97-06-27 Spineless – Spirit Of Youth – Lifecycle – Firestone – Sorehead – D.S.A. – Warcraft – Instinct – [Voices At The Front]

The poster indicates this was the release-party of the ‘Spineless’ CD. ‘Fifi’ had a hand in setting this up. There’s no mentioning of ‘Voices At The Front’ in the V.V. notes, but ‘Instinct’ is mentioned. Did they replace them?

Some of the bands also played here: 96-12-30 SxE @ 100 hours

‘Spineless’ (from Kortrijk) played their first gig at the Vort’n Vis on the fest in August ’96. They were Kristof Mondy (bass; Yoda zine; later ‘AmenRa’), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (vocals; later ‘AmenRa’), Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar; also ‘Congress’), Mathieu Vandekerckhove (guitar; replaced Koen Sandra – ex ‘The Jedi’ – in ‘97; later ‘AmenRa’) and Stefaan Buyse (drums). They played brutal sXe H8000 metal-core. After their initial demo (’96), Hans Verbeke of SoberMind recs released the Painfields 7”/CD (presented here). The album A Talk Between Me And The Stars album would follow the next year (Presentation at the V.V., 98-04-26). They also performed on the Fest in August that year.

‘Lifecycle’, a ‘new-school’ HC band from the Ieper/Kortijk region (H8000 but not with that typical sound), had done their first gig the previous month. Here the line-up was: Sofie Vantomme (vocals; co-founder Vincent Merveillie soon went on to sing for ‘Spirit Of Youth’), Karel Deweerdt (guitar), Steve Noyelle (guitar), Jan Volckaert (drummer of ‘Resist The Pain’; was stand-in a few times for Jan ‘Relle’ Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later there were a few others). They did a demo (There Is Hope Again!; recorded by Michael Maes) and a mini-album (CD) Forever… Until… on Sober Mind recs. When Sofie gave up SxE but still wanted to continue ‘Lifecycle’, Steve decided to quit the band… Because of that, the band split-up, they couldn’t continue without him… He formed ‘Eliot Ness’ (together with Saskia Verbeke). Vincent Tetaert, who used to play drums with the band for a while went on to join ‘AmenRa’ (as guitarist)…

‘Lifecycle’ (Jurgen Degryse – Steve Noyelle – Jan Volckaert)

Not realy sure if ‘Voices At The Front’ actually played… But they’d been here before (96-05-12 & 96-08-17). You can find some history there. ‘V.A.T.F’ was a local straight-edge band (Poperinge) with Gaëtan Golvet (drums), Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (guitar; also Strike One fanzine) Sim ‘Simtje’ Meersseman (bass) and Stefaan ‘Merel’ Merlevede (guitar; R.I.P. Vincent’s cousin). A H8000 band that didn’t follow the trend. Metal-influenced but self-willed (thanks to vocalist Vik) HC; they did some ‘Inside Out’ covers. They had a demo (’96) but didn’t release any vinyl… Some of them were part of the New Skate Generation posse (which included Kobe Desramaults, chef of Michelin-starred restaurant In De Wulf). A while after Vik had moved to Gent he started the Smart Art Movement collective, that organised all kind of activities/parties/gigs. Later he started to squat and got even more politically active…

‘V.A.T.F’ was probably replaced by ‘Instinct’, a band my hometown Tielt (and Deinze). They were mentioned in the V.V. notes. ‘Instinct’ had played here before (97-03-01) and would play a couple of times more that summer (97-07-12 & 97-08-15). A “positive old-school” (Steve Noyelle’s words) band. Alex Dierickx & Thomas Hauttekeete played guitar (both were also playing in the new school metal band ‘Eulogy’ with Tom of ‘Family Of Dog’), Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes sang (he was also in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’, later ‘The Deal’ & ‘Rise And Fall’), Pedro Tallieu did the bass and the drummer was Tuur Delodder. Later they released a 7” on Marc Decaigny’s label Braveheart recs, entitled Friendship, A Lifetime Commitment. There’s also mentioning of a live-demo at the Vort’n Vis…

