She can write short form like a one part series too? Absolutely, I do whatever I damn well please! Though I must admit that this band most definitely deserves more parts than I can give them at this time. Envisioning a few hefty series in the near future, I swore to take off my journalist hat and just enjoy the music. Fat chance when the music is THIS GOOD. So I danced and didn’t write anything down. But the memory is enough to sustain at least one blog, with a solemn promise to do better the next time they wind up on our shores again.

It all started with a recommendation, as all good things tend to do these days. Since meeting Ann and Dev last year during the WhiskeyDick/James Hunnicutt tour (and many more thereafter), I’ve learned we are kindred spirits in our love of music. So when either of them tells me I NEED TO see X or Y, I know to listen. (Re: Shawn James!!!) So, no ifs or buts, I tentatively circled two possible dates in my calendar for this band I had yet to discover. 

SPOILER ALERT: One minute into show one and ‘tentatively’ became definitely and I added another in between.  

That fateful first performance was in the city of Aarschot, which had left me with a bad taste in the mouth after some regrettable life choices as a teen. (Read: awful techno parties where I felt so out of place, I turned to alcohol to get me through them. Which led to MORE regrettable choices, but I digress.) Aarschot however proved its worth, it turns out to have another side to it, full of dazzling music and wonderful people. 

On a nice summer evening with just a sprinkling of rain, I arrive at the barn where over the course of the night, a lot of sweat was shed. A little bit of a bummer that the promised showers had made the actual circle outside a risky bet, after which the organisers decided to choose certainty in a roof over our heads. No matter, on with the show!

With the first sounds emanating from the stage, my body starts involuntarily dancing. Limbs go this way and that and I lose myself completely in the music and barely notice the world around. Except for that band, their impossibly magnetic tunes that put some sort of spell over me. It had been a at least a year since my limbs had done their wacky waving inflatable arm flaily tube man thing but fuck me if the adrenaline from it didn’t render me incredibly ecstatic. 

Smiling and sweaty I start to stumble outside, but not before yelling at (and probably alarming) drummer Bryce who’s calmly gathering his things on stage. “HOLY FUCK MAN. I mean… HOLYYYYYY FUCK!’ I later catch up with him outside to let him know I am not a madwoman, I just get really REALLY excited sometimes.

Sometime after that, I regain my composure and connect with a few of the lovely people in the audience, new and old friends alike. I meet Carine and Gerrit, who’ve apparently unknowingly crossed my path a few times in the past already. I’m intensely moved by their story that led them to be here. Their son Jens was in a horrible motorcycle accident and passed away years earlier. To keep his memory alive, Carine and Gerrit decided to follow the music along the venues and artists their son had loved. 

Much later, after most people have filed out, with the last hangers-on we set off into the night, for a good time that will lead us into the early hours.

Sidenote: Thanks to my unexpected and erratically uncoordinated dance moves, I managed to damage my body so badly, I could hardly get out of bed for two days after. This unfortunately meant I had to miss Angry Zeta who I’d enthusiastically planned to see the day after at Lou’s bar in Liege. Fortunately for me, I would get another chance, a night not easily forgotten, which will be immortalised after these ones here!

After having just gained back control over my limbs, I endanger my body some more by risking the dance inducing sorcery that is Carrie Nation once more. Hey, I’ll live while I’m alive and dance as long as I can stand up, right? This time I roll up in Turnhout, at the scenic site of Barzoen. 

In the middle of the terrace, wrapped around a huge tree, the striking (though apparently impractical) stage in the warm outside air, the location lends a distinctly different vibe to the show. Again I am completely enamoured and enraptured by that fun, frantic and full sound. 

Lastly I end up at Café Pallieter in Herselt for the first time ever, exactly a week before my Clyde & Luke tour-along would set off there. 

Another sidenote: I’ll find out later that these two had met Carrie Nation in the interval between the two Pallieter shows. Aside from that Kiel Grove (yet another one of Ann’s recommendations) sends me a message to say hi to his mates in Carrie Nation for him, much like James Hunnicutt & Joey Henry commented the same when I saw Kiel in Mechelen. And even though it’s my first time at the Pallieter, I already spot more than a few familiar faces here. The kindred spirits in music weave themselves into an ever growing net of kinship. Everything is interconnected, the purple string of music intertwining through my life and soul. Anyway, philosophical ruminations aside, back to the band at hand.

For the third and final time I see them, and I am again wholly bewildered by the way the instruments sing alongside the vocals in a harmony of their own. How seemingly effortlessly they all play off of each other, blending into a true feast for the senses. The force of that hoarse voice, the comfortable ease of Bryce’s drumming meshing with that deep bouncing bass and exhilarating brass. It’s a true speakeasy spectacular!

Special shout out to Tyler who not only switches seamlessly between his trombone and that divine mandolin, but plays them both so well and with so much soul and fervour you can not help but float away in mesmerised delight. The emphatic way the newest addition to the ranks, Eric McMyermick on harmonica completely loses himself in the music is truly captivating to behold.

