Gig Review: Regionaal Kabaal

Friday April 21st Paralyzed participated in the 4th and last preliminary of the Regionaal Kabaal contest at Donkey in Heemskerk. Together with 4 other bands they competed for a place in the finals.

Paralyzed had the hard task of starting the evening. Because of a broken guitar amplifier, one of guitar players had to play over a bass amplifier. Luckily this didn't influence the sound too much. They played a nice set.

Next was Souprun, an all girl band. They had nice vocal harmonies, but the songs were a bit boring, and their sound wasn't too good. Way too loud bass, a cheap sounding keyboard, and I couldn't even hear what their guitar player was doing. Good drumming.

Third band Duh Unromantics played ska punk with the emphasis on the punk part. They have a very energetic bass player/vocalist which was fun too watch. His bass playing was good, his vocals okay. The guitar player was mediocre. The drummer was good at what he did, but that was pretty much the same every song. Most songs started to sound alike after a while.
But then: I still don't like ska punk.

The 4th band, After Silence, was pretty much an unique experience. And probably the worst band I've seen in a while. The fact that the guitar player decided to play over the PA instead of a guitar amplifier wasn't even the weirdest part.
The line-up was experimental: guitar, vocals, DJ. The execution was extremely bad. The DJ produced the worst scratching I've ever heard. The very metal looking guitar player only seemed to play chords: the guitar parts in the samples sounded more complex, and his sound can be described as noise. Strangely enough he played too soft.
The singer was the worst of all. Why someone who is so utterly uninspired even wants to be on a stage is a complete mystery: Walking off stage during the gig, after grudgingly returning asking the DJ if he had some more lyrics, because he ran out, and all this while looking as uninterested as possible.
Considering the silence after their songs, I wasn't the only one who didn't get when their songs ended or started. No song structures, no front man, bad sound, almost no interaction between the band members. Is this even a band?

Last band of the evening was the rock/metal band Deafening. Their very 90s sounding rock isn't really my cup of tea, but their performance was cool to watch. Good musicians (although I got the idea the guitarist had just a few drinks too many), charismatic front man. My only gripe would be the sound of the snare drum: the snare sounded really sharp, too sharp. If you like grunge and 90s alternative metal, check this band out!

When the jury announced that Paralyzed was the runner up of the evening, I really thought Deafening would get the first place. I was proofed wrong, as Souprun won this preliminary. Can't say I agree, but well, it's always hard to compare such different bands. At least they didn't let After Silence win.