Reviewed by
Luc Snijers



Last Edit/Update
18 September, 1999

EuroRock Belgium Summer 1999

Gary Numan

The only hits he played were 'Cars' and 'Down In The Park'. He was dressed in a black dress/coat, had no excessive make-up as before and sounded much rougher: he updated his music with guitars. He is working on a new album, but is not happy with his material so far, so it will take some time...

Front 242

It was about the seventh time I have seen them (1st time was back in '86), and the previous one was better. They played 'Funkadhafi' and 'Punish Your Machine', but most of the audience did not recognize them and stood still, wondering. As it were the last two songs, the audience didn't shout for more as usual.

Echo And The Bunnymen

Ian had a bad voice and a bad mood. He blaimed the PA, his musicians and the audience for it and screwed up completely. He even stopped two songs after a few seconds, to play them again later. A shame.

DAF DOS

You all know DAF (if not, unsubscribe :) Gabi, the lead singer got a new collegue to form DAF DOS (Dos=two). They played many old hits like Der Mussolini, Sato Sato, Brothers,... but the sound in the marquee tent was too flat. Their new work is comparable.

APOPTYGMA BERZERK

This show, also in the marquee, didn't suffer the bad sound and was far better than the concert in Gent at Easter. They release a new single 'Eclipse' at august 11th, the eclipse day. They will tour Europe end october and early november, 1999. The promising Belgian band HEYAEB will support them.

SONAR

The first concert i saw off them with Erik Van Wontergem (Insekt, Monolyth) instead of Patrick. There is no big difference: the approach is the same: Dirk Ivens and Eric face to face, turning and pressing buttons generating distorted rythms and never watching the audience: the sound is all that counts, the audience dances in trance. Monolyth will release a new album in october/november.

VNV Nation / Covenant

They played in this order. For me VNV is much better than Covenant, as I like their music and lyrics more, while Covenant is better in contact with the public. They both cancelled their interviews :-(

Das Ich

They played for the so manieth time in Belgium, and I've seen it enough. Stefann 's body was painted black, the both keyboard were mounted on big levers, which Bruno could swing over the stage. Okay, they move a lot and Stefann, the living skeleton, is fun to see, but their music is outdated.

HEYAEB

A promising belgian band: three guys aged 22 to 24 who add humor to their body music in a Calva Y Nada style: their hit 'Aperi Ventes' was played by Flat Eric. They get to tour with Apoptygma later, so Europe will get to see them.

It was a fun weekend though, with some interesting Belgian bands. The known names of DAF, Siouxsie, Echo and Front did not impress as expected, but the younger bands compensated for that.

LuX