So yeah, all of this to say I feel an instant love for this band with their killer instruments and overwhelming passion for playing them. The combination of the trombone, trumpet, harmonica, the essential standing bass and most alluring mandolin, topped by a guitarist with an unparalleled voice, makes it a ridiculously pleasurable performance. All of these instruments and vocal cords, attacked by musicians with ferocious fire fuelling through their veins. Sparks shooting from their eyes, while basking in the moment of their music. All of this of course mirrored by the crowd in front of the stage who’re left gobsmacked and delirious from the ride.

Next time they’re in my part of the world, I’ll be there for another tour-along and subsequent superlative filled series. You can bet on that!

CARRIE NATION & THE SPEAKEASY LIVE, JUNE 2024

• Circle of Strings – Aarschot – June 22nd 2024
• Barzoen – Turnhout – June 26th 2024
• Palieter – Herselt – June 27th 2024

Tying up one series and starting on the next, this post is a double whammy! After seeing the guys solo four times, I get to see them in action with the incomparable Bridge City Sinners at my beloved Brakrock. The purple thread of music keeps stringing me along and tying up all the threads into a glorious amalgamation of sound, people and places. Prepare for the final instalment of my tour-along journal which is also part 1 of the 2024 edition of my love song to Brakrock. 

I have been counting the months, weeks, days and minutes in eager anticipation to this moment in time! My first Brakrock day starts off at the River stage where I am anxiously awaiting Bridge City Sinners to take the stage. During their soundcheck I can already feel my heart rate spiking (144 bpm and counting!) for the show I’ve been looking forward to the most on day one of the 2024 edition of Brakrock. The best festival in all of Flanders, shaded by foliage, filled to the brim with beautiful people and with a picturesque ruin as a backdrop. I AM HERE FOR IT. 

Time to fawn over those magnificent musical instruments as they get tuned up to perfection. Strang’s gorgeous guitar (HEARTS!) Libby’s cute pocket banjolele & Clyde’s big black one and that stand out stand up bass, plus the fiddle and its stick that’s been played so hard it’s hanging on by a thread! Meanwhile, tour manager Joey is looking all serious and focused as fuck, making sure every little detail is put into place to perfection for his band, as is his modus operandi. 

When the soundcheck already has the crowd all riled up, you just know this promises to be a GOOD time! I might just be a little biased, but I note down that I truly don’t understand why they’re playing so early. I can confidently say this is going to be one of the best bits of Brakrock, before even having seen the rest of the bands. In hindsight too, I was totally fucking right in that assumption. Bridge City Sinners immediately take the crowd by storm! In saying that, I get the sudden realisation that programming them early on does get everyone fired up for the day and sets a high bar for all the bands to follow! Smart move Brakrock!

Having seen them just under a year ago at Trefpunt in Ghent I was at least a tiny bit better prepared for what I was about to witness. Still, memories are one thing, reality is another and I let out a shrill FUUUUUCK YES and a lot of WOOOOOO’s. (Apologies to the eardrums around me, I seriously cannot help myself.) I am in AWE and LOVE (exactly like last time) with Libby’s absolutely electric stage presence! One HELL of a voice too, which lends itself amazingly to the Sinners’ unique style. 

It’s impossible to box them into one or even several genres of music, since nearly every song and album they bring out has a feel of its own. It’s what I adore most about them, the limitlessness of what they bring, from jazzy speakeasy sounds, to punk with hints of bluegrass, dark folk and much much more. 

My notes are again insufferably insufficient and damn near useless in describing in any way, shape or form how fucking fantastic I feel living in this moment, up close to this stage. The band is just such a well attuned entity, with one of a kind harmonious strengths that directly amplify each other. These five people radiating talent and passion for what they do, the sum of their individual skills heightening the whole. Their energies feed off of each other and flow into the crowd that just spews it right back at them, which makes Bridge City Sinners one of the best live bands you’ll ever experience. 

Bridge City Sinners’ new album ‘In the Age of Doubt’ has been out for a little over a month now and the response to it is phenomenal. They hit the Billboard charts full force and already amassed over 3 million streams on Spotify alone. No doubt a bunch of those can be attributed to me because I’ve been playing this record front to back ever since it came out. I vehemently recommend you to do the same.

After unexpectedly acquiring a spiffy second hand record player at the end of July, I saw it as a sure sign that this album should be the first vinyl I’ve ever bought. No doubt starting a very expensive hobby my wallet, though never myself, might come to regret. 

As evidenced above, I might have yet again gone a little overboard at the merch table, but hey, at least it’s not another black band shirt, amirite? Plus it’s always worth it to support artists and get something tangible to catapult you back into those memories every time you come across it. 

In conclusion, whenever Clyde, Luke and any or all of the other Sinners cross the pond again, I will never not be front stage and centre. And you dear reader, will not be disappointed if you follow me there.

THE BRIDGE CITY SINNERS LIVE AT BRAKROCK,
August 2nd 2024

And so falls the curtain on this tour-along series which will from now on hold a special place in my core memories. However, it is just the start of the Brakrock 2024 series, which will be continued after I tie up a few loose ends of some events that transpired in July. Stay tuned!