All’s well that ends well

April 21st Apparition played the quarter finals of Beachbattle, a band contest in Scheveningen. We were one of three bands, all of which coincidentally from the metal genre.

We were the second band of the evening. Bitter Harvest kicked-off and Dawn of Time played last. Saturnus (the venue) filled up nicely from the start of the evening so all three bands could have a good go at pleasing a sizable crowd.

Bitter Harvest played their doomy and quite depressing music very well, but missed some vital ingredients to really get the audience in the mood. Their haunting notes did little to persuade the onlookers to vote for Bitter Harvest.

Up next was my own band Apparition. Ever since playing live at ‘t Paard we’ve been very driven to give it our best shot at every gig and apparently it showed! We played 6 songs, 5 of which will probably make it to our next CD. With every song we tried to get the crowd more involved and they responded loud applause and clapping to the rhythm of the drumbeat. It was a great experience for us and the adrenaline level was definitely high. We left the stage with cries of ‘we want more’ forcing smiles on all our faces.

Last but not least was Dawn of Time. These guys are veterans of the underground rock scene and like a steam engine they had to get started, but after the first two songs they were on a roll. Their easy to listen to rock and solid performance showed their experience. The crowd however clapped, but seemed to have been blown away by Apparition’s earlier performance. Dawn of Time finished and that’s when the tension started rising. The jury would be responsible for 80% of the verdict and the audience for 20%. Who would go to the semi finals?

An hour or so later we knew. Dawn of Time and not Apparition or Bitter Harvest would advance to the semi finals. A great disappointment for Apparition and many in the crowd. The performance had been so intense and the response from the audience so overwhelming that we truly believed that we would win. A fantastic battle appeared to end in an anti-climax. That is until the jury announced that Apparition had received the most votes from the audience of all bands playing in the quarter finals! That with only one more quarter final to go, gave us a big chance at making it through to the semi finals via the wildcard.

And the best news is. We are through to the next round. None of the bands in the final round managed to earn more votes. So May 19th we’ll be competing with Karma’s Kitchen and No Regrets.