‘Spirit Of Youth’ (Roeselare/Poperinge area) played in there new line-up (more new-school metal-HC). Dominiek ‘Dompi’ Denolf (guitar) & Frederik ‘Fré’ Denolf (drums), bassist Kris Casier of ‘Solid’ (who played on Source – replaced by Sim Meersseman of Strike One zine; later ‘Kingpin’), guitarist Vincent ‘Vince’ Theeten (also Strike One zine) and Vincent Merveillie (vocals; also ‘Resist In Pain’, ‘Lifecycle’). The start of their “second phase”… During which they did 3 LPs: Source on Sober Mind recs (1998), a split with ‘One King Down’ ‎on GoodLife recs (1998) & Colors That Bleed on GoodLife recs (1998).

promo-pic (GoodLife): Vincent Merveillie / Frederik Denolf / Sim Meersseman / Dominiek Denolf / Vincent Theeten

‘Firestone’ (Kortrijk) had already performed at Hardcore, The Next Generation (96-08-16). They were a H8000-metal band. Their later singer Iris explains the early history below. In August 1996 they had recorded for their Dark Fantasies demo.

Steve Noyelle informs me: >>‘Sorehead’ was a band from Ieper with Laurent ‘Lorre’ Peene (vocals; R.I.P.), Dries Verclyte (bass), Pieter Desmyter (guitar) and Pieter Derycke (drums); their music resembled that of ‘Sektor’. [The music on their demo sounded metal-influenced and the vocals were raw & aggressive.] ‘D.S.A.’ – old-school NY Hardcore – was the band of Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; later ‘Retaliate’), Frederik Vanhee (bass; later ‘Retaliate’), Maarten Verschaeve (vocals) and a guy called Pieter-Jan (PJ; guitar)…<< (see 96-12-30 & …) I believe the vocalist of ‘D.S.A.’ (who were from the Ieper area) was Davy Verhoye (on the 1^st demo) and Maarten (2^nd demo); guitarist was Pieter-Jan Vandenberghe.

Frederik Vanhee (pic courtesy of Karel Deweerdt)

‘Warcraft’ (from Ieper) was with Wouter Keirse. Read what he has to say below… The same guys of what was the band ‘Defence’, that played on 96-12-30…?

Brob

The V.V. was and still is very inspiring to me. We played there 2 or 3 times I think. Once there was a last minute improvised line-up on the top floor (this one here with ‘D.S.A.’ and others). I believe that a band played alternately in the pub and then on the first floor. ‘Warcraft’ was a band with Wouter Keirse (living in France nowadays), which I think performed only once. ‘D.S.A. was with Fré, Sientje & ‘PJ’. ‘Lifecycle’ with Steve, Karel & Jurgen. ‘Voices’ with Vik, ‘Spirit’ with Vincent & Kris. ‘Firestone’ was -I think- with Lennart (who shortly after moved to ‘Janez Detd’ for big money and now plays for ‘AmenRa’. ‘Spineless’ was also with Colin ‘AmenRa’ (I believe ?) and with Pedro Fioen. All very fine shows. I think there were photos taken of everyone at the front-door. ‘Sorehead’ quit when we were all about 18 and not long after our vocalist Laurent Peene died. Sometimes the V.V. organises an in memoriam for him; what I appreciate a lot.

Pieter Desmyter, ‘Sorehead’ guitarist

I wasn’t in ‘Firestone’ at that time. Early on it was Thomas Desimpelaere who sang, then Alexander (who played drums at first), than Pieter-Jan and than me. Mathieu Storms drummed (after Alexander). After him Vincent Tetaert played the drums. In the beginning Matthias Desimpelaere played guitar but in the end Ward Dufraimont replaced him. Diederik Claes and Lennart Bossu were the only constant members I think.

Iris Walgraeve

I joined ‘Firestone’ later, in June ’99. I only played the Fests in 2000 & 2001. In ‘99 & 2000 I helped out in ‘Liar’ quite a number of times (e.g. 99-10-31); from the summer of 2002 until Octobere of 2006 I was a permanent member of ‘Liar’ (with a number of passages at the Fests).

Ward Dufraimont

The Vort’n Vis was ‘a way out’, a place where anyone got a chance and where (20 years ago [and still]) those going against the grain gathered. A bit of a gloomy, shabby place. But great fun. We had a rehearsal-space on the first floor; sharing with Steve Noyelle, Karel Deweerdt, Lieve Goemaere, Vincent Tetaert, etc. ‘Warcraft’ consisted of myself, Kurt Deramoudt [drums], Wim Eggermont [vocals] and Olivier Maes [bass ?]. Or was it indeed Virgil & the Ryckebosch brothers? After that we messed about a bit with Vincent Tetaert and David Lernout: ‘Lizard…’ something…? At no timepoint we were a macth with ‘Lifecycle’ or our other heroes from the Westhoek. We could make a racket, hairless teenagers on stage het, light a spliff, have a beer to many and stay as long as we wanted. I always felt a gentle little guy amongst all those hardcore togh guys. I was at the first hardcore Fests during the straight-edge era. ‘Morning Again’, ‘Liar’,… Jeez, what a fantastic time!

