When I bought the tickets, the show was actually called „Gallowstreet presents HONK“ which was very confusing and gave me the impression that Meute would „only“ be the support act. Nevertheless my loyal concert buddy and me took a train to Amsterdam, again had a lovely dinner at Saravana Bhavan and then walked to Paradiso. It was our first time in that lovely venue that used to be a church.

When we got there it turned out that HONK is actually a small festival for brass bands and was presented for the second time by the Amsterdam based band Gallowstreet. It all started on time with half an hour of the Pneumatisch Dance Trio , three men with wind instruments and drums, only intensified by tiny megaphones. They were standing in the middle of the crowd for their performance. It was a bit sad though, because the people surrounding them were too loud so it was hard to hear the full performance. Afterwards Meute was introduced as the first main act for one hour, to be followed by a half hour intermezzo in a different hall by NAFT, a band from Gent, and completed with another hour of the second main act Gallowstreet.

Until that evening I did not know that my concert buddy actually rarely listens to the music-samples I send him together with the invitation to join me to concerts. So he also did not know that we were going to see a band that carries their instruments on their bodies and he was quite stunned to see the equipment of the drummers of MEUTE that was already on the stage.

The band made quite an entrance. They introduced themselves with the song Gula (Deadmau5 Rework) starting out with three people on stage playing a prolonged intro and while layers were added to the song, the responsible musicians would enter. It was fabulous.

 

Afterwards it was just one single amazement. One song went over into the next, while giving every single musician their solo time to shine. The whole audience started dancing just because you could not help yourself to do otherwise. At one point MEUTE even managed to make the crowd sit down with them several times, without words, only by gestures; just to make them jump and dance harder to the next base drop. My favourite part was definitely Hey Hey (Dennis Ferrer Rework), with this guy in his „Gay’s okay“ cap and the awesome full characteristic voice.

 

In the beginning it was said that MEUTE was going to play until 9, so nobody was surprised that the guys left the stage 10 minutes past 9. But while the crowd started shouting for an encore, it turned out that the guys only left the stage to turn up in the crowd. They made themselves some space in the middle and started playing for another full 20 minutes. It all climaxed in a medley of a lot of different MEUTE songs where they again showed their full potential. Looking around I only saw happy faces of ecstatically dancing people. It left me quite speechless for some time.

 

After I found my speech again I talked to my buddy and voiced the concern that I might actually not feel like seeing the other acts because I felt like this was the highlight of the evening and it could only go down from here. To my surprise he felt the same and proposed to just leave it like this and go home with this awesome feeling that MEUTE left us with. So sorry NAFT and Gallowstreet for not staying but it just felt better this way.

And thank you, MEUTE, for giving me another one of those super high-like experiences I get from outstanding live musical performances.

My work at uni keeps me very busy which is why this post is very late and is going to be rather short.

First of all I have to say that Tank and the Bangas are quite an experience. I was super tired that day and close to cancelling but I am so happy that I did not.

They were supported by „Sweet Crude“, a jazzy band from New Orleans coming together with a violin and being lead by a male and a female voice. They were quite good, singing partly in French and the rest in English. My friend was not too convinced by their keyboard work but all in all they did a good job.

When Tank and the Bangas came on stage, I first thought Tank, the lead singer, was drunk. But that is apparently just how she moves on stage. Her backup singer was wearing the most incredible hoops and had a wonderful voice. Tank’s voice is hard to describe because I feel like she has different versions. In addition to her normal talking voice there’s the „I am telling you a story“-mode in which her voice is quite high, comparable to the voice of an 11 year old. Further there is her rap-voice, a bit harsh, a bit rougher, a bit deeper. And finally her singing, which just cannot to be explained but has to be experienced. It is pure beauty for the ears.

In the end, Tank and the Bangas formed a collaboration with Sweet Crude and together they performed a song about people just trying to do their best. In that combination you could really see the difference in stage experience between the two bands. While Tank was just freestyling, the female lead of Sweet Crude obviously had more difficulties with just joining the flow.

Tank’s dance moves, which I first interpreted as drunkenness, were finally transferred to the crowd, which was hilarious to be part of. The friend I went with took a picture, the rest I will leave to your imagination. Or you just gotta go and see them for yourself, which I can definitely recommend!