After a month long and frankly well deserved break for The Black Flamingo, I finally get to go back to my happy place! Not for just any gig, but for the one I have been looking forward to ALL DAMN YEAR. It’s no surprise then I am in the best of spirits driving onto the yellow sand road with the windows down and Clyde and the Milltailers blasting from my speakers. Such a happy homecoming it is, with hugs all around and happy loving faces embracing me to the fullest.
Because I am already prepared to lose my shit after the show, I quickly round up the guys for a pre-show selfie to seal the deal for this here blog. I got there way too early in my giddy anticipation, but that just leaves more time to catch up with all my purple Flamingo people and my lovely little Caramel who I’ve sorely missed.
Part 2.1 | Lightnin’ Luke ⚡️
I see Luke set up on the brand new expanded stage and I plop myself down on the best seat in the house, right in front of the stage. From the first strum of the chord, I’m already nearly in tears from how good it feels to be here, in this moment, and get to see this extraordinary talent behind that guitar for the second (but not last) time this week.
I am again amazed at that voice full of passion and that ear piercing beautiful guitar sound that fills this barn I so love. How lucky we are to be in this wondrous space and have those sounds flow through us.
There’s just so much soul and so much feeling radiating all through that performance. It’s hitting me in ALL the feels and I am on cloud (ninety)nine enjoying every millisecond of all of this.The set is more intimate, with a few breathtaking ballads that leave me speechless. Those lyrics are so impossibly fragile and lived through. This is not just a man with a bewildering voice and talent for playing, but a storyteller who takes you into his worlds and shows you all around the life he’s lived.
Picture courtesy of the wonderful Tatjana Knoll
When Luke utters the words “What a magical place to be, with 2 rainbows outside and 15 rainbows within”, he is not kidding. Another synchronicitous link to 2023 when rainbows were part of the musical path I stumbled onto as well.
Meanwhile the love is shining off the stage and is mirrored right back at him. Another string can’t handle all the pressure and breaks at exactly the same song as it did in de Pallieter.
With Clyde’s resonator at hand, Luke tries to teach us all the basics of yodeling (jazz hands included) so we can be his back up band. He tells us how he found his way to write and perform his own music, with people left and right telling him he can’t do what he’s trying to accomplish. Luckily he didn’t listen to a word they said and just kept on keeping on so we can rejoice in all that encompasses this Lightnin’ of an artist. I thought the gig at de Pallieter was the best thing I had seen all year, but this session even tops all that. (Though I have to admit my deep rooted love for this venue might make me just tad bit biased.)
Part 2.2 | Clyde and the Milltailers
After this performance, everyone needs a little time to process it all, but the guys don’t leave us much to recuperate. Who cares, because this combo is pure heaven and that fiddle is life and seeps into my soul. Again I note how they are so well tuned to each other and how effortlessly they seem to play together.
At this point my notes get completely illegible because I am writing without looking away from the stage. After those few unreadable words, I just stop writing anything down full stop. My brain is melting and I just cannot convey the way all of this is weaving its way into my core. The English language has such a broad vocabulary but I am sure there are not enough superlatives and expletives for what is unfolding in front of me.
From this point on, I will let the music speak for itself and just add in a the last of the many videos I made. They will speak in volumes as to why I am so astoundingly grateful for the life I am living at this moment in time. Decide for yourselves if I am overreacting or not.
Just one more restful night before I get to do this all over, this time at Lou’s bar in Liege, another place I’ve been wanting to visit for ages. Living life in the fast lane is getting pretty exhausting, but oh so thrillingly rewarding. I can feel the energy soaring through my body and am making memories I won’t forget in a hurry. See you for part three!
Clyde and the Milltailers + Lightnin’ Luke | Thursday, July 4th 2024, Live @ De Pallieter Café, Herselt.
Because of my newfound love of the instrument, I dubbed 2023 the year of the banjo. In november, I declared 2024 would be the year of the violin, ever since Jo had given me the amazing news that Clyde McGee and Lightnin’ Luke would grace the stage of The Black Flamingo. As soon as the EU dates were announced I made my itinerary, from Herselt to Nijlen with a scenic trip to Liège and ending my tour-along in Eindhoven.
I counted the months until at last it was July. Fitting that 2023 and 2024 should collide in such a masterful way, smack dab in the middle of the year. As some of you might remember, I credit Peter Bernhard & Flamingo Jo for the resurgence of this blog. On day two of following Pete, he brought Clyde McGee along for the ride. At that point I could only spare a few words for this fantastic artist, but I had promised to make it up to him. Later that year, I got to see him and Lightnin’ Luke shine as part of The Bridge City Sinners and made good on that promise.
