With their debut album Family Dinner Belgium band SONS made a name for themselves in Belgium and the Netherlands. With their sophomore album Sweet Boy, they reach an even wider audience within Europe. They have been supporting acts for Royal Blood, Wolfmother and Jack White. Next to this, they have played some of Europe’s best known festivals, for example Pinkpop, Rock Werchter and Reeperbahn. Now, they’re playing clubs for their album release tour. On the 26th of September, SONS released their newest album Hallo. Tonight marks the first night of the tour.
How fitting that the opener for all the shows in the Netherlands is a band from Amsterdam. Honey I’m Home is known for a mix of shoegaze with an indie sound. They were finalists in the Dutch competition ‘De Zonneprijs’. Tonight we’ll see if they can live up to the expectations and start the show with a bang.
The first thing you notice when entering the venue is a very flashy Hello Kitty guitar standing center stage. You’d expect a girly pop coming from behind the curtains for the guitar. That was not the case. The male lead came for Hello Kitty and played her like a flirt. On stage there was an old-fashioned TV playing what looked like camcorder footage. The TV seemed to be Honey I’m Home’s signature prop as they introduced it on the Zonneprijs stage.
It was clear the crowd was not familiar with the band. It was as if nobody dared to claim a spot at the front where there was more empty space than you’d wish there to be as a performer. So after the first song, the lead asked everybody to come forward and close distance.
As Honey I’m Home is known for their shoegaze, it was pleasing to hear the instrumentals were indeed their main focus in their music. They did not forget to thank SONS for sharing their stage and remind us of the shirts and lucifers for sale at the merch stand. Starting a second to last song strong with a battle of the guitars, one particularly enthusiastic fan screamed “One Two Three!” right on beat as the drop came. They ended their final song with long lasting strobe flashlights.
What better song for SONS to start their set with than with ‘Hello’? It started with a very powerful drum intro and some very energetic dancing from all individual band members. It was not a very danceable song so instead, the crowd started some very heavy head bobbing. Right when the song ended, the whole crowd screamed ‘Hello!’
During ‘Family Dinner’, a moshpit formed. This one never left and as the show continued, the moshpit grew much bigger and bigger. Singer and guitarist Robin Borghgraef started hugging every band member as if to illustrate the family they formed together. This was very fitting for a family dinner. During a little speech, they said it was very special to be playing this first show of their European tour together with their mates. To be able to tour with mates was ‘heel zot’ as a real Belgian would say.
The SONS era we live in right now is from their album Hallo. The album’s visuals are all monochromic blue. For this show they chose to incorporate the style as well, which resulted in a lot of blue lights combined with some strobe lights.
‘Big Mouth’ was a song everybody knew the lyrics from and sang along to, followed by ‘I Need A Gun’. The guys formed a still life on stage. This theatrical stance erupted in an act full of energy and sweat. As the boys were jumping, dancing and headbanging, T-shirts started flying around, fans started giving each other piggyback rides, and during ‘Ricochet’ there was even a crowd surfer in the room.
‘Dreaming’ seemed to be the last song of the set, as the band left the stage after the song ended. Of course they came back for a two-song encore. After asking for another round of applause for Honey I’m Home, SONS ended this energetic night with a loud and clear “Merci Amsterdam!”.
