Last week I was in the venue of Merleyn in Nijmegen for a heavily pounding evening with shows from Cult Leader and Implore. You can read my live review of that evening here. Now, on the evening of Monday July the 8th I am back in this small but nice venue, again for a evening full of heavily pounding music. Tonight’s headliner is Misery Index and it’s up to the Dutch band Teethgrinder to warm up the venue.
A few minutes before Teethgrinder is going to kick off this evening it becomes clear that many people don’t care that today is a Monday. The cafe-area of Merleyn is already quite busy and as soon as the concert-area opens that place also gets busy soon. Vocalist Jonathan Edwards picks up his microphone and hits it a few times to his head, it’s time for Teethgrinder to burst out, because that’s what Teethgrinder does. As soon as they start playing a hellish, intense energy unleashes from the stage and that only stops when Teethgrinder finishes their show. “What about the moments in between songs?” you might think. Well, if there is a pause between songs, which isn’t always the case during Teethgrinder’s set, then that vibe and energy is still coming at you by Jabe Piter Faber’s constantly gritty sounding bass or Mart Wijnholds’ guitar. However, that only adds to the intense atmosphere that fits a show like this. Besides that intensity, coming from Teethgrinder’s music as well as the atmosphere surrounding it, their songs are also quite chaotic but at the same time very powerful, something that’s perfectly executed by the band during this show. The fact that there is a lot of energy unleashing because of this show is clearly to be seen, on stage as well as in the audience. There soon is a moshpit in front of the stage that constantly keeps moving. On stage this can especially be seen very clearly when looking at drummer Wieger Jan Scheper, who drums in a very energetic way and guitarist Mart Wijnholds who almost screws his head off his body.
After Teethgrinder finished their set it’s time for the only point of rest of this evening: the pause in which the stage gets prepared for Misery Index’ show.
Whether you got some new energy or not in that pause, tonight’s headliner already enters the stage quite soon and then that energy spontaneously is back. Teethgrinder was pounding very heavily and so does Misery Index. However, these Americans do so in a bit more straightforward way compared to their Dutch, more chaotic support act. Misery Index surely pounds very heavy and fast-paced, but it is pounding at a pace that is a bit easier to follow. Now, headbanging is a good option instead of a difficult challenge. This however doesn’t mean that Misery Index plays just a simple show, that surely isn’t the case. The intensity and powerful energy coming from Misery Index’ show is enormous. Their show might be a bit static, but that might also be because of the fact that Misery Index is performing tonight’s show as a trio. The reason for this is that vocalist/guitarist Mark Kloeppel recently went back home because of a family emergency. So, tonight guitarist Darin Morris is responsible for everything guitar-related, while bass guitarist/vocalist Jason Netherton is taking care of all vocals. The fact that their show might be a bit static however doesn’t seem to be something bad, because of the extremely tight and brutal way Misery Index fires their songs at the audience. The older songs are received with a bit more enthusiasm compared to the songs of their new album Rituals of Power, but people are constantly headbanging and the moshpit is also constantly moving during the entire show.
This surely was a very heavy and nice evening with shows from two very tight-playing bands. A great evening for sure!
Misery Index Official Website
Misery Index Facebook
Misery Index Twitter
Teethgrinder Official Website
Teethgrinder Facebook
Teethgrinder Instagram
Hi!
I’m Tim van Velthuysen and I started DutchMetalManiac back in 2014. I’m 29 years old and I live in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Of course, I like metal, but I can also appreciate other musical styles.
In addition to DutchMetalManiac I also have a personal website on which I’ll post various things that won’t fit on DutchMetalManiac, but might be interesting for you as well. It’s in Dutch though.
[…] Index. That was in Merleyn in Nijmegen in July last year, of which you can read my live review here. There is one clear difference when compared tonight’s show with that show though: now Misery […]