I just discovered Don Caballero after the release of their last album World Class Listening Problem, and I was curious on how this band would be live. Also one of the opening acts was Daughters, a mathcore band which is always a treat for the eyes and ears.

The opening band was the Belgian White Circle Crime Club, whom have thrown a bunch of related genres together in a blender and poured out the mix. In short, I heard elements of postcore, triphop, indie and rock, all done in a psychedelic and trippy atmosphere. We had vocals coming from three directions, both guitarists and bassist, but the centre vocalist had a bit of a whining voice which was a bit of a pity. The other guitarist also handled some effects as did the bass player, who had something in his sampling devices that substituted for a bass perfectly. The drummer kept throwing out heavy rock beats, to make the madness complete. All in all I must say there were parts that I really liked, and a lot of stuff that couldn’t attract my attention. The last song had some real cool elements in it, therefore it was a good idea of the WCCC to end the show with this song. Up next, terrible noise.

 

The sound was already quite loud this day, and with Daughters our limits were tested. Ultra loud intense mathcore with a very drunk vocalist who looks (and occasionally sounds) like some eighties heavy metal dude. The small drummer they had proved to pack a tremendous amount of power, pounding the living daylight out of that kit while sticking his tongue against the inside of his cheek. Battering action in fucked up rhythms and structures! Both guitarists treated us to lots of dissonant chords, fast riddles and devastating breakdowns. They were also big fans of delay pedals, since they stored a lot of riffs in them so they could layer the songs even more, or create transmissions to other songs. The bass player had a cool moustache, and just basically rocked for that fact alone. The drunk vocalist who started out with an extreme echo on his voice, noticed it during a part where he was on his on. His reaction; ‘what the fuck?!’ That was quite funny, and it became even better when during the last track he shoved half of his hand in his mouth and puked out like a gallon of beer on stage. Sick, loud, twisted and intense like a motherfucker. I’m going again on the 18^th of November in Arnhem!

 

Well after that I was already deaf and very satisfied. But when Don Caballero entered the stage, my jaw dropped once more. The only original member of the band is the drummer, but that guy can play like you would not believe! He makes every rock riff an adventure with his constantly changing but ever grooving beats and rolls and does it with the greatest of ease. What a monster! Unfortunately at some points it really started to look like a drum clinic, but that was no real problem for me. I like drums!
 

The other two members in his band knew and played their parts perfect. The bass player adapted to the drum groove in an excellent way, and his Fender bass on that Ampeg amp was like fairies kissing your eardrums. The guitarist also used a lot of delay stuff, but he played over that riff so it seemed like there were two guitarists. I didn’t even miss a second guitarist at all. The overall atmosphere of the show was very relaxed, only to be interrupted by some of the nonsense the drummer had to say between the songs. If you look at their song titles you get a good indication of what he spews out between the songs. Like that they stole their clown suits… and a song that will get the fruit-juice out of your zipper… yeah, my point exactly. A very impressive show by a high quality band. And I would like to add that how crappy the main stage at 013 sometimes may sound, the smaller stages always have an excellent sound. My compliments!