93-12-20 Assück – ABC Diabolo – Störfall Mensch – Rezim

I remember that gig! A cold and wet Monday evening… I was walking around aimlessly in Ieper, when I met someone who told me that there was a concert going on at the Vort’n. I just arrived when ‘ABC Diabolo’ were playing their last song. Then ‘Assück’ got on and they blew everybody (some 15-20 people) away. Super gig but a last-minute affair I suspect… I had a long and good conversation with Rob (‘Assück’s drummer) on obscure Floridian metal-bands from way back when…

Steve W., ‘Neuthrone’

‘Assück’ were an “anti-capitalist anarchist grindcore band” from St. Petersburg, Florida. Daryl Kahan (vocalist for ‘Citizen’s Arrest’ and for a short while drummer for ‘Born Against’) sang for ‘Assück’ on this tour (I think Michael Knopp of Common Cause recs was travelling with them.) with ‘ABC Diabolo’ (Paul Pavlovich, co-founder and original singer had left the band the year before). Steve Kosiba played the bass, Rob Proctor was hitting the drums and the guitarist was Steve Heritage. They had an LP out called Anticapital (on Sound Pollution recs). There were also a bunch of 7”s including a limited edition for this European tour called Blindspot and State To State on the Roman label SOA recs. The music is fast, furious, brutal and heavy; the vocals low and guttural. To just call it ‘grindcore’ is too easy; this description (written by Felix Von Havoc, I think) fits better: “Low-calibre battery of brooding, malicious, doom-ridden grind pitched somewhere between early ‘Napalm Death’ and even earlier ‘Bolt Thrower’. They combined shockingly well-written poetic and political lyrics with catchy songs, insane musicianship and a short-fast-loud brutality that no one has topped since.”…

‘ABC Diabolo’, from Saarbrücken, were: Ulrich Steffens (guitar), Andreas Eid (vocals), Jean-Pascal Stoerck (bass) and Kai-Uwe Sommer (drums; later Marc Schönwald). Their music has been compared with ‘Neurosis’ or ‘Septic Death’. Intense, powerful and brutal metal-influenced HC with a crusty feel. They had a 7” on Off The Disk (’92), their debut LP Last Intoxication Of Senses (’93) and the later Give Rise To Doubts (’95) both came out on the Common Cause label.

‘Rezim’, a HC band (sometimes raging, sometimes melodic) from Zlotów (north of Poznan), were Piotr ‘Misiu’ Michas (bass), Tomek ‘Sypa’ Sypniewski (drums), Piotr ‘Skoda’ Skotnicki (guitar; also ‘Włochaty’) and Darek ‘Czacha’ Wesoly (vocals).

‘Störfall Mensch’ were from Metelen (near Münster) and I know they had a demo out… Reinhard ‘Madness’ Vinkelau was the drummer.

Brob

‘Citizen Arrest’ [vocalist Daryl Kahan, drummer Patrick Winter, bassist Joseph Brendan Martin & guitarist Janis Chakars] never toured Europe but my experience there with ‘Assück’ was very positive. My new band ‘Funebrarum’ [death-metal] has been touring Europe in February 2012.

Michael is a great guy and was an excellent tour-manager [93].

Daryl Kahan

I do remember playing the Vort’n Vis!

‘Störfall Mensch’ (‘man the intruder’) was a total D.I.Y. Band. ‘Tono B.’ on guitar and vocals, Thomas H. playing the bass and me hitting the drums & shouting. We called our music ‘Pampas-core’ as we were based somewhere in the countryside, far away from the German HC-epicentres, very close to the Dutch border, near Enschede. First time I heard from the Vort’n Vis was from somebody in ‘Chronic Disease’ who also did the artwork for our backdrop… [Brob: I guess that was Sling!?]

I was very glad as Kapper [hairdresser] Roland [That’s Roland Molegraaf, guitarist of ‘Quite Fresh Phobia’], a D.I.Y. booker from Eindhoven who helped us out with some shows in the Netherlands, could also book us in the legendary Vort’n´ Vis on that dark & freezing tour in ‘93. After some serious troubles with our tour-vehicles we were glad getting to Ieper in time… Everybody in the club was very friendly and it was obvious that these people had organised shows before. Even if it wasn’t packed, the atmosphere was good and we had a good time with all the bands. I think we slept on the stage that night. Another thing I remember, was the breakfast. As we had to leave dead early the next morning (playing the Kellnerstrasse squat in Halle/Saale, Germany) we got cakes & tarts served for breakfast which was quite exotic for us, but far better than nothing! Thanx for helping us out!!!

