17 March 2025
Holy smoke! It’s been a loooong time since I experienced the undeniable fact that
pure rock ‘n’ punk roll belongs to teenagers, not to the money-greedy dinosaurs we
all know such as Green Day, Pearl Jam, New Order, Muse and bloody Coldplay, to name
just a few.
Mind you, these businessmen fabricated some great stuff along their career, but
their original sassy spirit and restless soul of yesteryear are long gone. They all
became capitalist corporations.
Move over, old-timers, here come MIXED WASTE. Five young hungry dogs from Leuven, Belgium. They found each other back in 2022. Last Friday they played the legendary small sauna club Kinky Star in my hometown Ghent.
Picture this. Out of the blue appears the drummer, and starts to hit his kit immediately, setting the tone for what is to come. A few seconds later, he’s joined by two guitarists and a bassist who look a bit bored but bored in a self-assured, cool way, you know. And then, the vocalist invades the stage like a madman, with black sunglasses on and wearing a Fontaines D.C. T-shirt.
He immediately takes over and leads the noisy troops until the roasting end. He moves, jumps left and right, gets eye to eye with the fired-up audience a couple of times, and screams his lungs out, while rip-roaring riffs fly all over the place. His juvenile confidence and witty arrogance are off the charts. His demons don’t stand any chance to win the fight.
References: Iggy Pop and The Stooges‘s early powerhouse turbulence and MC5’s kick out the jams bravado. Ace, right? You betcha. There’s no sign of any nervosity, stage fright, nor jitteriness. Their short blitzkrieg set (no, no 3-hours Bruce Springsteen marathon) left me with my jaws almost hitting the floor.
They’re probably in school right now, but trust me,
for those about to rock Mixed Waste salute you
WALLS ARE SPINNING
.
RUN IT BACK
Live photos by Turn Up The Volume