demezel
mintzkov luna
fence
xbos.com
the kids
band zonder banaan
angelico
das pop
janez detd
bettie serveert
arno
dead man ray

woods
tham
tunnels
toothpaste
brenner
nezt
chemical
ham
blind surfer
horse
beegee
-
copy of 78

Dead Man Ray was brilliant again at Maanrock 2000. They were semi-headliners of the festival, i.e. they played last, but Arno and his band were the actual headliners of the festival. Still, never the less did Dead Man Ray impress. They played a slimmed-down version of their current live-sets, with an almost even balance between songs of the first and second album. The public seemed enthusiastic too, even with a pretty ‘varied’ audience- ranging from 40-year olds to infants to over-enthusiastic stalker/groupies like myself. While some people clearly left after Arno had finished his set, there were still plenty of people around who wanted to witness Dead Man Ray playing their wicked music. Even when it started raining pretty hard during the gig, most of the audience bravely withstood the weather.
Notable ‘facts’ were Rudy’s ridiculously dyed blonde hair, Elko wearing a Front 242 T-shirt, the new song ‘Blind Surfer’ in the setlist again, with some lovely outrageous shouting by Rudy, Daan comforting the audience they were brave to remain listening in the rain, and doing a short cover of ‘I can’t stand the rain’. He even briefly played the first chords of 'De Koning van Vlaanderen', by his own 'project' of a few years ago.
Best moment of the gig/festival/year must have been their final song Copy of ’78, which just seems to get better and better each time they play it.
To quote the enthusiastic, yet untalented announcer, “Daan Struyven and his band are the future of Flanders’ music!”
The rest of the day also saw a performance of the hugely promising band Das Pop, playing a solid set, and Bettie Serveert in a surprisingly wild performance. The other bands on the menu that day were either ‘not my thing’, or either didn’t I see them.