The best gig of the weekend – and arguably the entire year – was Empire State Bastard’s performance in the 2nd room of the Melkweg on Sunday. Man, was I blown away. This was already the 2nd time this year I saw the Simon Neil-fronted extreme alt.-metal band (1st time was at 2000trees) but man, was this show 10x better than the previous one. Imagine, seeing Simon Neil and Dave Lombardo (Dave f*cking Lombardo!!!) play the small hall of the Melkweg?! Being a drummer myself, I’m still in awe of what I saw happening 20ft away from me last Sunday. Not to mention the insane riffs by Oceansize’s Mike Vennart and the spot on, heavy-as-hell bass by Naomi Macleod. Blimey.