4 February 2023

5 mins read

Photography: Christine Mooijer

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with Palaye Royale

CONCERT REVIEW: Palaye Royale Rock Amsterdam With Amazing Second Netherlands Show

Palaye Royale came to the Netherlands again! It hasn’t even been that long since they last were here but they can’t seem to get enough of our country. They took Starbenders and Yonaka with them this time. It was the perfect moment for Dutch fans of the bands. They were in the Netherlands for three days in a row. All shows in different venues, one in Paradiso, one in Melkweg and the last one in 013, which is more in the south of the country. We got to be at the Melkweg show ourselves, we also got to interview Starbenders and Emerson Barrett from Palaye Royale.

The venue was around ¾ full when it was time for the first band. Starbenders. No one really seemed to expect anything special of them, because they were the first band of three, except for a group in the front. You could see them dancing along with the music more than the others who didn’t know them yet. The thing Starbenders did great was getting the crowd to wake up at the start of the evening. You could see relatively a lot of people sing and clap along at moments when they had to.

This in combination with the amazing vocals of lead singer Kimi Shelter made for a great performance, she can have a soft voice that would fit in with a lot of genres, but she can also go way rougher which she managed to balance really well. Not just her but the entire band had some amazing energy. You often see with bands, that are the first of three, that they shy away from what they want to do and going all out. Not with Starbenders. They were all over the stage, interacting with each other and the crowd and stealing the show overall.

It was Yonaka their turn after that. The venue was already filling up more, it started to get really busy around this point. More of the crowd started to participate in everything too. Even when Yonaka played some new songs from their upcoming album. They teased this album with a release the day after the Melkweg concert. “Welcome to the new era.” Those are the words they use on their Instagram. Overall Yonaka performed great, go see them live if you like to feel a lot of bass during concerts because their music surely has some amazing bass.

You could feel the room fill with anticipation once it was time for the main band, Palaye Royale. It started off with some voice talking over the speakers after which they opened with Nightmares. In my opinion, one of their best songs to open with. I’m not the only one who has that opinion because the crowd got so fired up that pits already started forming during that same opening song. Of course, Palaye Royale wouldn’t be Palaye Royale if they didn’t break stuff or if they didn’t do things their way, Remington Leith, the lead singer, broke the first microphone stand fairly early in the set. I’m saying the first one because he broke multiple microphones and microphone stands during the time that they were playing.

One of the funniest things to see was the security guard that had to follow Remington everywhere. Remington got a raft after a while and usually, he shoots everyone with a water gun from there. This time it was the security guard who shot everyone with it though. This was most likely due to the ceiling being relatively low and water getting on the lights if Remington got to use the water gun himself. The guard also had to follow him when he climbed the stairs and on the balcony in the crowd. He even got so heavily involved that the guard was holding him upside down (suggested by Remington of course) from the balcony. Remington also randomly jumped in the crowd and you could just see the guard jump up and follow him to the photo pit to make sure that he stayed safe.

Another great moment was when they played Oblivion. It was completely dark with just a few spotlights. Remington was on the keyboard and performed the song acoustically really well. The entire crowd was silent and appreciating how beautiful it all was. It was so real and you could hear and feel every single emotion in his voice.

Their set was absolutely amazing, they even played an extra song. This didn’t have a happy reason sadly because someone fainted during the last song. This caused them to finish their set with Get Higher instead of Fever Dream.

I would highly recommend going out to see Palaye Royale live. They really offer one of the most unique concert experiences out there. I don’t think any review or video could describe how insane it is to be there. Check out the pictures we took there below!

Starbenders:

YONAKA:

Palaye Royale:

3 February 2023

5 mins read

Photography: Christine Mooijer

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with L.S. Dunes

CONCERT REVIEW: L.S. Dunes Play For Ecstatic Crowd at First-Ever Netherlands Show

L.S. Dunes, a band that started in the second half of 2022 came to the Netherlands. The band consisting of frontman Anthony Green, originally from the bands Circa Survive, Saosin and The Sound of Animals Fighting. Guitarist Frank Iero, who’s well known as the guitarist of My Chemical Romance. Guitarist Travis Stever, originally from Coheed and Cambria. Tim Payne on the bass, who originally is from the band Thursday. Last but not least Tucker Rule who is also from the band Thursday. They didn’t come alone though, they brought Kayleigh Goldsworthy along with them as their opener.

