For a country teetering on the brink of de-country-fying itself one of
these days, Belgium is doing quite fine on the musical front. Not only did they
produce the sublime dEUS, but they’ve also unleashed Triggerfinger on the
unsuspecting continent, prompting us to immediately google their home town of
Lier- it’s close to Antwerp, mind you, dEUS are form Antwerp, so yes, it seems
Antwerp is a good place to be if you’re musically inclined. Or if you want
diamonds, and I will stop myself from any ’musical gem’ puns before they really
get on your nerves.
So these three fine gentlemen of Lier (I am now at the part where Wikipedia’s
Lier entry says it is famed for its beers, yet will stop before I really ramble
off topic) have a fondness of Budapest we can only approve of and admire, and
make regular stops in our fair city, be it during Sziget or on a foggy autumn
day. Since I am on a roll here for bad jokes, I will mention how Belgian the weather was.
Very very Belgian.
There was an overture to the Triggerfinger awesomeness, by way of a local
act called The Adolescents- who probably still are just that, but definitely
sound and look like that, and might actually grow into something palatable once
they’re not really that anymore. On this evening however they were mostly
suited for a beer round and a ’guess who in the front row is a relative of the
band’ game. Everyone was the safest bet.
Triggerfinger’s front row was a rather different affair altogether, and
sadly included that one twat that ruins every concert by assuming that his
enjoyment of it is the only thing that matters. It’s absolutely normal to go a
bit haywire to Triggerfinger, but banging yourself to the sound system
repeatedly when the organizers begged you not to is a tad daft. I will
therefore call all my pictures of his blessed activity, in a modest tribute to
the Flemish masters, ’Concert Still with Dumbass’ and move on to what really
matters.
So this is where I insert a long diatribe on just how wonderful Ruben Block
is with a guitar, and just how unfair it is to Mario and Paul to only blabber
about Ruben, and that it basically defies logic that only three people can
create such sonic havoc on stage and how brilliant it is that the silliest
critic of the evening complained about the fact that there’s only three of them
and their songs are too long. Well, that’s the whole point my friend, and if
you object, then you don’t deserve to behold the snakeskin magnificence of
Monsieur Paul’s boots.
Photos by Kuntay Bahtiyar and Iulia Notaros
love the band... and totally in love with Ruben... thank you for your excellent pics :D
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