'Hey K, how are you? It has been the longest of time since we all have seen each other. Want to go and see Morning Again at a reunion show in a couple of weeks? Ahh, come on..For old times sake'
Now this was one of the best ideas that I have heard in ages! I am not at all aware of the show list of what is playing where and usually when something cool is playing, I am out of town or it is already sold out three times.
And even though I am not a fanatic guitar listener at the moment, that doesn't mean the feeling has left me. I love me a good guitar session, and especially when the classic ones start doing reunion tours...Well they haven't always left their glam and it sure is good to have some old songs passing by!
So we stepped into the car with a couple of friends, hadn't seen each other in more than 10 years but always had stayed in touch and started on a trip down memory lane on the road towards the show.
That blast from the past continued as I saw some people there that I hadn't seen even longer. Maybe even 25 years and I had a pretty hard time connecting the dots again in my brain. As in...I had no idea who some of them were anymore, until some old stories came up and all of a sudden I saw the visuals of back then and everything was adding up again.
On to the music
If you don't know Morning Again which I presume most people honestly do not, well this is a metalcore band from the 90s coming from the US, but having a big connection to the H8000 era from Brussels and Ieper. This was a big and lively music scene long after that with a lot of small shows everywhere often organised by someone of Good life records.
Damn we drove a lot towards that area for some fine music, but there were also a lot of crappy shows in old school buildings at that time. Congress, Kindred, Culture, Liar, Length of Time, those were the names from that time from the past.
Image created by Gemini
For me it always was about the songs on the 'Hand of Hope' album. Not all of them as equally strong, but the message from that album is just so damn strong. A little bit of politics, a little bit of religion, and just a critical view on life together with some straight edge thoughts.
On the other hand the 'Martyr' album also with the classics 'Not my Birth' was also awesomely played even though singer Damien didn't participate on creating this album...well the songs still suit him!
The vibe was good and friendly, even though there was some serious dancing going on and also a lot of singalongs. But hey...it was all of us old people there honestly and that was just fine since we all were here for the same thing.
Even though the hardcore scene is bright and shiny again, with a lot of new people stepping in over the last couple of years...well, these were not here this evening ;)
Musicwise it wasn't as clean as you would hope for, but hey...it's a hardcore show, and it was great to be here again!