Kayleigh came on stage with a small delay. She was on her own with one guitar. The lights went off and the people who had been at more shows of the tour cheered her on. She played one song before talking to the crowd. You could already feel that her set would be different than most shows. She was really casual and talked to the crowd really well. Not too much hyping up but more like a proper one way conversation. Her voice was absolutely amazing, it felt like she has so much more potential in that area.

Most songs were calmer songs compared to what we would be listening to an hour later. She mentioned that all her merch was almost sold out and that she loves the support. She painted 10 little ghosts on tiny canvases to go along with the theme of her song Little Ghost. Those canvases were for sale at the merch stand. Give Kayleigh Goldsworthy a listen if you like more calmer sad songs. However not everything she played was sad. She got L.S. Dunes on stage for the last song. Only Anthony didn’t because he does the vocals, Kayleigh did her own vocals of course so he wasn’t needed for that.

L.S. Dunes came on stage around half an hour after Kayleigh ended her set. It was the most beautiful sight ever. Tucker came on stage in a beautiful jacket and nice concert clothing and started playing the drums. The only way to describe what happened next is that five middle aged dad’s came walking on stage in their everyday clothing. They picked up their instruments and started playing.

They started off with Bombsquad. To be honest I didn’t expect too much from this concert, I personally wasn’t a huge fan of their music prior and the venue wasn’t sold out either. But things turned around after a few songs. They played their songs live with so much more feeling, it felt much more raw there. More than you’d see at other bands. This could be because they recorded all their music separately during the covid period. Back then they couldn’t really get together and get a feel together, but that was so different now that they were together. The thing that stood out the most were Anthony’s vocals and his stage presence. He almost knocked over Tim during the first song because of his enthusiasm.

A few pits started forming later in their set and Anthony made a forced dad joke about that the show was ‘The Amsterjam’. He said that he didn’t come up with the joke himself but that he was forced by the rest of the band to make the joke. People in the queue wrote their names on a transgender flag which got thrown on stage too. They didn’t pay much attention to it until some crowd surfers got on stage and waved with it to the crowd. After that they put it on one of the amplifiers next to the drum kit.

All good things have to come to an end sadly but this didn’t have to come to an end yet. They came back to play three more songs as an encore. They ended with Sleep Cult. This time it was Kayleigh who got called on stage. She came walking on stage with her violin and beautifully played along with them. The set was really over after that song though.

Definitely check out L.S. Dunes and Kayleigh Goldsworthy. If you don’t like the studio versions of the L.S. Dunes songs then give some live videos a chance. It has a different and more raw sound which could maybe make you like it more.
Check out the photos from the show below!

Kayleigh Goldsworthy

L.S. DUNES

14 January 2023

2 mins read

Photography: Eva van den Bosch

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with Ice Nine Kills

Ice Nine Kills Release New Cinematic Music Video For ‘Welcome To Horrorwood’

Ice Nine Kills released a new music video for Welcome to Horrorwood yesterday.

The song itself has been out for quite a while now but it just got a music video. The music video continues Ice Nine Kills their horror-movie-like approach at music. It depicts Spencer Charmas the lead singer of Ice Nine Kills as he is in court after being arrested. There is a video being shown as evidence that Spencer is in fact guilty of murder.

The song starts, and you see Spencer stepping out of a vehicle. Everyone cheers him on and is exited to see him. But things take a turn when he is asked a question. He starts to slaughter everyone around him in various gory ways. The band joins him when the police arrives, together they try to shoot them down. I will not spoil much more of the video since it’s better to watch it yourself.

Luckily there is also a censored version of the music video for the ones that can’t handle all the gore in the uncensored version. The music video was first teased a few days ago when Ice Nine Kills posted a video with the title ‘Previously on ‘Welcome to Horrorwood’…’

The censored version is somewhat of the ‘default’ version of the music video since this is the only one publicly posted. The music video is also a crossover with the YouTube channel Dead Meat which is known to cover a lot of horror movie content in their videos. The entire video is also full of references to other famous horror movies including some more well known people playing in the music video.

