Speedfest #3 - Booze, hotrods and Rock 'n Roll!
The Dutch speedrockers of Peter Pan Speedrock organized their annual Speedfest party for the third time this year. Every year this festival turns out to get bigger and bigger and therefore on forehand the rumors were going around that the festival was completely sold out! I’m still not sure if it was sold out, but believe me, it was crowded as hell! It was almost impossible to check out all 15 bands, so here is a summary of the highlights of the festival.
(All pictures : Lindsy Bouten)
When we arrived at about 15.00, it became immediately clear that this was going to be a busy and crowded festival. There was an immense queue in front of the entrance. We literally had to stand in the queue for about one hour! We entered the Klokgebouw and immediately we were overwhelmed by the good atmosphere and vibe going on. The scenery of the whole venue was done very well, including numerous eat-stands, a Jack Daniels bar and a great Hotrod show by the Eindhoven Hotrod crew Thrashers Car Club. A memorable day it was going to be!
When we entered the venue, the rumors were going on that one of the sub-headliners, GBH, had cancelled their show. This turned out to be true and therefore on stage 1, every band had gone up one place on the bill. First band on that stage we saw, were the Dutch rockers from Sunnpimp. This band, named after their most beloved amplifier, was a surprisingly good opening band. Their mixture of sixties garage-rock like MC5 and The Stooges, mixed with oldschool seventies hardrock was pretty refreshing. Their frontman gained a lot of attraction from the crowd, by dressing up in a weird costume. Pretty good singer, but sometimes he sounded like a wannebee Elvis! Good opener of the festival, with some awesome entertaining 80’s hardrock riffs.
(The Bellrays)
The schedule of the bands went pretty smooth, because the two main-stages were divided in two different halls. Straight after Sunnpimp's show, it was time for some soul drenched garage-rock from the band The Bellrays. This American band is something else. They make an unique combination of wild shaking soul, with raw garage-rock/punk with vocals that'll give Aretha Franklin a smile of approval. Their singer Lisa Kekaula is exactly what you expect, when you hear her soul singing. A big Afro-American woman with a huge afro hair due! She is also the eye-catcher of the band and a hell of an entertainer. This band was the highlight of the festival. I’ve seen them a couple of times before, but never as good as on this day. The set was filled with songs of their last two albums and rocked the socks off from the crowd. They got some real good response of the crowd. Unfortunately the sound in hall 2 wasn’t that good; especially in the back it had a huge reverberating sound. Luckily in front of the stage the sound was more than acceptable. Awesome show from the best band of the festival, check out this awesome band.
After that, we saw a part of the set from Belgium speedrockers Los Putas. These rednecks pushed out some decent sleazy speedrock ‘n roll out of the speakers. Decent live-band with ditto live-presentation, but nothing new under the sun.
(The Klingonz)On stage 1 the UK extraterrestrial clown- psychobilly outfit The Klingonz made their triumph! Personally I don’t like the psychobilly sound that much, but judging the crowd’s reaction on this band, this was one of the most successful bands of the day. Judging the wild, enthusiasm of the audience this band must have a huge following. I didn’t expect such a great response. With a lot of sing-alongs during their set, they created a hell of a party. They shot out a lot of confetti and serpentines into the crowd and even a fire-ball spitting act was part of their performance. I think their visual impact is also a huge reason of their success; they look like a psychobilly version of Slipknot. Psychobilly clowns from hell! I didn’t like it, but for most people this was one of the highlights of the day.
One reason Speedfest is such a huge success, is that it is appealing very diverse people and subcultures. The crowd of Speedfest was one big great melting-pot of punks, psychos, skins, bikers, hardcore kids and metal-heads. Just all the outcasts of society on one festival!
Around seven o’clock it was time for Swedish Death ‘n Roll kings Entombed. Finally there was a band that produced a decent sound in the shitty sounding factory-halls. A really good, smudgy, dirty Death ‘n Roll sound. I thought Entombed would make their set-list appropriate to the rock ‘n roll crowd, by playing a lot of songs from their most rock ‘n roll album Uprising. I didn’t hear even one song from that album, but they played a lot of songs of their brilliant album Wolverine Blues and their last album Serpent Saints. The last song they played was ‘Left Hand Path’. The last time I saw them playing old classics it didn’t sound anything like it should, but today the sound was good. Good show! Oh and Lars Petrov is becoming the Ozzy of death-metal! The only thing lacking is that he doesn’t throw out buckets with water; otherwise he was the Ozzy of death-metal.