My job nowadays is running a youth-club as a social worker… Old punks never die!!!

‘Madness’

Of course I remember this gig at the Vort’n Vis. I recall that there was a nice atmosphere, lovely people (the guitarist of my favourite band ‘Nation On Fire), interesting conversations and a nice reception by the audience. Unfortunately I haven’t got any photos but I have this place in my mind and my heart…

‘Rezim’ was indeed a hardcore band from Zlotów. Now I live in Szczecin and play in Włochaty & ‘WC’ (Legendary punk-rock band formed in 1981. The name means the toilet or the idealized darkness.). At the time I was only playing only in ‘Rezim’. That was the band which outlined the way of playing of other HC/punk bands from Poland in that time. We were mixing hardcore with crossover but it was based on traditional punk-rock. ‘Rezim’ was an underground band, radical and not making compromises, with very anti-political lyrics. In the days of communism (80s) in Poland, ‘Rezim’ couldn’t play legally; the band couldn’t become popular, even in the punk-rock scene! But it became a legend for HC/punk people in our region. Indeed, ‘Rezim’ was playing sometimes raging and sometimes melodic, and the people you have mentioned are those who were playing in ‘Rezim’ in that time. ‘Misiu’ lives in Germany, he started the hardcore band ‘1125’. We have been playing together in another legendary Polish HC/punk project [“a super-group”, tribute-project with some 10 people from the Polish scene] called ‘Tribute To Rejestracja’. ‘Czacha’ has his own music-club in Złotów. I have no contact with Sypa…

I remember ‘Störfall Mensch’ well. They were our friends from Germany. We did 2 tours with them and released a split. We spent a lot of time together. I would like to refresh the contact with ‘Madness’, Tono, Thomas and the rest. ‘ABC Diabolo’ – really cool band, with distorted bass and powerful vocals – were playing fast and bluntly, with a lot of activity on the scene. They were very sympathetic people. ‘Assück’ were very proficient and nice people, we had interesting conversations.

‘Skoda’ from ‘Rezim’

All of us were pretty damn sick on that tour! Never tour Northern Europe in December-January… Though this Belgium show was at the beginning, before the van broke down, etc. This show was a great one.

Wearing my favourite ‘Rorschach’ shirt!

Steve Kosiba

Andreas Eid is running a record-shop in Saarbrücken called Rex Rotari…

Michael Knopp

Pictures

‘Rezim’ (photos by Henk L.)

‘Assück’ (1&2 by Henk L., 3 by Wim DL, 4 by Karl P. – thanx!)

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

“Greetings to all hardcore people from Poland.” [‘Skoda’ informs: We knew about plans that in that time other bands like ‘Alians’ and ‘Witch World’ would be playing here. Our region was the cities: Złotów and Piła. That was the reason we wrote:] “Pilacy (crews from Piła) if you play here, remember the people from ‘Rezim’. Signed by: Misiu, Czacha, Skoda, Sypa” [I don’t recall what we meant but I can translate it:] Fuck The Geronimo Martens Co.

Jan ‘Doomy’ Claus comments: “Awkward audience today: there were even 2 drunk B.O.B.-ers [special investigation brigade of the police]!! They liked ‘Rezim’ but they walked out after 10 minutes of ‘Assück’.”

additions wellcome!…

96-10-26 Los Crudos – Keith McHenry (Food Not Bombs)

tour organised by Nabate (Liège), Flat Earth (Leeds) & Maximum Voice (Leipzig)

The tour of ‘Los Crudos’ lasted about 3 months and each week they took along another band (with a backline). During ‘our week’ with them we did gigs in Leipzig, Chemnitz, Prague, Brno & Vienna… We were not at the Vort’n Vis (unfortunately) but I can remember they played each night as if it was their last one… So much energy, so tight… It was really awesome that we could be their ‘support’ for a week…