New year, new tour so prepare for a stream of words to describe the incredible experience I’ve lived through over the past weeks. Here I am in Liége, in the nice Sunday afternoon air and in full view of Lou’s bar. It’s the third stop on the route of Polexia Miller, self styled band-aid and reporter, where I take some pre-show time to start the writing process of Clyde and Luke’s first stop at Pallieter Café.
It was my second visit to the venue in two weeks. Last time I was here, new discovery Carrie Nation blew the roof off the joint! (Thank you Ann and Dev for the recommendation, as always.) More on that tour-along later, because second things first as I always say! Alrighty then, I arrived just in time for Lightnin’ Luke to kick off my leg of the EU tour-along. What a great spot, nice atmosphere and I am already surrounded by a few familiar faces. Just the way I like it!
A few excited hello’s to both Clyde and Luke and immediately I start gushing about Luke’s beautiful guitar I spot on stage. Clyde tells me to just wait until I hear it play and he was NOT kidding. After the show, I obviously gush some more to the man himself and he tells me that he picked up that guitar by chance. He was going to join The Coffin Cats on tour, needed some strings and just bought the first and cheapest model he could find. At the end of the tour he decided that this one sounded way better than his nice one at home, kept it and sold the other one.
Part 1.1 | Lightnin’ Luke ⚡️
The guitar may not have cost a fortune but that sound is solid as all hell. The strings aren’t though, one breaks almost straight off from the sheer conviction with which Luke starts his set. Not to worry, Clyde to the rescue by way of his own beauty of a resonator and expertise of quickly changing the string between songs. On with the show!
From the first note that Luke belts out, me and by extension everyone around is completely captivated. His voice is on another level, it fills the room, as if it’s an entity in its own right. I am completely overwhelmed at the intensity and the masterful music that spills into the crowd.
Time seems to be standing still and we’re all in a perfect bubble of pure bliss that only a rare breed of musicians seem to be able to create. Luke dares mention at some point that his performance has set the bar low for what we’re about to see with Clyde and the Milltailers. Well, if this is the lower end, I can’t imagine what it would take to get to the higher one. It seems like it is the curse of the best musicians, that they seem to have no concept of just how fucking amazing they are.
Even though I used a lot of them already, my notes state that no words can describe this. I already thought The Sinners were mind blowing, but this stripped down performance is even more gripping. Check out this song Luke wrote for The Bridge City Sinners. (And tell them as requested he did it better when you see them, at Brakrock 2024 for instance!)
Part 1.2 | Clyde and the Milltailers
After this set that seemed to only cover one magical minute, we say goodbye for now to Luke, as the stage is set for him & Clyde in Milltailers form. First, a word on Big Bullwho sadly had to cancel his appearance as standing bass in what would have been a Milltailer trio. He unfortunately broke his arm, and by this his livelihood and had to cancel. Please support him any way you can and wish him the speediest of recoveries! We missed him, but he was here in spirit, just to the right of the stage.
On with the show though, there is so much to tell I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s just say the notes I wrote came with a LOT of exclamation marks. A small summary of the most note-worthy:
Whaaaaassss!!!!
That combo!!!
So hard to stop recording because omg aaah, see long vid.
Everything is goooooold!!!
The long vid as mentioned above.
I also wrote down that it is HANDS DOWN the best thing I have seen all year. And if you check my Instagram reel history, you KNOW I ain’t saying this lightly. Again I note how absolutely gorgeous Clyde’s resonator is, and make an extra note for the new full black banjo which looks incredible as well. As I have already told you last year, Clyde’s voice is a force to be reckoned with. What an astounding talent this man possesses, both on strings, as on vocal cords and he obviously exists by way of his passion for the music. He has been touring non stop it seems, and it shows in an artistry well honed over the years.
The combination of these men on stage is nothing short of divine, in the spirit of music as a religion. Their intensity of playing, singing and how well their voices & instruments blend is awe inspiring. They mesh so bewitchingly well, that I am just gobsmacked and so glad I get to experience this and document it for future generations. Plus, I have three more shows where I get to relive all this again and again and again. I feel like the luckiest person alive.
Not much more gets written down after all of this because I literally lose all capacity to not stare open mouthed. After the set I just really have to sit down and take a breather. When I see Clyde and Luke come down, I only yell a bunch of expletives at them. Fuck Fuck Fuck. Holy shit. What the fuck. I mean, no but really. Seriously. I MEAN! Something like that, but louder and more out of breath.
