By Jase Walker
Here it is, the hottest day of the year the Netherlands has ever had in June, it’s the second day and I’ve heard through the grapevine that Defqon electronic music festival has thrown in the towel but Jera On Air remains as planned. Starting off today at the bright and early time of 12 noon on the dot, it’s the lovely lot in Heriot.
Having recently become a firm favourite of the guys in Trivium, they make a quick stop at Jera On Air to blow the cobwebs and hopefully any lingering heat off the crowd first thing.
The first hit fully rumbles through my chest and each subsequent hit feels like it’s trying to dictate my heartbeat along with it. Heriot right now has one of the meatiest sounds around, it’s great feeling bass guitar that shakes my chest just as much as the drums do.
There’s never been a single show I’ve seen Heriot do where they’ve not been giving every single bit of blood, sweat and tears to it and despite the outrageous heat today they’re still committed to that. I feel like given a bit more time, Heriot themselves will be frequently credited with influencing the next generation of fucking bands.
A bit thrash in times, a bit more gothy and atmospheric in others, sprinkle of sludge here and there and wrapped up in hardcore delivery that’s on par with Knocked Loose, Heriot’s chaotic sound is fully engrossing and properly fitting of a festival like Jera On Air. Towards the end of the set the guys from Malevolence look on like proud dads and rightly so… what fantastic growth from these and long may it continue.
It’s recent Singles Club inductees ALLT up next, one of the next big things coming along to shake up heavy music and prove that thall still has so much to give. The guys are fully aware of the heat situation so they make a quick joke about not being forced to move and standing and enjoying it is okay too, good sports.
They stomp around the stage constantly smashing out delicious heavy riffs that are just what you want to forget the heat that little bit. I’m literally stood next to these gigantic fans in the Eagle stage and even though they’re kicking out hot air, it’s still helping a lot. What’s also quite amusing is they’re not quite having a moshpit but something closer to a water pistol fight which seems pretty par for the course at this festival… anything goes.
I’ve had to spend a serious amount of time trying to hose away from the heat for the next few hours. I won’t lie, 39c at a festival isn’t something I ever thought I’d experience. For all of the fans and shade, this sort of heat is inescapable.
After some lengthy rest I’ve decided to pick myself up and get along to the Eagle stage for Alkaline Trio. Matt noticeably is sat down as he had a somewhat of a lucky escape from a motorcycle accident days before this show!
Opening their set with ‘Private Eye’, a real classic in their catalogue, sets the right tone for today’s show. I’m not sure if it’s the heat but the overall response from the crowd seems a bit subdued, the cheers following songs seem lethargic and not even considering Matt being chair-bound the overall sound and feel of the show isn’t quite scratching the itch.
‘Mercy Me’ is another great song from their catalogue but I just can’t shake off the fact that this show is sounding lackluster and not even close to the quality of show I’ve seen them do in the past so I’m honestly a bit disappointed by this. Every band can have their bad day I suppose but this isn’t enough to keep me invested.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: As we prepared to publish this review, Alkaline Trio unfortunately announced that they were cancelling the England leg of their current tour due to ongoing medical problems being experienced by Matt as a result of his accident. We wish him a speedy recovery.]
Next up on today’s toaster, uh, roster, is Periphery! Not like I’d miss a chance to see my favourite metal band, would I?
Opening with their ‘Pale White Dot‘ album opener, ‘Obsession’, demonstrating the bands tendency to shift gears wildly between light and shade as they dance from modular synth to black metal. Throwing in a cheeky Max Verstappen/Pigbag lick in the middle of ‘Heaven On High’ causes a small but audible stir across the tent. Dipping a bit further back into P5, ‘Wildfire’ up next is littered with references to the ‘Juggernaut’ albums and finishes with its breakneck switch to full on jazz, brass and all then a pullback to big riffs.
