Holland’s favorite punk band has to be Heideroosjes. These guys have released great albums for the past twenty years and this year they even brought us the 2CD album 20 Years: Ode & Tribute. On the first disc they paid a tribute to bands they grew up with and who have influenced the sound of the band. On the other CD Heideroosjes’ songs were covered by Dutch and Belgium artists. The remarkable thing is that the covered tracks stayed great, even though some of them were performed by hip-hop and pop acts. All in all it is a good album to listen to once in a while, but Heideroosjes playing Heideroosjes’ songs stays far more interesting. This fact was once again confirmed when we saw them entertain the crowd in Utrecht.

The opener for tonight was Davenport. These guys haven't been around that long (especially if you compare them with Heideroosjes), but the ambition makes up for that (just look at the gigs they did this year!). Davenport plays a very familiar type of pop/rock, maybe even a bit too familiar: The music of this female fronted band just screams "Paramore" or "Bands that sound like Paramore". There is little to fault about the bands performance, although a more convincing stage act wouldn’t hurt. But then again, these are things that come with time. All in all, a nice warm up, but Davenport will have to spice up their own sound and songs to leave a lasting mark. (Carn)
 

The almost sold out venue went completely nuts on songs like ‘Sjonnie & Anita’, ‘Klapvee’, ‘Damclub Hooligan’ and ‘United Scum’. It also almost seemed like a sort of sing-along-event, ‘cause the fans were singing every single word. For the people who’ve seen them like more than five times this year (which isn’t a hard thing to accomplish when a band plays that much as Heideroosjes does) it wasn’t a very surprising gig though. The songs were the same, the show was the same, the audience seemed the same and even the outfit of bassist Fred Houben was the same. But although almost everything was the same as the previous time I saw these guys, I probably will go again when they play near me. Those guys just rock, period. (Gilles)