't Kruisken, Belzele
2010-08-16

Local bar 't Kruisken presented a night of rockin' and rollin' with two sort of local bands.

First up was the poppy rock combo Lula Sweet, who presented an amazingly entertaining set due to so many reasons:

Minimalistic but extremely powerful and well-chosen musical work, combined with a female singer who has a versatile voice one can only be jealous of, is the first and lasting impression I got when they went to work...

For the better part of an hour, Lula Sweet presented their eccentric and enjoyable set of songs in a way any poprock band is supposed to. No theatrics, but well-aimed dance moves and poses from the singer, backed by a solid pack of musicians.

Every chorus presented a new burst of vocal acrobatics, and singer Cindy Barg's cheerfulness spread across the small but packed room like wildfire.

The crowd ate it up, some dancers up front were backed by a lot of yeehaws and woohoos in the back. I wouldn't say no to seeing them again, even though this was not really my usual style of music or performance...

After this little piece of musical joy, it was time for some rock-hard hard rock action in the form of Psycho Virgin Teen.

Starring nothing but metal veterans (think Panchrysia, Crusader, Satyrus, ...), this promised to be a treat.

Not knowing what to expect from these guys musically, I noticed a bunch of influences and styles mixed up to a promising batter. We had the heavy metal drum rolls and guitar hooks surfacing from time to time, the plain old rock n' roll parts coming along for the ride, and some New York Dolls-styled glam rock riffing to finish it all off.

These guys bring a great combination of heard-it-before stuff, a unique style of their own and sometimes just plain unexpected twists in the song structure. Nothing bad to say about that if you ask me, although I wouldn't mind getting what I think is coming every now and then. Some cliché riff variations, classic song build-ups, it works as well...

Dash Dave took the front with what appears to be a blend of Angry Anderson's, well, anger, Brian Johnson's shrieks and David Lee Roth's schwung. Well-schooled in the ways of fronting a band and armed with an amazing vocal capacity, this is a voice rarely heard in these parts and promises only good things to follow. A few more gigs and a little more interaction between the band members will definitely take them to a higher level.

The sound overall was quite okay, given the environment, so I cannot judge any of the bands on how they actually sounded in a room that's not meant to sounds perfect. What I can say is that I saw two very promising bands that hopefully will come round these parts again in the near future.