This show was – again (see also 97-10-12 for ‘Catharsis’ first appearance here) – organised by Lieve Goemaere (Ugly Duckling zine)…
‘Catharsis’ (“starving artists in capitalist countries”) was an anarchist hardcore band from Greensboro, North Carolina, releasing their albums through the CrimethInc. collective. Their singer, Brian, was editor of the political hardcore punk fanzine Inside Front and later went on (with other ex-members of ‘Catharsis’) to form the band ‘Requiem’. Ernie Hayes (bass), Alexei (‘Rasputin’) D. Rodriguez (drums), Brian D. (vocals/guitar) were still in the band. Guitarist Dan(iel) Young had died so guitarist was Matt(hew) Miller (Who was the second guitar-player on that tour?). Wicked Witch recs did a split-LP (Live @ CBGB’s) with ‘Gehenna’ around ’98. The Samsara album was finished late ‘98, I think (with Matt Miller playing bass; and Dan Young taking care of the guitars – Jonathan Raine & Jimmy Chang are referenced for the tracks from the 7” that were include). The Passion album was recorded May ‘99 and Bernd Bohrmann put it our it on his label Scorched Earth Policy (’99).
‘Catharsis’
‘Man In The Shadow’, from Solkan / Nova Gorica (Slovenia), played emotional and political HC (“anarcho-emo”). In ’97 they did a self-titled 7” on Dejan Pozegar’s Jay-Walk (label from Maribor) and in ’99 they put out the Pax Americana 7” (their 2nd, on their own Choose Life recs; later also a complete discography on CD). The band consisted of vocalist Marko & guitarist Miran Rusjan (later in ‘Analena’), Nenad Kostadinovski (drums) and Valter Cijan (bass). The brothers did 13.Brat zine…
Valter Cijan’s other band, ‘Entreat’, toured with ‘Man In The Shadow’. That year there was a CD out on Choose Life recs (the label of Miran Rusjan) – entitled City Of… – featuring ‘Entreat’, ‘Low Punch’, ‘Man In The Shadow’ and ‘Straightforward’. The music of ‘Entreat’ was labeled emo-metal. They were: Patrik (vocals), Matjaz (guitar), Milos (guitar) Valter (bass; replaced by Peter) and Rok (drums; replaced by Samo).
The music of ‘Leiah’ (from Gävle, Sweden) was decribed as indie-rock/emo-punk (“clone of the ‘Get Up Kids’…”) by some, others called it pop-music. The band consisted of Annsofie Lundin (bass), Anders Gustavsson (drums; later Gunnar Forsman when Anders moved to bass), David Lehnberg (vocals/guitar) and Klas Joakim Eriksson (guitar; ex ‘Serene’). In 1999 they had 3 releases on Genet recs: a split-7” with (the Belgian) ‘Hebriana’, a 7” & CD entitled Mood Shifting Tones. They ‘d already played on the ‘Ieperfest’.
‘Convinced’ (from Karlstad, Sweden) were: Martin Magnusson (drums), Amir Tehrani (bass), Jessica Johansson-Jern (vocals), Joakim Johansson (guitar) and Johan Gärdt (guitar; replaced Christina ‘Kicki’ Sundqvist). Their early material had a hardcore edge to it and the late material is more heavy metal/hard-rock (references to ‘Iron Maiden’ & ‘Helloween’). They had done a demo (Believe In Yourself) in 1996. In 1999 they released two 7”s on Joakim’s label Words Of Wisdom recs (Silence & A Dream Of Reality.) The album Life Is My Enemy came out on Genet recs (who also did the The Carnival CD in 2000).
‘Convinced’
‘Man vs Humanity’ were Bastian Gaeng (vocals), Hilmar Demant (guitar), Jakob Rupprecht (guitar), Marc-Antonio Hartmann (drums) and Max Hebel (bass). That year they released a split-7” with ‘My Hero Died Today’ on Bernd Bohrmann’s label Scorched Earth Policy (1999) and the Anti Imperialist Culture Sound 7” on Paracelsius. Their music was grindy “extreme hardcore” with metal influences; often compared to ‘His Hero Is Gone’ and ‘Acme’. They did a bunch of shows with ‘Catharsis’ but not this one…
‘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 Verhelst ex ‘Convict’) and Jurgen Degryse (bass; later replaced by Jelle ‘Jay D’ Dobbelaere). There were some more people involved (Steve explains below). Not really sure who did drums and bass here but Lieve Goemaere interviewed the band for her zine Ugly Duckling on 99-08-01; present there were Sofie, Steve, Karel, bassist Peter Leuwers bass & drummer Vincent Tetaert. The band did a demo (There Is Hope Again!; recorded by Michael Maes) and a mini-album (CD) Forever… Until… on SoberMind recs (’97; recorded in Labie’s 195 studio). 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…
Here’s a photo of ‘Liar’ with drummer Bert Guillemont and 2 young kids I didn’t recognise: Ward Dufraimont (ex ‘Firestone’; who kindly provided it) played bass here. He explains a bit of his ‘history’ below.