The music video also seems to tease that there’s more to the story since there is a black screen at the end with ‘To be continued….’ We’re excited to see what is to come!

Check out the censored version of the music video out below! There is a card at the end of the video for the people which takes you to the uncensored version for the people who prefer that version.

20 December 2022

7 mins read

Photography: Marjolein Veldhuizen

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with Badflower

CONCERT REVIEW: Badflower Rocks The Netherlands With Last Shows Of Tour (Part 2)

It was the first time Badflower came to the Netherlands for a headline show. They played at Pinkpop in 2019 but didn’t come back until now because of COVID. Of course, they weren’t alone, they brought Dead Poet Society with them. This combination of bands made for a great vibe, the bands are pretty close in style and stage presence. The last 2 shows of the tour were in the Netherlands. One in Amsterdam and one in Tilburg. Both shows were sold out even though it was their first time in the Netherlands. Of course, we had to be at both shows! It was so worth it, they had one of the best live performances I’ve seen. Both shows felt different from each other even though they played the exact same setlist.

The first show was in Amsterdam, this day was by far the coldest of the 2. It was literally freezing for most of the day, but the queue got taken care of by the crew. First tea, and later on some macarons. We got inside around 8pm and had to wait for 30 minutes until Dead Poet Society started. I’d never seen them before live, but they were amazing. Starting off with .burymewhole., a great song to start with. It taught the crowd well what kind of evening it would be. This was also one of the openers that got more of the crowd going. This could also be because a lot of people knew and came for Dead Poet Society too.
Their second song, Sound and Silence really got the crowd going when they had to sing the main part of the chorus. It didn’t take long after that until some pits opened. They asked the crowd who already knew Dead Poet Society and encouraged the people who knew .AmericanBlood. to sing along. Their set ended with .intodeep. and .CoDA., 2 incredibly popular songs.

Then the main event came around. After getting warmed up by Dead Poet Society, it was up to Badflower to deliver. Which they did, starting with Fukboi as they came on stage. Josh, the lead singer, already showed off his incredible vocals here. His stage presence is one of the most unique ones I’ve seen from lead singers. He dances and hops around the stage like a guitarist but has his, what feels like, shy moments like a drummer would have. On top of that, he is just like a lead singer, this weird combination makes for a great lead singer stage presence.
One theme that the setlist seemed to have is a mix of emotionally heavy and musically heavy songs. Fukboi is one of the more heavy songs, they continued that trend with White Noise, Don’t Hate Me and Johnny Wants to Fight. So, everyone was high in their energy, until Heroin started. You could feel the whole atmosphere change, and everyone slowed down for the more emotional track. Continuing with The Jester they managed to make some people cry.

But it was a big mix, as I mentioned, so they played x ana x next, one of the highest energy songs they have. Joey, the guitarist, and the person who made the setlist, must love playing with people their emotions because they played another emotional song right after x ana x. Ghost and Move Me were right after it. Move Me was so thought out live. It started with Josh standing in front of the microphone with just his guitar. The rest of the band was literally nowhere to be seen. Josh sang the first part so beautifully tender. That was until the breakdown of the song happened. The rest of the band walked back on stage and started back with the high energy which they kept going with Soap.

However, they slowed down soon enough. The next track was Mother Mary which is the only song that is not on any streaming platforms other than YouTube. This song is really calm until the end where it picks up a little bit of energy. They also kind of dedicated the song to someone in the crowd because that person had a sign with them that said, ‘Play Moter Mary’. Most people around the front row had already cried at this point, but they weren’t done yet because next up was Promise Me. They performed this song beautifully and they absolutely nailed the breakdown at the end.
But once again they switched moods in the next track with Stalker. If you know anything about that song you know how wild it can get when they play it live. And it was. I got to hold Josh’s microphone at the start of the 2nd verse, and he jumped into the crowd a little later. He played a bit of the song in the middle of the crowd after which the band once again got off stage. Everyone except Anthony, the drummer of Badflower. He performed a drum solo which lasted for around 5 minutes with the crowd continuously clapping and cheering for him. It really showed his skills as a drummer.
All good things must come to an end, sadly, and so did this setlist. They all got off stage after 3 more songs: Sasshole ,where a member from Dead Poet Society randomly came on stage to sing the higher parts of the song, Machine Gun, and Family. But the usual encore came not long after they left the stage. They started the encore with Girlfriend, giving back all the energy that the crowd had lost during the rest of the setlist. And they played 30 as the last song after a short speech from Josh where he thanked everyone who came to the show and how much he appreciates it that most shows sold out in countries that they’ve never been to.

