What a beautiful festival this is. I've spent 4 days on the `25 edition after having skipped the festival for 20 odd years bar one or two occasions, and unrightfully so.
PKP almost feels like a bunch of 'smaller' festivals all slammed onto one location. Plenty of stages and a smart time table ensures there's always something interesting to watch.
And when there's not, check out the E>Rena, have a spin in the Ferris wheel or just go to the food wood and enjoy a nice meal. Anyway, let's talk bands...
It's the first day and because we bought a Friday ticket, this one's for free.
First up: Lenny Lenny
Aka Lennert Coorevits aka a Compact Disk Dummy on hold. But don't take this one for a dummy at all. Lennert is highly energetic and knows precisely what he's doing (except maybe for the Fleetwood Mac cover of Dreams, sorry Lenny), which translates in his shows. Funky, soul flavoured indie without breaking any barriers of any kind with a soft caress from time to time. Fun to listen and watch, a couple of thousand amongst you agreed.
Setlist: Living / Fruit / Soft Spot / She Only Loves You / Dreams (Fleetwood Mac) / Bitch To Blame / Better Man / Tambourine
Next: Isaac Roux
Whilst walking up to the Marquee, the first notes started to make their way through my ears bony labyrinth all the way to the part of my brain which tickles when hit by the right combination of notes. It didn't quite hit climax, but nonetheless got aroused by this sound which lingered somewhere in between The War On Drugs and The Haunted Youth. I'll definitely check this one out more often in the future.
Setlist: Young Hearts / The Right Place / *Unknown song* / How Dare You / White Rose / Colours / Enola Gay (OMD cover) / Runaway / Good Times
Thursday headliner: dEUS
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I was so happy when they announced dEUS just a couple of weeks before kick-off.
One of my all time favourite bands who tickles that part of my brain I mentioned earlier on. And gOD did they not disappoint. It's the end of their Worst Case vs A Bar Tour which combines the best of these two avant-garde masterpieces of musical art.
And that's what Pukkelpop got served, the best version of this band in this moment with all its quirks, flaws and perks and boy did the crowd love to rock that soundscape. Even the really odd ones (although aren't they all a bit on these 2 albums) were well received by an outrageous crowd in the Marquee. That's on top of a plethora of Belpop classics like Suds & Soda, Hotellounge, Little Arithmetics and of course Roses. It felt like a concert venue, bar the more intimate songs you would get served at a concert but at a big festival you only have so much time on stage these days. Credit to the band and the crowd!
Setlist: Jigsaw You / Via / Morticiachair / W.C.S. (First Draft) / Let's Get Lost / Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me) / Theme From Turnpike / A Shocking Lack Thereof / Little Arithmetics / Fell Off The Floor, Man / Intro / Suds & Soda / Disappointed In The Sun / Roses
After having hit that climax in my brain, it's time for bed. Friday's coming...
PKP scheduled a comedy act starring 5 Belgian comedians, some of them supposedly I'ld say. That's especially true for 2 first guys coming up. So by the time the 2nd guy was halfway through his agonising performance, I was already halfway on my route to the BackYard stage for some music instead of this drivel.
First up: Fever Child
Belgian soft pop rock with an emotional flavour. Not easy to open the stage on any festival. Nonetheless very much enjoyable and actually a perfect fit for a crowd lying on the grass or having lunch nearby the lovely BackYard Stage and getting ready for heavier stuff later on.
After browsing the timetable and since we're living at 2pm I decided to have a small lunch. Plenty of choice available in that regard, which is nice.
Now it was time to have a look at: supermodel*
A guy on his own on stage supported by a backing track spitting out hiphop beats flavoured with punk/rock riffs and spiced up with some r&b, or something like that.
Despite giving his all, it all felt a bit weird and distant which is unfortunate on a small intimate stage like The Lift. Or maybe this would have looked and sounded a lot better with a proper live band, which is hard to afford I can imagine. It was interesting enough to stick around for a good portion of his performance, but like a some amongst you I decided to ditch the supermodel* early and head for other pastures.
Like for example the soft, warm acoustic blanket Hudson Freeman spreads out. With his fragile posture barely visible behind that big western guitar of his, he serves a salvo of beautiful, intimate indie/blues/country inspired songs, all supported only by his friend on electric guitar. Perfect tune to go lying on that soft warm blanket, think about the moment and enjoy it. Thank you Hudson Freeman, come again...
Still feeling utter relaxed from Hudson Freeman's set and a perfectly explicable desire to remove myself as far as possible from Major Lazer, it is now time to have a listen at Wednesday.
Quite the opposite from what I've seen from the tender Hudson Freeman, Wednesday brings a noisy, gritty indie sound drenched in shoe gaze and country. Enjoyable, energetic performance!
Wednesday on Friday/Saturday/Sunday of Sjock 2027?
After strolling the meadow on my own, having experienced some good shows, it was time to meet up my girlfriend and some of her colleagues at Kelis...
Kelis needs no introduction after having scored world wide hits like Milkshake and Caught Out There. Although not quite entirely my taste of music, I enjoyed the first part of her set.