That is ‘Liar’ on the photo, indeed. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that I play bass. U.J. couldn’t make it for one reason or another. I remember it was kind of a big deal, because it hardly ever happened; but he couldn’t/wouldn’t play… You also see Lennart [Bossu] on guitar. Out of sight is Hans [Verbeke; vocals] and Christophe Herreman on guitar. The night before I had already replaced Christophe for ‘Mainstrike’s last show (Goudvishal in Arnhem). So this was my second time. I was playing in ‘Firestone’ with Lennart; so that’s why. I did a few more replacements, like the second Deathrow Earth European tour in April 2000. Lennart had quit a few days before that tour. After the tour Matthias ‘Empathy’ [Halsberghe] joined and I went on with ‘Firestone’. That ended somewhere in May 2002 (when Lennart started to play for ‘Janez Detd.’) and I joined ‘Liar’ again for a European tour in the summer of 2002 because Christophe couldn’t make it. Halfway the tour Matthias was told to leave the band and I stayed until the last show in October 2006 (at first with Christophe and later with Matthias again). Lennart joined by the end of 1998 if I remember well: he was there during the recordings of Deathrow Earth but didn’t play a note because Joost wanted to take his last ‘Liar’ record completely in his own hands. Joost quit around May 1999 and Christophe (who was in ‘Aborted’) joined. On the pic I’m playing Jan Maelfait’s bass, thé legendary ‘Blindfold’ bass …
I can’t remember anything about the other bands, except for the handsome blonde of ‘Convinced’!
Ward Dufraimont
When I see pictures of us playing that show I see we were all dressed up in our PJ’s (costumes for Halloween). Ward D. was playing bass because UxJx did not want to play that show cause of the pyjama thing… Seems to me now the most obvious explanation. We then just went on with Ward on bass.
Bert Guillemont, ‘Liar’ drummer
At the gig at Vort’n Vis I was ex-member of ‘M.I.T.S.’ but my new band ‘Entreat’ toured together with ‘M.I.T.S.’. ‘Entreat’ was the opening band that night.
Valter Cijan (nowadays in ‘Hellcrawler’)
We never played at the V.V.! We played a few shows with ‘Catharsis’ but not here. We were asked later on but we broke up …
Jakob Rupprecht, guitarist ‘Man vs Humanity’
Indeed I don’t remember seeing ‘Man vs Humanity’ in 1999, though they are on the flyer. We did play in Aalter with them in December of 1998. I have some good shots from when we played Halloween 1999, let me get my stuff together and get back with you.
Ernie Hayes, ‘Catharsis’ bassist
I remember wishing we had planned some sort of Halloween thing. Like costumes or a few covers of a band or something. In general, I remember touring with ‘Convinced’ and the men in that band treating the woman singer so badly that she rode in our van many days. Not sure who organised the ‘Convinced’ tour. Maybe Patrick [Federli; Drive To Play], maybe Bruno [Genet recs], maybe us. Maybe some combination…
Matt Miller, ‘Catharsis’ guitarist
I wasn’t in ‘Catharsis’ during those years. I’d left the band to start the band that would become ‘Undying’.
James Chang
My perspective is that we’re both seeking similar goals in different ways… We could bicker for years about which one of us is more pure in our struggle against capitalism but that would be just plain dumb and a waste of our time…
Brian D.; personal communication Sep. ’99 [Brob: This is reference to my questioning their dealings with a commercial label here. To me that didn’t seem to accord with Brian’s anarchist ideology… Below is a pic of ‘Catharsis’ with my correspondent Eric Boehme (editor of After The Revolution; on the left) touring Europe in –supposedly- the summer of ‘98)]
Just a couple quick notes to get the historical details perfect… The Samsara album was recorded in spring 1997, not late 1998 – I think what was released in late 1998 was the vinyl version of it for the US. You know, we made GoodLife put Samsara out of print after that first pressing and never worked with them again. Basically, the whole thing was a result of not understanding the context of the Belgian hardcore scene until we got there. As you know, we were playing a DIY show set up by Lieve.