A small surprise for me when I learn that we’re in for another band after ALL OF THIS. I feel bad because they have big shoes to fill after the room was awash with all this talent. Credit where credit is due however, The Achievers nailed it and kept everyone dancing until their last note. I don’t have any leftover superlatives however, so I will leave you with this live reel and the fact that they are on my radar now!
I drive home with the windows down, a ridiculous grin plastered all over my face and some newly purchased Clyde and the Milltailers music over the speakers. This is the life.
Two days after, I will see Clyde and Luke again at my home away from home, The Black Flamingo and you won’t be surprised to read that it was even more magical than this gig. To be continued in part 2!
September 22nd had been excitedly marked in my calendar since April, when I saw Clyde McGee open for Pete Bernhard. As with Pete, I knew the band by music, but not the individual members, so I only found out Clyde was one of The Bridge City Sinners on that fateful day in Hulshout. He told me about the Sinners’ European tour in September and October and I was BEYOND stoked to see a Belgian date. I was even more thrilled to be able to share this experience with my newfound friends I’d acquired through the synchronicity of music since his solo performance.
I was planning on taking an entire day to get ready, dolled up and taking my sweet time going to Ghent. Afterwards driving on to the Belgian coast for a much needed holiday. Alas, fate decided otherwise as an unforeseen and also unmissable event was planned on the same day. My stress level was through the roof in the weeks and days beforehand trying to get my head around a literal (no, really!) rollercoaster of a day into a night where I had to drive myself to a city I didn’t know very well. Let me tell ya, all that stress was so fucking unfounded, when I think back on it now it is almost amusing.
The day of started earlier than usual and I faced fears I had talked myself into over the years. I used to be brave and fearless, but over the last years depression and battle with neurodivergence had made me small. Small and afraid of EVERYTHING. Doubting I could do ANYTHING. The day was a therapy group outing to an amusement park and to say I was DREADING all of it would be the understatement of the century. Luckily, therapy is teaching me how to face my fears head on. So I did. In line for the first roller coaster, I was hopping from one leg to another, thoughts racing this way and that. I eventually decided to just get over it and DO it, and got on the fucking roller coaster. It was scary at first, but then it was EXHILARATING! After that, I still felt a little trepidation getting on a new coaster, but by the end of the day I was unstoppable. I had faced my fears and WON, telling my brain to shut the fuck up and it actually shutting the fuck up. I had an AMAZING day and was living on adrenaline alone.
In getting home, the adrenaline unfortunately wore off and I was tired from all the mental and physical gymnastics of the day. So getting ready for the show felt like I was moving in slow motion while getting anxious again for the drive through traffic and rain, on a road I was not familiar with, in a time frame that would mean I would almost definitely miss the opener. I was sad but resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t get the full experience of this night I had been looking forward to for almost 6 months.
I managed to get my ass on the road eventually and powered through those fears to eventually arrive at my destination. In a daze, I hurriedly speed walked from my parking spot on the outskirts of Ghent to the venue, when I abruptly stopped in my tracks in awe of this quote on the building. Good thing I halted, because in my haste I had almost run past where I actually needed to be and made myself even later.
First I feel I need to emphasise what an AMAZING place Trefpunt is. As if I wasn’t sweaty enough already from the walk there, the indian-summer heat inside was enough to almost melt me away. So yeah, it was sweaty as fuck, punk as fuck but filled to the brim with a merry band of misfits that oozed Purple vibes. It felt like coming home to a room full of strangers. And then I spotted my musical friends I made this year and the last ounce of stress and self-doubt fell off of my sweaty shoulders. I HAD MADE IT!
I even made it in time for the opener Tuesday Violence and HOLY HELL I am so glad I did. A three headed band started during lockdown. You have Daveney, originally from the Netherlands but emigrated here 9 years ago, on drums & vocals. Bruxelloise Crystal is on organ (!) and vocals and Niels from Ghent is on guitar. The sound they produce together is almost indescribable. I wrote it up as incredible punk & roll but they describe it as primitive garage punk. Call it what you will, I will just refer to their sound as extraordinarily FANTASTIC. Crystal & Deveney’s voices were reminiscent of some of my favourite female punkers, like Brody Dalle & the ladies from Maid of Ace. The energy of their set was exhilarating and set the pace for the rest of the night.
Crystal, Deveney and Niels + yours truly
Aside from being fired up on stage, they were super nice and kind off stage. I got to talking to Deveney & Crystal who told me all about how they started and the amazing backstory on that beautiful organ she was playing on stage. My reference to Maid of Ace (another experience I still have to write about) led to vague plans for a possible ALL FEMALE (and Niels) double bill of both Tuesday Violence & the Maids at the Black Flamingo! (Fingers crossed we can set this up for 2024.)
