© CPU – Chris Stessens

Yesterday and today, Breda in North Brabant is bursting at the seams. It is time for Breda Barst, the largest free festival in the region, where the sounds of pop, rock and punk music will transcend the city noises for two days. On the first day of the festival, it was mainly an invasion of compatriots, because with DAMMIT, Arson and headliner blackwave. among others, Belgium was on top of the Breda music festival.

The Cause @ Amstel Stage

However, we started with a band from there, because with De Oorzaak we were presented with a group that partly has its roots in the Burgundian city. The same city that was under a gray sky at the start of the performance and, despite the uplifting sounds of the band, only became grayer. No, that golden yellow star that the band sang about in “De Zon” was nowhere to be seen. Under the gray cloud cover, the somewhat entertaining Dutch pop sound unfortunately did not come into its own and the group did not succeed in convincing one hundred percent. Maybe next time, but then with that sung star there.

Thames @ Amstel Stage

Those grey clouds also hung threateningly above the heads of the spectators before Thames, only to burst out just before the first notes of the band. Fortunately, it was limited to a few dozen drops and we did not get the amount of water from the river that the band is named after over us. What we did get was a portion of post-punk of the highest order. Without too much fuss, frontman Merlyn Baartman and co managed to get the wet audience to sway along on the musical waves and thus they stoked everyone up again with their fiery show.

No Prisoners @ The Spartan Collar

The Spaanse Kraag tent had opened its doors with Square Two, but unfortunately we had missed it by a hair. What made it doubly unfortunate was that we had only heard good stories about the young guns afterwards. Oh well, better luck next time, and we started our adventure in De Spaanse Kraag strong with No Prisoners. The tent always guarantees a solid dose of hard guitars, and to the satisfaction of the organization, our first compatriots of the day had also brought them with them to the North Brabant festival. Thanks to their years of stage experience, the members were soon in the game and knew how to really make a mess, with the hard guitars they brought along leaving a deep impression. You can clearly tell from whom guitarist Leander van het Groenewoud inherited his talents, because live he was, just like his father, lord and master of his fretboard.

Jean Jacques @ Future Stage

Where No Prisoners violently demolished De Spaanse Kraag, it was a completely different story during Jean Jacques on the Future Stage. No hard punk sound, but fresh hip hop with a pounding bass line. With a song about sparkling water with lemon he got the laughs on his side and consequently also the full attention of every spectator, while during “best intentions” he talked about the fact that he has no bad reviews. Don’t worry Jean, that won’t come from us either, because you entertained us very well.

Indian Askin @ Amstel Stage

When we first encountered Indian Askin’s stage skills in 2019, we were more than surprised and were eager to see the band perform again soon. The fact that it ultimately took half a decade before a new encounter took place was unfortunately due to a severely reduced tour schedule of the Amsterdam band. The group split up, went through a turbulent period and eventually came back together in part, but was mainly back to war strength at Breda Barst. On the main stage we were treated to a fine mix of playful rock with the occasional dash of punk and psychedelic tones. “I Like Boys” blasted cheerfully from the speakers and “I Feel Something” knew how to get even the stiffest rake moving. The new members were all strong in their actions and at times it seemed as if this group had been on stage together for years. What we got was a live show of great class, and all that with a smile from ear to ear from every member. Let’s agree that the next appointment will not be another five years away.

DAMMIT @ The Spartan Collar

While Indian Askin was on the main stage, DAMMIT kicked off the trio of Belgian bands in De Spaanse Kraag. And they did a good job. The East Flemish company kicked around the round tent and dealt out some serious blows, with their most recent EP in particular For Another Realm was used as a truncheon. One thumper after another came by and towards the end the stage seemed too small for the group, which had slowly turned into a whirlpool of musical violence.

Arson @ The Spartan Collar

Even after the show it remained restless, because Arson, after a short break to change the materials, calmly continued that vortex. Because where it sometimes felt a bit tame on the record, the band is still that fearless wrecking ball live that mows down everything in its path. It was a show like we have seen from the band for years, but still the group managed to completely overwhelm us with its stage performance. No, that invasion of compatriots was not exactly disappointing.

blackwave. @ Amstel Stage

blackwave. was also allowed to start and continued the good reputation that the Belgian acts had established during the day. In a now dark park, the Antwerp hip-hop duo immediately let their verbal skills speak during “back on track” and hits like “GoodEnough” and “die in LA” did not come without loud cheers, as expected. All tracks felt like high-caliber energy bursts and were more than happy to encourage us to take a dance. Jay Walker and Willem Ardui were in the right flow the entire performance, felt each other better than ever before and kept going strong without weakening for a moment. And all that with a broad smile, because the duo was more than happy to show their skills on the main stage of the Breda festival.

blackwave. not only managed to entertain themselves, the audience also enjoyed it and danced away. However, the party quickly ended after three quarters of the set, because with fifteen minutes left on the clock, the group had had enough and left. Too bad for the visitors, because they would have liked to dance a little longer. We could have continued for a while too, but we’ll save that for day two and so we decided to head home with the rest of the crowd.

Day one of Breda Barst was an invasion of compatriots who all left a positive impression. Hopefully today’s acts are as strong as yesterday’s, although they will have to work extremely hard for that.