Destroy Everything - April 28th

Belgium

Happy Birthday Kyle Sinkler.

I woke up to horns blaring at us in Belgium. Jerry Don’t had the bus blocking an entire street. The day before in London, Jerry turned around in the middle of the highway (which took 15 minutes…seriously, and resembled the scene in the first Austin Powers involving the golf cart) and blocked traffic coming from both ways and hit a building and fucked the trailer up in the process. A city bus driver got out and was yelling at him…so Beattie got out and threatened him. The English do not seem to understand Beattie’s humor.

We got out of our 2^nd traffic pickle in as many days and headed to the Groezrock Festival. I was very excited for this show. It was sold out with more than 10,000 people in attendance and had some cool bands playing alongside Hatebreed. Terror, Converge, Ignite, Rise Against, The Lost Prophets, Jimmy Eat World, Tiger Army, Strung Out, and many others all played throughout the day.

The fest was held in a 2 tents in the middle of a dirt field. DUST WAS EVERYWHERE! It looked like a mushroom cloud of smoke, and I am sure it was good to be inhaling it all day. Well I guess it couldn’t be worse than the 2 cartons of cigarettes I have inhaled everynight at every single show. Thanks Europe. It was definitely a black booger day.

It was nice to be so far from home and run into friends in the bands and crews of Terror (yes Misha and Fat Jugs were there), Tiger Army (what up Albert?), Converge (How great is Nate?), Ignite (I don’t know them but their new album is awesome), etc. etc. etc.

I was happy to catch up with all the entire Terror family….even Misha. Buske left 2 pairs of shoes, and his stage clothes at a venue. He then bought a pair of shoes to replace the others, and left those at a venue too. All he had left to wear were sandals. “How is the king of NY rocking sandals with jeans?” Some bands borrow heads or cabinets everyday to play their set…To play his set, Buske has to seriously borrow someone’s shoes!

Frank and I had been keeping up on Terror’s European exploits through their video updates (available here). Needless to say; they could have filmed a lot more footage at this show with their actions.

I was swamped all day, but I managed to watch a few songs from Converge, Terror, and Ignite. Every band was absolutely inspiring. The energy and emotion that they not only bring but evoke from their fans is breathtaking. Converge’s live set has completely evolved. They played with a new tightness and urgency. Every member was doing something completely different than the other, making it impossible to focus on just one thing. Terror brought out true aggression in people and had them climbing tent poles and jumping off them onto the sea of heads below. Ignite probably had people in tears, because the audience was hanging on every word out of Zoli’s mouth and singing it back at a deafening level. Hatebreed did what they always do…DESTROYED! Standing on that stage sporadically throughout the day and witnessing 4 honest and completely different sounding bands deliver such important messages definitely gave me goosebumps. Yes, Scott Vogel, “It’s good to be alive.”

So After the show, Terror continued to get completely drunk (sans Nick Jett: ex. Carry On). They pulled down a 10 foot tall inflatable Jagermeister bottle and jumped on it like it like it was a trampoline. Later, someone said something out of line and BIG DOUG hit him with a Weber grill over the head! OUCH! Doug had to hideout because the police were there in no time. Thankfully, he reconnected with Terror later and everyone was ok…except for the guy who got hit in the head with the Weber grill.