95-06-18 Avail – Four Walls Falling – Sensefield – Faroutski

‘Four Walls Falling’ (also from Richmond) were here for the 2^nd time (see 93-10-03): Taylor Steele (vocals) left his brother (Robert ‘Bo’) at home this time. He was replaced by Cam DiNunzio (guitar). The other guitarist was John (Stuart) Peters, John Papazoglou played bass (Bill Thidemann who played in ‘93 wasn’t on this tour) and Jared Srsic did drums. In 1994 they had recorded for the Food for Worms LP that came out on Day After recs (from the Czech Republic) with David Milton Tunkel playing bass. Thomas Crawley (‘Ipecac’) roadied on this 1995 tour. Rob(ert) Vlcek was the road-manager from the tour. The band broke up while being on tour in Europe that year but played a reunion-show later on…

Taylor Steele (with Vique Martin in the background) – credit: Sébastien Iaria

‘Sensefield’ (from Redondo Beach – near Los Angeles, California) were a Revelation recs band (at that time). Their LPs Killed For Less (’94) & Building (’96) were released on Jordan Cooper’s label. The band then consisted of Chris Evenson & Rodney Sellars (guitar), John ‘Slow Johnny’ Stockberger (bass), Jon(athan) Bunch (vocals) and Scott McPherson (drums). Their music could be described as emotive, passionate ‘posi’ HC based on rocking guitars. They were touring together with ‘Four Walls Falling’.

‘Avail’ from Richmond (Virginia) were: ‘Beau’ Beau Butler (cheerleader/dancer), Joe Banks (guitar), Tim Barry (vocals – drums on the 1^st EP), Erik Larson (drums; later replaced by Ed Trask of ‘Holy Rollers’ & ‘Kepone’) and Rob(ert) Kelshian (bass; ex ‘Ipecac’ – who replaced Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley). ‘Avail’ released their first LP, Satiate, on Catheter-Assembly recs in 1992. It was re-issued on Old Glory recs (who also released Live At The King’s Head Inn) and on CD by LookOut! Recs, in 1994. C-A also put out the Attempt To Regress EP (recorded in ’92). They also put out the Dixie CD after that… 4AM Friday was recorded with Rob on bass (LookOut! ’96). The later records were with bassist Justin ‘Gwomper’ Burdick. I believe that the ‘Avail’ tour was organised by Lookout! Europe (Christy Colcord and/or Mary-Jane Weatherby and/or Aidan Taylor)…

‘Avail’ (photographed by Joeri Hoste)

‘Faroutski’ (from the Kortrijk area) was started after ‘Fireside’ (92-10-04) split up. They called their music punkrock’n’roll and stated they were “a DIY band in the tradition of old punk-bands”. They released their material on their own Funarchy label (previously Rocklabyrinth recs). The band consisted of people of the scene around the Pits (small rock/indie venue): Geert ‘Barney’ Blomme (drums), ‘Kyvie’ Johan Dekyvere (guitar) and Rine Amelynck (bass).

I think Maximum Rock’n’Roll columnist and singer of the band ‘Siren’, Brian Zero, was there too. Perhaps with some other members of his band (drummer Kevin McCracken, bassist Joe Carr & guitarist Adam Glidewell)? ‘Siren’ would put a record (Becoming Wheels) out on the Czech label Day After recs (who also did the European version of the ‘Four Walls Falling’ LP)… I recall getting along with Brian quite well: he’d written an article on Corporate Punk for M.R.R. If I remember well he also wrote about the Vort’n Vis in a column for M.R.R. He got ‘stuck’ in Europe, it seems, as he’s now a teacher in Prague.

I’m not really sure but I think there was some commotion at this gig because ‘Avail’s Beau Beau was dancing rather violently and I addressed that because the V.V. had a policy against it. Don’t remember exactly but this might have stirred things up a bit? Unfortunately not everyone could appreciate it… ‘Avail’s drummer responded in a kinda awkward way – over-reacted. Jaak ‘N.O.F.’ wrote me afterwards that I had “spoiled” it because the audience was really enjoying the concert and some people (3!) left! There’s supposed to be a picture of Beau in Aaron Vyvial’s zine Love Child zine stating “Brob broke Beau’s nose”…!!??

Brob

The reaction of the ‘Avail’ drummer and dancer were simply wrong. But your response to that…!? You spoiled things for the band and for the few in the audience that were really enjoying them. (Perhaps you didn’t notice but besides myself there were 3 others that went outside.).

