PCP, Dog Ugly, Blowtorch, Boycot @ Opdrift, Groningen 11 March 2000

PCP, Dog Ugly, Blowtorch, Boycot @ Opdrift, Groningen 11 March 2000

From the old bacteria.nl site: This is a birthday party for 4 people who work at the Op Drift squat and they made it a public concert. Great! The Op Drift is a perfect location for these kind of activities. In the course of time this place has been transformed into a very cosy and beautiful squatbar. Concerts have to start early because of the neighbors (the place is situated in the middle of the citycentre) so it usually ends at around 12. Normally squat concerts in Groningen start around this time. When I arrive I meet the Boycot people and a couple polish guys who organize in Amsterdam. Cool. They took their distro as well with gorgeously designed t-shirts and loads of tapes. When Anti’s new band Blowtorch take the small stage, there’s about 50 people present. They play a bunch of covers from Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Supersuckers… It sounds very disorderly but played with enthusiasm. I hear they are considering writing own material. Dog Ugly has a pretty cool line up with Maynard ex-Fal/Catweazle/PCP (and a zillion other bands) and Jonas ex-Hiatus. Since this is their first gig, they’re pretty nervous. Anyway, it’s really catchy, mostly mid-tempo punkrock heavily influenced by the likes of Sick On The Bus. Gam, the singer, seems to write twisted singalong lyrics coz thanks to the new vocalequipment (we had a lot of problems in the past to find suitable speakers) it was actually possible to understand lyrics!! After a while they start getting sloppy… but it is excellent anyway. Definitely a band to keep an eye on. In the meantime I start handing out questionnaires regarding my ambitious project (a definite Groningen punkhistory for these webpages). By now the crowd has multiplied and I see some really old punks walking around so I take my chance. Everybody’s eager to help! Shit, I have to prepare for the PCP set. Sound on stage is horrible so I play purely on feeling and routine. I see Esther is doing fine singing alone for the first time. She has to do all the vocalparts because Margriet is in the States. Eventually all went well as people seemed to like it. I guess it helped that we were all sober (for a change). Some of us were even drinking water during the set!! I never drink alcohol before playing. It relaxes my muscles too much. Hmm, I never drink alcohol after the concert as well… After coming to myself again (it always takes me around 15 minutes to recover from these efforts especially when it is in small hot and smokey places). I continue my chats with several old punks and enjoy the truly hectic sounds of Boycot. Some of the crowd is dancing and Billie, the singer, is all over the stage. They play as tight as can be and Taco the drummer is like a machine. A pure stop and go thrash attack!! For me one of the best Dutch bands of this moment.