(Entombed)
After that, we saw Def Americans on the third and smallest stage. This American band is a spiced-up Johnny Cash tribute band with female and male vocals. Considering the packed hall and enthusiasm of the crowd it was probably better to book this band on one of the main-stages. Good Johnny Cash tribute band, that just had a bit of extra because of the excellent female vocals.
Bagpipes, booze, kilts and tattoos. That can mean only one thing! The Real McKenzies are in the house! On stage 1 these Canadians played their Celtic folk punk to the crowd. The band is an ideal festival band for the summer-festivals. On those festivals their music will create huge pogo-parties and on Speedfest that was no different! Good show and the crowd loved it, but they can’t camouflage that they are in fact a cheap version of the Dropkick Murphy’s.
After the the show, we went to the small stage again to see the American trashy blues-punk duo Sixtyniners. This band is like a mix between the White Stripes and Lynyrd Skynyrd, but their performance wasn’t that good though. The sound was terribly out of tune and the vocals where just a bit too false to be enjoyable. The female drummer was one hot tattooed babe though!
Then it was time for the hosts of this festival on the main-stage in hall 1. Peter Pan Speedrock are the absolute kings of 3-chord speedrock ‘n roll. They came, they saw and they conquered their own crowd as expected! They are still one of the best live-bands in our country. The set-list was just one great “best-of”, with songs of every album they did. They even played a couple of songs from their new Batmobile split CD. In fact it is a Batmobile cover, but played in the PPS way. Of course the encore of the set was ‘Schoppen Aas’ with Dikke Dennis on guest vocals.
Then it was time for the hosts of this festival on the main-stage in hall 1. Peter Pan Speedrock are the absolute kings of 3-chord speedrock ‘n roll. They came, they saw and they conquered their own crowd as expected! They are still one of the best live-bands in our country. The set-list was just one great “best-of”, with songs of every album they did. They even played a couple of songs from their new Batmobile split CD. In fact it is a Batmobile cover, but played in the PPS way. Of course the encore of the set was ‘Schoppen Aas’ with Dikke Dennis on guest vocals.
After the energetic set of PPS, we had the chance to chill out with Bob Wayne And The Outlaw Carnies. Bob Wayne started out as a roadie for country-legend Hank III, but after a while he started his own bluegrass/hillbilly country band, with the help of some Zeke members. This was the absolute second highlight of the day. The music they play is super energetic contrabass, violin filled bluegrass/hillbilly countryrock ‘n roll with a punk attitude. Awesome stuff that makes you dance and throw beer in a second and that is what the crowd did! Awesome to see a bunch of scumfuckers and punkrockers play this kind of music. Can’t wait to see them again!
(Peter Pan Speedrock)
All the bikers and chapter-members gathered together in front of stage 1 to be a part of the show from Black Label Society. Zakk Wylde and his men entered the stage with a lot of testosterone and bravery. For the first time this day a band had a perfect sound. What followed was a good set with lots of leads, solos and feedback from the man himself. They played a lot of songs from the albums Blessed Hellride and Maffia. Seeing Zakk Wylde from up-close, I have to say he is a pretty impressive guy to see. But without his steady band mates Craig Nuenbacher (ex-Crowbar) and the other guitar-player he couldn’t deliver such a solid show. After ¾ of the set they threw out BLS beach-balls into the crowd. After that, he thinks it necessary to show once again that he is a brilliant guitar-player by playing a 10 minute long solo. Come on, we know you are good but we don’t want to hear a 10 minute solo. Play some more songs instead… It was a good show, but somehow I had the idea he could do better.
My respect goes out to the guys of PPS and the people behind the Speedfest festival, because they did one hell of a job in order to get a perfectly organized festival. I already know that I will be present again in the Klokgebouw next year. (RoyBalowski)
(Black Label Society)