Jaak ‘Nations On Fire’, personal communication June 95

I was at Vort’n Vis during this show. I think. I was there a couple times more, maybe with ‘Lifetime’? I cant recall…

Miroslav ‘Mira’ Pátý, Day After recs

I booked the ‘4 Walls Falling’ / ‘Sensefield’ tour… Also was at the V.V. a month later with ‘Lifetime’…

Robert ‘Veg’ Vlček, ‘Clean Slate’

I had a great time. The journey back only took 7 hours (as opposed to 9 hours coming!)… I’m coming back to see ‘Sensefield’ on July 5^th [That was in Leuven.]. [Vique was here with her fellow Brighton-ian with Mark ‘Macca’ Wilkinson]

Vique ‘Simba’ Martin; personal communication June ‘95

I was in ‘Avail’ from ‘91 to ‘94 and never played outside of the States.

Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley

I remember enjoying playing in Belgium – we had two shows there. That was the first time we had toured Europe and, while people had told us that it was a little different than touring in the U.S., I don’t think we really knew what to expect. That’s not to say that we had a bad time but Belgium (and particularly the show in Ieper) was where things kind of picked up and got us feeling better about our overall experience – so I will always remember that. Pete the Roadie (he roadied for ‘Citizen Fish’) ‘s wife Paula [Hibbs-Rines, ex ‘Spitboy’] organized the tour for us and our driver was a guy named Dave who played in a band called ‘Maggot Slayer Overdrive’ [from Bristol] – hope that helps!

Robert Kelshian, ‘Avail bassist’

Yup, I booked, drove & tour-managed ‘Avail’s first Europe tour – great!! Peter from the Lintfabriek was promoter for the show…

Paula Hibbs-Rines

John Papazoglou was a friend of ours. He played in ‘Lucy Brown’ before ‘4WF’. Actually it was him or Dave on that tour. I can’t remember for sure but he was the last bass-player in the band.

William Thidemann

I was indeed drumming for ‘4WF’ in 1995. Tommy Anthony was our substitute drummer for the first European tour that occurred in 1993. I remember the Ieper show only in that it was towards the end of our tour and the sets where getting better sounding and tighter in performance. I remember the stage being quite shallow but the sound-system and crowd being great!!

Jared Srsic

Actually we had parted ways with Dave right after we recorded Food For Worms. I don’t remember much: we played 50 shows in 53 days, things tend to blur. I lived in the same house in Richmond with Tim, Beau, ‘Gwomper’ & Erik.

Taylor Steele, ‘4 Walls Falling’

Rob Kelshan played on the 4AM Friday record and did two tours with ‘Avail’. I joined on the last tour… That guy Rob tried to sue the band for money. So he’s not the most loved person. We refer to him as “he who will not be named”…

‘Gwomper’

I wish I had more memories, I remember very small bottles of strong beer in Belgium. I wish I could remember more, Europeans are too generous with the beer. Did someone tag the wall there with “It’s Avail not Awail!”?

Rodney Sellars, ‘Sensefield’

On the evening of July 17th 1995 some friends and I were going through the list of Bruno, one of the guys who was programming at the Vort’n Vis, and that’s how we learned that the next day there was a concert featuring ‘Avail’, ‘4 Walls Falling’ & ‘Sensefield’. What a bill! And what to do? Nothing! 700 kilometres to show up in Ypres at Vort’n Vis. We said why not, damn! After all, we can’t do shit here anyway. But we were a bit misguided about that because it’s still long, 700 kilometres at night without sleep. It’s a horror to travel up North [France, and the into Belgium]. Hamlets such as Saint-Quentin and Laon: it just makes one wish to become an alcoholic. Anyway, the next day we were in Ypres and we had to get through the day. We visited the military cemeteries and it certainly sucked as much as anywhere else, but in another way. Then the time of the gig arrived and we found the Vort’n Vis. For god’s sake! I didn’t expect this! The Vort’n Vis was somewhat of a mythical place for us. We’d heard about it for a long time (at least 3 years) and I really didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t this. The concert took place in the pub (I only discovered the hall on another occasion). So this time things happened in the pub and it really looked like a pub. And besides that, it was tiny! I expected, for bands like this, to find myself in a venue with a capacity of 300 people, but it wouldn’t have accommodated more than 50 [Brob: We were used to cramming a lot more than this…]. The concert started with ‘Faroutski’, a local band that didn’t make a big impression. The band that I came over for was ‘4 Walls Falling’. Surely that was my sXe streak. I knew about ‘Sensefield’ because they were ex ‘Reason To Believe’ but I thought that sounded a bit cheesy. The concert taught me to like ’em better. I had records by ‘Avail’ and the image I had of them, was that of a melodic punk-band with emo tendencies. Not bad but not transcendantal! But dammit friends, what a blast on stage! And what a revelation! The singer aswell as the drummer went berserk, and on top of that there was some sort of eccentric that jumped in all directions and who wasn’t far from frightening because he was doing whatever. The dude was a member of the band, he was some sort of dancer. I’d heard he had been a soldier who had deserted and who had taken refuge in the punk-community of Richmond. He follwed ‘Avail’ on tour not to get caught. In any case, they gave us a hell of a spectacle, Beau Beau and ‘Avail’. And when listening to their second album Dixie, I couldn’t but like it. Which wasn ‘t the case with the third LP 4am Friday. It wasn’t until I felt I needed to sort my CDs that I realised that yes, that album has the same quality as Dixie. Certainly a bit of a better production and a bit less brutal (whatever…), and that’s probably what I didn’t like at the time. Nowadays, I think it’s a great album and ‘Avail’ was a fantastic band. I’ve no regrets about the 700 kilometres long travel, the inhospitable places and the meals we had to put up with. And even if it was ‘4 Walls Falling’ that I wanted to see, it’s ‘Avail’ that I remembered when I got back. What I do regret, is that the next day, there was another one in another Belgian town, with more or less the same bill but with ‘Lifetime’ and ‘State Of The Nation’ (I don’t really remember but I believe that that bill was more than unbelievable – I wonder if ‘Kosjer D’ didn’t play there aswell…). I told my mates we should stay, now that we were there, to take advantage of the opportunity. But no, we returned that night. The next day, there was someone who had to do something. What? That’s the question… Definitely getting bored, no doubt…