The last show was in Tilburg a day later. This was also the last show of the Europe tour. Another sold-out show. This was incredible for a band that has never had headline shows in the Netherlands before. This show was mostly the same with Dead Poet Society also playing the same setlist as the day before. They put on another great show though. Sadly, the crowd seemed less enthusiastic this day.

Badflower also played the same setlist as before but had different interactions of course. Someone requested Only Love in the middle of the show and Josh made it a whole thing where he almost invited that person on stage to sing a song. And this time Badflower got pranked during Stalker. Where Dead Poet Society came on stage instead of Badflower. Josh was the only Badflower member that got on stage. And they played most of the song like that from that point. Josh also got asked to take someone’s BeReal which went off right before Dead Poet Society started. Of course, he did it in his own unique way. The BeReal got reposted on the band their Instagram story.

Overall, I’d highly recommend going to a Badflower concert. They have a new tour coming up in the spring of next year. They’re also planning on coming back to Europe in 2023 which they announced at the end of the last show. With the promise: “Next time we see each other we’ll be in a new album cycle” meaning that new music is hopefully releasing soon.

Check out the pictures we took on day 2 below and the pictures from day 1 here!

Dead Poet Society:

Badflower:

9 December 2022

4 mins read

Photography:

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with Mother Mother

CONCERT REVIEW: Not A Boring Moment With Mother Mother And Dead Pony In Amsterdam

Mother Mother finally got to perform in the Netherlands after having to reschedule their show on March 4^th. They didn’t come alone, they brought Dead Pony with them. Of course we had to be there too!

I arrived quite early to be sure of a good spot during the concert itself. It’s a lot of the time not worth it if it’s not your favorite band but it was worth it here! Ryan Guldemond (the lead singer of Mother Mother) came to say hi to the queue a little before 4PM. He was really chill and took the time to take pictures with everyone.

I eventually got inside around 7PM and I managed to get front row. Dead Pony was up 30 minutes later, and I was not prepared for them. I have barely seen any opener that got me hooked this much. The stage presence and interaction with each other was absolutely amazing. It didn’t feel weird as you have with some openers, and it wasn’t boring. I had a great time watching them perform and so did everyone around me. We got asked to go down before the breakdown of Bullet Farm and everyone did to my surprise. Not because they didn’t play well, because they did, but mostly because I barely see this much enthusiasm for an opener. Go give them a listen if you have the time, you won’t regret it. I think they’ll grow a lot in the upcoming years, so I’d definitely keep my eyes on them.

Then. Mother Mother. All the lights turned off and the crowd started cheering incredibly loud. The band got on stage, and they performed Seven right at the start after which the first few notes of Verbatim took over. They played incredibly well and used the lighting so well to bring across their songs even better. I don’t think there was a single song where the crowd didn’t sing the whole song along with an incredibly high volume. They had a small surprise for us after Body of years, because they played Creep (Original by Radiohead). I honestly want them to release it on streaming platforms too because it was a great cover, I got chills all over. A lot of people got emotional when the show got more emotional. Ryan did a small speech before playing It’s Alright. Even I was quite touched by the speech and song after even though I wouldn’t consider myself a real Mother Mother fan.

One of the best concert moments happened after that. The band was switching guitars and setting to play some acoustic songs when they noticed a fan holding up a sign with: “I waited 8 years for this moment”. Ryan mentioned it and told the fan how much he and the band appreciate them. After which he dedicated Arms Tonite to that fan. After the set that fan also got handed a guitar pick by Ryan. The set was almost done when they played one of their most well-known songs: Hayloft which they did really amazing, and you could feel that they put this at the end of the setlist on purpose. Talk about going out with a bang, everyone got all their energy back. They put everything they had left in Hayloft II which they played after Girl Alone. Even ending the song twice in different ways. First they ended the song with loud music and really high energy. After that they ended the song like the original track on the album. After that song they went off stage, but of course they came back for an encore. They played Ghosting as their encore. It was really over after that sadly.