Bill, ‘Boycot’ singer

‘Los Crudos’ were a political HC band from Chicago. Vocalist Martin Sorrondeguy dealt with Latin-American issues and being Hispanic in the U.S. (originating from Uruguay), religion (being excommunicated from the catholic church), gay-rights (being gay himself), etc. Besides ‘originals’ Martin (vocals) and José Casas (guitar), Ebro Virumbrales (drums; also in ‘Charles Bronson’ & ‘MK Ultra’) and Lenin Montes De Oca (bass) were on this tour. They were all of Latino descent and their lyrics were in Spanish. Martin also ran the DIY label Lengua Armada Discos that released a bunch of Los Crudos 7”s. Around the time of this tour there was also albums on Kent McClard’s Ebullition recs (Viviendo Asperamente – Roughly Living, split with ‘Spitboy’, in 1995) and on Flat Earth/Nabate (Canciones Para Liberar Nuestras Frontera, in 1996).

A very interesting band, so I interviewed them for my zine Tilt! #9 (‘Los Crudos’ interview) and I think there was a follow-up planned but the floppy crashed and until this day my 10^th issue never got out… Nice people too: when they played on a boat in Dunkerque (France), they were kind enough to let me and my friends join in on tasting the fantastic guacamole that Cathy Bennett had made for them…

Brob

‘Los Crudos’ started to talk about the Zapatistas and other political matters and within seconds people started to shout at them that they had to play and not nag. Bah!

Kenny Feyen; personal communication Dec. ’96

In the second half of the 90s my distro evolved more and more towards taking on more political books and pamphlets. One of them being Not For Rent (Conversations with Creative Activists in the U.K.), a book published by Evil Twins (Amber & Stacy Wakefield; eviltwinpublications.com). I guess that’s how I got to know about Food Not Bombs. I contacted co-founder Keith McHenry -or he contacted me- to help sell his book Food Not Bombs: How to Feed the Hungry and Build Community. (Later I also distributed FNB co-founder C.T. Lawrence Butler’s book On Conflict And Consensus.) We started communicating and when he mentioned he wanted to do a European ‘tour’ – the Rent Is Theft tour – presenting Food Not Bombs and talking about the “3 Strikes and You’re Out” law (Keith was arrested over 100 times for serving free food and spent many nights in jail. He faced 25 years to life in prison under the California Three Strikes Law.) I decided to help him out and arranged some of the (Belgian and other) dates, drove him around in Belgium and put him up at my place. Each night he talked about the history of FNB, their activities and the results of this law, and showed a few videos on FNB actions; at people’s kitchens, in squats, anarchist centres, etc. I remember a great night at the legendary Hogepont squat in Gent (huge attentative audience), a presentation at the Anarchist Centre in Gent, an interview for the university-radio in Leuven, etc.

I knew Los Crudos were touring and playing in Ieper, at the Vort’n Vis, so I arranged he could do the ‘his’ thing that evening aswell. Keith is a lively speaker, raconteur and warm-hearted person.

For those who don’t know Food Not Bombs yet; check out: http://www.foodnotbombs.net

Brob

I was so amazed when ‘Los Crudos’ turned out to be playing in Belgium after my presentation. I stayed with them in Chicago just before they broke up… They were the only ones that played. I remember that two guys on drugs gave me a hard time during the talk. It was in an abandoned brewery in Ieper. We all crashed upstairs after the concert. I had never seen them live so that was such a great surprise. I also remember people talking about growing up in Ieper and feeling the dead under foot from World War I and the room where we slept had a painting about the frog that was in warm water that failed to jump out to save his life…

I sure do remember enjoying the visits to Belgium. I learned that my mother’s grandfather was from Belgium and invented the dynamo. There is a Belgium stamp and a few monuments to Karl Vanderpoole in some place near Ghent.

I remember we went in search of pizza and went into a tiny shop where we ran into a guy I had met months before in Spain. That was a real shock. Showed what a small world we have. I fell in love with Belgium and would love to return. I remember you introduced me to a ton of great people. As a result I had a girlfriend from Leuven for a while. I remember you and I took a tram that passed the Cathedral and when I returned to the U.S. I found out there are some really wonderful paintings I should return to see.

