Open Hand - Rocking Amsterdam together with These Arms Are Snakes
June 13th, it’s a cloudy Monday and I’m heading to Amsterdam with my girlfriend to interview Open Hand bassist Michael (expect the interview online soon!) and to see the live show these guys were about to bring us that same night. We were both very excited about the show and when we entered the venue it was empty. Completely empty! Man, that sucks! But fortunately it appeared that the people were just late, because when the show finally began, the venue was filled half way already. Great! Show time!
To start this live review; THESE GUYS ARE WEIRD! They’re completely nuts on stage. Especially the singer went crazy and was jumping around like he was dancing on some kind of humpapa song. Some technical problems with his mic were solved with entertaining actions and the crowd obviously enjoyed the craziness on stage. Well, enough about their stage performance, it’s obvious that it just rocked! But the music? That rocked even more! Damn, these guys are awesome! Great special effects during the songs and some kind of metalcore screams were thrown into the venue. The music was energetic as hell and the crowd reaction was pretty good. But before I gave you the wrong impression by calling the screams ‘metalcore screams’, These Arms Are Snakes is NOT a metalcore band. These guys from Seattle are playing music that can be best described as post hardcore. If you ever get the chance to see them live, I can only recommend you to do so!
Man oh man! Was I looking forward to this show or what? Hell yeah! During the sound check in the afternoon I was already blown away by the great sound, but during the actual show I completely fell in love with this band (as far as I still could fall in love with them). Although the vocals were a bit too much overruled in the beginning of the set, the music made up every single second of suffering from technical problems. Later on, the vocals became more clear and Open Hand visibly enjoyed their performance. Therefore it’s a pity that these guys are a bit shy in between the songs. Nevermind! They gave away an awesome show with songs like: ‘Take No Action’, ‘Tough Girl’ and ‘You And Me’. There was also one new song, which was pretty damn loud, especially for this band. Great addition to the setlist though! The only big minor was that the show was way too short. I think there wouldn’t have been one person in the venue that would mind a few more songs. Actually I think most of us hoped for that. But who knows? Maybe the next time? Let’s hope so! All in all, Open Hand has become one of my favourite bands and I can’t wait to see them again!