Angry Zeta | Wednesday, July 10th 2024, Live @ Bar Bricolage, Ghent.
This is yet another story about connectivity and synchronicity. Of letting the music and the people lead me to more people and music. All these coincidences that somehow feel fated, and me just happily along for the ride.
Around February Jo told me that Rabid Jack was going to play at The Black Flamingo. He insisted I should check out Jack’s episode of Raving with Rua, a full hour interview by Daithy Rua for his YouTube channel. I had yet to discover The Songs from the Rua room, but this broadcast had me hooked, as you can clearly tell from my ode earlier this year.
From the first song Rabid Jack played live on that livestream, I was instantly charmed by his lyrics and sound that is an amalgamation of genres.
At some point he started raving about his love for Angry Zeta, and how they really influenced his music. This was the seedling that led me to discover this lively rag tag of a band and instantly being blown away by their sound. They posted their European tour dates and three shows were near(ish) me, HURRAH. I decided I absolutely had to see them live, because they’re just the type of band that promised to sound even better in person. (Spoiler alert: they fucking do!)
Sadly, one of the dates coincided with the Liege date of Clyde and the Milltailers so I had to scratch that one off the list. That left me with two dates, the first of which I missed as well since my body had not survived my first introduction to Carrie Nation. Luckily the stars finally aligned and I was free and at least somewhat able bodied to catch the last remaining date of the three! The morning of, I looked up the address and I saw that the date of the event was set a week earlier. Damn and blast, this tour-along seemed cursed from the get-go! Fortunately, after a panicked message to singer Zeta Bodrio, it turned out to be a mistake on the event page. Relieved and cheerful, I set off to the sunny sights of Ghent!
I arrive at Bar Bricolage and immediately fall head over heels for this place, with its hidden corners and chill atmosphere under a green canopy. The sound of birds singing a sunset song and a breeze through the trees fills my ears. I find my way to the cosy spot where Angry Zeta will be killing it later, and unknowingly sit down next to Rabid Jack himself!
After doing a double take, I tell him he’s the reason I am here in the first place. If I am excited already, it is nothing compared to him. He’s nearly bouncing up and down from the merch to his seat in pure excitement, in celebration of the show he’d been looking forward to all year. He even manages to to exchange his own Lidl socks for an Angry Zeta pair, causing much merriment for him and amusement to his wife who wonders why anyone would want a worn pair of socks.
The band is filing into the arena and I get a big hug and happy greeting from Zeta, thanking me for making the show. I tell him how sad I am I had already missed them twice, and a little back and forth ensues about all the bands and artists I’d seen that year. It doesn’t surprise me to hear that he ran into nearly all of them during their European tour. Another comment to the first reel I’ll post, this time from Sean K. Preston asking me to say hi. The purple thread and all that, which isn’t done surprising me tonight! In running over to the bar, I spot a happy smiling Noah!
I’d met him over a year ago after The Devil Makes Three and right at the time the idea of the Purple People was incubating in my brain. Random luck finding him on the terrace, because he didn’t even know that Angry Zeta was about to perform. Turns out he’s a big fan so there’s another bout of merrily jumping up and down before running toward the stage. Before getting back to my seat (Too exhausted to dance right now *sad face*) I see yet another familiar face, I’d met thanks to the music. It’s Natasha, who I’d encountered at Kiel Grove & Gipsy Rufina’s gig at De Floeren Aap. I might often set off alone, but the music always surrounds me in an embrace of familiarity.
OK! After this entire tangent of the people, it’s finally time to hear the music come alive. A violin (Of course, this IS the year of the violin), a standing bass, a leopard printed banjo, a guitar, a washboard and one shared mic front and centre, all foreboding one hell of a show.
This, this is something else entirely. Angry Zeta’s vibrant charisma and love for their art radiates off of the stage and lights a fire under the crowd in front of it. Like pied pipers, they draw everyone in and make them lose all sense of reality. Note by note, the audience swells with more and more joyously dancing bodies. I’ve only seen this level of frenzied, feisty and impassioned playing once before in Gogol Bordello. I also haven’t seen so many Belgians dancing as enthusiastically since then. This band is like a drug, an infectious virus that induces a trance-like state, wherein you forget about everything aside from what is happening on that stage.
Midway through we get some reprieve to come up for air when they announce a little break before part two. More bands should be doing this because I refuse to get up during a set. One of these days this determination on my part is going to lead to a dizzy dehydrated fainting spell or a painful UTI. Plus it’s a win win, more time for the band to sell their merch and the venue is happy because there’s more room for drinks sales. Take note!
A few of the band members have returned and instead of waiting for the others, they just start playing to lure their mates in from wherever they’re at. They start off the second part of the set with an unexpected Johnny Cash cover, with a searing violin solo, as befits this year of the violin. They end the night by breaking up the crowd and going in for an ecstatic acoustic encore topped with some insane but expertly executed five finger fillet. (No artists were harmed in this video!)
The moving mob in near worship of this band is an incredible sight to behold and I am living vicariously through their dancing delight. Every fibre of my being is begging me to join the celebration, but I somehow manage to keep my wrecked body sitting on the sideline to spare myself for the shows yet to come. At this point I am wondering if I’ve brought enough paper to cover this performance. In the end I fill up the last page of my notebook just before the end of the set. In hindsight though, 90% of my rambling notes boil down to the following:
- HOLY SHIT / WHAT THE FUCK
- Happy smiles, happy faces
- That ENERGY
- Crowd goes WILD
- What even is this?
- Unfinished borderline indecipherable nonsensical sentences
The above full length video, courtesy of photo- and videographer Jozef Durnez, can fill in the blanks where my words and reels fail to convey just how extraordinary it is to witness Angry Zeta live on stage. To top it all off, they are extremely humble and just an all around warm bunch of beautiful humans! When I ask to get my poster signed they pass it around and make sure they’re all represented, after which they rally everyone around for the obligatory post-show selfie.
Suffice it to say, this band is fucking special and will from now on be a calendar priority for me when they come back. The energy hangover they must feel coming home, with this level of intensity night after night must be epic. I know I was reeling and revelling in it for some days after.
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