On Friday, November 29th, it was time for the second show of While She Sleeps at Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht. When this show was announced, it sold out so fast they added a second date the day prior. The line-up was fully packed, with three support bands: Resolve, thrown and Malevolence.
The doors opened at 6 p.m., and just half an hour later Resolve was ready to play their set for anyone already in the venue. While the stairs and balcony were a bit bare, the floor was already quite packed for the early start. The whole band had great energy on stage and it did not take long for a mosh pit to form. The crowd welcomed the band with open arms, clapping along where needed. During the last song of the evening, ‘Older Days’, guitarist Antonin Carré and bassist Robin Mariat acted like they were going to fight each other from across the stage, which showed that the band genuinely enjoys being on stage and doing what they love.
Before it was time for the next band to take over the stage, Limp Bizkit’s ‘Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)’ blasted through the speakers. Everyone in the venue was screaming along with the lyrics loudly. By now the floor was pretty much filled with people as thrown got on stage for their set. While the band is still relatively new to the scene, forming just three years ago, they have been on the rise and have gained quite a fanbase. The crowd seemed excited to see them and multiple mosh pits erupted during their set. Vocalist Marcus Lundqvist was two-stepping on stage, while the crowd was banging their heads along in unison. They ended their set with ‘nights’ and ‘grayout’, for which the biggest mosh pits so far broke out.
Last up from the supporting bands was Malevolence from Sheffield, United Kingdom. They dedicated their song ‘Still Waters Run Deep’ to all the attending fans who were at the show the day prior as well. “Last night was pretty fucking good, but tonight is going to top that. But I can only do that if you help me. This next song is for everyone in the mosh pit, this is your time to shine.” is what Alex Taylor said, before kicking into ‘Self Supremacy’. Halfway through the song he wasn’t satisfied with the energy they received: “This is weak, this is fucking weak. We can do better than this. Push it back, open this fucking place up!”. After that little encouragement the mosh pit tripled in size and the first crowd surfers made their way to the front. For the song ‘Higher Place’ the crowd put up their phone lights, creating a great atmosphere for the song.
During the last 25 minute changeover, lots of Nickelback was blasting through the speakers. While ‘Rockstar’ did not get quite the reaction, ‘How You Remind Me’ once again got the crowd screaming along with the lyrics.
At first, only drummer Adam Savage walked out on stage taking a seat behind his drum kit. The spotlight turned on him and he started their set with a drum solo. The rest of the band walked out not much later and the venue was immediately filled with energy.
“Without you guys in this fucking room, we are fuck all. You are we and listen to me right now: I wanna see motherfucking crowd surfers. From the left to the right and down the fucking middle. Security, it’s time to step the fuck up to the barrier. Let’s go!” is how vocalist Loz Taylor introduced the song ‘You Are We’. Even though there were 8 venue security in the barrier to catch the surfers, they could barely keep up. While She Sleeps’ crew had to jump in as well to get everyone down safely.
One thing that doesn’t happen too often at shows, is that they invited fans to get up on stage to dance with them for the song ‘SYSTEMATIC’. During this song they also got everyone to sit down and jump back up when the chorus kicked in. While the band went off stage for a second, Taylor could be heard over the speakers telling the crowd to put their lights up and climb on each other’s shoulders for ‘Four Walls’. Taylor himself also jumped down to the barrier and crowd surfed around.
The song ‘DOWN’ is featuring Malevolence, who happens to be on this tour with them. So, as expected, Alex Taylor came out on stage to join them for this song. This was not the only collab of the night, as Anthony Diliberto from Resolve joined them on stage for ‘Silence Speaks’.
“Anybody struggling with grief, this one’s for you” is how Taylor introduced ‘TO THE FLOWERS’. Taylor grabbed his mic stand again and was holding a bouquet of flowers, which he threw into the crowd near the end of the song. For ‘SLEEPS SOCIETY’, which was sadly the last song of the evening, the whole floor turned into one giant mosh pit one last time. The energy from all bands was amazing and this was definitely a show that will last quite the impression.