Wouter ‘Wally’ Keirse (“Searching for autonomy in the hills of the Limousin [France]. Permaculture fanatic and plant-grower.”), ‘Warcraft’ guitarist

Not sure if we actually played there. If so, then we came by train. That happened quite frequently. I often had to beg the other bands for a bass-amp. Always annoying and stressful. I do remember that about a month before this ‘Spirit of Youth’ & ‘Lifecycle’ played at my parents’ garage for my birthday: ‘S.O.Y.’ wasn’t announced and did a try-out.

Pedro Tallieu, ‘Instinct’ bassist

There were so many bands that we ended up playing at 1 a.m. Headlining was no laughin’ matter back in the days. ;-) We almost took of in anger but Eward convinced us because there were some people from New-Zealand that had come over especially to see us. ;-)

Dominiek Denolf, ‘Spirit Of Youth’ guitarist

If ‘S.O.Y.’ played there with their new line-up, then I’m certain that ‘V.A.T.F.’ didn’t play…because I’ve never seen play in that configuration!

Vik B., singer of ‘Voices At The Front’

additions wellcome!…

94-05-22 Sleeper – Disaffect – Rectify – Kosjer D

Bruno arranged the bands for this one; shitworkers were David ‘Mong’ Dumont & Kurt Deprez (‘Shortsight’) and yours truely.

This was the last time ‘Disaffect’ (from Glasgow) played here. The 3^rd time after 92-10-04 & 93-07-04. Lynne Entwistle (vocals), ‘Joe Fear’ Jock Deacons (vocals; nowadays in ‘Constant Fear’), ‘IB’ Iain Blue (drums, later bass in ‘Scatha’), Andy ‘Orchy’ Irvine (bass; later ‘Scatha’, ‘Debris’, etc.) and Brian Curran (guitar; later ‘Quarantine’, ‘Debris’, etc.) were joined by Billy Steele (also in ‘Sedition’) on 2^nd guitar here. After the 2 7”s (An Injury To One Is An Injury To All in ’92, the split with ‘Sedition in ’93; both on Flat Earth & Nabate), in 1994 they appeared on Boezie’s compilation An Insult To Our Freedom (Grinding Madness) and Uge of Don’t Belong Productions (Gijon, Spain) put all their songs on tape. Somewhere around that time, Gilles & Kathleen of Ape recs also released a benefit live tape of ‘Disaffect’ in support for The Indian Lesbian Movement SAKHI. On the occasion of this gig Andy (who also ran Peace Terrorist distribution and Anonymous recs) was interviewed for the first issue of the Vort’n Vis zine Fifi. There are also some photos of this show in Reality fanzine #1 (done by Dominique Beubry from Dunkerque, France) but unfortunately the quality of the half-tones is very poor…

from Fifi #2

‘Sleeper’, a melodic emo-influenced hardcore band (from Staten Island, New York), were: Anthony ‘T.J.’ Quatrone (drums), Michael Thomas DeLorenzo (guitar), Marc Treboschi (bass), John Lisa (guitar & vocals) and John ‘Apples’ Telenko (vocals; who didn’t get to tour Europe). Jeremy Weiss did vocals on this tour (see guestbook)… After 2 7”s on American labels, Marianne Hofstetter (Mugglewump recs) put out their 7” More Or Less in ‘92. Nov. ’93 the band recorded for the Splinter 7” on John Yates’ label Allied recs. The album Preparing Today For Tomorrow’s Breakdown (recorded Dec. ’93) with John Lisa doing vocals was released under the name ‘Serpico’ (the new name they would take). In the guestbook they still signed as ‘Sleeper’. ‘Neuthrone’s guitarist Steve W. did an interview (that appeared in the V.V.’s zine Fifi # 2) with them at his house (where they spent the night), while watching ‘Spinal Tap’… Steffen Rose (Navigator) organised their tour. Not really sure if they played as ‘Serpico’ on 95-11-05?

