All For Nothing (NL), Shai Hulud (USA) & Sick Of It All (USA) @ Trix, Antwerp, Belgium 29.10.11

• My dearest, most brutal blog,
  October 29, Antwerp 20h45:

Party time as always with the American godfathers of hardcore: Sick Of It All. Trix is the place to be and thumbs up for Heartbreaktunes for bringing them to our country for the 365800554th time. The organisation was forced to move the concert from the Trix club to the bigger venue, simply because the club cannot swallow the amount of people that will show up tonight. This proves no matter how many times Sick Of It All has played Belgium before, we just do not get sick of them. 

As we walk in it appears the crowd is still half asleep, but yet intriged by the energy frontwoman Cindy puts into entertaining the people in front of her. `Come on!`, she yells in Dutch while she waves with her free arm. `I want everybody to move and sing along, yes girls, you too.` All For Nothing`s performance was powerful and this band very much deserves its place in the line up. This was All For Nothing's last show left from the three week tour with Sick Of It All.

Next up is Shai Hulud, an American band counting five members. What a clumsy night it was, since two out of five of the bandmembers managed to take a very close look at the stage by falling over their own feet during the set. Shai Hulud was proud of the bunch of fans that show up at every show of theirs in Europe, who were also present this time. It is noticeable that there is still not too much response from the crowd in general and at this point it becomes clear that over 90% of the people that showed up tonight are here to celebrate Sick Of It All's 25 years of existence.

As predicted, people break loose at the first notes of the headliner's first song of the evening 'Take the night off'. Losing your friends in the old skool pogo while celebrating that you don't give a fuck about anything with your middle finger high in the air, that's why every single person is here tonight. What a huge contrast with how calm the crowd was before. As I try to find my way to the front I am just in time to see bassplayer Craig falling over a rather extremely clumsy stagediver. Right after the song ends Craig gives us all a speech about crowds, stagediving and clumsyness. 'Guys, I cannot play your songs if you break my bass... Seriously'. Alright, there we go, Lou takes over the mic again and the show goes on.