“Romanov Goes Heavy!” was the title on the flyer that popped into my Facebook inbox only about a week in advance. Parakachurdelek Bookings was inviting a couple of bands over to play a free last minute concert in their local bar Romanov. I’m still not sure why they did it on a Monday, but I was visiting my parents over the weekend anyway and the line-up was actually really good as well so I couldn’t miss out on this one. I packed my camera gear along with some extra stuff so I could stay and extra day at my parents and hit up the concert on my way back to Ghent. I couldn’t see everything because I had to catch the last train home, but I ended up seeing Hopes Die Last, who came all the way from Italy, and Now Voyager. Both were new to me, but really impressed me and I think we’ll see more of them very soon!
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I got into this kind of music through my brother. He introduced me to Bring Me The Horizon years ago and at first I didn’t really like it, and I still don’t like the heaviest stuff from the early days, but once Suicide Season came out with it’s more melodic parts I started to listen to them as well. By now I saw them play a couple of times and I must say this was by far the best show of ‘em all. I really like their new album and they are also playing much better live than before. All the other bands that played that night at AB I had heard from, but hadn’t really listened to before, really surprised me and all got loaded to my iPod the very next day.
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Ska-punk, poppunk, punkrock, powerpop… I have no idea what box they fit in, but I know that when I put these two bands on I instantly get happier. It was both the first time I went to see a band in the concert hall of Vooruit and the first time I saw either Less Then Jake or Zebrahead. I got to say it wasn’t the best show I’ve ever seen, but hey it’s called punk for a reason, it’s supposed to be sloppy! And well, sloppy it was…
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It’s always nice to discover new bands. I stumbled upon The Gaslight Anthem while scanning through AB‘s event calender. Although apparently they already played at one of Belgium’s biggest music festivals Rock Werchter this summer, they were totally new to me. After a quick listen on Myspace I bought a ticket for their concert and got all their music. A month or two later I went to Brussels and worked myself through the crowds of a completely sold out AB.
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It has been a couple years now that I really want to go, but either had something else going on or just couldn’t afford the always pretty pricey tickets. This year though it finally worked out. I made it to Belgium’s and maybe even Europe’s biggest electronic music event, I ♥ Techno.
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Every year KHSL, the harmony orchestra I play in, organises several events with the majority of them being annually reoccurring. One of these annual events is the KHSL Youth’s weekend. It all comes down to getting out to some random town on the first weekend of November, play music and entertain ourselves. It’s about changing the scenery so we can spend time together in another setting and it has made us a tight bunch of friends over the years. And I guess for young new musicians that had decided to join us a month earlier at the start of our musical year, it makes for a great atmosphere to get welcomed in. This year was no different.
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I just love last minute invites! You know, you get this “I feel like partying tonight” feeling and then your cellphone goes off. My friend Lorelei does this all the time and I love her for it. I got an invite on Facebook for Peut-être Demain‘s concert a few days earlier from their guitar player Wouter, I replied with a maybe, but unfortunately forgot about it. Lorelei send me one of her last minutes that evening so I did end up going. And I’m glad I did, it was way different than what I’m used to, but fun none the less.
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We grew up with the 8-bit tunes blieping and blopping around our ears. When years later my brother, the one who’s now actually learning how to develop computer games in college, discovered Sabrepulse and his chiptune music we, my brothers and I, all became a fan. And about a month ago he came to Belgium, more precisely to a very small local bar only a few kilometres from where I grew up. No way we were going to miss that!
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I don’t now why you would like to do this. Trains are boring. The seats aren’t that bad in most of them, but not really comfy either. There is always either someone yelling in his phone, playing loud music through the crappy speakers of his cellphone or laughing way too loud or a kid screaming his lungs out. You have to hop from one into another because they never seem to go directly where you want to go. And if they run late, like they do most of the time, chance are you are going to miss that connection as well wasting even more time than usual. If you don’t have a car though, here in Belgium they are the only way to travel fairly cheap over large distances. So if you’re like me you’ll end up in one at least once a week. While it’s obvious I found out this method by accident, and there are a million other ways, I’d like to share it with you.
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Student Kick-Off on Sint-Pieters square here in Ghent is another big event that is held to, just like the name suggests, kick off the new academic year. This free event got put together by the universities, colleges, the city of Ghent and the students themselves. They got a nice all Belgian line up together and the event was well organised. We had a great time at the concerts and ended up in the Overpoort afterwards to party some more.
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At the start of the new academic year there is a lot happening here in Ghent. Ghent is one of Belgium’s major cities to get higher education so while the summer is relatively quiet, at the end of September the madness returns. I was off work because my injured shoulder and since partying doesn’t require more than one arm, out we went.
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