Jean-Marc Moratille, ‘Rawness’ drummer (on his blog)

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

97-08-15&16&17 HardCore – The Next Generation festival

‘Blindfold’ was supposed to play their “last show ever” but they still did shows, even toured during the summer, in ’98, their drummer Chatn informs. According to Hans their last gig was at ‘t Molentje in Kuurne. They recorded their live-LP (with 2 new songs only to be heard there) at the V.V.

Brob

We released our CD [Redeem The Monsters] at this fest but we didn’t actually play… Our singer Mark arrived with the first 500 copies, straight from the prsssing-plant and they were practically all gone in a day (sold to people attending and on consignment to various distros. We had to order a second pressing immediately. Crazy!

Sven Leys, ‘Rain’s guitarist

I ended up there with some SxE friends from Vienna (Daniel Eberharter of Eloquence zine), from Vienna (Austria), that were going to the fest. I was also friends with ‘By The Grace Of God’ (ex-members of the Louisville band ‘Endpoint’ [BTGOG had been touring earlier. They were already back in the states by August.]) who I think played the fest. They were on tour in Europe and I dragged along as van-duty, slacker, bad jokester for some shows. I toured with them on and off throughout the tour. We had a blast at Ieper and met great people. It was a nice meet-up of us all. I slept in the ‘loft’-area on an old couch. I had a giant necklace with a cock-ring on it. Good times! The venue was pretty unique in what I’ve seen around the world. It was impressive seeing the show set-up and so successful, especially with so many bands. The diversity in the punk-styles was evident and it was great to be apart of. There were New York style harcore, crust-punk and metal bands; and kids all hanging out.

Kevin Zelko; Wellfair? zine (also helped putting out ‘The Get Up Kids’ record)

Kevin Zelko & friends (Daniel Eberharter and Henrik from Stockholm)

I was at the Vort’n Vis with ‘Acheborn’… I have very good memories of sleeping in the park nearby in the festival. It was only us and another two people the first time The next year it was pretty full in there. The groundkeeper was actually so friendly that he almost didn’t let us go. A bit like in the movie Misery ;-) (Where a nurse takes care of an author that had a car-accident, in her house; and at the beginning she is all caring but then becomes this psycho who doesn’t let him leave her house, etc. We thought maybe he is all nice and then he won’t let us leave anymore…)

Here’s a few random memories:

There were 2 guys sleeping in the middle of the main square close to the venue because it was super-packed with people occupying every inch on the floor. We were walking past the main square when they were waking up and they were surrounded by market-stalls and people shopping. I guess they were too polite to wake them up to tell them that there is a market going on in their new bedroom….

There was this guy selling rare test-pressings of ‘Infest’, etc. for big bucks and American bands were spending a lot of money on it. I was sleeping at this guy’s house once on tour and he had hundreds of sleeves left and was making a test-pressing every once in a while. Power-violence hardcore capitalism…

And once I hitchhiked half way and was picked up by two guys from Munich at a highway-stop along the way but didn’t have a seat to get back. I didn’t really find anyone and at the last night there were four guys with a tiny car from Frankfurt that didn’t have any space as it was loaded with records that they were selling… Either way they squeezed me in and we all had records literally up to our nose driving for 6 hours or so. I think that was in the top 10 of the worst car-drives I ever had. but I guess that was the price to pay for going to the Vort’n Vis.

