19-01-2008 Monsters of Mariaheide

Location: Mariaheide (Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser

  This festival took place somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I found myself
  surrounded by farmers and even the smell of cows and their shit was present.
  It was organised in a big stable/riding school hall, bit weird but added a little
  something.

  When I arrived and put my jacket in the cloakroom, I saw things were organised
  well. You needed to buy some coins to buy your beer, but the prices weren’t
  that high. Best thing was that the toilet were free of charge which I like on
  a festival. When my friend and I had our fist look around the band “The
  101’s” was playing. It sounded quite good and the guys on stage looked
  a bit young but they sure did have some talent. We ordered our first beer and
  walked around a bit.

The first band we actually saw perform was “B/B/Bazooka”, some would call it rockabilly, some just nice rock n roll to which you can move your feet. I missed the real rockabilly people in the hall, and on stage the contrabass player had the best look. They played at a difficult time, before dinner time and not many people were inside the hall.

When “McQueen” started to play. All of a sudden it was crowded with boys in front of the stage. Lots of boys. I knew the band consisted of some females. Well, they proved to have some girl-power on stage. Damn that front  woman knows how to get the crowd going, do her moves and make the men go wild. Yes she looks good in her shorts, but the voice… or should I say scream… Gosh many men would be jealous I would say. The songs are very catchy with some nice scream moments. Very girl punk, but also with a softer side. With punk bands I usually have the idea that the singer can’t sing, just scream. But this women can sing and scream.

There was not much time to cool down for me because “Laberinto” was going to perform. I was thinking from where do I know this band. Took me a while though. Their own singer had the flu and could not make it, but as a special surprise they had Def P with them. Def P is a rapper in Dutch, as we would call it “nederhop”. Then It finally hits me. I have seen Def P with his bands a couple of times and then they had “Laberinto” with them. Anyway it was time to use our hiphop bouncing moves and Laberinto sure knows how to build a party. It was a nice opportunity for both bands as they had worked on a CD together wich is due to be released any time soon. Although they wanted to keep things for their release party they introduced us with some new material. Very nice.

“Autumn” was a band that I wanted to see. I heard out them many times but never actually heard them. Well they they did not impress me. I do quite like the gothic female fronted bands, but this one was not much of my liking. Maybe it had to do with the two bands before them, which were full of energy and a real blast on stage, Autumn was a bit sedate. Despite the fact the front woman was moving around and dancing/jumping it did not get me. The music was nice, but nothing special. Before the end of Autumns performance we walked away to get some fries, and to my surprise that was quite cheap. At festivals you normally pay way too much for your food. But this was even cheap. And the quality was good.

  After some food it was time for some chilling and relaxing tones from “Jaya
  the Cat”. I had seen them two weeks ago, though I must say I only heard
  them because I was talking to friends at the bar. This time I wanted to see
  them and being in the photo-pit I smelled that relaxed smell. Marijuana. But
  damn those guys are great, they just make your body move, they take control
  with their beats and chilling bass play. A real nice mix between ska, reggae
  and rock. I really needed this after Autumn and the band got me right back in
  the perfect party mood.

 
 
    Then it was time for a band that totally copies another band. “Stahlzeit”
  plays everything “Rammstein” does. First I was a bit in between thoughts
  whether I would like a band like that. I mean basically they just thrive on
  the success of another band. Still had that at the end but, damn they are really
  good in putting that show on stage. Full of fire, figuratively and literally.
  They played many well-known Rammstein songs to get the crowd completely mad.
  People were finally going mad. They were quite tame the whole evening, at least
  to my standards. The show of “Stahlzeit” is amazing to see and I have
  never seen Rammstein but now I know I really should. Amazing, the fire all the
  time, those special effects very nice to watch. The singer was maybe a little
  wacky, maybe he liked it a bit too much. Or maybe that was show as well. Liked
  to slap himself and feel the fire on his body.
  With well-known songs as “Du Hast”, “Mein Herz Brennt”, “Sehnsucht” and “Links 2, 3,
  4” they really got the audience  going wild and singing along. I had to put my camera
  side at many moments to go nuts and dance on the music like people around me did.
  Very energetic show.
  Even if you don’t like the industrial rock that they play you just have something
  great to look at. Think this was a very good closure for the festival. Now I
  look forward to seeing them again, the voice of the Stahlzeit singer was not
  exactly the same but fitted very well, at some points it was quite alike. I
  really enjoyed their music and show, danced and lost myself between all the
  people going nuts and wild. Great. Very great.