The first gig of the belgian clubtour. The first time I saw dEUS after the tryout in the Mezz. I should have been a great evening. And it was. I left pretty late at home and got stuck in a traffic jam around Antwerp. Luckily, I was just in time to catch the Blackbox Revelation. It was the first time I saw them live and they blew me away. They sure have a bunch of nice songs. I was really impressed by the energy that a guitarplayer and a drummer created. A superb support act.

Muziekodroom is a great venue, but it needs an airco. The room was packed with about 800
people and it was very sweaty.

dEUS started around 21.45 hour and they played about 1 hour and 40 minutes. The setlist was more or less the same as the previous gigs. They kicked of with When She Comes Down, the openingtrack from Vantage Point. A bit of a false start, since you couldn't hear Tom's voice during the first part. Sound was beter during Sun Ra (still a live-killer) and Favorite Game. First bigger crowd-reactions during Fell Off The Floor, Man and What We Talk About.

I had the impression that Tom had some problems with his voice a couple of times. Let's hope his voice can keep up with the hectic scheme of the next days (6 gigs in 7 days). Slow is probably one of the best songs on Vantage Point, but it still hasn't convinced me in the live-version. Is it because of the thousands of things Klaas has to do? I don't know, but for me it was the weakest song yesterday evening.

After that Tom announced The Vanishing Of Maria Schneider and he dedicated it to a certain Sabine who was celebrating her birthday. Apparently Tom was wrong, because they started Nothing Really Ends (with the re-newed intro). As usual the fade out/fade in with Bad Timing was great. Bad Timing was actually (until then) the song with the heaviest audience reaction.

Bad Timing was followed by The Vanishing Of Maria Schneider and an impressive version of Instant Street. Muziekodroom went crazy on The Architect. The live-version of Is A Robot much better (and longer) than the album version. After that I was time to cool down the room with Smokers Reflect and let it explode again with Roses.

They saved the best for last with a stunning encore-series. Turnpike remains one of my live favorites. Oh Your God sounded a bit like Age of Panic by Senser during the verse and I liked it a lot. Tom (and the audience) freaked out during an extended version Suds & Soda. At the end Tom was singing some lines from another song (it sounded like Red Sky Night) instead of the Supersharp-thing they played during the Pocket Revolution-tour.

Since they played in Belgium I was expection Eternal Woman, with Lies Lorquet, too, but they didn't play it. They ended the show with Popular Culture. After the first verse, 13 children came on stage and sang the chorus. A nice climax.

I'm really looking forward to tonight's gig in Liege. Since dEUS-gigs usually get better and better during the tour, I could be a fantastic night tonight. See you there!

(pic by Razzi, more pics here)