If you get the chance to see Dead Pony or Mother Mother please do. Both of those bands are absolutely amazing live and it’s so worth it to see them live. Check out both artists below and let us know what you thought of the concert if you were there too!

25 November 2022

9 mins read

Photography:

Written by: Aspen van der Wijst

what's happening with Badflower

INTERVIEW: Upcoming Music, Touring & More With Badflower’s Josh Katz

We recently had the pleasure of talking to Josh Katz from Badflower during the end of their America tour and close to the start of their Europe tour. They recently announced a 2023 tour too. We talked about upcoming music, how he writes his music, touring and much more. Check it out!

Thank you so much for your time. How are you?

I’m good. Really good, we’re in the middle of this American tour and excited to go to Europe.

You recently released the orchestral version of family on all platforms. While it was prior only available on Amazon music. Can we expect more orchestral versions of songs?

You know what, I dunno if I’m allowed to talk about it, but we did do two songs. And we only released Family. I don’t know what’s happening with that other one that we did, but we did do a second song. I’m not gonna say what it is.

You recently also shared videos, of you guys recording and you tweeted about writing songs in the tour bus. Can we expect some new music soon?

Hopefully. That’s what we’re working on. I’m in our back room right now. I have my setup ready to go cause we tour so much and we definitely have to release music at some point. We can’t just keep touring on the same two albums.
This is our first time doing that though. We usually separate touring and writing. Cuz personally I’m not good at multitasking like that. I have a one track mind. But it’s been working out so far. It’s definitely easy on this run that we’re on now cause we’re the support band, so it’s a shorter set, less pressure and we just have our days free.

So has there, now that you’re writing on a tour bus, also been more concepts that you throw away?

Well, I don’t think more concepts get thrown away. I think less concepts pop out. When I write, I don’t really take care of myself; I guess is the best way to put it.
I like turning my brain into apple sauce and just getting to this like foundational human state where I can then rebuild and start getting ideas and inspiration, and I can’t do that on tour. I have to get enough sleep and all that. So that I can actually sing and perform. So not being able to do that is tough for me. The music side of it is great and it’s really cool cause we’re all playing every day so we’re like really on top of it.
But when it comes to lyrics and like storytelling, it’s definitely more challenging in this environment. So I don’t think things get thrown away. certain concepts that normally would pop out don’t show up.

You often write about pretty heavy topics. Have there been moments where you had to stop writing or recording for a bit because it got too heavy?

No. I love it. I love that stuff.

Are there any genres or styles that you wanna try out on future projects?

I don’t think so. I try not to think about that. We lean into whatever genre suits the story of the song. That’s kind of what we’ve always done. And I think we’ll just keep doing that.
I’m a little bit happier than normal lately, which is weird. It’s a good thing, but it’s weird. And I don’t know how that’s gonna affect song writing. I kind of know cuz we’re starting to write already and I’ve seen it, but I don’t know. It’s very possible that there might be some more uplifting moments to come, and people might hate that from us. Because that’s not what we typically do.
I don’t know. It’s hard to fake it, is the thing. if I’m not feeling angsty or sad or angry it’s really hard to write those songs and like release them with confidence.

So kinda what happened to Twenty One Pilots with their latest album?

Is that what happened? I haven’t read up on it, but I know that people were torn about it.

Their latest album was a bit more uplifting and a lot of people were like: “I miss when they were depressed” but that’s not good of course. And then there got a huge fight in the fanbase because of that.