‘Kosjer D’ started out as a 3-some (acoustic guitar, bass & drums) and then Arne (Van Petegem; who was in a mainstream pop-band before) joined. The name was originally ‘Kosjer Dill’ (nickname of the singer’s girlfriend, who was from San Diego). They were an emo band (with personal lyrics) hailing from Limburg, with (besides Arne – guitar/vocals), Geert Plessers (guitar/vocals), Stijn Persoons (drums; ex ‘Dawn Of Liberty’) and Werner (bass – replaced by Kristien Hendrix a few months later). The band did some recordings and asked Bruno (Genet recs) to release them as a 7” (entitled True). People can read about how it came about in Reminder #5… It was their 1^st appearance at the V.V.

‘Rectify’, from Wales, were here for the 2^nd time (see 91-10-05). They were a political (anarcho) punk band from Blaina in Wales. Wayne ‘Pig(gy)’ Cole sang, Mark ‘Wedge’ Wedgebury played drums, Andrew ‘Footy’ Foot was the orginal bassist but apparently had already left he band by ‘91 & Michael ‘Mudgie’ Mudge played guitar (R.I.P.)… In 1990 they did a tape entitled Ebullition and the recordings for the Virtual Reality tape were in Dec. ’95. Nowadays ‘Pig’, ‘Wedge’ & ‘Newt’ are in ‘This System Kills’…

‘B.B.C.’ (from Germany) … anyone ??? They were announced in the newsletter but there was no mention of them in the V.V. notes so they probably didn’t show up.

Brob

This one was with ‘Rectify’ and no doubt some others… I remember arriving early from the overnight ferry and some American guy not wanting to let us into the place. [???] ‘94 was the year of our Spain tour. Billy (who drove for us on the ‘92 & ‘93 tours) joined us on second guitar that year. Done the usual: played the gig, drank the beer and danced to disco into the early hours with the ‘Rectify’ folks. All in all, I’ve got good memories…

Brian Curran, ‘Disaffect’ guitarist

We had just released the Chained [To Morality] LP and were doing a 3 week tour. The Vort’n Vis was always a high point for us. We had so many friends come to see us there.

‘Joe Fear’, ‘Disaffect’ vocalist

I was playing bass at the time of this gig. It was the Order Of The Age tour. I also play bass for ‘This System Kills’. Can’t remember much about this tour as it was 22 years ago, however I do recall the food was lovely and went for 2nds aswel, and also passed out with tiredness. If I remember well the sun was out when we played and it was quite hot in there. ‘Mudgey’ had left the band and a Greg Comber was on guitar (he still plays for some local band)…

Rob ‘Newt’ Newport, ‘Rectify’ bassist

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…

94-04-09 Acme – Scraps – State Of Grace

from Marco Walzel’s zine (Speak So That I May See You #3); 94-05-14 Zwijnzicht Ultimate Punk Festival (NL)

This was a benefit for the Anne Frank Foundation. I believe it was organised by Saskia Verbeke, Kurt Deprez and David ‘Mong’ Dumont of ‘Shortsight’; but Wim & Chatn ‘Blindfold’ and myself helped out aswell.

The night before ‘Acme’ had played at De Gilde in Moorsele (the pub owned by Nathalie D.’s parents) – together with ‘Shortsight’. Since that is close to Ypres/Ieper, I took care of (some of) the ‘Acme’ transportation… The band (from Bremen) played metal-core with ‘screamo’ vocals with references to ‘Born Against’ & ‘Rorschach’. Heavy stuff! Hannes Stang did the vocals, Gregor Iwanoff drummed, Sönke played bass (he also hit the drums for ‘Systral’ and was in ‘Mörser’ for a while) and Sven Thora was the guitarist. They had a demo out (Menschenmaschine) and ‘Goofy’ Jeroen Lauwers was about to release a 7” on his label Machination recs (hence the invation for these shows). They also came over to play on the fest in August that year.

‘Scraps’ hopped across the border from Lille again. They’ve been at the Vort’n Vis many times, as a band and as visiters… Who was in the band at that times? The brothers David (vocals) & Raphael (guitar) Dutriaux, for sure… This was around the time they recorded their LP Dismantle The Machine One Cog At A Time (X-Mist recs), so Pierre was the drummer and Tomoy played the bass. They played inspiring angry, political HC… Their cover of ‘Pink Floyd’s The Wall was sung along by all!