Keith McHenry, Food Not Bombs

I’m writing the Rent is Theft book and your ideas about DIY have had an influence on the direction of the book.

Keith McHenry; personal communication, spring ‘97

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

92-05-02 Instigators – Nessun Dorma – Kurort

I will never forget this one because everyone was so sweaty when ‘Instigators’ played; superb concert! I don’t really remember ‘Kurort’…

Henk Loobuyck

Frank Babel (Blasting Youth recs) organised the ‘Instigators’ socalled ‘Reunion Tour 1992’ (mainly Germany, some dates I, Austria, Italy, Switzerland – see tour-schedule). I think the guys from Dewsbury/Huddersfield didn’t want to go home immediately so they ended up playing the Vort’n Vis… The line-up was the ‘usual’ Andy ‘Tez’ Turner (vocals), Simon Mooney (guitar) & Steve ‘Cuzzy’ Curran (drums), and Keith Whitely did the bass this time. They’d done some gigs for Smurfpunx in the past (‘87 & ‘88) so it was nice to meet them again… And they would be back the next year (93-04-04). I think at this timepoint Bruno was taking in some of the records of Andy’s Full Circle label for distribution…

‘Nessun Dorma’ (Bristol) had played for Smurfpunx a couple of years before (90-09-02) and I’d stayed in touch with Seamus (Cummins), their bassplayer. They were: Paul (vocals), Phil (drums) and Ju & Tony ‘Tone’ (guitarists). They had vinyl (the Chew It Over lp) out on Mike Foster’s MCR recs (actually MCRUK 001). From the review of that in Tilt! #7: “Raging, energetic bulldozer-HC with breaks and tempo-changes. […] Killer live band.”.

From the Bristol-based zine Read It! (winter ‘91-‘92): >>They were originally called ‘Night Terror Syndrome’, formed in early 1988 by Tony (guitar) & Luke (bass), Paul & Phil, and Julian had played in ‘Organised Chaos’ and sang for the ‘Stupid Humans’ [early 80s], the earliest incarnation of the ‘Subhumans’. In spring ’89 Luke left to join ‘Maggot Slayer Overdrive’. An old friend Seamus replaced him. They took the name ‘Nessun Dorma’ (None Shall Sleep – the opera-song Pavarotti did at the soccer world-cup), at the time of their 2^nd demo (1990) [Your Chocolate Factory Needs You].<<

They came back to the Vort’n Vis a few times…

‘Kurort’ were a hardcore/punk band from Bad Ischl, Austria: Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass) and Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played powerful hardcore with personalized political lyrics and sang in their Upper Austrian dialect. They had released some vinyl themselves and on Trost recs (a Vienna-based label related to Club Flex – a indie/noise/rock venue). Later Tiberiju of Sacro Egoismo and Joris of Conspiracy recs would help ‘em out. They came back a second time (95-03-05).

Brob

Here’s what I think I remember from Ieper… We were booked to play Poperinge and I was asleep in the van as we arrived for the show (no one told me the show had moved towns). We unloaded the gear, set up, sound-checked and I went off for a walk around town before the show. I wandered for a bit and took a few pictures – I’d really only just started taking photographs (which is what I do for a living now). I remember turning one corner and there was the Menin Gate. I was really struck by the of it scale (Incidentally, my great-uncle William Mooney is named on the Thiepval Memorial as killed in one of the Somme battles.) and of course I didn’t expect it to be there as I still thought we were in Poperinge. I stayed for quite some time reading the names and taking photographs before deciding to head back to the venue. I had no idea what time it was.

As I got closer to the Vort’n Vis I could hear the support band. At least I thought it was the support, but it sounded like an ‘Instigators’ tune… It also sounded like Andy singing… I got inside to see the ‘Instigators’ on stage with our roadie Gary Jackson playing guitar (He was much better than me.). It seems I’d been away for hours at the Gate and there was no way to contact me as we had no mobiles back then. I wasn’t very popular with the rest of the band. I think the bass player on this tour was Keith Whitely.

Here’s a video from the same tour: ‘Instigators’ live in Schwenningen 1992…

Simon Mooney

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…