And the night heralded a departure of sorts in that this evening was the first time at Sub 071 when I felt distinctly underdressed.
Red de Planeet, Zieke Ridders, DD/MM/YYYY Sub 071, Leiden, 29/10/08
Another top night out in Holland’s première squat venue. Revellers thronged inside, sheltering from the early freeze, creating a very convivial atmosphere indeed. And the night heralded a departure of sorts in that this evening was the first time at Sub 071 when I felt distinctly underdressed. Threads of an expensive cut were in evidence as a large contingent of arty students turned up, seemingly without any warning whatsoever to witness three diverse acts of considerable charm & talent, oh yes.
Sub 071 getting trendy amongst the Chatterrati? Who can say?
First up were Red de Planeet, (in essence the brilliant Ghiu’s front guy’s other muse); a two-piece dressed in cut-price, DIY super hero cossies; (I’m sure there was some humorous intent). The music wasn’t a million miles away from Ghiu’s wonderful experimental style; you could call it space rock of sorts, Barrett-esque, trippy, long drawn-out guitar samples chimed against a grumbling synth and subterranean bass. At one point I thought I heard echoes of the Late Great de Nieuwe Vrolijkheid but I had been drinking. Polite applause greeted which is a bit of a shame, as I thought they were pretty brilliant. This lad’s musical ventures need all our support.
Next up were Zieke Ridders, whose drummers style template (British Sea Power t-shirt and colander) instantly won me over. Zieke Ridders have played about half an hour of music in their lives, and Screeched and wailed vocals over a Swell Maps style guitar sound (i.e. primitive) took advantage of some pretty determined drumming to create a fun thrashy musical headspace. Undoubted highlight was the cover of Miss Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, simply because I had no idea at all that it was being covered until about 20 seconds before the end. Reinterpretation taken to new extremes…
Following that Canadian post/math/post-post punk twiddlers DD/MM/YYY took the stage. All staring intently at each other, in a Foals style, they proceeded to blast out a set of sharp insistent rock that for some reason also reminded of the Beach Boys(!) No, really, and I am not entirely sure why.
Normally I don’t dig these sort of earnest messianic lad bands (they are nearly always 20-something lads) with their insistence on jarring, stop-start ever so slightly discordant future sounds (nothing eventually sounds so dated as future sounds); but there’s a lot of pop fun to be had with DD/MM/YYYY as they have an emotional reach that’s far wider than their peers. And energy wise they were something else; thumping drums sparred with tinny keyboards and trebly guitar runs. Sub071 enjoyed mightily.
Roll on next time. Though I might have to think about what to wear…
Words: Richard Foster
Pics: Courtesy of Sub 071