The task for opening the evening was put in the hands of Flysswater, being on their first gig of their first European tour. This had some reflections on the attitude of the singer, who tried to get everyone in the mood with his positive talking between the skate-punk songs. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t come for that and he got only a little response, in the small but sold-out Tivoli De Helling venue. The Tears for Fears cover ‘Shout’ was performed badly in a terrible form but the biggest mistake was to ask for the fact if anyone was familiar with a band called BoySetsFire. This made the set look a bit too long whereas the last three songs, especially the final ‘Monday’ made a better impression. Maybe next time with a different set-list?

 

Of course, everyone knew about the fact that this was their last gig in Holland and that Josh suffered a horrible accident. However, when the band that is well known for their political opinions started to play, I felt a bit awkward. There was something going on, something was not right. The sound was pretty good and the band was in good shape but you could see them thinking: ‘If only Josh could be here’. Fortunately, Nathan started to talk pretty soon and this effort forced the band to create a great sphere. And it worked. ‘Handful of Redemption’ ,‘Still Waiting for the Punch Line’ (with the first part being acoustically performed) and ‘Empire’ are already classics towards the visitors tonight and slowly something happened I cherish this band so much for; crowd and band came together and had an awesome night. When Nathan excused themselves from having not practiced that much, a girl shouted: ‘We still love you!!’, and we all agreed, and smiled.

And although not all my personal favorite songs were played, due to the fact that some of them haven’t been practiced and others were performed with only one guitar player, both the acoustic parts and the heavy songs were killing time. Maybe not as enthusiastic as earlier this year but it was still awesome. At the end of the set, Nathan excused the band for not being too political and talking about social matters this time, they got a warm applause, followed by ‘Rookie’ and the almighty, everlasting killer song ‘After the Eulogy’. Unless this predictability, it rocked, it rocked very hard.

 

BoySetsFire did what they had to do, come up with a show to reveal their respect towards the fans that’ve supported them through all the years, even with releasing records on different labels each time. To me, this evening will be a night to remember. Not because of the great show but because of the fact that one of my musical pioneers have said goodbye with the single most important thing you can have in musical business. Respect between the band and the fans.