Shikari, Sayyadina, Cyness, Betercore, Kriegstanz @ Platformtheater, Groningen 23 November 2003

From the old bacteria.nl website: Platformtheater. Since 2001, several groups of people are organizing gigs in the Platformtheater, resulting in a big variety of (hardcore) bands and crowds. Best thing about this place is its location. It’s near the inner city-centre, opposite of the Simplon youthcenter and has a very low threshold opposed to ‘out-of-centre-places’ and squats. Lots of gigs have visitors that just drop by to see what’s going on or just to check it out. Good thing about the place is it’s atmosphere. The lighting is cosy and if the bands are set up in front of the high stage, there’s usually a very pleasant vibe. Also a good thing is the rent is not so high unless it is booked for a weekend. So most gigs happen in weekdays. Still, you need a big crowd to break even because the bar goes to the venue. And needless to say, the barprices are high. A lot of people bring their own drinks. It was never a problem until last couple of gigs the complaining started. Anyway, it’s been about half year since we/SHIKARI played Groningen and at least 2 years since this venue so it was time again. KRIEGSTANZ was added to the bill so we had a total of 5 bands. At 18.00 we were the first to arrive and were welcomed by organizer Jeroen and Jop/GILGAMOSH and friend. KRIEGSTANZ dropped in soon and I exchanged some really cool records with Jos. SPEEDTWINS LP and LULLABIES 7”. Great classic Dutch punk and essential for my ambitious Dutch Punk Archive. After setting up the backline and meeting with the other bands, we’re off for dinner just across the street. They prepared the house Skandinavian style coz the heater is overburning with temperatures above 30 degrees celcius. The dinner is just excellent, very delicious spinachpie. By now we have a hard time getting back to the place because of the heat and food. When we eventually arrive, KRIEGSTANZ has started. A great wall of catchy noise. They’re getting better with every gig I see. KRIEGSTANZ has been evolved from ORWELL NATION, and is formed in april 2003. After some memberchanges, they currently have SEEIN’RED (bass), CATHODE (guitar), THE BARNHOUSE EFFECT (guitar and vocals) members. Style can be described as neocrust. You know, mixing Skandinavian and modern Yankeesound with lowtuning and disbeats. It seems they’re developing their own sound, which is quite essential for this style coz most bands seem to merely clone their favorites. This night they agreee to do their first release with Unsociable from Bremen/Germoney (hello Stachel!). So apart from the fact that Rogier and Jos fuck up one or more songs and one of the Platform workers urge them to play softer, this is definitely a fruitful evening for them. In the back near the bar is a big supermarket. Most stuff comes from a Polish guy who sells some great shirts. I give away a bunch of copies of my new bootleg CDr and help BETERCORE setting up the drumkit. They slap through a short but raging set. Always fun to watch. By now the room has filled. Some 150 people present including a lot of “outsiders”. It’s 21.00 and we are doing our best to delay a bit coz it’s so fucking early! Anyway, SHIKARI fuck up practically all songs although many people fortunately don’t seem to notice it. After the set I feel like crawling under a rock. Probably my worst and most embarrassing performance this year so far. The only thing I feel good about is not giving in on the annoying demands by the Platformtheater workers to turn down the volume. CYNESS and SAYADDINA use their own backline so I start packing my drumkit onstage. Some CYNESS members I already know coz they double in Y from Berlin. When I heard them last year during the Para Raio festival, I was very impressed. Deathmetalgrind with a brutal female vocalist. But what happened? Here they play with a different vocalist and without bassplayer… I read on their webpage their bassplayer died in an accident?! Anyway. the drumming is relentless but I can’t help to be very disappointed when comparing this with last year. Too bad. SAYADINNA from Sweden seems to have quite a reputation coz I hear a lot of people raving about them. This is probably also because they have NASUM and VICTIMS members, recorded in the famous Sunlight studio and are on the American Relapse label. It sure was fun to watch the guitarplayer doing this gimmick of spitting in the air and catching it with his face. Or the bassplayer struggling with his guitarstring. Musically it is rather boring, done a million times before. It’s not bad or something, just nothing special or exciting. Nevertheless it was a nice night for most of us, with good organization, friendly bands/people and an impressive KRIEGSTANZ!

Shikari (Groningen, The Netherlands)
Sayyadina (Stockholm, Sweden)
Cyness (Potsdam, Germany)
Betercore (Alkmaar, The Netherlands)
Kriegstanz (The Netherlands)