Everybody who loves hardcore and punk is well-known with the EMP Persistence Tour. Last year it was for the first time it was on a Monday evening in The Netherlands, but this year it's back on the sunday afternoon. The line up this year didn't include much European acts, since Risk It! was the only one. Nevertheless Wisdom In Chains, Twitching Tongues, Iron Reagan, H2O, Terror and headliner Ignite showed that this was quite a good line-up.

To keep it a little local, Risk It! got the honour to open this late afternoon. While their weren't many people inside when the band started, the crowd kept dripping in throughout the set. The band was very grateful to be on this tour and also that there were quite some people in halfway their set. The band itself showed what an energetic tour this is and that you will get more energy as you give energy yourself. They were very energetic on stage and they warmed up the crowd. Although you could clearly hear that this was the last show of the tour, the band made a very good impression. Also an important note; good to see that the vocalist got off stage during the last song to feel the energy and pump up the crowd even more.

Next up was Wisom In Chains, you could see that they have way more experience. The band played very tight and there were more people in the crowd banging their head and moving along and also the sing-a-longs were pretty good. Vocalist Mad Joe Black gave a huge shoutout to Risk It! Which earned his respect because these hardworking guys travelled with their own car and had no personnel to help them. While the guitarsolo's kept going it was quite an "you see is what you get" vibe. Straight to your face is their music and it fits perfectley on a tour like this. During their last song "Chasing The Dragon" about nine band members of all other bands came on stage with either a guitar or bass to bang their heads and have some fun. It shows how much fun such a tour is and on stage it was pretty impressive.

While a lot of people went out to have some dinner it was time for Twitching Tongues. This band it something completely different and is inspired by hardcore and a lot of metal genres. Some people really liked this band and gave it all with their hardcore dancing and moshing. The clean vocals were a bit weird on an evening like this and while it didn't seem to fit, it was really cool to see this band. I had never heard of this band before and I was really glad to see something different on this tour. It's a shame that a lot of people didn't like it or didn't want to see it at the start, because the room was quite a lot emptier during this band.

Then it was time for something else in Municipal Waste 2.0 a.k.a. Iron Reagan, which play a crossover of thrash metal and hardcore punk. They managed to play 17 songs in this little amount of time and as Tony said; "We got 8 more songs and about 5 minutes left, so let's talk". One old thrash metal guy was found in the pit throughout the whole set and gained a lot of respect with this. The band itself played with a massive amount of fun and a high quality level. Their was a huge circle pit and furthermore a massive amount of movement throughout their set. Tourguitarist Colin from H2O joined on stage to sing a song along with the band. For the song "Your Kid's An Asshole" he used two microphones and yet again it showed the amount of fun these guys have on tour. During their last song the band was lifted on the shoulder by some other bands members this tour, Iron Reagan didn't expect this at all but kept going and it was amazing to see.

When H2O was about to start, Zoli walked on stage for a public service announcement. The band on the other hand immediately started "Bro Hymn" and Zoli walked off stage again. The crowd started singing already, but it faded away. Then he started about the amount of phones that got stolen last year and that everybody should be very carfully this year, nevertheless the band started with the intro once again. While Zoli screamed stuff as "STOP!" and "FUCK YOU!" he noticed that the crowd really wanted this, so he went along and did the first verse and the chorus of the song and the pit was amazing. After this short energetic experience the only thing Zoli had to say was: "Well... Stay safe!"

Then it was finally time for the veterans of H2O. Lead vocalist Toby came on stage in an inide-out pyjama pants and showed that they felt at home on stage. While the first stagedivers took a dive, the moshpit kept on going after this pretty good warm-up. Songs as "1995", "Black Sheep", "Family Tree" and "Skate!" were played and massivly sang along. The band itself showed why they are veterens and well-known in the hardcore/punk scene. They played very tight, had a lot of energy and massive fun.

Terror kept going in this vibe and also showed why they tour a lot and why they are also well-known for their live performances. 16 songs were played and songs as "One With The Underdogs". "Stick Tight", "Live By The Code" and "Return To Strength" kept the crowd going in a massive moshpit. of course the energy level of this band was extremely high. But also the amount of movement, stagedivers and people who screamed along was maybe even higher. They can be a perfect headliner and even if you don't like this band you got to give them some respect because of their energy and because they keep trying. The time flew by with other songs such as "You're Caught", "Spit My Rage" and "Keepers Of The Faith". Amazing performance once again and they left the crowd extremely pumped up for the headliner of this tour.

While Ignite began extremely energetic with "Bleeding", it seemed that the band was quite tired or something because their energy level went down quite quickly. Also the crowd seemed to be tired and while some people left, others kept enjoying but the amount of movement wasn't as high as it was before. Also both, the band and the crowd, seemed that they have to get used to the newer songs. While the band played extremely good last year as last support, they let down a little as headliner today. Quite some people left before the set ended and I was one of them since I was also one of the tired people.

Nevertheless it was an amazing tour with a lot of other band members playing/singing along with other bands. I really enjoyed today and hope that next year it will be the last day of the tour again, since this brought a lot of more fun with it as well. Great day, great bands and a great crowd. Cheers and see you all next year.