2001-05-11 Thee Plague Of Gentlemen – Sad Origin – 5 Day Getaway – The Deal – Kingpin

This was the last ever gig at the Kiekenmarkt 7 (original address of the Vort’n Vis) before saying goodbye on May 12th 2001 and moving to a new location… Some of the same people who played at the first gig (12 years before) did so here…

Drummer David Stubbe (drums) & bassist Karel Busschop joined ‘Thee Plague Of Gentlemen’ (sludge/doom band from Ghent) when ‘Holefiller’ quit. On the band’s first release (a split-7″ with ‘American Heritage’ released in 2000), the line-up was ‘x4’ (drummer Xavier Benoit), Paul Lamont (bass; also ‘Nahende Vernichtung’ & ‘Hitch’) and Steve W. (guitar/vocals; ex ‘Neuthrone’).

‘5 Day GetAway’ was ‘Blindfold’ directly after they’d split up, without Hans Verbeke and Mich Decruyenaere: Wim Vandekerckhove (guitar), Jan Maelfait (bass), ‘Chatn’ Sacha Baelen (drums), with the addition of Vincent Maes (vocals; ex ‘Instinct’, also ‘The Deal’ bassist). Discriptions of their music went from “melodic/rockin’ HardCore” to “emo with a punky old school touch”. There was a (6-track) self-titled CD released in 2001 that was distributed through Genet recs and they had a song on the The Crossroad Project compilation-CD.

‘The Deal’ was with Vincent ‘Pit’ Maes (bass; ex ‘Instinct’) & Bjorn Dossche (vocals; One Step Down zine) who had been in ‘Hundred Years Of Forgetting’ together. The others were Christophe Vandenberghe (guitar; later ‘Lockstitch’; Cedric ‘Cete’ Goetgebuer joined later), Pedro Tallieu (guitar, ex ‘Instinct’ bassist) and Bruno Tallieu (drums). This was probably their first concert in Ieper. They did a demo (rehearsal-tape) and Hans Verbeke released their (self-titled) debut EP (on his label SoberMinds recs). They were featured at the fest that year (2001-08-17).

‘Kingpin’ – Sim Meerseman (guitar; also ‘Spirit Of Youth’), ‘Vinnie’ Vincent Merveillie (drums; singer of ‘Spirit Of Youth), Clovis ‘Vez’ Segers (bass; ‘Natural Order’, ‘Congress’); Pedro ‘Fifi’ Fioen (guitar, ex ‘Spineless’) & Joost Noyelle (vocals; ‘Congress’/‘Liar) – had also appeared in the V.V. before. They played “groovy and catchy New York HC” (references to ‘Cro-Mags’, ‘Leeway’, etc.). In 2000 they recorded a 5-song demo. Hans Verbeke would release their 10″ Bad Habits Die Hard on his label Pyrorex in 2002.

‘Sad Origin’ (a death-metal band from Dendermonde) played a few times in Ieper aswell, being a band that released material on Genet recs. Playing for the band: Robin (bass), Wim Aerts (drums), Wes(ley) Steels (guitar) and Hans ‘Link’ Teirlinck (vocals).

Brob

The ‘T.P.O.G.’ line-up (the second one) that I was in was just Xavier, Steve and myself. We split up ón (!) stage in l’Escalier in Liège. Xavier and me had enough, called it quits when Steve left mid-concert…

Paul Lamont

I can remember ‘Kingpin’ playing; they did a tight set. ‘Fifi’ on guitar, Joost doing vocals. I was a fan of that band, with their New York grooves, actually. ‘5 Day GetAway’ was a project where Vince, our (‘The Deal’) bassist, was singing. They did stuff in the style of ‘Dag Nasty’. Their music was very well put together but the band didn’t last long. ‘Thee Plague Of Gentleman’ was from Ghent. A bit of an outsider-band on this bill.

