While traditional festival season might be over, mid October is decidedly the perfect time to go to a new emo/hardcore/punk festival. The travelling festival Common Thread Tour made its way to Haarlem on October 19th and 20th, with a whopping 23 bands on the line-up over the two days. Featuring both established bands as well as up-and-coming bands, there’s a little bit for everyone over the course of the ‘weekend’.
Both the Haarlem and Brussels dates take place on Sunday and Monday, with the bands that play Haarlem on Sunday traveling to Brussels for Monday and vice versa. Each band on the lineup got about 30 minutes to play, with headliners getting 45 minute slots. Taking place in two stages, every time a band plays one stage, the other stage gets set up for the next band, making for a very packed schedule.
Day 1: Hardcore punk
The first day in Haarlem starts early on Sunday, with more of a focus on the hardcore punk bands. We have a mellow start with a ‘solo’ Northcote set, easing into the heavier bands of the day through Matthew Goud’s intimate folk music. It’s the perfect starting set before all hell breaks loose and everyone starts to mosh, which already happens during the second band today, A Wilhelm Scream. Everybody in the crowd is ready to get the party started for real, making this set easily one of the highlights of the day, even if it’s so early on.
With everyone thoroughly warmed up now, every band after them just gets more and more interaction out of the crowd. Seeing there’s a common thread (see what I did there?) between all the bands performing, there’s clearly a lot of overlap between the fans of the bands performing. While obviously Northcote isn’t that ‘hardcore’, they share a song with ‘headliner’ Comeback Kid, so the fans of one would probably enjoy the other just as much. Both the bands and the fans have a lot in common with each other, making the vibes through the venue just feel that much better. Especially in a country with such a small alternative scene, everyone will pretty much know each other one way or another, proving the thread isn’t just spun through the bands performing.
After going absolutely crazy in the smaller venue for Crime In Stereo’s hardcore punk, screaming along as loud as they can to every word with singer Kristian Hallbert, the fans get to ‘calm down’ a little during the performance of punk veteran Dave Hause’s solo set. The raw Americana songs have the fans hanging onto his every word. An hour later on the same mainstage brings us Defeater, getting us right back into absolute mayhem, with the large room making for the perfect excuse to start a huge pit once again.
With Stage 2 being a lot smaller than the bigger ‘mainstage’, the bands performing in it all get filled up in no time. Strike Anywhere and Make War’s fans barely have room to breathe, but it strongly enhances the small hardcore show feeling of these bands, when the fans start moshing through the short 30-minute sets from the first until the last notes. These bands got such a wild public response, that it would be strange if they didn’t gain a lot of fans after this.
Catbite, the only band featuring women on stage on Sunday, has a bit of an unfortunate spot on the timetable on Sunday. With such a tight schedule and each band following quickly after the other, there’s not a lot of time to get the energy up through a bite, so the smaller stage stays a little less crowded during the ska band’s set. Fortunately that makes it a little easier to dance along, still keeping the party vibes up.
It is a shame that there’s so little time for each band, with the headliners of Comeback Kid only getting to play about seven songs in a 45 minute set. They could probably have a three hour set and still have everyone moving through every moment of it, making the most of what we do get from their ‘festival’ set.
Before we head to the small stage to give our last bit of saved energy to Modern Life Is War (again absolutely packed to the brim), everyone gets to have a little more space during Hot Water Music, fans growing a little tired after going so hard during the entirety of the first day, but all the more satisfied to have such a great ending to the first day.
Day 2: Emo pop-punk
With the first day ending early at 9:45pm, and the second starting at 5pm, all the alternative fans at the two-day festival had the chance to get a nice long sleep in to get ready for the second day, this time with a more emo/pop punk focus. Where the first day was one for the heavier moshpits from hardcore dudes, day 2 features a lot more crowdsurfing and stage diving with a little more diversity through the crowd, marking a clear difference between the fans of the different days.
Kali Masi has the honors to open the second day, already setting the bar for today’s shows fairly high. With Prince Daddy & The Hyena and Ways Away following them in quick succession, the bar keeps getting raised anyway. With the latter band featuring Stick To Your Guns’ Jesse Barnett on vocals (and with members of Boysetsfire, Samiam and Racquet Club as well), it’s honestly surprising to find them so early on in the evening, but you won’t hear complaints when they make the crowd be this active and alive.
