Shikari, The Now-Denial, Seein’Red @ Simplon, Groningen 07 May 2005

Michael: We arrive with the equipment around 19.00 and the other bands already arrived. It’s good to meet our friends and share these last moments with them, although everything is rather misty and unreal at the same time. The concertroom is arranged very thoughtful: the stageparts are placed in the back and sides of the room. The bands play on the ground, the crowd can choose to go onstage or to suffer the pit. After setting up the backline, we do a small soundcheck, fix the lights and get some food while Maurice and Bas do an interview for the local television. The place slowly fills up with a mixed crowd. We see lots of friends that came from everywhere and there’s ofcourse Marian from Cracow in Poland who hitchhiked for almost 3 days to get to this gig! SEEIN’RED starts off with their militant hardcore, and it’s always a pleasure to see them play. There is some moments that I get the Vera vibe when we played with AT THE DRIVE IN. I see people walking away in disgust. Not used to this noise. Great! I guess THE NOW-DENIAL play a much more accessible sound. But so energetic and convincing. Yes, these are first-rate to complete this nite. When it’s finally our turn, there’s some unpronounceable suspense in the air. It’s getting very packed inside and the organization already closed the doors. I don’t know how to exactly describe other than it was in the best chaos tradition. We had to stop three times because people were falling into the drumkit. There was one particulary awkward moment when this girl crashed into my drumkit and we see her throat going straight for that cymbal. Going straight for that supersharp edge in the cymbal that was grinded because of a dent… Lucky for her AND the show, I hit that cymbal at that exact same moment and gave it a swing so she crashes into the “good” side. I’m sure we’d make the headlines by having a classic case of decapitation or at least some good ole artery bleeding on our finale… Maybe some other time. Ofcourse in true Shikari tradition all of us got damaged one way or another. Apart from the usual bruises, Mark also got a guitar smashed into his head, and I got hit hard by a crash cymbal full under my nose. Because of high adrenaline content, we start feeling the pain the day after… Thanks for everyone who dropped in, apologies to the ones that couldn’t get in and thanks to all that made these 6 years worthwile. Peace.

Shikari (Groningen, The Netherlands)
Seein’Red (Amersfoort, The Netherlands)
The Now-Denial (Germany)