After a difficult day with the storm and too much rain, Jera On Air was back for day 2 with a beautiful sun and many sick shows from Trash Boat to The Offspring, including Beartooth, Being As An Ocean or Crossfaith!
If the first day was a short day with shows starting in the evening, this Friday was a real full day with the first show at noon. And with a nice Belgian touch! Indeed. A few minutes after Rotzak opened the Buzzard Stage, Fleddy Melculy did the same on the Main Stage aka Eagle Stage as they replaced in last-minute Loathe (Covid). Both tents were not full but still lot of people wanna see them and start the festival as soon as possible! It’s great to see Belgian artists playing major international festivals like the Jera On Air.
The day continued with a regular visitor: Deez Nuts. Two weeks after their weird show in Brussels at Kirikou Et Le Président, they were back in their element. Only 30 minutes but enough to play all their classics like Stay True, Band Of Brothers, I Hustle Everyday but also some new stuff. Having Deez Nuts on a festival is always the assurance of a cool show. It was only 1.30pm – they play earlier every time – but many people were there to see them. A way to remind us that the festival is soldout this year!
TRASH BOAT: OUR SUMMER CRUSH
Right after the Australian hardcore band, we went for the first time on the day to the Vulture Stage to see one of our favorite band of the Summer: Trash Boat! We saw them 2 weeks ago headlining a small show in Paris, today was our second show this Summer before the third 2 days later in Antwerp opening for Enter Shikari. Three shows, three very different conditions, three successful shows. Spoiler alert: we got an interview with the band to speak about it, soon online! Today, the set-list was a bit different as it was a festival: we then had the chance to hear live their really good cover of Given Up from Linkin Park (we miss you Chester!). Live ou studio, the band sound really good, especially their singer Tobi. Considering the reaction of the crowd and the good pit, the public really enjoyed it too!
The time-schedule is heavy as f*ck as they’re zero minute between shows on both biggest stages. If you wanna see a whole show on the Eagle Stage, you’d prefer leave before/during the last song of the band on the Vulture and so on. That’s a great way to book as many bands as possible. But it’s hard sometimes for the public when they’re interested in many bands the festival has booked… From 4pm until the last of the day, we’ll see in a row Crossfaith, Being As An Ocean, Ignite, Lionheart, Stick To Your Guns, Nasty, While She Sleeps, Bury Tomorrow, Beartooth, Turnstile, The Offspring. All on the 2 Main Stages without any break, just running from one stage to the other! That’s a fuckin’ hard marathon. At least, it was the plan… We took a break after 2 songs.
A MARATHON OF SHOWS
We can sort these bands in 3 categories: not good, surprises and good. First category: While She Sleeps and Bury Tomorrow. The set-list of the band from Sheffield was focus on the latest album: “Sleep Society” (5), “So What ?” (2) and “You Are We” (2). Really sad they don’t play songs anymore from their best albums but it’s more than time to grieve. On top of that, the sound wasn’t good at all so we left after 2 songs. We stay a bit more at the Bury Tomorrow‘s show but their generic metalcore doesn’t matter to us anymore. Except a few singles, they’ve never reach an high level.
Second category with the good shows: Crossfaith was still as good as the last time we saw them before the pandemic hit us. Even if the newest songs aren’t on the same level as “Apocalyze”, they sound better live and prove that the Japanese band still know how to party! From the drummer to the 2 singers, they still move everywhere and transmit their energy to the crowd who really enjoyed the show, even the people who saw them for the first time. Ignite is not a young band, hell no, but they had the energy of young punk kids today! A good show, a bit better than expected, but not enough either to be an highlight of this second day at Jera On Air. From Who Sold Out Now to Veteran including their great cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday from U2, they help to day to win 2 levels. Until the next bands who raised the bar even higher… Starting with Lionheart and Nasty. Both bands that never disappoint live! The energy of these hardcore bands is insane – even more with Nasty – and even if we can see them very often, we never miss a chance to mosh (or look at the mosh) with them!
THE OFFSPRING: BETTER THAN EXPECTED
At last but not least, the third category: the surprises and/or very good bands. Or in other way: the top 5 of the day! Starting with Being As An Ocean who delivered an intense and emotional show like never! It’s been a while since we’ve seen this band so good! Every songs hit perfectly our heart and the audience. Every songs was a perfect communication between the band – especially their singer Joel – and the crowd. This atmosphere remembered us why we love music so much and how much we missed festivals during 2 too long years! A bit later, still a bit emotionnal but more powerful, we had once again a sick time with the band from California, Stick To You Guns. It was the third time we saw them this Summer after their intimate show in France at The Black Lab and after their show at… Jera On Air the day before with their special “Diamond” set which was insane. Were they able to do as good as the show on Thursday? Of course they are! With a more classic set-list – but still a lot of songs from “Diamond” -, Jesse and his teammates destroyed the Eagle Stage one more time. With a sunny day and not a shitty rainy day. Nobody, We Still Believe, Against Them All, Married To The Noise, Amber… we got all the classics. Sadly, still no This Is More. Maybe during their show at Trix in November with Knocked Loose?! Fingers crossed. Until then, we got an insane hat-trick to finish the day: Beartooth, Turnstile, The Offspring.
We knew Beartooth was going to be insane. For 3 reasons. Uno, we saw them at Slam Dunk Hatfield earlier that month and it was sick. Secondo, we saw them at the intimate pre-Jera On Air show in Eindhoven and it was sick. Tertio, it’s Beartooth and it’s always sick. They confirmed all of this in about 1h, without any schedule miscommunications like they had in 2019. A timetable issue Caleb didn’t forget and he told us a few words about that. And also reminded us how much he loves music and how much it’s important for him. So it is for us! He confirmed it by delivering a strong show with many classics but also many songs from the latest album “Below”… which they promote for the first time in Europe but also only time, as their European tour in February 2023 – postponed due to Covid – has been rebranded after the festival with the already 5th album coming soon!
TURNSTILE: FUTURE HEADLINER?
Don’t look further for the band with the biggest hype of the day, here they are: Turnstile, closing the Vulture Stage. Funny fact about their show: the tent was full as f*ck… so was the stadeside! We’ve never seen so many people with backstage access who wants to see a band. But it’s understandable. Their latest album “Glow On” released in August 2021 helped them win a huge success far beyond the boundaries of the punk-hardcore scene (also helped by a good team around them of course). Festivals like Jera On Air or Outbreak where they played also this weekend were almost some exceptions of their Summer schedule. Turnstile were booked at all the major festivals: Rock Werchter, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Coachella… Tonight, the festival seems too small for them but unfortunately the show wasn’t as good as expected. Maybe because of technical/sound issues from what we’ve heard. We expected more crazyness from the audience – and from the band… even if it was still a good one of course! Just not as high as expected. But it’s great to see some bands explode like them!
And we finished the day with The Offspring. Let’s be honest, the musicians are old, soft and we can feel it easely on stage. But they wrote so many legendary songs during their career that they just have to play the first notes or tell the name of the song to have 15k people on fire in front of me. From the first row until outside of the Eagle Stage, everybody were singing Want You Bad, Hit That, Pretty Fly, The Kids Aren’t Alright, Self Esteem or You’re Gonna Go Far Kid. So many classics. They were the perfect headliner to end this great but exhausting second day!
From Trash Boat to The Offspring, including Stick To Your Guns, Beartooth or Being As An Ocean, this second day at Jera On Air was even better than expected! The Jera On Air has still these beautiful and familial vibes with a good festival size. And we can’t wait to be back in 2023!