In true ‘common thread’ style, Oso Oso and The Hotelier even shared a band member for the week, with The Hotelier lending their guitarist to play bass for Oso Oso. The Hotelier’s Christian Holden also frames the weekend perfectly, as he calls their set ‘a sample’ of their music. Collaborations like these between bands, perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of this weekend again. The friendly energy is felt all over, almost making this feel like a small house party instead of the festival it truly is. It’s a bit of a shame the bands have such short sets, and they can only really focus on their own acts, because with the overlap between all the bands, more collabs would’ve been so fun to see happen as well.
Halfway through the evening, we get to slow it down a little, with Sincere Engineer’s Deanna Belos performing by herself. Her raw vocals and honest and angsty music hits different when she’s just performing by herself, making her set feel all the more personal.
Because fans get turned away when the smaller room is filled up, a lot of fans don’t take the chance and have to choose to miss out on seeing bands like The Dirty Nil. It’s such a great line-up, having so many bands in the same genre play on days like this, but unfortunately it also comes with some hard choices, having to miss out on other bands they’d surely like. Nevertheless, the Canadian rock band really held their own on the mainstage, proving they have a lot of energy to give to the fans. The people that did stick with them over the following band were anything but disappointed with the shredding trio.
The scheduling did slightly underestimate the popularity of bands like Tigers Jaw and Free Throw, the highlights of the second day if you go by crowd size and enthusiasm both on and off stage. Both bands play on the smaller stage, finding their sets so packed you can’t even walk up or down the stairs anymore. Tigers Jaw offers a welcome change on stage, with their keys on the forefront, with keyboardist Brianna Collins providing vocals alongside Ben Walsh. With 23 bands up on stage in the span of 2 days, the Pennsylvanian band offers an unique sound that sets them apart from the rest, easily being one of the top 3 performances this weekend.
It’s been about six years since Free Throw made their way to the Netherlands, opening for The Wonder Years back in 2019. If the response of the crowd flocking to them is any indication, that’s way too long a gap in between visits. The melancholic and emotional music, lead by frontman Cory Castro, can count on a wild response, crowdsurfers pouring over the sea of people constantly. The ‘midwest emo’ band has clearly received a big mandate from their lowlands emo fans, and should make their way back to Europe sooner rather than later.
I think Joyce Manor’s Barry Johnson found the fountain of youth, because how does a band with almost 20 years under their belt still have this much energy? The Californian band gives Haarlem a masterclass on how to best fill a 30 minute set, playing a whopping 14(!) songs, not slowing down for even one second. Their set is an absolute frenzy of activity, every song just as catchy as the next. Somehow, through all that intensity, the singer still finds time to join the fans on the floor as well.
The underdogs of Broadway Calls have the second to last spot of the festival. Unfortunately for them, after Joyce Manor’s stellar performance, a lot of people stayed put for a good spot at the mainstage for Spanish Love Songs. It’s such a shame they don’t draw a bigger crowd tonight, when their pop-punk feel-good tunes are ridiculously catchy and very danceable. The last band of the evening even starts their set a little later so there’s no overlap between the two. The anticipation is palpable right before the headliners grace the stage. There’s a reason the LA ‘grouchrock’ band got the closing slot, proven by the buzz felt when the curtains finally opened for them. At the beginning, frontman Dylan Slocum tells us they want to play as many songs as possible within their allotted time, especially after being delayed a little. The remaining fans in the venue go all out for the sad emo songs, dancing all our woes away one last time.
With every band over the two days absolutely knocking it out of the park, the first edition of the Common Thread tour has truly been good for the soul. Even without food options offered by the venue (truly the only improvement it needs), there’s still a lot of ‘well-fed’ alternative people in Europe after seeing these 23 bands play. The touring festival offered such a good mix of established and newer/lesser-known acts, making for a weekend where we could dance, mosh and crowdsurf our hearts out. We can only hope to see this become an annual occurrence. Check out all the photos here!
