Jevin's Eurotrip

We have an autumn break in The Netherlands for one week in October. Everyone on campus has something planned: some are traveling [Valencia, Spain, etc]; some visiting friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, or family; and some even going back home to visit. However, I am stuck here, with no motivation to travel alone, no girlfriend to visit, and family and home is too far to visit. So my plan was to stay here, catch up with studies, apply for jobs, and go to concerts! I attended two great concerts this weekend.

I had to go to Eindhoven for the first performance on Friday 17th; this band was Epica, a Dutch band newly introduced to me, but whose style and genre of music I appreciate very much: Gothic-symphonic-theater style like Nightwish. They were quite impressive, with the beautiful red-haired vocalist Simone Simons. The 'epic', operatic, medieval melodies, the contrasting screaming of the male singer, and brutal guitar support all blended together just made this band stand out to me, and it goes right up there in my list of favourites!

The second band performed on Saturday 18th, I traveled to Amsterdam to see, I met Marcos there, a

nd we had some pre-fun going to a whiskey bar that had a menu of 1001 whiskeys, and then it was on to the concert! The band was one that I grew up listening to and appreciated ever since they appeared on that morning on MTV with their song "Charlotte"; I still remember that day, and the video, and how impressed I was with this all-girl band growling up the stage! Kittie is the name of this Canadian "female-Korn" band. I must admit, their performance wasn't as impressive or I should say

"dramatic" as these bands like Within Temptation and Epica, but then again it's a different style of music. Also, some of the original members that I was obsessed with in my teen-years have left the band. Nevertheless, they impressed me with their intense growls, rough riffs, mosh-pit-inducing-music, and grungy-attractiveness of course. The DJ opened their performance with a song by Lords of Acid.