It makes sense that this flows into ‘Wax Wings’ which other than ‘Dracul Gras’ symbolise the two big songs from P5 so I’m hoping that we dig a little further back to maybe P4 or ‘Juggernaut’ as I don’t think I’ve heard them do any P1/2 material for a long time now.
No sooner do I type that than they blow my face off with ‘Make Total Destroy’, the leading single for P2 that solidified my love for them back in 2012. So the slightly older material dip seems done, time is limited with a 50 min slot so back to ‘Pale White Dot’ with ‘Unlocking’ followed by ‘Mr. God’ to bring the energy back up to a peak to close the set out on a high note. A heavy pair to finish with both musically and lyrically, ‘Everyone Dies Alone’ and ‘Blood Eagle’ wrap up a short but sweet setlist from Periphery and I just cannot get enough of these. Where’s my headline tour reveal!? Arrgh.
A Day To Remember get things going and despite a bit of a shaky start on the sound, it quickly gets righted and they blast off with ‘Downfall Of Us All’ and then hitting us straight away with ‘I’m made from wax Larry, what are you made of?’, these are clearly set on all killer no filler for this set!
Ejecting a ton of confetti and a ton of large blow up balls into the air soon into the set guarantees that one of these is going to end up bouncing off the mics on stage but no risk no reward eh? The fact that ADTR endures still when many people wrote off the early days of bands like this and Four Year Strong is testament to how timeless their music is.
It’s still big riffs, big choruses and songs that are just straight up fun which is more relevant now then ever. I’ve had to drag myself away a little earlier than I’d like because I’ve really had to make some time for more rest as the heat today has really done a number on me.
I’ve returned to the arena for one last hoorah tonight in the form of The Offspring. I may not have enough energy to dance properly for this set but I won’t miss a chance to sing a bunch to one of my favourite bands ever.
Opening with ‘Come Out And Play’, The Offspring knows how to kick a party off and for a festival that errs heavily on the side of punk, they’re preaching to the choir here. ‘Want You Bad’ keeps the party vibe going but I have noticed that the screens don’t appear to be working and after a brief flash of files being copied around on the screen that seems to confirm there’s some issues there too.
I don’t think anyone really seems to give a toss though because there’s pits, crowd surfers down the front and people dancing and screaming all the way out of the tent. I feel like I’ve just blinked and now on either side of the stage are two gigantic skeletons, you’d think I’d notice that a bit sooner but I feel like I only looked away for a moment! Looks like the backing visuals have been fixed now too, can imagine there’s a fair bit of focused panic needed when something like that blows up when you’re going live.
The Offspring are no strangers to messing about on stage so it’s pretty on brand for them to drop the intro to Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ in, which apparently is just that Noodles only learned the intro and that was it. This was just a precursor to a full on cover of ‘Crazy Train’, although it’s not ‘Paranoid’, it’s still every bit as popular with everyone here as they join in unison to scream the chorus together. Continuing with the covers, Noodles takes the lead on ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’ and then onto Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’, considering I’m stood fairly far from the centre, the group next to me starts their own circle pit anyway so this is what The Offspring gets at Jera On Air.
‘
Why Don’t You Get A Job?’, the main chorus words appear on the screen but I’d be surprised if anyone literally doesn’t know the words to this here. A huge amount of pretty large beachballs get launched into the crowd and I guess the sound desk is gonna have to deal with them inevitably landing on them.
I feel like we’re fast approaching the finale of the set but all the big guns are about to get pulled out and it’s starting with ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ which sees several inflatable tube men in the style of the music video protagonist joining the already pretty busy stage. We’re in the home run, there’s 15 minutes left on the clock, first up is ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, second ‘You’re Gonna Go Far Kid’ and lastly ‘Self Esteem’. The Offspring prove they’re still at the top of their games and still go harder than other bands a third of their age.
What a way to close out day two. I’m so exhausted from the heat that I can’t even face up to late night chats or after parties… what is wrong with me?