But after a couple of songs I did start to wonder at one point who was actually singing. Kelis or the girl supposedly doing the backing vocals? Also, why is the drummer only playing half of the time? And where is the rest of the band? Surely, unlike supermodel*, she can afford more, I would think? So when at one point the DJ fired up the karaoke machine and Kelis (read: the backing girl) started singing a mash up of cover songs, I was scouting for an exit to get out of a Marquee, that's still surprisingly filled up at this point imho, and leave this American showbizz nonsense.
Apologies Kelis, the other Backyard sounds better than yours...
After being judged with question-marked eyes full of disapproval whilst digging my way out of the Marquee, I strolled the lawn to the better Backyard stage.
Fiddlehead was just finishing their set so I can't say too much about them. But damn right, this was better than "befores", that's right, Kelis, I've made the wrong choice.
Due to some bad weather coming up and the fact we were already settled in the Marquee, we decided to skip Djo (whom sounded good from a distance) and wait for Geese to fly over from NYC and land on stage.
Living underneath a rock, it comes as no surprise that I actually never really heard from Geese before. Unrightfully so, 'cause this was right up my lane. The first part I could already really appreciate, although Sofie couldn't stand the noise and nasal sound of the singers voice anymore at one point. But it's from that point on it all kicked up another notch but in a more mesmerising, psychedelic prog rock kind of way which catapulted me into this 60`s /70's lsd trip sense of feeling. Not that I would know how that feels like, but yeah, you get the kaleidoscope, right? I'll definitely keep an eye out for Geese and it really makes me smile to hear this kind of music from up and coming bands anno 2026...
Setlist: Husbands / Getting Killed / Crusades / Half Real / 2122 / 100 Horses / I See Myself / Cobra / Bow Down / Au Pays du Cocaine / Taxes / Trinidad
After once again meeting up with Sofie and having watched Turnstile from a distance and with not much intents, hence why no review, its time to dress up for The Hives!!
"Ladies! Gentlemen! And everyone else in between! The greatest band and greatest singer in the history of music... We are The Hives!"
No shortage in self confidence and showbizz for The Hives. They slap you so hard that you'll keep spinning, kicking and screaming until the end of their show and hours beyond. Although their songs all pretty much sound the same somewhat, it never gets boring cause this is so energetic and compelling... Partyband grand cru!
Setlist: Enough Is Enough / Main Offender / Hooray Hooray Hooray / Paint a Picture / Bogus Operandi / Hate to Say I Told You So / Countdown to Shutdown / Come On! / Tick Tick Boom / Legalize Living / Walk Idiot Walk / The Hives Forever Forever The Hives
After being completely rattled by The Hives and before it was finally time to get my soul waxed, we went to have a look at Friday's headliner: Yungblud.
Again, living underneath my rock, I've heard whispers of this new rock god like delinquent with a soft spot. And what I've heard made me think I probably would have like the guy about 25y ago. So why not have a listen now? And like Geese, but in a different way, I'm happy to see some good old rock'n roll on stage! Powerful, non-compromising rock'n roll. Even a broken leg won't stop this guy from doing anything he wouldn't do otherwise on stage. His set never gets boring and has a good schwung to it, binding it all together with more "fucks and motherfuckers" than all the takes to make Pulp Fiction put together. Fuck yeah motherfucking fuckers, FUCK!
Setlist: War Pigs (Black Sabbath) / Hello Heaven, Hello / The Funeral / Lovesick Lullaby / My Only Angel / Fleabag / Lowlife / Changes (Black Sabbath cover) / War / Loner / Zombie
And at last, it's 1am. Time for that Soulwax...
I've witnessed Stephen and David as the Dewaele Brothers / 2Many Dj's, so of course I'm excited to see Soulwax... Knowing them mainly from their album Much Against Everyone's Advice, I knew beforehand to expect something completely different from what that sounds like. And if you didn't already knew, their massive self build synths, 3 drumkits and some other weird instruments should give a clue. Not a collection of solid rock songs. No, this is gonna be an epic masterpiece of modern electronic music.
Opening with an hommage to Kavinsky and his Nightcall, the note is set. One hour of pounding techno music, impressively synchronised precision drumming starring Max Cavalera, Aurora Bennett en Blake Davies, and synths and sounds all over the place. Funny also how they made Eppo Janssen (I think) explain how their synths work.
Like I said, Epic! A must watch!!!
Setlist: Nightcall (Kavinsky) / Do You Want to Get Into Trouble? / Is It Always Binary / KracK / Coronet / Polaris / I Love Techno / Run Free / New Earth Time / Meanwhile on the Continent / Another Excuse / All Systems Are Lying / Gimme A Reason / Perfect We Are Not / Theme From Discotheque / E Talking / Chase (Giorgio Moroder) / NY Excuse
A rainy evening at Rivierenhof became an unforgettable introduction to Sylvie Kreusch, whose theatrical performance and energetic band kept me mesmerized from start to finish.
