By Jase Walker
I’d be hard pressed not to make a comment on the weather because it’s finally getting nicer again and I’ve missed getting to venues in just my hoodie. Not that it’d matter much for the five minute walk between the train station and venue but nevermind, it’s time for a stacked lineup of heavy shit in the middle of the week again.
Crystal Lake and Miss May I embark on a co-headliner tour stomping around Europe and tonight’s opening stop at Tivoli Vredenburg in the Pandora stage sounds like a good way to spend an evening. Along for the ride are Great American Ghost and Diesect and looking at the stage times it’s quite a quick flash through two 30 minute opener sets and two headliner sets of an hour each, about 15 minutes to changeover each act so no messing around for this show to say the least.
Diesect get things started first to admittedly a bit of a quiet room which is a bit of a shame but it doesn’t seem like it’s shaking the confidence of these Aussies much.
Sadly they’ve a bit of a false start because their monitors aren’t apparently working so they take a quick moment to fix stuff and get themselves going again.
One thing that stands out to me though is how insanely loud their bass drum is while the bass guitar isn’t really matching it so it sounds super weird. Diesect are 100 per cent two-step bait though, there’s no subtlety or delicate melodies just one hundred-fucking-percent grit. It’s really not my cuppa but I’ll give them credit that they’ve clearly caught the attention of the types in the crowd that are here to get bashed in the pit at least.
By the halfway point the overall mix sounds much more balanced, the bass and guitar are much more in line with their strong drum sound which makes their aggressive sound come across far better. It’s gotta be a scary prospect on your first ever trip to the European continent as an opener where there’s a pretty solid chance you’re an unknown but they don’t appear to be letting it rattle them much. For what was a shaky start, eventually saw them winning the crowd over and I don’t doubt they’ll have made an impact on a fair chunk.
Second up tonight is Great American Ghost and it’s been a hot minute since I saw these last!
They kick things off and holy hell this is loud right from the outset but I gotta hand it to them, it sounds damn good! The relentless thumping of rapid double bass from the drums buffets my jeans and shakes my legs without a moment for breath. There’s little wonder what they stand for with the singer proudly displaying a jacket with “This machine kills fascists” emblazoned on the back of it.
A quick scan around the room and there isn’t a single head in here that isn’t enthusiastically nodding along to the band’s aggressive riffing. The singer briefly takes a moment to lean down to fist bump a young lad jumping around down the front before throwing himself to the other side of the stage to carry on laying into the audience with his screaming. So I think I can say for definite that these have improved massively since I last saw them in a dingy underground room in Manchester.
I don’t think the audience is quite awake or fully loosened up just yet, Great American Ghost are absolutely smashing out a quality set but it’s not quite provoking much action in the middle just yet. This improves significantly towards the end as the band pulls out their big guns with far more aggressive and faster songs which finally lights a fire under people’s arses and the band gets the payoff they deserve. Short but sweet, I really need to keep an eye out for a longer set from these in future.
Time for my personal main draw of the evening, Miss May I, who absolutely blew my head off with Currents back in 2024. These guys have been around for a while but seeing them properly surge more recently has been fantastic because it’s long overdue.
They kick things off and it’s firing on all cylinders right from the outside with a fat sound that’s making the floor shake, lovely stuff. The room is starting to properly fill out now and once the faster riffs hit the crowd is finally starting to properly move, albeit a bit tentative at first.
The superb clarity of their sound really shines when they’re going in hard on the chuggy bits, every single one of them hits with spot on clarity and takes the songs to a completely different level. The pit is finally in full swing now but I do see some hesitation due to the one dude in the middle that keeps swinging around his sweaty battle jacket so people are having to keep an eye out so they don’t get tail-whipped by salty fabric.
This performance is every bit as much as the fantastic show I saw with Currents a while back, getting it just that bit more up close makes it that bit more special. I do love my huge shows but something about how raw a smaller show with the band almost in your face is, especially when it sounds as good as it does tonight. Miss May I have been absolutely on fire tonight though, a true testament to an enduring band that writes damn good music and knows how to really put that across in a live show. Superb stuff.
It’s time for Crystal Lake to tie off the evening with their own headliner and the moment they kick things off the centre of the crowd immediately becomes clustered around the centre front of the stage. No doubt people are getting their warmups in first before crashing into the pit. There’s a distinct void in the middle of the room so I can expect to see that filled with people about to throw down shortly.
Admittedly I can’t say I’m particularly keen on Crystal Lake these days, the newer material really doesn’t connect with me so I’m a bit disconnected from the show. This absolutely does not apply to the crowd in general though who are clearly well into it.
I feel the bass and low end has tailed off a fair bit in comparison with the other bands, although there’s a bit of a chance this might be a stylistic choice more than anything as Crystal Lake also use fair amount of layered backing tracks to supplement their sound, at least it’s generally pretty fat sounding when it matters. I do appreciate the times when I feel at odds with the rest of the crowd though, there’s been more than a few times I’ve been the sole person going mad in a quiet crowd but I enjoy taking in the fierce energy around me when it’s not quite hitting the mark.
Either way, with a reasonably solid sound and set, the whole co-headliner concept is pretty cool and I like the value you get out of it. Miss May I and Crystal Lake are a solid compliment to each other despite the difference in sound. Hope the rest of the tour is fantastic for all the bands, it’s a solid package that shouldn’t be missed.
- The tour continues:
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