On the 20th of november Steak Number Eight released their fourth full length album entitled Kosmokoma via the Norwegian label Indie Recordings. To promote their latest effort they have embarked on a European tour that started in january and which will lead them to the great venues all over Europe. On march 23rd we had the chance to see them live at Vooruit in Ghent. First up that evening were Crowd Of Chairs and Hypochristmutreefuzz.
At exactely 20.00 p.m. Crowd Of Chairs took the stage and presented the audience with a 30 minute long set of intense noise-rock. Eeventhough the audience was there mostely to see Steak Number Eight, the room was allready quite full when Crowd Of Chairs started. Their set was everything you could expect from a young noise-rock band, alot of distortion and hyperkinetic drumming and riffs that could easily disorder the listener. They played a very decent set by which they impressed a large part of the audience who was not yet familiar with their music. The only minor point was that the vocals actually suffered because of the distortion they were subjected to. It is understandable that they do this to get that typical noise sound but the music would actually benefit if this would be turned down a notch. This becme painstakingly clear when the vocalist adressed the audience and thanked them for attending.
Next up was the self proclaimed neo-zunk psychotic rock band Hypochristmutreefuzz. The concept of neo-zunk is probably just as nonsensical as their band name. The psychotic element was very clear from the very first note they played. They used several TL-lighting tubes to decorate the stage and even the singer was holding a portable version in his hand as he jumped across the stage. His vocals were also very into character as their music, ranging from clean vocals like those from a little scared child to screams like those of a mental patient who was just committed to a mental asylum. His erratic dancing moves reminded very much of those by Ian Curtis and Kim Karlsson. This music is not for everyone, but it was brought very decently. The only minor point was that the synthesizer was almost lost in the sonic brew produced by the other instruments.
Despite the very interesting and different supporting program, it was immediately clear that everyone was waiting for Steak Number Eight to begin. From the very first note they played the audience started to engage in the music, some heads started to bang, horns were lifted in the air and an occasional crowdsurfer appeared (even at one point a guy in a wheelchair who gets our everlasting respect). First the band played some songs from the Kosmokoma record and the audience was eating out of their hand eventhough not everyone was yet familiar with these new songs. The band played behind a background which was a cosmological projection that took everyone with them on a journy through the stars and was frequently intercepted by the bandlogo and the new album artwork. This fitted perfectly with the atmospheric sludge/post-metal set. The bandmembers gave everything they had and played very intense throughout the whole set to the extend you would almost start thinking that guitarist and frontman Brent Vanneste was having a seizure. This pase was maintained for the full hour and a half. Even when the microphone couldn’t take the mesmirizing vocals anymore they refused to slowdown, Vanneste just jumped up the drum platform and shared a mice with drummer Jonas Casier. When they came closer to the end of the set the former Humo’s Rockrally winners played their older and most famoust tracks including Blackfall and The sea is dying. After they left the stage, they returned for an encore with the songs Pyromaniac and Dickhead. After this the band thanked everyone so affectionetly that everyone was reminded that they still remain those friendly guys from Wevelgem.
The show was sold out a couple of days in advance which shows that Steak Number Eight really is one of the greatest and most succesfull bands Belgium has to offer. They probably will succeed to sell out the bigger concert room in Vooruit than the smaller Balzaal they played this time. If you didn’t had the chance to be there this evening, no worries, you still have three more chances to see them live this year:
25-03-2016 in Biebob Vosselaar
30-04-2016 in Eden Charleroi
19-06-2016 at Graspop Dessel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2S2qCyllgM