Pedro Tallieu

2001-03-17 Edgecrusher – Modilia – Cradle Of Dismission

Not sure how this one really came about but the bands were mentioned in the V.V. notes. That night the bar was attended by Davy Bauwen, Tim Denutte, Steph Quintens, Christophe Deconinck & Karel Willemyns). It was probably one of the last shows before the end of the Vort’n Vis at the Kiekenmarkt…

As I wrote before (2000-11-11) ‘Edgecrusher’ was a band that rehearsed in the Vort’n Vis. There’s also a guestbook-entry by them on 2000-04-22. Their vocalist was Davy Bauwen, a V.V. ‘shitworker’ (volunteer) that organised quite a few gigs there. They also wrote something in the guestbook on 2000-04-22… They played “melodic death-metal”. Besides Davy, there was Isaac Delahaye (guitar; also singer in ‘Panopticum’), Jo Decaesteker (guitar), Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve (drums; replaced by Karel Willemyns and then Arian Van Weesenbeek), Frederik ‘Freddy’ Vanhee (bass; replaced by Thijs Lanoye). ‘Freddy’ & ‘Sientje were both ex ‘D.S.A.’ and also played in ‘Retaliate’. The first ‘Edgecrusher’ demo Damnatio Memoriae (recorded by Michael ‘Link’ Maes) was out for a while and their second demo Impressions Of Mankind (2002), was with Michael ‘Link’ Maes on drums.

No idea who and where from ‘Modilia’ and ‘Cradle Of Dismission’ were…

Brob

I still have quite some photographic material of shows; I was always in the background taking pics. I also have some video-recordings of Vort’n Vis shows. I lack the time to get all that sorted… Some day, I suppose?…

Davy ‘nachtthoth’ Bauwen (co-organiser of the Ieperfest, vocalist of ‘Edgecrusher’)

I believe I wasn’t in the band anymore then. I was too much of a HC drummer. The others wanted pure metal. That’s when I decided to start ‘Retaliate’…

Nico ‘Sientje’ Sinnaeve

I don’t recall that much from this period (especially the recordings of the first demo are a blank – perhaps because I hate studios). I do know that ‘Edegcrusher’ began with ‘Siene’ and myself who started jamming with Jo. It was the intention to do something à la ‘All Out War’ but soon it turned out a lot more ‘metal’ than originally planned. Davy joined and after him Isaac. We did some shows and Davy plus myself organised a lot around that time. ‘Edegcrusher’s music was very technical. If I’m not mistaken we covered ‘Death’ and ‘At The Gates’… (Not sure about the last.) That was the reason why I quit and concentrated on ‘Retaliate’. Those technicalities were nothing for me: I wanted to go crazy on stage in stead of staring at the frets of my guitar. We combined the 2 bands for a while but the moment ‘Retaliate’ started to go well, ‘Siene’ and myself said thanks but no thanks.

I remember that Isaac also played in ‘Panopticum’ and in ‘Forcible’ but I’ve no clue about those other two bands.

Frederik Vanhee

2001-08-17&18&19 Ieperfest

In May 2001 the Vort’n Vis crew had to abandon the space at the Kiekenmarkt 7 that they had as their home-base since 1989. The headquartes were relocated to the Sint-Jacobsstraat 3). In 1999 & 2000 the annual fest had already moved to the ‘Stedelijke Academie voor Muziek en Woord’ (Municipal Acadamy for Music and Drama) located d’Hondstraat 59 (a walk of some 500 m from the Kiekenmarkt). In 2001 things were happening at the ‘Jeugdstadion’ (Youth Stadium) at the Leopold III laan 16 (on the outskirts of town). The event was announced as ‘2001: A Hardcore Odyssey’ or ‘Vort’n Vis HC Fest’. In my view, over the years it had grown out of proportion… The national press even gave attention to it…

