93-05-22 Fingerprint – Feeding The Fire – Congress – Part Of Me

A concert organised in conjunction with P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude) recs; the label that Hans Verbeke (‘Rise Above’, ‘Spirit Of Youth’, ‘Blindfold’, ‘Liar’) and U.J. (‘Dreft’, ‘Congress’, ‘Liar) did at that time…

‘Fingerprint’ from Paris were a ‘(scr)e(a)mo’ hardcore band with Nicolas Fisseau (vocals), Christophe Mora (guitar/vocals; also drummer of ‘Undone’), Thomas Guillanton (bass; also ‘Jasemine’ & ‘Ananda’) and Jérome Bessout (drums; also ‘Jasemine’). Their music was described as “intense and nerveous emocore, mixing fast and hectic musical parts with driving mid tempo ones”. They’d just recorded for the Surrender 7” on Christophe’s label Stonehenge recs. He also released the 7” We May Be Brothers the next year (recorded Oct ’93) and their discography on CD in 1996. When Nicolas quit, the other 3 kept playing (with Christophe singing) as ‘Jasemine’.

‘Feeding The Fire’s Roger, Rob, René, Har & Illona were regulars here (91-12-21, 92-04-18, 92-09-05, 92-10-10, …); to some almost like family. As you can read in the guestbook: they were heavily into international socialism… The flyer mentions the possible presenation of their 1^st 7” No Submission. It was recorded January of that year and released by Burt & Michiel from ‘Man Lifting Banner’ on their label Red Wax recs. I reviewed it in Tilt! #8 as follows : >> Mostly superfast and grindy SxE HC; a bit of a mix between ‘Lärm’, ‘Man Lifting Banner’ & ‘Nations On Fire’. Features ‘Metal Molly’ Illona and Har ‘The Clown’ on guitars. This little record rocks like hell. <<

‘Congress’ apparently considered this their 1^st “good gig” (after 93-04-25)… Don’t know if Pierre already did vocals here instead of Roy…

Can ‘t recall what ‘Part Of Me’ sounded like or who they were… Their first gig apparently.

Brob

Might be the first time I ever saw ‘Congress’…? They just had a demo out I think. Not as cult yet as they became later on. ‘Part Of Me’ was a very young band, the new generation from our scene down South in the Netherlands.

Rob Franssen, ‘Feeding The Fire’ vocalist

‘Part Of Me’ was a band from Simpelveld (not far from Kerkrade, in Limburg). Jean-Paul [Frijns; later bass in ‘Birds Of A Feather’] (Value of Strength zine) was their singer, together with 3 kids from Simpelveld. I can vaguely recall they went on as ‘Backdraft’ [see 94-08-20] without J-P but with Rob (‘F.T.F.) as vocalist and Illona (‘F.T.F.’) on guitar…

Roger, F.T.F. bassist

‘Fingerprint’ often played with sXe bands whereas we were not sXe ourselves (2 members were, actually…). I can’t count how many time I’ve seen ‘Shortsight’, ‘Blindfold’ or ‘Congress’ on stage… I never shared a single word with all these dudes… Except when one of them was behind the bar: “A beer please! Thank you!”… And it was always the same… We always spoke with Bruno and … Brob! I was glad to meet you when we played at the Vort’n Vis… We were really excited to play this show with ‘Feeding The Fire’. We really were into their fast, brutal HC. We were glad to share the stage with them. Not that they were a hype or something but they played like no other bands. I remember that we shared equipment with all the bands playing that day. Jérome, our drummer borrowed his double kick pedal to the ‘Feeding The Fire’ drummer… During their set, the singer said something like “This show is for my sXe friends…” and looked at us with ‘the eye of the tiger’ which meant kind of “You’re not one of them.”, while I was with some friends, drinking our beers quietly watching and enjoying their set from the bar. We were kind of upset… and amused; I said to Jérome: “They would deserve that we get on stage and get the double kick pedal back.” with a blink of an eye, then we cheered and sipped our beers again . But the show was great and we had a good time though. To us it was fun to be inside this Belgian sXe thing in a way… It was our ‘New Jersey’. In the mid 90s, Belgium was the centrepoint of the sXe movement, we were OK to be a part of it through this kind of funny events (after all)… I don’t remember the two other sets [93-09-17 & 94-04-23]…

Thomas Guillanton, ‘Fingerprint’ bassist

‘Congress’, I think, was really awful at the show and the demo sounded pretty bad. But they became really tight and powerful especially when their new singer took over the mic. Great band… ‘Feeding The Fire’ was great as usual.

Peter Hoeren, Crucial Response recs

We did our very first show with ‘Part Of Me’ at the V.V. Later I played there with ‘Backdraft’ and ‘Feeding The Fire’.

Kay Roderburg, bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…