Musicians are getting younger and younger these days. Not long ago I saw a concert of Hello Goodbye in Amsterdam. That night it was the drummers 19^th birthday. Nineteen years old and already on a worldtour! That rocks! The Venue Kids, like the name predicts, are also youngsters. With their album, A Piece Of Happiness, they give it a shot to be one of the maintaining young bands.

With only 50 gigs played around the country they still have a big road ahead. Though the name Venue Kids sounds familiar to me. I’m almost certain that I’ve never heard of them before. They’re from Sweden and I think they just start to taste a little bit more of Europe.

 

Their music sounds also very young to me. Not really exciting. It’s a bit of up-tempo poprock. It reminded me a bit of Jimmy Eat World and Junction 18 but then without the power. Their music is happy, simple and therefore easy to listen and to sing along with. That’s probably what they want because 'Got Something' (tenth track on the album) is their only song with a little power in it. The rest is just (a bit too) ‘brave’.

 

I would say, make it more exciting to listen to. Give it more power and variety! But in the end it’s all a matter of taste. Still, I just can’t place it. It’s too loud for pop but too soft for rock…and I wouldn’t call it indie-rock-emo or anything that comes near these genres. The sad thing here is that it’s not even original even though I can’t put it in genres. On the other hand, how many bands can say that they have a guy in the band just to play the tambourine. Sure that’s not the most precious position in a band…but who cares, he has got his own “Thanks to: ” space in the booklet!

 

Love,

 

Maurits