In an a couple of weeks ago with STUFF. , I asked some of the band members what they would love to see in the crowd whilst playing. “Seeing people dance uncontrollably”, is what they told me and that is exactly what I was doing at the Roma this evening. Me and 599 other people.
Once the biggest movie theatre in Antwerp, has been around since the early 1900’s and it has certainly seen its ups and downs. As soon as I walked down the majestic yet vintage entrance hall, I could not have been happier that so many volunteers and institutions decided to breathe new life back into the building in 2002. As of this writing however it is 2015 and the sound that is about to echo these halls seemingly originate from a year that is yet to come.
Good lord how long has it been since I saw a band having this much fun on stage, I can’t even remember. From beginning to end, these guys looked like they were just jamming to their heart’s content and the audience loved it. A sober stage, some light/smoke effects and five guys in an intimate setup was all that was needed to start off a trance that lasted over an hour in what felt like 20 minutes. Tracks like Java and Skywalker made me skip time more than once.
Mixmonster Menno on the turntables must have been watching Dr. Who a lot cause he was mixing like a time traveller with all the right beats at the right time. Andrew Claes on the saxophone/EWI might as well be branded a mass murderer cause he was killing it, breath after breath after breath after… Joris Caluwaerts was bashing the keys like a genius madman, turning the crowds into asylum patients. Dries Laheye kept his cool, like only bass players can while raising the temperature with close to erotic basslines. This brutally smooth attack was led by Lander Gyselinck on the drums. You know things are getting serious when the girl in front of you starts undressing, you know it’s getting next level when the people around you forget how to move like a human but you know sh*it just got real when the drummer takes off his shirt.
I am painfully aware that this summary sounds like an introduction of a cheesy 90’s boyband but just go see one of their shows and you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m telling you if grooves could kill, the audience would have been slaughtered and the janitor would have had to clean a room with 600 grinning corpses.
I’m sorry for the swearing and all the murder metaphors but it was just that *bleeping* good. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it ended, five *bleeps* out of five.
Text by Kevin Lau
Pics by Kevin Lau