Antwerp DIY music promoters

In Antwerp you’ll find one ‘real’ music club, Trix. There you’ll see all kinds of bands from different sizes. The bigger events take place in the main hall, which used to be Hof Ter Lo, and the smaller shows you’ll see in Trix club or Trix bar. And of course, there is also Petrol club.

But then that’s it. I’m not complaining about their programmation, but back when my two companions and myself founded pooping bird we were utterly frustrated about the limited amount of shows we could go to. We as ‘big’ music lovers would change this and I’m sure this is the incentive that drove our colleages aswell.

DIY promoters overall are people who are driven by their love for music in the first place. They are often youngsters who don’t have the money to regulary buy € 15 tickets, but who’d love to see more live shows as they already do. Overall, they have a very critic view on today’s music industry and it’s mainstream way of thinking.

pooping bird.
As I told you before, most of the DIY organisators felt there was something missing in Antwerp, and so did we. Back then, Noon was still studying in Ghent where a lot of DIY concerts took place. We started to get the hang of these very cheap and still very decent concerts, and wanted to take them to Antwerp. We knew a couple of places like for example Scheld’apen who did such shows, so we started to get to know the Antwerp scenery a bit better.

Screamo, post-punk and math rock were our personal favorite shows, because of the no-nonsense attitude and the energy of both the bands and the promoters. But with our organisation, we wanted line ups filled with unknown bands of all genres with just one thing in common: the high standard of their music. pooping bird was born.

Our first pooping bird. event ever was in a small squatted venue, called ‘t Logement. We still had a sloth left on the bill and so little time to promote the event, so we asked our friends of Intergalactic Lovers if they’d like to play that night for gazoline costs. They gladly said ‘yes’ and that was the birth of pooping bird.


Of course, we aren’t the first nor the last DIY promoters Antwerp will ever know, and luckily, we became good friends with some other organizers. Some had inspired us, like Jelle with his Hands Like Birds shows in the beginning of 2008. Others found us to be inspiring and founded their own organisations. Sometimes, we collaborate if we want to do a ‘bigger’ event (cultus online).

When asked why they to what they do, a lot of my fellow colleagues answered that on top of their unconditional love for music they’d miss an underground scenery, where everything was made possible. Through MySpace (ages ago), facebook and the growing number of music streaming sites, a lot of brilliant bands nowadays can easily find their way to a promoter and vice versa. 

Antwerp still has too little high quality concerts in specific genres, but I’m glad there are a couple organisations now (like: Kelly Splinter, Hands Like Birds, Teloorgangshows, Kaspar Hauser Records, ...) who are still trying to work together as a front to lower the threshold and bring decent music to everyone interested.



 

pooping bird: Often moved about within a context of reason

Well hello there!

Time to get out of our wintersleep, don't you think? You may have noticed that we don't have a lot of
shows coming up for the moment. Well don't you worry: we're still alive and kicking.

We're working on different projects at the moment. Me and Dimi are playing in a band called Cobalt. At the moment we're recording our first demo. You can already check us out here or here.

In the meantime, Noon is trying to keep herself busy building a website for pooping bird. which is a lot more difficult than we thought it would be. So, bear with us.

And apart from the above, Noon and I are preparing for the Burnout festival, which is a gigantic project for school. I'm the head of production, and with only 3 weeks before the festival, I have my hands full with placing orders, making last minute decisions and whatnot. 

We also have kind of (well, actually really) exciting news! We've decided that we want to expand our thingy a bit by starting a booking and management agency. (I don't like the word "agency". I'm sorry for using it. It implies that it's all about business and money. That's not our purpose. So, let's just call it a collective. Sounds more friendly that way)

We're so lucky that the Antwerp based band Cat Claw (ex-Calicifer) have enough faith in us
that they want to work with us. So, yay!
They're  rehearsing in Kavka as we speak, because they're going to record their first demo tomorrow.
As we said: Exciting times are ahead of us.

Our last event was a massive succes, and I'd like to think it's because of the collaboration with the lovely people of cultusonline. We did a stonerrock special for the unlucky ones without a ticket to the Roadburn festival that same weekend. Mars Red Sky, who played Roadburn that weekend, were more than willing to play our gig in Kavka and so were Radar Men From The Moon, Cat Claw and Cobalt. It's been a while since we had so much fun and a bill full of exiting bands. Thanks again for everyone who spent the night with us!

Our next series of concerts and events will start this summer. I'm looking forward to it, and so is the rest of our team. Keep an eye on our website, facebook and twitter if you want to stay up to date.

See you soon! 

pooping bird.

It's pooping bird time! Apart from being in a band (aka the best band in the world with no name thus far) I also promote music. Pooping bird is a small organisation with a big heart for decent music. We're a three piece from Antwerp, with a diverse taste in music. I will not longer bother you with boring details on how we got together and how we nearly set a venue on fire once, so let's skip to the part where I tell you about next sunday.

pooping bird. presents a very loud but cosy sunday matinée! Starting from 5 pm and for the modest price of only 5 euro, we will pamper your hangover with tunes as sharp as a butcher's knife! The line up is not only the best one from the past 100 years, it's also the perfect line up for your daughter's wedding.

REFUSED PARTY PROGRAM

Refused Party Program is a temporary tribute to one of the best records ever made: 'The Shape Of Punk To Come' by the Swedish band Refused. After that, they'll be fucking dead.

RÄPE BLOSSOMS

Noise punk from Ghent. Their first album 'Starving Vultures At 7-Eleven' was released on Vlas Vegas Records. Are live way cooler than you!

WE'REWOLVES

And you ain't shit!

SILENT FRONT (UK)

Real screamo emo violence hardcore British noise core.
Silent Front is is signed to more DIY-labels than we have exes, and see the inside of their van more often than they visit their grandma's.

NITKOWSKI (UK)

London 3 Piece Nitkowski blend the heavier side of math rock with hardcore and avant garde influences to produce a dark, compelling body of work. Nitkowski sound like the bastard offspring of Don Caballero and Botch with a nod to The Fall along the way.

CALICIFER

Antwerp thrash kill band. We're no fans of comparisons, but think of the lovechild of PJ Harvey, QOTSA and other thrashy stuff.

Damage: 5 euro
Deuren: 16h30
Adres: Oudaan 14, 2000 Antwerpen.