When
I woke up on Sunday morning, I should have been pissed. I lost an
hour of sleep to daylight savings time and the baseball game that I pried
myself out of bed for was cancelled, thanks to some good old fashioned Dutch
rain. The funny thing, though, I wasn’t pissed. As far as I was concerned, my
day could take an endless amount of blows and I’d still feel great, as long as
I would eventually end up at DB’s in Utrecht for a rock show provided by none
other than The Midnight Ghost Train. If that happened everything
would be fan-frickin-tastic.
Before
the guests of honor took to the stage we were first treated to a slew of
support acts. Sativa and Udarnik started the afternoon off, trying really hard
to warm up the crowd. Ultimately, Orange Maplewood, the last of the support
acts, did the trick and turned the matinee into an evening show. So now the
crowd was finally warm and in the mood for something a little tougher. Enter
The Midnight Ghost Train.
Their
set started with a Tom Waits song, “Make it Rain,” and was quickly followed by
“Along the Chasm.” This one-two punch concluded with the ringing out of
guitars, cymbals, and glorious feedback while the crowd welcomed the evening’s
headliners. Singer Steve Moss then flailed his arm around like the band’s
director, to which drummer Brandon Burghart answered by rolling in “Gladstone.”
By this point bassist Mike Boyne was already dripping with sweat; within a short
ten minutes of taking the stage, The Midnight Ghost Train had turned
the place into a sauna.
There
were a couple more songs from the band’s newest album thrown at us before a dip
was made into some older material. Of these songs, “Southern Belle” did the
most damage by being delivered with so much enjoyment that it’s almost hard to
believe Moss when he sings “since your death will come from my hand, I want to
know how much should I make it hurt.” Then, in stark contrast to “Southern
Belle,” came a cover of “Feeling Good,” which I can’t describe any other way
besides saying that it was really, really cool. Three more blasts of stoner
rock goodness followed to prematurely close out the set. Even though the band
had dispersed, the crowd was still bouncing up and down to the echoing sounds
of set closer, “Foxhole.” More was wanted, that was obvious, and within a
minute the boys from Kansas were back for a three song encore that ended with
an Acapella, “Aint it A Shame.”
This
may have been the last set of their tour but it didn’t show. All cylinders were
burning and there was no shortage of enthusiasm or vigor as the band put their
hard working rock and roll ethic on display. Genuine passion was at the core
and as a member of the audience this was felt. A Midnight Ghost Train show
therefore makes for a real good time with real good guys playing real good
tunes and its one helluva way to start off the festival season.
Words by:
Victor Van Ommen
