity.
The Dutch alternative scene is a bit small, at least compared to the crowds the UK might gather. It shows in the type of venues bands like tonight’s act occupy. The Paradiso Bovenzaal is not even very easily found, if it wasn’t for some of the crowd members leading the way, I wouldn’t have found it as fast as I did. This is to say, even though The Netherlands doesn’t have a big scene, they do take up space, hidden from plain view, just like the venue today.
Destroy Boys starts the gig with an announcement: it’s HOT in the room, so everyone needs to go get water in the back if they feel like they need it because they didn’t want to see anyone faint tonight. As soon as they started, you felt the floor of the small room actually move, making the temperature rise with each jump as well.
For having such a small space, it’s filled up quite well: the show tonight also sold out as the first of the bands’ tour in Europe. After a couple of songs, lead singer Alexia Roditis jokes she’s ‘sweating like a pig’, and the crowd feels exactly the same. During one of the many mosh pits of the day, a lot of pieces of clothing magically left the audience as well, in an attempt to feel less sweaty. Anything to combat the heat radiating from the floor.
Next to talking about how ridiculously hot it is, they also touch upon some more serious topics. Guitarist Violet Mayugba talks openly about being used by an older man before multiple songs, and it’s apparent the band uses their music as an outlet for their experiences- both in the industry and out Alexia speaks about governing bodies not working for the people, and start an anti-fascist chant before starting the song For What. All throughout the night, a lot of the evening is focused on women, having a mostly female fanbase as well, but there’s a welcoming and loving environment everyone should feel good in.
Bands like these will make the difference in getting the alternative scene to a healthier place, and hopefully, it will grow with the bands to occupy more space (both figuratively and literally with air conditioning please), no longer hidden in the shadows. Check out the pictures below!
PHOTO REVIEW: Taylor Acorn’s Mesmerizing Melkweg Performance In Amsterdam
Taylor Acorn graced the stage of Amsterdam’s renowned Melkweg venue, captivating the audience with her soul-stirring melodies and heartfelt lyrics. From the moment she appeared in the spotlight, her voice held the crowd in awe. With a minimalist stage setup and an intimate ambience, the connection between Acorn and her fans was detectable, with the audience singing along and swaying to her music. Taylor Acorn‘s performance left concertgoers inspired and reminded of the transformative power of music.
Our photographer, Christine Mooijer, was at the show and took some shots for you! Check them out below
Slam Dunk North Review Part 2: Melodic Mayhem And Unforgettable Performances
I was keeping my emotions at bay during most of the day, but seeing some of the bands I’ve been listening to since I was just a kid, was obviously going to make me go through it a little bit. While the emotions I went through were overwhelmingly positive, there were a lot of people getting a different experience.
The alternative world used to be something small and a little exclusive. The recent resurgence of alternative music makes it important the experiences grow along with it, and it’s growing so fast that it’s hard to keep up with the growth. Slam Dunk started as a small inner city festival, and the popularity of it has made it grow until this massive thing in Temple Newsam, but it’s looking like it’s growing faster than they can sometimes deal with properly.
In the end, we need to try to put our grievances about it aside and remember we are all there for the same love. This sometimes gets forgotten, making for tensions along crowds. On the other side are also people sharing good moments with strangers, because at that time, we are all still the same small alternative scene we started out as.
Enter Shikari:
This is the one many have been waiting on. It’s been a couple of years since they visited Slam Dunk (2017). Enter Shikari are one of the bands that always had so much potential, you could tell this even when they just had frat party vibes in stingy small rooms. This band was meant to do arena headliners and the newest record is getting them to the biggest point of their career so far.
The band and audience are both radiating heat, waiting to explode and they do just so. It might not be that small band anymore, but they party just as hard as back then. I needed to come down from feeling a lot of emotions over the last couple hours and this set was absolutely the ultimate ending to a perfect day, complete with fireworks. Everyone saved their last bit of energy for the last bang with the updated version of Sorry, You’re Not A Winner, before we can all head home completely tired yet rejuvenated at the same time.
Escape The Fate:
It’s safe to say Escape The Fate have found their way into what the band is supposed to be and they feel very confident in this.
There’s so much happening on the stage at the same time, and Mabbitt leads us through it as the Mad Hatter, the ringleader showing us what to pay attention to. I came here expecting one band, but came out of Wonderland with an entirely different perspective on it.