The photograph of us with Eric Boehme is indeed from our European tour in summer 1998. In fall 1999, on that tour in Europe (which was 3 months long), we had a second guitarist, Jon Ridenour, who was also the guitarist of ‘Zegota’, a band that later toured Europe themselves. The live photo is indeed from the 1999 show (you can tell because we have eyeliner on our faces for Halloween) but Jon and Alexei aren’t visible in it. We were probably at our best as a band with Jon – he was a very expressive guitarist, and balanced out Matt nicely. Today Jon lives in Stockholm.
I remember it being a really intense show. But my only actual clear memories from the night are of meeting ‘Man In The Shadow’. I had already been corresponding with Miran about his zine for some years. Their drummer struck me as one of the warmest, sweetest people I had ever met, and I remember he had a big, dreadlocked beard around his neck.
Brian D.
This was kind of a Halloween show and I was dressed up in a sparkling, pink dress wearing a Belgian ribbon, as a Miss Belgium candidate (N° 8). It was the first time ever I was wearing high heels, terrible! ;-)
Lieve Goemaere
The gig went really well. I was kinda proud of myself. The Slovenian bands were really good; I was really impressed by ‘Man In The Shadow’. Better than I ever could’ve imagined.
Lieve Goemaere; personal communication Nov. ‘99
The performance of ‘Catharsis’ was very inspiring…
Bart De Geeter; personal communication Nov. ‘99
Halloween… Most bands were dressed up… ‘Convinced’ also played: glam-rock from Sweden, with female vocals. A bit like ‘Purusam’ but less technical.
About ‘Lifecycle’: After Jurgen Degryse had quit, he was replaced by Maarten Kinet (later played for ‘AmenRa’)… When he abandonned the ship we got Peter Leuwers… And after him there was Céline Delqueux and then Jelle Dobbelaere… Concerning drummers: when Jan Verhelst stopped, Vincent Tetaert [‘AmenRa’ guitarist] took his place… And when things got too busy for him (with ‘Firestone’), he quit ‘Lifecycle’… He was replaced by Tim Jult [‘Empathy’, ‘Liar’, ‘Congress’, …]. Yeah, we had ours share of drummers and bassists…
Steve Noyelle, ‘Lifecycle’ guitarist
The first time I played at the V.V. was actually ‘97 with ‘Serene’ and I visited for the first time in ‘96 when I drove ‘Separation’…
Klas Joakim Eriksson, ‘Leiah’ guitarist
I remember seeing ‘Entreat’ and ‘Man In The Shadow’ in Belgium (I drove with them home to Ljubljana)… Actually, all that I remember is that on the way from Ieper to Gent, the rented van went on fire, that is: the engine went on fire! Pretty scary but we were all fine.
Tea Hvala, Pssst zine
I was here at the V.V. with ‘Catharsis’. I did that entire 3 month tour back then, since we (Scorched Earth Policy) put out the vinyl that year. ‘M. Vs H.’ never played there, that’s correct. I recall that ‘Catharsis’ were in a desperate spot prior to the this tour, which would have been their 2nd European tour. As I recall, they had a loose agreement with the guys who worked on their first tour in 1997 (Pat Federli; if I am not mistaken). Apparently, they were not able to get that going. Having met the band two years earlier I was eager to help out. After I had gotten the ball rolling, Bernd Bohrmann and I have then starting booking the tour and also started talks regarding the vinyl version of ‘Catharsis’ Passion album.
Marc Hartmann (Scorched Earth Policy, ‘Man vs Humanity’ drummer)
The band ‘Convinced’ hasn’t been active for almost ten years so it’s easy to forget. However, we did a two week tour in Belgium/Germany with ‘Catharsis’ (US) in the fall of 1999 which took us to Ieper and the Vort’n Vis. I visited the Ieper hardcore fest both 1997 & 1998 (great festival and an awesome vibe) so I remember was excited to play the V.V. But honestly I don’t remember that much more from the show than the fact that it was Halloween and a lot of people in the audience wore costumes and/or make-up. I don’t think that the members in our band wore any costumes though. Probably because Halloween wasn’t a big thing in Sweden back then, so we hadn’t thought about it. I have some pictures somewhere in an album but unfortunately I can’t find them.
Myself & Jessica don’t think that Matt Miller is telling the truth about our tour. Jessica shared the van with ‘Catharsis’ becuse she didn’t want to spend all the time with her brother Joakim (guitar) and her father (who was our driver at the time). Fair enough!
Martin Magnusson, ‘Convinced’ drummmer
additions wellcome!…
Vort'n Vis in the 90s 