Christian Mix-Linzer (Outlet recs)

I was here aswell: I drove ‘Acheborn’. That was my first time at the V.V.

Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)

The persons (Jan & Jakub ‘Kuba’ Dušek of the sXe band ‘Balaclava’) that wrote a report in the Czech zine Barricada #2 mentioned that they got a discount on the admission-fee (a ticket for all three days costed 40 DM [20 Euro] – which was too much for them). The first day “of the three-day marathon” started about half past three. They spent the first (hot) night on the sand near the shore, and in the morning went skipping in the sea. They came back to the city and after lunch got ready for “the next round”. After day 2 they they left the hall “soaking in sweat and with torn earrings”, looking for a place to sleep in town. But there was hardly a place to lie down? “It’s not easy at all in this part of Belgium: there’s either cow-pastures and corn-fields surrounded by wire, or villages everywhere; but no forests where one can lay down one’s head.” After straying around for a long time, they found that single one place in the whole state and “slept the sleep of the righteous”. The last day started early right after lunch to get everything finished by nine o’clock… “Compared to the year before, there were fewer bands that took our breath. We probably also knew what was coming and the Belgian bands weren’t that big of a risk. But where else can you see so many wonderful bands and people together, find things you don’t know about, and especially to meet new friends and learn about European scenes. Beautiful memories…”

(full posts with photos of some bands playing are planned…)

[‘Natural Order’ & ‘Timebomb’ were not listed on the poster but they signed the guestbook. They didn’t play… Some bands got switched around… ‘Lifecycle’ was added to the bill last-minute.]

97-08-15: Instinct (Bel), Purification (Ita), Clouded (Bel), Endstand (Fin), Reiziger (Bel), Spineless (Bel), Facedown (Bel), Abhinanda (Swe), Veil (Ger)

97-08-16: Thumbs Down (Bel), ODK Crew (Bel), Metroschifter (USA), Intensity (Swe), Spirit Of Youth (Bel), Serene (Swe), Sektor (Bel), Blindfold (Bel), Kindred (Bel), Liar (Bel), Culture (USA)

97-08-17: Lifecycle (Bel), Acheborn (Ger), Starmarket (Swe), Deformity (Bel), Mainstrike (Nl), Rubbish Heap (Bel), Vitality (Bel), Congress (Bel), Morning Again (USA)

crowdshots by Sergi E. Costa

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

visiters from the Czech republic; some of them wrote a review in Barricada #2

‘Roman vegan sXe legion’

militant… or hardline…?

all sorts of visiters…

additions wellcome!…

 

93-09-19 Eversor – Hiatus – Nations On Fire – Strength Of The Will

See: 93-09-17&18&19 5th Leed-festival (Intro & Incident)

After the rave the night before the day started with a breakfast…

Liège crusties (including Willy ‘Hiatus’) & Italian HC/punks (‘Eversor’) sharing the goodies (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

Then gradually the ‘market’ started…

Probably the very first time that Jon ‘Active’ Elliott came over… / Alain of Nabate looking for trades (pics by Massimo Moscarelli)

This edition of the Leed festival was totally fucked up, the only reason why ‘N.O.F.’ played on Sunday was because Françoise [‘Hazel’ Lepers] and Wim [Vandekerckhove] came to my house to drag me along: I had no intention to come. Apparently a bus-load of Swiss chaos-punks thought it was a good idea to come up to Ieper that weekend and demonstrate the ‘Exploited’ version of anarchy. The whole Saturday they had been nagging about having no money to pay the entrance and that punk had to be free. But they did find it OK to drive their bus-wreck all the way to Ieper at 30 litres per 100 km and buy beer in the grocery-store around the corner. Just say that paying the entrance is not a priority in stead of lying not to have any money. Whatever, each hour things were getting less and less pleasant and by the evening they had picked out a few ‘victims’ to let he whole thing explode… Unfortunately for them, they had chosen Hans Verbeke as their target. Lesson # 1: never choose someone who will fight back without a problem and grew up in the streets… The “punks” started to hassle Chantal (Hans’ girlfriend at that time) so Hans grabs his baseball-bat from UJ’s car and wacks one of those guys over the head. This, of course, sets the whole thing ablaze with all crust-punks hearing that straight-edgers are beating up poor beer-drinking punks: total chaos. Hans and some of us walk in to the pub and barricade the door while some 20 rampaging and drunk crusties shouting murder and fire, trying to break down the door. Luckily the lads of ‘Doom’ were still sober and smarter than their adherents and drove Hans off in their van. Eternal thanks for that because otherwise things could’ve gotten really out of hand. While all this was going most people were in the big hall in the back. What I always disliked about this episode is that Bruno and Jan called this a minor incident, something to forget fast. Apparently it wasn’t necessary to remove the Swiss assholes or address the guys from ‘Hiatus’ who were on their side. It’s all a long time ago but it remains one of the all time lows of all these years at the V.V.

