Seven Dutch bands and Belgians Maria Iskariot celebrated the release of their 'Uitholling Bovenlangs' LP at Paradiso. Herman de Tollenaere was there!
On 4th September 2024, the ‘Uitholling Bovenlangs‘ sampler LP, a collaboration between young punk bands was launched at the big hall of Paradiso in Amsterdam.
‘Uitholling Bovenlangs‘ is a wordplay on ‘Uitholling Overdwars‘, which was a 1979 sampler LP with 12 Dutch bands, with one song each, all in the Dutch language. Ivy Green and Tedje en de Flikkers were the only two punk bands on ‘Uitholling Overdwars‘. The expression ‘Uitholling Overdwars’ is a traffic warning, meaning transverse depression in a road.
Differently from the 1979 LP, ‘Uitholling Bovenlangs‘ is 45 rpm. It has 8 bands with one song each, all punk bands with members in their teens or early twenties.
The photo above from outside Paradiso before the concert shows some of the bands who played, like Clitteband in the front row and Apeshit in the back row.
The bands attracted a very enthusiastic audience, mainly of the same age as the band members, filling the big concert hall. Among the attendees were members of the band Hang Youth, and Oscar Smit, author of a book series about Paradiso and punk.
Maria Iskariot is from Gent in Belgium. The other seven are from the Netherlands: The Covids, No Brains, Eyesores, Clitteband, Apeshit, Achterlicht and Frontsector.
Each band played for 20 minutes, including their song on the sampler LP plus around five others. During every 10 minute interval, for replacing guitars, was a DJ, who played Ivy Green and The Ruts, amongst others.
First on, at 8pm strict, Clitteband from Hilversum (depicted on the top photo). Their first album came out on the label of Utrecht band Stachel. Clitteband recently played a very successful gig in Leiden, together with fellow riot grrrl bands Waterschade and Panterprint.
Maybe Panterprint inspired Clitteband singer-guitarist Emmi´s choice of shoes, yellow and black pantherprint pumps. She had many stickers on her guitar. One of them was the slogan of the Exploited ´Punk is not dead´, with -je added after Punk, making it Punkje, a diminutive referring especially to small young punks. Another sticker said ´Fuck FVD´, against a far-right Dutch political party which supports Putin´s war on Ukraine and which, of 15 parties represented in the Dutch parliament, was one of only two voting against a proposal opposing anti-Semitism.
The Clitteband got a brilliant response from the audience, pogoing wildly to their fast melodious punk, and skanking to ska- or reggae-influenced parts of songs.
The third band were Apeshit from Utrecht. Their energetically moving singer Kees had a Vlieland island T-shirt on, a souvenir of when the bands recorded the sampler LP. The Clitteband drummer Lucy danced frantically to the Apeshit music, as did many others.
No Brains are from Utrecht as well, three boys and girl Step on guitar. The singer Rube jumped off the stage, and back on. Like with really all bands, an enthusiastic dancing audience.
Achterlicht are from Haarlem. Some of their lyrics are in English. They were the only band with a Korg synthesizer, played by their fast-moving singer Rein. Unfortunately, the sound mix made both the vocals and the synth nearly inaudible, at least to where I was in the front row.
The sixth band were Maria Iskariot from Ghent, which you can hear from the singer’s accent. They call themselves ‘subadult women’s punk from Flanders’. They had earlier opened for Amsterdam band Hang Youth, and recorded songs for Hang Youth´s Burning Fik label. They won a contest in Belgium, the Humo´s Rock Rally 2024 (for the first time since 1990 that a Dutch language band had won). Their lyrics are in Dutch. They are singer and guitarist Helena Cazaerck, and guitarist Loeke Vanhoutteghem. Bassist Amanda Barbosa is originally from Brazil, and their drummer Sybe Versluys is the only boy in the band.
Their set began with only the drummer drumming. Then, the others rushed on the stage, danced wildly to the drumbeat, then picked up their guitars and started a frantic punk song. I had seen them in Leiden last year, it was good then, but in Paradiso they were even better, more confident and more dynamic. Helena jumped off the stage twice. She got everyone singing along with their chorus line “Dat Vind Ik Lekker”, translated “I Like That”.
It was the first time I’d seen the seventh band, The Covids from Amsterdam, play, though I had met their singer Mehdi before at the funeral of Tony Leeuwenburgh of The Nitwits. The Covids are Mehdi´s first band. They play fast and melodiously, somewhat like Mehdi´s favourites the Buzzcocks. Fortunately, unlike Achterlicht, Mehdi´s singing was really audible. And, like Achterlicht, he moved a lot. So did the audience, including the singer and drummer of Clitteband in the front row. Paul on the Covids guitar. Max on bass. Sid on drums, not dark-haired Sid Vicious, the Banshees drummer at their first 1976 gig, but blonde-haired girl Sid. Sid´s mother decades ago was singer in a band opening for the Ramones in Paradiso.
The last band were Frontsector from Groningen. Like The Covids and many other bands, they were founded during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Sil Zijlstra – vocals, Haico Menger – bass, Alex Blade – drums, Dylan Hayes – guitar. They played fast and melodiously. The Covids singer joined the two Clitteband women in dancing frantically just in front of the stage. There was crowdsurfing.
What a great night in Paradiso! Proving once again, that punk is not dead, especially not young punk.
Invited by Into The Great Wide Open, the bands recorded the album on Vlieland island. Contrary to the 1979 album, only half of the songs (by Clitteband, Maria Iskariot, Achterlicht and Frontsector) are in Dutch. The others are in English.
Out now on Plato Utrecht, you can buy a vinyl copy of the LP from HERE or HERE or stream the album from:
Spotify
Bandcamp
YouTube
Photo Credits: OSCAR SMIT, LUCAS RIOS and GWINNY PUNK
A1 Covids – No Kids
A2 No Brains – Private Jet
A3 Clitteband – Basisschool
A4 Eyesores – Alienated
B1 Maria Iskariot – Lief Klein Kind
B2 Apeshit – Starcrossed
B3 Achterlicht – Pisse
B4 Frontsector – Doodsklok
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In 1978 Herman co-founded Dutch Rock Against Racism and was a founder of Pin punkzine. He’s vocals/saxophone for Cheap ‘n’ Nasty and in 2021 co-founded the Punk Scholars Network, Netherlands.
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