The Worldonfire, Oceansize @ VK, Brussels

Die Vaartkapoen, known as VK club, is located in quite the dangrous neighborhood, despite the fact that it is 30 mins. by foot away from Brussels' center. When walking the streets of Molenbeek, you barely see any belgian faces. You can hear a police siren every 10 minutes passing by outside. Although we were warned, we still thought it was better to get a hostel nearby, so we could walk to the club. You could enter the hostel only by ringing the bell or using your card key - the glass doorway is always locked. There were barely any women on the street after dusk. We passed by mosques, internet-cafes for cheap overseas calls all around, shops with arabic and chinese signs, public baths and all sorts of things you think you'll see east of continental Europe. It's like residing in the belgian SO 36. Despite our doubts, we found the club, passed through the scary-looking bodyguards, got our tickets, and saw a problem-free show.

The club fits about 300 people, yet it was only half-full. You could see guys in the crowd with Radiohead and Porcupine Tree shirts, all ages and types, on queues in front of the merch stand. VK has been host to bands like QOTSA, Incubus, RATM and Deftones, while upcoming shows in november include Mando Diao, Clutch and Kylesa. The support band, The Worldonfire, seemed quite cool - made up of somewhat emo-looking teenagers with a good sense of rhythm, somewhat post-rock, somewhat melodic, at times kind of screamo vocals and an overall dynamic presence. I'll check out more when I have the chance. While I spent my last cash on merch, Oceansize were setting up their instruments. No star business here, these guys take care of themselves. Their tourbus was parked right outside the club, their bass-player was selling the T-shirts and albums before and after the show.



The soundcheck was a last-minute thing, probably the reason why we couldn't hear much of the vocals in the front rows. Despite that, these guys rocked us out with a few songs from the upcoming album, two songs from the EP Home & Minor, one from Effloresce, one from Frames and several from Everyone Into Position. I think they diserve to be much, much bigger, and perhaps the place to see them in the right light is the UK. It was way too short, I dont think I've nearly had enough at all...

Poetry in Ghent

Sometimes a few hours can mean so much, expecially when there are no walls. No mental bricks, no cultural prejudice. Just a uniting language and the desire to share yourself exactly the way you are. And an invisible fine-tuning to similar radiowaves, which brought about the golden spark. She just about wrote it all, so here is my point of view...



When I met Suzan in a casual restaurant in Sofia, she managed to convince me in just a few hours that I'd fall in love with her city. Everyone loves their cities, but there was more to that obviousness this time. She spoke about belgian musicians, and how they had free shows there before they became famous, about modern artists and the freedom to find funding for artistic ideas. We jumped from plain conversations to sharing very quickly. Somehow I knew that instant I was going to visit her very soon. I was eager to travel this autumn, after my summer vacation to Prague failed due to the horrible summer flu. So when Oceansize announced a date at the VK club in Brussels, I bought tickets straight up. We arrived in Belgium one day before the gig - a perfect opportunity to spend 24 hours in Ghent. The locals claim it's more alive than Bruges, less chaotic than Brussels, and less snobby than Antwerp, lol. And scattered with hundreds of bycicles, as the main means of transportation.



Indeed, poetry is everywhere in Ghent, you just have to look close - on pavements, walls, around the canal that gives the town its remarkable romantic note, in elevators and in the wind that brushes your hair. So when you take leisurely walks, beware, for it can be contagious. When we arrived, it was cloudy. I was prepared to meet the rain. On the way to the center square, the sun came out and suddenly Ghent looked like shiny chocolate wrapping - the kind that really stimulates your appetite on different levels. We had delicious lunch in a huge student cantine, beef steak with belgian fries and brussels sprouts. We passed by Suzan's favorite bookstores and tasted the local alcoholic specialty - liqueur so sweet, you'll never know how and when you got drunk...



We were lucky to have someone show us all the beautiful cafes. We sat in the place Suzan went to read and enjoy some great coffee, near her university. It will sound like a tourist clichee, but I swear I had the most delicious brown chocolate tart there that I've ever tasted anywhere in the world. A moment of true happiness for a chocolate junkie. And while we were discussing life in different aspects, we won ourselves some listeners...



Afterwards we marched into one of the cult music stores, as planned. It was nessesary to leave this ritual for the end of the day, because I knew we'd spend hours inside. Suzan showed me some cd's of successful local pop-rock bands, while I bought two favorite albums at a great price - David Bowie's Heathen (for the amazing artwork) and Radiohead's Ok Computer - finally the orginal album in my cd library. I still preach the theory that if you fall in love with an album, simply downloading it from a pirate blog just isn't cool. Go out and show some respect for the artist by paying for it, even if you do it after some years...



And thus, slowly, the day started coming to an end. Our time had passed in laughter and a serious intake of positive energy. We spent one part of the evening wrapping up the conversations we had in Sofia a month before. The future is looking bright in our separate mindsets. And when our paths meet again, we will have the answers we seek now, and time will have cleared the clouds on the horizon. Miracles happen every day.