23-01-2010 Punish Yourself

Supports: Parade Ground, Punish Yourself; Venue: W2, Den Bosch (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Three industrial bands would play in Den Bosch (Netherlands) tonight. Punish Yourself and two supports. Warning: some of the included photo’s are NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

The first support was Parade Ground. When this band, coming from Belgium, entere3d the stage it was still pretty quiet in the venue, not too many visitors were there yet. The duo on stage had besides a background video screen also a dia show that got projected on them while playing. The music tends to be quite aggressive which gets visualized by the facial expressions of the members. What their causes are can besides the songs self found in the visual back up, which perhaps did most of the trick today. The band feels their music and give their best to warm up the audience that preferred to stay in the back and take another drink. The whole set was very alike and the band could have brought some more variation into it to get the attention of the audience.

Up next is the Dutch band Deadcell. They have performed as support for several bigger names in the country and therefore got quite known by now. The band came in an extended version compared to the last time we saw them. Besides the video screen in the background they band is having a dancer on the stage for several songs which brings the whole alive. The band played songs of their recent album “Black Rooster” and it seems that there are a couple of people in the venue that know the songs. Towards the end they got more people curious and the space in front of the stage was more filled. When the band brought an encore they had most people interested as it comes with quite a show. Singer Marcus comes up with his war helmet and all of the show seems to be around that theme.

Punish Yourself is synonym for Electro-punk-industrial-chaos-show as it seems. The stage is filled with colored laser lights, glowing skeletons, drums with fur and the band made a living art out of themselves by painting their bodies with neon paint. For someone who is not into the scene or heard of them before it can all be shocking, but it is all part of the package that Punish Yourself brings. The band started with the illusion of being in a cage of which they want to break free from. The stage is dominated by singer VX 69, who seems to be everywhere. When taking a break of following his ADHD movements there are also a drummer called X.Av playing with glowing drumsticks and guitarists Miss Z and P.RLOX who cause the chaos and dance ability of the music. The act is completed by Klodia who takes care of extreme show elements, playing with fire and dancing. The success of the band is round when the catchy tunes capture the atmosphere and bring the party mood in the venue.

Although the venue was not that filled, the audience that came was impressed by the band. They had to come back several times for encores and the audience partied intense during the set. When VX 69 jumps in the crowd for some close meetings with his fans, you know the beast has broke free and there is no way back of getting yourself sucked into the madness world of Punish Yourself. A good show, a shame that not too many people had found their way to their gig, but the atmosphere was great and it set the tone for what could be created when a gig gets sold out.