The Academy Is…:
One of the worst clashes on the line-up for me was picking between PVRIS and The Academy Is…, and the feeling of nostalgia of the 2000s band lured me in to pick this act. I’ve already written a little bit about the place of women in the scene, so my initial thought about this band was a little (ok, a lot) hypocritical. Let me just get it out of the way: there’s a reason The Academy Is… got listened to, and most of that was because of William Beckett’s inherit charm. He had a firm grip on girls like me in the early 2000s, gaining them a huge fanbase, both online and offline. However, the band hasn’t been together since 2011, if we don’t count the short-lived reunion in 2015, and the Warped Tour days are long over, so I was curious how well it holds up when so much time has passed.
I was kind of hoping to get something new in there as well, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking, because of their statement of being ‘back’. The show is a big celebration of their greatest hits, and new music would maybe not fit as well with this obvious throwback to the glory days… but I’d have loved to see a glimpse of their future in there. I’m very curious to hear what kind of music they’ll end up making, if any, and hear how that fits with their existing records.
Because of their very well-known songs, a lot of people are able to sing along. A lot of newer bands wish they got this kind of pull on a crowd, and they make it look like it all comes very easily. Beckett’s voice sounds very mature and I feel like he can handle much more, which makes it a little silly he’s still singing songs like About A Girl as a grown and greying man. You can tell he’s enjoying being back on the stage after such a long time, as well. What a difference from the kid we were all slightly obsessed with in our MySpace/Tumblr days, that kinda felt like he didn’t want to be there in the past. One thing is for sure though, Beckett really earned his position as emo heartthrob, as he still knows how to charm the crowd as well as he did 15+ years ago.
The Maine:
I’ve been a fan of this band since 2009 when their record Black and White came out, so this was one of the ‘must sees’ on my list for the day. I wrote in an earlier article that they have grown a lot for every record they’ve released, and the same goes for their live shows. I’ve seen this band at least 5 times before and I’ve never been bored for a second during their set, and today was no exception.
The band has been in the studio for the last couple of months, but the record isn’t out yet, so the most recent record they put out is XOXO from 2021 (not counting the newest singles). With them still in the recording process and only starting a tour in July, this show feels like it’s a little ‘in between eras’ show to hold us over until they fully go into the new era.
Considering Loved You A Little features Charlotte Sands, I half hoped to see her come on stage to perform this banger. I was a not disappointed and it definitely was one of the highlights of the festival for me. I just wish I could’ve split myself in two to see the set in it’s entirety, especially next to my friends I’ve spent the last 2 Slam Dunks with (close to me in spirit and in the crowd). When I’m speaking about the love for music, it means spending time with people that share that love with me that makes the experience more than just a silly show. The Maine know and understand this feeling, representing it with their ‘8123 family’ perfectly; this is why I call it home and I never want to leave.
Yellowcard:
Once more with feeling, because I like hurting apparently. I remember vividly standing in the venue during their ‘last’ Amsterdam show and trying to save that entire night to my memories, specifically seeing myself hug the stranger standing next to me that was also sobbing their eyes out. Since I’m trying to be a professional I can’t go around the photo pit crying my eyes out and hugging the other photographers next to me, I had to keep it together for at least 10 minutes.
When I got up this morning I was still contemplating wearing my 2017 ‘final tour’ shirt, but that honestly would’ve left me a little salty during the day. They put me through that awful hiatus from 2008-2010, but at least that hiatus meant they were going to come back at one point. Naming their last record ‘Yellowcard’ with a last song called ‘Rest In Peace’ made the final tour seem pretty damn final, so I mourned the loss of one of the bands I grew up with accordingly.
This is all to say, I hate that they did that to me, but I’m so incredibly happy to see them again, so as soon as they started, all was forgiven. In the beginning it was looking like it wouldn’t start at all, giving the North flashbacks to the last time they were at Slam Dunk (they were cursed with having technical difficulties it seems). I was a little scared this reunion would taint the memories from before, but in the end it just adds to them. Even with the hugging a stranger in the crowd, happy they are back. My heartbreak is healed a little after this.
Bowling For Soup:
Let me first start this off with the statement that Bowling For Soup was a big part of my formative years, and since the last show they did in The Netherlands was in 2007, I never got to experience them live. Since then, both me and the band have been growing up and growing old, so I hoped to make the teenage me happy by finally seeing them.
The things they were trying to say, were a little lost on the teenager that wasn’t exactly fluent in English. I can now more clearly tell the songs are somewhat parodying the music that was popular back when the songs were released. It’s all in good fun and the show is a blast from the past, but because the songs are so heavy on the pop culture references, the songs didn’t always age well.
Sometimes you just need to let the teenager in you take the wheel, and just love the music with the catchy hooks and funny schticks that take you back to when times were much simpler. It’s not rocket science and the men are more than aware of this. The way they present theirselves lets you know they are in on the joke, which makes this one of the most fun shows to have seen today.