Here’s what ‘De Standaard’ (one of the biggest Belgian newspapers) wrote about it: >>The well-known Hardcore-festival, an organisation of the not-for-profit association De Vort’n Vis, starts at 1 p.m. In that scene this the festival is known as the biggest underground hardcore-festival in Europe. The foreign interest is massive. The camping at the youth-stadium is completely crowded with tents, motors and hardcore-fans. No surprise because the hardcore-festival is happening in the immediate vicinity. In this way the organisers want to minimise noise in the city-centre. This afternoon the bands performing are Good Clean Fun, Caliban, Unconquered, E-150, Endstand, Severance & Retaliate. Tomorrow, saturday: Children of Fall, Circle, Liar, Man vs Humanity, Juliette & Reproach op. Sunday (a.o.) Maximum Penalty, Leiah, Manifesto Jukebox, Concrete, Bloodsport & Kingpin. The festival-site measures 2.700 square metres and has 2 tents for food and beverages. A ticket for a day costs 600 Belgian franks, for the weekend 1.200 Belgian franks.<<

The poster lists the following bands… Some bands cancelled, others were added or switched…

2001-08-17: Good Clean Fun (USA), Caliban (Ger), Unconquered (USA), E-150 (Spa), Children of Fall (Swe), Endstand (Fin), Course Of Action (Bel), The Deal (Bel), Deadbolt (Nl), Severance (Bel), From The Dying Sky (Ita), Retaliate (Bel)

2001-08-18: Catharsis (US), Liar (Bel), Circle (Bel), Stack (Ger), New End Original (USA), Man vs Humanity (Ger); Venerea (Swe), Posession (Spa), The Oath (Nl+USA), Comrades (Ita), Juliette (Pol), Reproach (Bel)

2001-08-19: Maximum Penalty (USA), Facedown (Bel), Leiah (Swe), PN (Bel), Manifesto Jukebox (Fin); Burden (Can), Reliance (Bel), Concrete (Ita), Die My Demon (Bel), Newborn (Hun), Kingpin (Bel)

‘Man vs Humanity’ didn’t play because they called it a day a few days before they were supposed to perform… Also ‘Comrades’ didn’t come.

In the Vort’n Vis guestbook there’s contributions of Brian ‘Catharsis’, ‘Empathy’ (Bel; not on the poster), Gold Standard Laboratories (San Diego, California; ‘The Locust’s label), New Winds (Por), ‘Newborn’ (Hun), PN (Bel), ‘Stack’ (Ger), ‘Striker’ (Bel; played unanncounced), ‘The Locust’ (USA), ‘The Oath’ (Nl+USA), ‘Reliance’ (Bel), ‘Caliban’ (Ger), ‘E-150’ (Spa), ‘Endstand’ (Fin), ‘Good Clean Fun’ (USA), ‘Retaliate’ (Bel), ‘Severance’ (Bel), ‘Unconquered’ (USA), ‘Firestone’ (Bel; played unanncounced), ‘Circle’ (Bel), ‘Cornflames’ (Bel), ‘Liar’ (Bel), ‘Reproach’ (Bel), ‘Bloodsport’ (Nl), ‘Concrete’ (Ita), ‘Kingpin’ (Bel), ‘Leiah’ (Swe), ‘Manifesto Jukebox’ (Fin)

There’s also a video of ‘Length Of Time’ at this fest online…

More on the actual concerts will follow…

We never played the Ieperfest after the 90s. Our van broke down in 2000 touring with ‘Abstain’ [2000-07-16], that was the last time we were supposed to play the V.V. We were on the bill but we didn’t go. I don’t remember what happened exactly.

Paolo Petralia, ‘Comrades’ vocalist

The ‘98 fest was the first time I visited. I thought my band ‘Blue Water Boy’ [vegan straight-edge band from Switzerland] played in 2001 but I checked with our drummer and it was (a bit) after that…

Chrisitan Unsinn

I attended the 2001 HC fest in Ieper. ‘The Locust’ and ‘Catharsis’ where headliners. There was a water-balloon riot during the ‘Catharsis’ show.

Lars Berndt Jensen, ‘Jaded’