Veteran Swap

Tina in
Phil out

Now that's what I call a good trade.

Starting Point

Yesterday dEUS kicked-off their new tour along small venues across Europe, hawking their upcoming album Vantage Point. Doornroosje in Nijmegen had the honour of being the first of over twenty stages to be taken possession of, which shouldn’t be that much of a problem. My point of reference in this respect was the stunning performance they gave in the Aula Magna, Lisbon, Fall 2005, which is likely to be the most suitable concert location I ever visited.

I soon discovered that wasn’t really fair, for the obvious reason that at this stage the band is still entitled to some degree of imperfection. Plus, during their a two-hour (!) show I’m almost convinced they managed to play every single track of their new album. That’s the spirit!

Some points worth mentioning:

• The Black Box Revelation, opening for dEUS, prooved once again that Belgians know their way around guitars.
• “Slow” sounded a little… slow. Wait, make that feebly.
• Mauro Pawlowski without a beard looks like John Stamos. All bearded he bears a striking resemblance to The Magic Numbers.
• Mauro knows how to use his voice. Still, he should work on his facial expressions.
• For us Dutchmen it is rather embarrassing and sometimes awkward when someone speaks Flemish and you don’t understand what’s being said. So Mauro, if what you meant to say was ‘thank you’, then you’re welcome.
• Mauro Pawlowski is rather intriguing…

dEUS - The Architect (video)
dEUS - Instant Street (track on MySpace)

Verily, doth this cause you affront?

Does it Offend You, Yeah? first got onto my musical radar because of their weird, weird name. They stayed there for a long time until they popped up, stealthily, on a bored, what-shall-we-do(wn)-now afternoon. "You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into" the album title read. Well, neither did I.

Neither did I.

At first, I - grasping at straws by now - compared them to WRM, but that didn't match up. White Rose Movement is rather awesome too (will be subject of a next post, I promise) , but DIOYY transcend the genre - if there even is one to speak of.

I would totally understand you if you had no clue what I was talking about so here's a few a clinks: We Are Rockstars, and my personal favorite Doomed Now. Doesn't come across half as well as the original but what can you do? You could download the original,wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It makes me happy!