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Took advantage of fact that I'm only a 200 minute drive away (plus the hour required for the Chunnel) and shot across to the gig at the weekend. Not sure what weather was like in UK but was absolutely stifling in Belgium, 30 degrees mid afternoon and still well into 20s overnight. Was too hot to breathe and too hot to think as they say, so with my options limited I just had to settle for a couple of cold Stellas.
Gig was in a huge tent in a park on edge of town, and on approach it seemed like there was a spectacular light show filling the night sky, but was in fact some impressive lightning from a few miles away. Luckily the storms never arrived at Herentals, although majority of the crowd of maybe 300 in the tent were so wringing wet with sweat and flying beer that heavy rain wouldn't have made too much difference.
Rats had an 11.30 slot and the misfortune to follow some local heroes who were best described as The Wurzels meet ZZ Top. Despite their odd 'style' the fans went barmy and pretty much blew their load on these guys, meaning Rats had it all to do to arouse some follow up interest. Set was limited to an hour, and band played well even though concensus was the sound system provided wasn't exactly top of the range. To be fair to Mike, even Freddie Mercury might have struggled to get the crowd fully engaged at this stage. Just seemed as though the heat (and no doubt increased beer intake as a consequence) coupled with fact they had just exhausted themselves singing along to 'Sharp Dressed Farmer' and 'Gimme All Your Cider' had left the crowd too drained to respond.
That said, they suddenly came alive for Mondays and there was 5 minutes of renewed fervour. Maybe it was just they were that little bit too young for the bulk of Rats' set.
Well worth the trip though. Nice little town, friendly locals, and top notch Stella!
Just checking where Herentals is. It's very near Antwerpen. Presumably the natives are the Dutch speaking, Flemish type of Northern Belguim.
The band Suss mentions sounds a bit of an oddity, but maybe that's the sort of thing the locals like. I presume they were singing in Dutch as well, which always helps! Dutch is easier to understand after a few drinks!
Anyway it must be good to get out and see a bit of Europe, never mind the music aspect. I'm heading off to Amsterdam for a few days at the weekend so hopefully after will travel a bit more.
That Housemartins song Me and The Farmer comes to mind when thinking about that Belguin band.
-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 13th of September 2011 12:32:51 PM
-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 13th of September 2011 12:34:25 PM
Presume the name means catastrophe as a lot of the Dutch language is very like English. Some bands are unintentionally 'funny' and equally there are some groups, particularly in the byways of Europe who are just as the appear.
Just wonder what was the most incongruous small line up ever? Lets say a rapper, a country and western band and a prog rock band all on the one bill? Must be a bit embarrassing for the Rats to come on after an act like that, and expect the audience to just adjust to a totally different kind of music and vibe. Maybe it was one of those line ups with 'something for everyone'.
The only song I know by Dept S is Is Vic There? Maybe they had loads of other good songs but I never got to explore them further. I will Google the band and see about their career in full.
Are you heading off to kiel? Its a bit north of Hamburg so Hamburg is probably the place to aim for.
-- Edited by noelindublin on Tuesday 13th of September 2011 02:30:44 PM
There is an airport at Lubeck which is even nearer kiel. It is listed as Hamburg (lubeck)
and may be one of those old RAF airports now used by Easyjet/ Flybe/Ryanair. It is about half way between Hamburg and Kiel roughly twenty miles to the north east of Hamburg. Prusumably Hamburg has a posh airport as well which is actually in Hamburg.
Maybe someone should set up an insurance company that deals with the possibility of concerts being postponed for frequent gig goers if that makes sense.