‘State Of Grace’ (Kempen area) were Jeroen Vanlaer (guitar), Tom Gabriels (guitar), David Heylen (drums), Gaby (guitar), Jan ‘Jakke’ Geeraerts (bass) and Sven De Backer (vocals). Later Bart Verelst (ex ‘Hopeman Path’) joined on bass and ‘Jakke’ played guitar; then they became ‘Sheen’ (who were planned to play the V.V. 95-11-11 with ‘Starkweather’ but the latter had difficulties with thei tour-booker)… ‘S.O.G.’ put together a reharsal-tape around that time. When playing locally, they were announced as playing “fierce jumpcore”.

Brob

‘Abyss’ never played the V.V., unfortunately. But I was on tour with ‘Acme’ when they played there. Such a legendary place back then. I wish we could have played there.

Sven von Thülen, ‘Abyss’

I have very little recollections of that gig. I do remember that the guys of ‘Acme’ wanted to borrow our instruments. We did so (reluctantly) but they were broken when we got them back: a dent in my bassdrum-skin and the neck of the bassguitar broken… And we didn’t get compensated. I also remember buying a ‘Bloodline’ t-shirt there…

David Heylen

I remember going to the Vort’n Vis – I was there when my friends ‘Acme’ played. I am still in loose touch with some of the guys from Bremen (e.g. Holger Ohst’s brother Rainer) and most of the crew from back then lives in Berlin today.

Franziska ‘Franzi’ von Hasselbach

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Saskia’s call for attention for gender-roles (supported by Tom DP & Vik B.; unfortunately one dickhead had to flaunt his stupidity)

additions wellcome!…

96-03-17 Kort Prosess – Kurort – Seein’Red

Disaster… [The ‘Kort Prosess’ tour or this gig…?]

Ilja S., Profane Existence Berlin; personal communication ‘96

‘Kort Prosess’, a band from Horten (south of Oslo), consisted of Alf Almén (vocals), Dag(gers) Halvorsen (drums), Dan (Mikael) Bjerkan (bass) and Robin Hagen (guitar). Their music was heavy, brutal, powerful hardcore with gruff vocals. They had 3 7”s out (on Florian Helmchen’s HeartFirst recs; the first one recorded in the autonomous centre Blitz in Oslo) and Filip M. put their discography out on tape (on his label Trujaça Fala).

‘Kurort’ had been here before (see 92-05-02 & 95-03-05): Andreas ‘Andi’ Wimmer (vocals), Florian ‘Flo’ Sedmak (guitar & vocals), Martin Wimmer (bass) and Rudi Vogtenhuber (drums). They played strong, powerful HC with personalized political lyrics (sung in Upper Austrian dialect). Joris De De Buysser (Conspiracy recs) released the Oslo 7” in ’96. The music on that one was described as “DC punk-rock”. Later Rudi & Florian played together in ‘Trailerpark Playboys’…

‘Seein’Red’ played here aswell. This was a few months after the recordings of their Marinus 7” (out on Ebullition recs).

According to the Vort’n Vis archive-notes a show ‘organised’ by Joeri Hoste. Other ‘shitworkers’ were Vincent Merveille, Bert Verschoot, Steve Noyelle & Steve Lammertyn.

Brob

I remember the gig but have no info other than it was a great place to play. Being very exhausted. Been almost 3 weeks on tour. We had 3 days off in Karlsrhuhe with nothing to do beside using money on food and beer we couldn’t afford. Then we left to Zürich only to find out the guy who managed the tour fucked up the dates. So everyone was there the day before and just wondering why the band didn`t show up. That fucked up the whole economy with the tour. Raimo, our merch guy, got most of the flyers/pictures.

Dan (Mikael) Bjerkan, ‘Kort Prosess’ bassist

Dan did bass and Alf vocals. I have no photos or posters from that time. I do have a lot of photos from ‘Kort Prosess’ but none from Belgium. I do remember that we where gonna play in Hannover (Germany) the day after Belgium but we were very late, since one of the cylinders of the car’s engine failed. It started to glow and we had to get out of the car, in the hills…

Dag Halvorsen, ‘Kort Prosess’ drummer

Can’t remember anything about that. We played so many concerts. It was also the year that we did our first US tour…

Paul Vandenberg, ‘Seein’Red’

excerpts from the V.V. guestbook:

Sas ‘Anarcrust’: ‘Tibi’s [Tiberiju Nikolic of Sacro Egoismo] weird humor; just a joke from a band on the road; he probably thought that we would get to see that one day…

additions wellcome!…