By Jase Walker
Now that I’ve been living in the Netherlands for a while, I’ve been to a ton of shows and spoken to a lot of locals and I’ve been introduced to a number of Dutch bands: one name kept coming up and that’s Tusky. So, hat better way to get a live experience for Tusky than a hometown album release show?
I’ve found myself back in De Helling, a pretty great venue a bit further out in Utrecht and for tonight’s show we’ve got Boskat and Bongloard, sadly the original supports of Cobra The Impaler couldn’t make it. I don’t doubt for a second that tonight will be anything short of absolutely mental, I’ve had Tusky talked up a lot over the past few months so I’m fully expecting a riot.
The room darkens and Boskat takes the stage, a spacesuit outfitted drum and guitar duo with some backing tracks to flesh the sound out a bit, I’ve also spied a megaphone directly in front of the guitarist and singer. Some interesting use of pitch shifting on their high octane punk riffage as well, they’ve kind of got a bit of a Fall Of Troy vibe to their sound that mixes some flashes of technical brilliance and interesting chord progressions but not straying far from straight fun riffing. These guys may be the opener for this show but they’ve got a fantastic response from the audience and they’re doing a great job of getting everyone to join in as well, this is genuinely a really fun show. What’s also clear is that these two are having a ton of fun playing and it seems like these two aren’t just bandmates but really damn good friends too.
One song that’s really stood out to me is one that leads with some pretty tasty playing on an acoustic guitar that honestly wouldn’t sound unusual on an Animals As Leaders album, Boskat are very obviously not your average punk band. An auto tune vocal ballad to follow up with too? How do we go from animals as leaders to Jason fucking Derulo in the space of two songs?! Given the other songs they’ve kicked out, I feel like punk completely undersells Boskat now, they’re clearly a whatever the fuck they feel like band, almost impossible to categorise what I’ve just watched, I am legitimately blown away by this performance, what an outstanding band.
Bongloard admittedly sounding quite similar to the name implies, very stoner rock/sludge oriented and they sound fat. Definitely not opting for the more fancy stuff that Boskat were kicking out before, this is just full on big riffs and I’m absolutely here for it. Definitely some strong Nirvana vibes in some parts and Talking Heads in others, and like I was with Boskat, I think I’ve perhaps underestimated the variety of their sound. I’m pretty engrossed in this show, Bongloard are a lot fun to home in on and get lost in their songs, they’re absolutely smashing through their set, not a huge amount of focus on talking between songs or audience participation tricks, they’re here to play some absolute ‘bangers and leave the crowd to do what they want.
I’ve mentioned it quite a lot of times in other reviews but if there’s something I really love is when the bass guitar is big and present and with a power trio setup, it’s more important than ever to help pad the sound out and Bongloard clearly understands this. My legs and feet are constantly feeling the rumble of the bass guitar in every song and when the guitar is off doing some noodling around and the like, there’s no drop in intensity thanks to a big fat bassline to carry things along. At some points it feels like I’m being taken on a history trip through their influences – The Clash, White Stripes, Sex Pistols, all sorts – all condensed into one pretty damn fun band and that is Bongloard. Legitimately, this evening has been absolutely stellar so far and with Tusky to finish it all off, I’ll be thinking about this show for a while.
And finally tonight, Tusky, time to see what the fuss is about I guess? A walk on theme of Kiss’ ‘I Was Made For Loving You’ too, what a banger. Straight from the word go, I can see the crowd down the front already losing their minds, so much movement, people jumping around and generally just going mental. As most bands are doing right now, they get the ‘kneel and jump’ bit out of the way quite early but good god, this show is SO MUCH FUN, like I had my expectations quite high already but Tusky have blown past them in a pretty incredible way. They sound amazing to boot as well, each element of the band is fully audible, no smothering of each other in the mix, it’s loud but also immensely clear and considering the amount of shows I’ve been to, that’s not as common as you would think so the sound guy rest needs commending on that.
It’s incredible that the high praise I’ve heard about these prior to this show actually undersold just how damn good this band is and if they’ve not ventured to other countries (beyond Belgium and Germany) on headline shows yet then I’m pretty damn sure they’ll be doing it soon, especially with how they’re performing tonight. I’m actually stunned these haven’t caught the attention of premier punk festivals in the ÜK such as Slam Dunk or 2000 Trees, they’d eat this sort of thing right up. It’s fascinating to see how a band can operate at 110 per cent consistently for their entire set and then seeing the crowd also going nuts every step of the way too.
Tusky are unabashedly raw and truly a force to be reckoned with, every single song in this set has had a stunning amount of energy and it’s in full display why so many people speak so highly of Tusky. I really love it when bands that are new to me go on to exceed my expectations in such a way, it’s quite something to put into words the feeling of elation I have watching this show right now. Times like this remind me why I love writing about music. I get to discover such incredible acts and write down all my feelings about how awesome they are and right now I am in my element.
As we head to the end I admittedly wasn’t expecting a cover of System Of A Down’s ‘Jet Pilot’ but that’s just another cherry on the top of a pretty incredible cake. For the finale, they bring up their label manager and serve him a cheese sandwich with a candle on it for his birthday (I think) and then he goes on to crowd surf while eating that sandwich, definitely a first for me, that!
I could go on and on saying how insane this show has been but one last time, for emphasis, this was mind-blowing. Don’t sleep on Tusky,