das pop - charlatan - 270709

das pop in the carlatan de luxe edition, during the gentse feesten, surprise gig, and a nice one ... punchy new and old (reworked) songs, and ending with an up tempo version of sinatra's it was a very good year

de staat - charlatan - 200709

quite a young big dutch band in an old small bar in gent, how, like more things, music has difficulties to cross borders ... but they're good indeed, i would describe them as a energetic crossover between arctic monkeys and queens of the stone age, with even a hint of the shadows (indeed) at some point, and some architect like songs ... so not bad at all ... entertaining, specially thanks to their energetic performance

sleep tight / you'll be the leader / habibi / my blind baby / were gonna die / meet de devil / fantastic journey / my heart's dead / i'm here to lose control / riverside // wait for evolution

arbouretum / bony king of nowhere - handelsbeurs - 190709

first part of boomtown at the gentse feesten is inside and to pay for, which i happily did for these 2 bands ...

great gig of arbouretum, their first time in gent, definitely have to come again ... first concert with my camera, see pics here, have to admit that i sometimes put it down to enjoy their great music ... next bony king, different sound, but nice as well, although bram, the lead singer, should work on talking to the audience, his music asks for something else or more than have you something to ask or we play a next one now, first encore was a solo acoustic, afterwards the whole band returned for another one ...

arbouretum: singpost and instruments / hiding place / tonight's a jewel / ghost of here and there / fall line / false spring / underneath the arches // another rites of uncovering song as encore

cactus - 110709

65 days of static early up in the afternoon, but they progrocked the place and the cactus audience appreciated that ... in between some other bands, but i came to see the gutter twins, only accompanied by an extra guitarist today ... great, they can come and play at my, hm, whatever ... favorite, resurrection song, see vid

rock werchter - 030709

a short friday visit to the holy field of werchter ... arriving a bit late, bloc party from far outside, then a bit of the killers from close by inside (same old songs), and off to the marquee for arsenal ... and whoow, again heads on, what a gig .. one word, lotuk !!! a tent exploding ... next today's headliner, coldplay ... a bit disappointing, during the first songs the sound and specially chris' voice was really bad ... clocks (world class song) sounding like old rusty watches ... luckily it became better, with chris having fun, playing some billy jean solo on the piano, also a surprise visit in the middle of the field, close where we were standing (too bad for the other half of the field) ... and enough good music to leave a decent impression (viva la vida, the scientist, fix you, lost, life in technicolor 2 -great song-), but too bad, not superb, as i've seen them before in antwerp's sportpaleis ...

blur - 010709

just saw their performance at this year's glastonbury, which was quite something ...
this is one of the great songs they played