Jeroen Lauwers (see also the interview he did with Willy ‘Hiatus’)

‘N.O.F.’ played in their new line-up (announced in the newsletter). From April 1993 on that was: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar; also ‘Blindfold’ vocalist’), Filip Devolder (who did the ‘Silent Water’ project/band; drums), Ed(ward) Verhaeghe (vocals) and Jeroen ‘Goofy’ Lauwers (bass).

‘Nations On Fire’ (photo by Massimo Moscarelli)

‘Eversor’, a band from Pesaro, started out as as a thrash metal-band in 1985 but by then they played heartfelt, melodic HC (they were compared with bands such as ‘Sensefield’ and ‘Lifetime’): Marco Morosini (bass), Lele Morosini (guitar & vocals) and Federico Sarti had replaced Enrico ‘Eric Lumen’ Giampaoli (drums). Later the brothers continued to play together in ‘The Miles Apart’. Marco also did a distro, called Cataclysm. The band came over again to play on 96-09-20.

‘Strength Of The Will’ had played here already on 92-09-06. Filip Staes (ex ‘Exhaustless Revolt’) played guitar, Jan Beckers sang, his brother Maarten played the drums. The bros were from the Tongeren area and Filip resisided in Hoboken, near Anwterp. The band disappeared when ‘Kindred’ started. Filip believes ‘S.O.T.W.’ played also with ‘Wheel Of Progress’ at the V.V. but I’ve no memories/indications of that.

After a “makeshift” ‘Hiatus’ (93-07-04), we got the ‘full blast’ treatment again. The set was probably mainly from the LP From Resignation…To Revolt, that was recorded in March (at Cats studio in Brugge) with Azill (guitar), Wills (vocals), Ben (drums), Phil (guitar) and Fred Alabas (bass). I think around that time Eric ‘React’ had the live split-tape (together with ‘Doom’; recordings from the gig at ‘La Zone’ in Liège 93-02-26) available. That was a benefit for the Flamands Roses [LGBTQIF]. The tracks for their split-7” with ‘Subcaos’ were recorded live in Brno (Czech Republic) on 93-06-20. 4 songs from the same gig were used on the Polish Bastards split-7” with ‘Fleas & Lice’ (Polish nazi skinheads attacked the band in Gdansk in June ‘93.) Their gig in Auch (France) on 93-08-17 was also recorded: Fred Jourdan put it out on tape (with live tracks of ‘Health Hazard’) under the name Don’t Think With Your Dick… Around that time there was also the split-7” with ‘Doom’ (Flat Earth recs).

Brob

I was on tour with ‘Eversor’ (‘Lumen’ wasn’t in the band anymore at that time, it was the Morosini brothers -Marco and Lele- and Federico). A rented van was our house. The day before they played near Stuttgart, then we travelled all the night toward Belgium. It was the longest travel of my life, like a journey to the moon. Distances were longer in those times. So we arrived at the place, I changed my T-shirt with an X-Force one (the comic) because of the X (as for SxE). But no one noticed it. I was just a guy with a comic T-shirt in a punk place. Absolutely no memory about the concert. I only remember the breakfast in the morning and the van that took the road towards home…

Massimo Moscarelli (Rome)

Playing at that fest was a big honour for us… At the time we were on our very first small tour abroad and the night before we played in Stuttgart with ‘4 Walls Falling’ so we drove all night to Ieper to be there from the very beginning. I remember many people from all over Europe and we were a bit scared to play after ‘Nations On Fire’ and ‘Hiatus’… Both bands had a killer live reputation. We took the stage to a smaller audience but still “big” for us at the time, and played a very tight set. Very few people knew us, our music back in that days was still crossover/thrash but I was suprpised a couple of people who were coming to see us, approached us. Of course we met Bruno for the first time… He was super nice as usual. I asked if we were supposed to do a soundcheck; he smiled and said “No soundcheck, this is a punkrock fest.”… I still remember it!!!

Marco Morosini, ‘Eversor’

additions wellcome!…