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:

Aspen van der Wijst

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