a dEUS tour diary

dEUS as surprise headliner for Studio Brussel’s PuntUit festival - that’s one lovely extra if you had a ticket. Vooruit in Gent is a really gorgeous venue: it’s an old theatre building overlooking a channel, with a concert hall for about 1000 persons (the one where the band played), a lovely theatre, a roomy and lively café and a small ballroom. And last time dEUS set foot there was in 1996 - almost 10 years ago. Among the artists invited tonight: Hooverphonic, Zornik, Absynthe Minded, Millionaire. The latter two were playing in the same room as dEUS, so that I saw the end of Absynthe’s concert (really good, they know how to build some good noise) and the whole of Millionaire’s gig (they sure know how to build some good noise, but I wish they remembered they used to sound much more funky on their first album). Oh, Tim Vanhamel has a haircut so huge he makes Robert Smith look bald in comparison.

When I got inside the building, the first thing I noticed was Tom being interviewed by Studio Brussel. StuBru had set up a live studio behind a large window, dressed with red chairs, red curtains, a red sof - picture this: you’re heading for the cloakroom, and then all of a sudden you see Tom sitting inside what looks conspicuously like a cosy little boudoir, Amsterdam’s Red Light District style. StuBru have a wicked sense of humour.

Gig then. Predictably enough, the concert hall was packed, packed, packed. The band came on stage to the sound of… erh, nothing, as they opened with Theme From Turnpike. The setlist was very different, which was to be expected, as dEUS were supposed to play just one hour. And that’s just as good, as it was an absolute no-low selection of songs. The audience was really into it; there certainly was a sense that it was quite a privilege to see them so close, as they’d done such massive gigs just ten days earlier. It was also certainly easier to get into the concert as the band kicked off with quite a “best-of” kind of choice: Turnpike, Instant Street, Fell Off The Floor and Via among the five first songs - resistance is futile. Via and Roses were particularly well received, as was What We Talk About (which Tom announced as Sentimentios Quando Hablamos De Amor, and had an ending that rocked so much it made you wish the whole song received such a knife-sharp treatment). And then Suds & Soda to close the show - or so the theory went.

Give dEUS constraints, you won’t be disappointed. Play one hour you say? Ha! They went through their whole setlist, plus Nothing Really Ends thrown in for good measure, and then they came back for an unexpectedly long encore. It was so obvious the band were having an absolute kick out of this gig - I think they hadn’t planned to play more than Serpentine, but Tom told Klaas to launch the Little Arithmetics intro right after that song, and then they didn’t stop, the interplay between Tom and Mauro at the beginning of If You Don’t was fantastic to watch, they were almost playing forehead to forehead, and then when the show was over, Tom felt he was 24 again and let himself fall backwards into the crowd, guitar and all. Supacool. 1h20. Should I complain about something? Oh, yeah, sure. Alan’s bass wasn’t loud or clear enough. I’ll blame it on the Vooruit

Then, DJ’s invaded the Vooruit. The really fun and funky Discobar Galaxie in the café, and some guys that I didn’t know in the concert hall, one DJ and one, erh, MC who kept dancing and addressing the crowd and turned Vooruit into one hell of a dancefloor. It was silly - at one time, he took a towel that was lying on the stage, announced it as Tom Barman’s towel, and asked 3 girls on stage to win that coveted prize. So, the girls were asked to take part in the World Championship of Fake Orgasms. Silly but a laugh. I realised a bit late that, as it wasn’t a dEUS gig, but an indoor festival, the band would probably have gone to another place to have fun. So I danced alone, which is never a bad thing when you’re drunk enough and the music takes control of your legs and arms.

So thank you guys for doing the Vooruit, and have a blast in America next week!

Actual setlist:

01 Theme From Turnpike
02 Stop-Start Nature
03 Instant Street
04 Fell Off The Floor, Man
05 Via
06 The Real Sugar
07 Assault On Magnus
08 Roses
09 Sun Ra
10 What We Talk About
11 Nothing Really Ends
12 Bad Timing
13 Suds & Soda
—
14 Serpentine
15 Little Arithmetics
16 If You Don’t Get What You Want

Tags: Netherlands

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