With me sinking time into my thesis over the past six months, The blog has been a bit quite over that time, so here is a little recap of all the shows and bands I saw over those months. As stated in part one, this recap is split in three to keep it readable.
Waterparks
Waterparks, with support from Phem and bad suns was what I expected from a concert, with Bad suns being mostly there to warm-up the crowd and Phem treating it like her own show in terms of energy and crowd interaction. Waterparks mixed songs from most of their career, with intermissions in the form of baby shark and stories about the band themselves. I’ve seen Waterparks live a couple of times and every time their show seems mostly focused on crowd interaction.
Neck Deep
This marks the fourth time I’ve seen Neck Deep live, but before we get into their performance, lets take a look at their supporting acts, “Happydaze” and “Boston Manor” Happydaze brought energy to the forefront, with not only their vocalist jumping and dancing around during the preformed but the guitarist rowing around his guitar and the whole band showing to be heaving fun during their performance. “Boston Manor” was second on the bill and where just as good as expected, getting the crowd moving. The main event “Neck Deep” was the right mix of heartfelt performance and stage banter, with Ben was even joking about their reasons to play Amsterdam.
The Faim
The Faim was one of those shows where I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by both the bands stage presence, with vocalist Josh even going into the crowd during songs and the band being offstage after the show and just talking and taking pictures with fans.
Enter Shikari
Enter Shikari is a band that you just have to see live once in your life, with a performance which even starts while waiting for the band to take the stage. During the show the band hyped the crowd, of course aided by an immaculate light show, which made the show partly a metal show, partly a rave, much like the musically influences of the band itself seem to be.
Lowlands
Getting the chance to work at Lowlands festival for a day and getting to experience the rest of the festival, I decided to visit the festival this year. With this being more of an invited affair, not every band on the bill fitted my taste, so I’m going to only talk about a couple of the acts that I saw.
Wet Leg
Wet Leg was a band that came while scrolling through Tiktok more than once, so seeing them on the festival line-up seems the perfect moment to check them out. The bands weirdness and energy made for an interesting show, even if it was one of the opening performances.
Nova Twins
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, probably have heard of the storm that is Nova Twins. They did more than live up to the name they have made for themselves, with the entire crowd moving from side to side and the band joining in on the pit.
Bring Me The Horizon
While bring me the Horizon was playing the main stage, the crowd was smaller and more energetic giving it more of an underground show vibe, at least from the crowds end, with rowing happening in the middle of the pit. The band combined some energy with bright visuals and being the music machine the band mostly is while playing live.
Palaye Royale
This bands performance was early on the day and their energy was the kick some needed to wake up for the last day of the festival. With the band dancing around and guitarist Sebastian trying to get to the crowd as close as possible they got the crowd moving and their performance was one of my favorites of the whole festival.