Yeah. It’s such a weird thing, you could theoretically just write songs for a fan base, like giving them what they want.
I’m not able to do that. I don’t have that in me to do it. It makes me uncomfortable, the thought of doing that. I’m way more comfortable if I’m super happy and I write something that’s super happy, that sounds like it’s not on brand for Badflower, but it’s on brand for me and my life.
I have way more confidence putting that out than I have about, you know, another song about suicide or something like that I’m not feeling in that moment. That feels like: well now I’m just pandering to a crowd that I know I’ve cultivated because of how I’ve felt in the past and the things that I’ve said in the past, and that’s not right.
It’d be really cool if I could do that though. like it doesn’t matter what I’m feeling, I could just write a song about anything and be like, Yeah, this is great. I just don’t have it in me. And people do it. I’m sure they do it. But you can smell that a mile away. You can tell when it’s bullshit and when it’s real.

What’s your favorite song to play live?

It changes every night. I really like playing Machine Gun from our last album.
It’s so simple and vocally, it’s really fun. It’s a huge range of vocals. Like it goes from really soft to really, really intense, but not in a way that feels too difficult. Whereas some songs the vocal range is actually hard for me. I get a little bit nervous about it, some nights I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to hit it the way I want to. But Machine Gun for some reason even though it’s difficult, it’s just fun.

With what songs do you have a more difficult time?

Family‘s a really hard song to sing live. It’s gotten a lot easier. It’s better now, but in the beginning. That song goes from zero to a hundred. Quick. And that’s, yeah, that’s hard. I still love playing that song too. There’s certain moments when it’s harder than others.

You recently got to open for My Chemical Romance, what was that like?

It was was great.
I mean, it a hard show. People don’t realize that. When you’re playing a stadium or arena, whatever you call it, of that size. We did a couple of them, and we were the first band of three. You’re not really playing to an attentive crowd. There’s still some lights on.
It’s a big place and people are shuffling in, and finding their seats, and getting their drinks, and doing their thing. So there’s chitter chatter. The show itself is actually pretty difficult. It doesn’t matter who the band is. Just playing in that environment as the first band on is just hard.
But we made it work. We had a blast. We felt honoured that they asked us to do it. And as hard as the show is, we would do it again in a heartbeat if they asked us to.

Are you ever scared that you forget some lyrics when you play live?

Yeah, and then I do forget lyrics. And then I have to just laugh about it. It happens almost every night. Cause I start zenning out when I really get into it. And sometimes I’ll be singing, and I’ll see someone in the crowd singing along, and I’ll fixate on them, and they’ll start mouthing the words wrong, and then I’ll start getting it wrong cuz I’m looking at them. That happens a lot.

So for everyone coming to see you guys live, just know all the lyrics from the top of your head.

Yeah. Get it right or else I can’t look at you.

What do you like to do outside of like touring, music, writing, creating, all that kind of stuff?

I like anything creative, so I build stuff. I like tinkering with electronics. I like building. And I recently moved to a farm. From L.A., I moved to Tennessee. So, I live on a big piece of land and the plan is to turn it into an animal sanctuary, like a rescue farm.
But I thought I would do that a lot sooner, and then a bunch of stuff happened, and I had to put that on hold for a little bit. But I live on the property still, and there was like no home there when I moved in. There was no shower, nothing like that. So I was just living in that environment and doing it all myself, I didn’t hire anybody.
When I had off time, I built a studio, and then I set up a situation where I could sleep, and survive snowy winters and stuff like that. But I love it. Nesting basically.

What kind of kind of animals do you want rescue there?

I wanna rescue Cows mostly.

A while ago, the Badflower band account posted pictures with the caption: “Yippee Ki Yay tour starts today.” Was it actually secretly you that posted it, but you blamed it on management?

No. It was actually our manager. He’s to blame for “Yippee Ki Yay”.

But is it that bad?

No, it wasn’t that bad. I actually thought it was funny, but I wouldn’t say “Yippee Ki Yay”. Although a bunch of people commented and they were like: “That was totally you. You would totally say Yippee Ki Yay” I’ve never said: “Yippee Ki Yay”
Like I say, dumb shit. I’m into dumb shit, and dad jokes, but I just never said that. I dunno why it upset me so much. I promise you it wasn’t me.

Okay. I believe you. Thank you so much.

Awesome. Thank you very much.

Badflower are currently playing shows all across Europe, which includes 2 shows in The Netherlands in Amsterdam and Tilburg. The Amsterdam show has recently sold-out, but for the show in 013, you can still get your tickets here. For now, stream Badflower’s sophomore album below and catch the band on the road!