In the meantime: check out Tuesday Violence newly released album!
Talking to these ladies was such intriguing fun, we almost missed the start of The Bridge City Sinners set! Time to run back in and claim a place for a piece of musical history Ghent will not soon forget. My lackadaisical approach to picture/video taking should tell you how good of a night it really was. These are meant as mere mementos more than actual good visual and/or auditory representation.
My notes start off with a simple OMG. Because Oh My unholy GOD, if I thought I already adored The Bridge City Sinners on record, it’s a WHOLE other thing seeing them live. I am staring at that stage in ABSOLUTE LOVE and AWE of the glorious mayhem of strings and vocals. The music feels so much more layered while seeing it live, because you can pick apart all the scrumptious little details. I made a video that gives only a vague idea about how epic of a performance it was. (Trust me, it does the evening NO justice at all, but it may give you a slight idea as to what you’ve missed.)
There is just so so much fucking talent on that ONE tiny stage! They all sing (and very well I might add), they all play multiple instruments which they casually switch during the set, like it’s nothing. From banjos to fiddles, from guitars to dobros; topped with a standing bass and a side of madness.
Aside from the Sinners, they all have several other bands and solo projects going on. That’s the thing about good music. It’s not just a series of notes and words reiterated on a stage. Good musicians and bands LIVE for their music. They breathe the music like it is their oxygen, and every night they play, they exchange that life force with their audience. Only to get recharged night after night and in the meantime honing their skills and getting more extraordinary with every gig.
This is what is happening here, it’s a band of exceptionally talented and dedicated musicians who LOVE what they do and the people they do it with. Every one of them gets their chance to shine on stage, with the wonderful Libby as a master of ceremonies directing her friends to their own spotlight. My hazy notes tell me I was again very much impressed by Clyde’s voice and taken aback when he started grunting during one song. The banjolos(not one BUT AT LEAST TWO) were mentioned as well. I was also very impressed by Lightin’ Luke and his fiddlework and something else he was doing because I wrote down ‘The fuck is he playing? Woap wap?’. Alas, I have no clue what I am referencing here, but all of these weird obscure scribblings just prove it was such a good show, I lost all sense of making sense. And that’s the way I like it.
My notes do however mention my admiration of Joey Steel, who acts as the tour manager for The Sinners’ European Vacation. He’s running around before, during and after the gig, setting everything up so that the band can just focus on doing what they do best. Meanwhile, he still makes the time to greet me with a big hug, in between all his hauling around and setting up. Joey Steel, hardest working man in showbiz and still so fucking nice!💜 (We’ll even forgive him for turning on the venue’s lights for that one brief moment where he paused and leaned against the wall!)
Near the end of their set, there is one special moment where Libby dedicates the following song to Tomas, their friend and the lead singer of Profane Sass who died on the road. The song was written for him, upon learning of his untimely death. The ways she talked about him and in reading up on him, it seems he was one of those one of a kind, magical people who radiated goodness and life force all around. He lived for the music and what that music could bring to people. I never knew him while he was alive, but it’s beautiful to see he’s still on the road, through his friends and touching people’s hearts.
The set up until then had already been absolutely amazing, but this was a beautiful moment that put the cherry on top. A moment of musical synchronicity for me, especially when she sang the words “Out of the darkness and heading out to sea”. I reflected on my own journey out of the darkness surrounding death and my journey ahead to the sea. The lyrics would prove to be even more synchronicitous a few days later when I yelled them into the surf. It’s one of those moments I will never forget. A moment, a story, a song and a band etched onto my soul forever.
The Bridge City Sinners probably don’t even fully know just how phenomenal and rare it is what they do, what they bring to their audience. If they do, it certainly doesn’t show in their attitudes because the Sinners I got to talk to are wonderfully down to earth.
There are no accurate words to describe the atmosphere in that venue, which was bulging at the seams at this impossibly perfect event. The band said it themselves, this would probably be the last tour they’ll be able to play smaller and more intimate venues like Trefpunt. I am SO ecstatic I got to be there, to experience up close and personal the intoxicating chaos and fury with which the Sinners approach their live sets.
After the show I still have a ways to go even though I wrote down that I am not sure just how my legs are still functional. I am completely running on fumes and adrenaline. I walk back to the car with Jo & Tiho through a calm and peaceful city and drive up to the coast where I still find a last mere ounce of fuel to unload all my shit. I then collapse onto the bed for a happy and well earned slumber, not yet fully aware of the catharsis I just experienced and the one that still lays ahead.
