Mind Shelter - Fluff - Liftid - A Cloudy Day

It was a cloudy day, the second last day of the year 2004. Metalrage existed for exactly two years, as Buzzin Hornet, Shaydee and me (Siem) were heading towards the Nighttown, Rotterdam, to see Mind Shelter, Fluff and Liftid. Clouds would be the perfect metaphor for the evening, but at the time we departed, I had no single idea.

The first band was Mind Shelter. My colleagues warned me about the incredible amount of noise I was about to witness (I was so stupid to forget my ear protection) so I was really excited about the first gig.

As the band entered, there were a few things that immediately surprised me. First of all, the visual effects. They are performed by a young women in the corner. You can hardly see her, but she makes some quit weird and interesting video tapes (with lots of clouds and very mysterious pictures), perfectly matching with the band’s name.

Secondly, there was no bass player. At first I didn’t notice that there wasn’t any, but when I was observing every single musician, I saw. Despite of the lack of the man on bass, the sound was great and at first I thought they didn’t actually had a bass player. After the show, someone told me that the guy in fact was already busy that night.

Well, let’s get to the performance. The band plays nu-metal. Two man on guitar (they reminded me of Bad Brains somehow) a drummer, a vocalist and someone for the special effects. And they can play their music in a way you just have to bang your head with. The front man is a little shy, but that’s exactly what the band needs. A good way of communication, very, very heavy riffs but also some kind of distance (probably also because of the special effects). Mind Shelter is a band that is able to perform live, so that you can actually feel the band name.

Have you ever been in a band and felt like the name of the band sucks? Try to see Mind Shelter live and come up with inspiration. As I was keeping my breath and considering what was about to happen on stage, a girl next to me said to her friend: ‘This is so promising. They’re going to be really big.’ Let’s hope so, shall we??

After the first gig, Buzzin Hornet and Shaydee went out to do an interview, and I stayed for the second band on the bill, Fluff. Oh, how I enjoy that kind of intro’s, starting with only a single bass or guitar and slowly adding all the other instruments to the music. I had not a single idea about what was about to happen after the intro, but I already liked them.

Then, the singer came up on stage and the guys start playing. Well playing is not the correct word to describe what they were doing. Imagine five young guys on stage totally p l a y I n g t h e I r a s s e s o f f. And I mean, totally. I recognized a lot of different influences, like heavy metal, punk and also hardcore, but in an almost perfect mix. It’s hard to make kind of schemas in music with such a lot of variety of influences, so that it won’t be annoying to listen to, but I didn’t feel annoying at all, neither did the kids in the pit. I might keep an eye on this band.

After that, it was time for a little break and we went to sit down on a few chairs and have something to drink. After a while, I could see all the smoke that was hanging around in the venue, and I started to feel weird. Everything was hazy as Liftid started to perform, but……I………wasn….’t…..ab..le….to….see……any…….thing……..but….dark….clouds….

As you probably already guessed, I passed out, feeling completely miserable. Fortunately, my two colleagues helped me very well to come back to earth again, but I wasn’t able to have a view to the band anymore. I would like to apologize to the band I missed and to all of you who were interested in a review of Liftid. I’ll try to make it up in any order. Just give me time to recover. Ouch, my head……..

Details Written on Saturday Jan 1st, 2005
Writer @Buzzin Hornet

Tags: #Mind Shelter - Fluff - Liftid

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