The Amsterdam based My City Burning had the honor to open up. The room wasn’t exactly filled that well yet, but MCB gave everything they got nonetheless. Although they had the first stagediver of the night it wasn’t a very memorable show. The crowd mostly just stood still and the singer had a hard time keeping his voice audible between the overwhelming sound that his band mates produced with their instruments. Their songs also are “just” conventional hardcore songs, but at least they’ve got the right spirit. Check them out when they play a small club show near you. This stage was just a little bit too big and too high for them at this point, but maybe with some time they’ll destroy this venue in the way they want it to be destroyed.
 

Up next were the guys from Backfire!. I’ve seen them a couple of times recently and so far these guys never let me down. This time they also did what they were expected to do. Instead of the usual ‘Hurt’ from Johnny Cash they now had ‘Bloed, Zweet & Tranen’ from the Dutch singer André Hazes as intro tune, but furthermore no surprises at all. With songs like ‘Pushing My Failures Away’ and ‘Still Dedicated’ they proved themselves once again. The only negative point about their show was the sound, especially in the beginning. Furthermore they just nailed it! Nothing more than respect.
 

Then finally Jamey Jasta and his companions hit the stage. With ‘This Is Now’ they immediately played one of their most appreciated songs and the audience instantly went bezerk. From that moment on everything went really smooth. The band played one killer track after another and the crowd loved it. The “real” hardcore guys may not appreciate the fact that there’s clapping along and shit during such a hardcore show, but they should stop whining about that. Everybody knows by now that Hatebreed integrates these kinds of elements in their show from the moment they’ve gotten more and more popular. If you don’t like that approach: stay the fuck away. It’s that simple.
 

The set contained songs from Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire until their latest cover album For The Lions. They even played a new song, which was called ‘Pollution Of The Soul’. They recently resigned with Roadrunner Records and we’ll probably be hearing ‘Pollution Of The Soul’ on their forthcoming self titled full length which is due for a late fall release. All in all I was very pleased to see Hatebreed perform this well, but I must confess that I’ve seen them better. Anyway, they’re alive and kicking and I for one can’t wait until I get my hands on more material from their upcoming album. Until then I’ll have to wait while Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire is spinning on my new turntable. And that isn’t aggravating whatsoever.