PART TWO – SCENE THREE Sunday, September 24th, 2023
FADE IN: INT. FAMILY APARTMENT, NIEUWPOORT BELGIUM – MORNING
See me sitting at the computer, trusted cup of coffee at hand, clicking and typing industriously. I am finally getting around to updating my website, reworking the layout of the basic pages. I had been meaning to do this overhaul for a while now, but I kept postponing it because life was happening. I was also having too much fun documenting all of those happenings in the words you read on here. Which is perfectly fine. Live while I’m alive and sleep when I am dead and all that, as Bon Jovi used to sing.
Today however, I do have a use for this restful Sunday. While the coastal town is busy bustling with activity, I am avoiding all that hustle by web designing with a view. It is nice to take a break for once. I’d been running on fumes for a while now, as I spoke about at length in the first part of this seaside series. But it wasn’t all stress and bad energy that left me in need of a break. After resurfacing from the dark abyss, I found the music again with Pete Bernhard at The Black Flamingo in March and I haven’t stopped seeing amazing shows (both large and small) since then.
On my fathers birthday in April and the second show of Pete’s I saw, I decided to get DownSideUp going again. I will be eternally grateful to Jo because as I said before , he played an integral part in me firing this website up again. Me being my neurodivergent self, I needed this space back online as soon as I could. This meant not thinking too much about where I wanted to go with this, and just throwing something together to get to posting. I didn’t want to lose myself in my overly perfectionist former marketing & communications self, and lose the momentum of writing. I am so glad I told UX, SEO and all that jazz to fuck right off.
But today, I carved out a bit of time to rework and translate. The design is still far from perfect, but from now on I live by the creed that done is always better than perfect. (And to be fair, perfection probably doesn’t even really exist, another man-made concept to steer clear of.) In any case, at least now the setup makes more sense and brings focus to what is the most important: THE WORDS! And seeing as how my bilingual narrator writes in both Dutch and English, I decided to translate the basic pages to the latter language. Most Flemish and Dutch people understand English anyway and I’m making international friends again who wouldn’t be able to understand the Dutch bits. So there, fixed(-ish).
Hunger calls me back to reality and I venture out for some much needed carbs to accompany my lovely meaty treat I bought yesterday. Something pulls at my gut again and I step into a store on the way back. There I find this cutie calling my name. My neurodivergent ass LOVES stuffed animals, so I could not resist when I saw this soft crocco-fella.
On the way home I named him Joey Clyde, for Joey Steel and Clyde McGee, as a reminder of a spectacular Friday and this subsequent ‘finding myself’ holiday at the coast. You will remember Clyde from that fateful Pete Bernhard gig in April at Tequila Tattoos, that helped set things in motion for the reemergence of DownSideUp. He’d promised me then to get me on the guestlist for his Bridge City Sinners show, which he graciously did. (Remember that BEST GIG OF THE YEAR bit in part one of this series? Yes, it was them. I will tell you ALL about it in due time.) Synchronicitous as always, this song starts playing in my headphones while I am writing this.
But have I told you about my friend Joey? I met him last year at Punk in Drublic and we have kept in contact ever since. He’s an amazing musician and singer in FIVE bands, an anarchist and LGBTQIA+ ally, a great thinker and self proclaimed shit talker, with his own most interesting podcast ‘Dispatches from the Underground‘. He’s also a tour manager and any band fortunate enough to count them into their entourage, should thank their lucky stars. (He will be prominently featured in the imminent Bridge City Sinners post.)
Thanks to Joey, I got to invite Jo, Tiho and Ann & David (Whom I’d met at the Whiskey Dick/James Hunnicutt double bill at The Black Flamingo. More on them later, because the music brought us back together for Gipsy Rufina and Kiel Grove a few weeks ago. That is YET ANOTHER series of posts I am working on!) to experience the chaos that was that amazing Bridge City Sinners gig with me. He made that night even more special for me, because I could share the music and pay it all forward by getting those lovely people on the guest list.
When I got to the apartment, I noticed Joey Clyde had a stitch loose on his neck which I fixed with needle and thread, giving him a badass scar. Joey recently underwent a major surgery, resulting in a similarly badass scar on his neck. Musical synchronicity in full force right there. (Have you noticed this is scene three? I HAVE!)
Me and Joey at Trefpunt Gent after the Bridge City Sinners show
I will forever treasure my new crocodile friend Joey Clyde as a visual reminder of a mindblowing night and seaside holiday.
Tiho, me and Clyde at Trefpunt Gent after the Bridge City Sinners show
DownSideUp 