Thursday, November 1st:
We woke up bright and early to head to Patrick’s parents’ house. Patrick’s father had agreed to let Tony and me use two of his acoustic guitars so we could play some songs on FM Brussel. After meeting his parents and picking up the guitars, Patrick stopped at a local bakery so that we could try some Belgian breakfast pastries. The pastries were awesome, although the fact that they were covered with powdered sugar made them quite messy to eat in the backseat of the car.
After arriving in Brussels, we got out of the car looking like rejects from Scarface due to the powdered sugar all over our clothes. We made the short walk to FM Brussel to meet up with Saïd the host of the show, Mental. We had approximately five minutes to try and work out some songs to play acoustically which we hadn’t really ever done before. We decided on playing “the High Life,” “the Ocean” and a new one called “Holy Roller.”
When Saïd called us into the studio, we picked some songs for the playlist, did an interview and played live. After the interview we met our new labelmates from Sweden, Deville, who were doing an interview as well. When Deville finished their interview, Saïd came out and took some pictures with us. At one point Jeremy happened to be putting in a plug of chew (Skoal), like the Vermonter that he is, and Saïd asked him what it was. Jeremy offered him some and Saïd said yes, resulting in the following photo:
Let’s just say that he didn’t like it and leave it at that.
After leaving FM Brussel we drove through the Red Light District prompting Jeremy to jokingly ask if the women in the windows were real. Patrick found a parking garage that appeared to be open so that we could get something to eat. Upon leaving the garage it actually seemed to be closed (as it was a holiday) with all of the garage doors having closed, and security grates down, except for the one we entered through. Patrick just sort of shrugged and said in typical fashion “We’ll figure out how to get the car out later.” We ate at Quick which is sort of like a McDonalds except that the food is better and doesn’t make you feel terrible after eating it. On the way back to the parking garage we remembered the possible trouble in getting the car out that lay ahead. It turned out that when we put the ticket in, all of the gates lifted – automatically freeing us from the garage. It was the most high tech garage any of us (including Patrick) had ever seen.
We left Brussels and made the short drive to Aalst to go to the Buzzfest Warm Up night with Deville, Set the Tone and the Whocares. When we arrived at Club Negasonic it was still closed, so Patrick suggested that we head to the pub just down the street. This place was awesome; it was a metalheads dream. Old longhairs working, hanging out blasting old school metal on the stereo. We drank a few local beers (Palm) and then went next door to the club.
Negasonic was a small club that could only hold about a hundred people, but it was really cool. We made our way to the bar and started the drinking. We started out with the intention of trying as many Belgian beers as possible. The owners and bartenders were all really cool and the beer was cheap. We met a local named Dirk who happened to have his name tattooed on his forearm. He bought us some beers and told us he would come to the show on Friday in Opwijk.
After a few beers the first band went on: the Whocares from Belgium. These guys were awesome, a total mix of Turbonegro, early Hellacopters and Electric Frankenstein – sleazy punk rock n roll. Set the Tone played next and they were in the Pantera mold. Our labelmates Deville played last and were awesome. They remind me of Gonzalez and Sasquatch, as they have a poppy edge in the vocal department. During Deville’s set is when things started to get a little hazy…someone decided that it would be a good idea to start drinking Duvel, which is 8.5% alcohol…bad idea. Tony had a good time telling the “Europeans” that they don’t make any good motorcycles compared to Harley Davidsons.
Outside the club we met this guy for the first time.
His name is Lieven and Tony decided to liberate a Jupiler beer from him without asking if it was OK. Luckily, Lieven is a great guy and didn’t mind the drunk Americans. We also bothered the Deville guys while they were loading out and had a great time acting like idiots. Evidenced by this photo:
Deville
We all piled in Peter’s car to make the 90 minute ride back to the bungalow in Stavelot. After some initial singing with the radio and general obnoxiousness we all passed out, which made the ride much less painful.
To be continued…
