2016 marked the 10th anniversary of the Roadkill Festival in Waarschoot, Belgium. I knew about the festival, but I had never been there. I also knew that in the past they had some fantastic line-ups, this year wasn’t any different. With bands like Honky, Peter Pan Speedrock, The Goddamn Gallows, ANTI-SEEN, Fifty Foot Combo and so many more we where in for a treat.

The first thing that I noticed when we arrived at the festival was the lack of big corporate sponsors, but a real professional setting. The second thing was the layed-backness of the crew working the festival. No over the top security bullshit, no backpack checks, just pay at the door (or pick-up a press-pass, thanks Bert), buy some drinking tickets and have fun! From this moment on I knew we came to the right place and I wondered why we haven’t being coming here before.

We walked in the tent looking for Mikey Classic, we had some shirts to deliver, (pick one up at his solo tour this week!) and something very strange was going on on stage… Bleeding Antlers from the UK where providing the people with a bunch of noise and weird antics… Goat-masks, distorted vocals and shreddin’ guitars. It sounded like a mess, but I was intrigued… I’m waiting for their album to come out before I make up my mind if I like it or not… After this heathen mass Devastatiön from Belgium kicked it off at the outside stage. High speed blackened trash metal would be a good “label” for their music. I normally like this kind of music but I didn’t really pay attention to it, we had people to greet, first beers to drink and set up the camera’s… What I do remember was the vocals, and that I liked them a lot!

The Goddamn Gallows where up next. This would be their second to last show of the tour that took ’em all over Europe in 2 months. They where tired, I could see it in their eyes, but still hungry to make new fans and friends. Hardest working band in showbiz? THESE GUYS! The crowd went nuts!

Garage rock has always been an underground phenomenon, but in Belgium new bands seem to emerge everyday, The Glücks are one of those bands holding the flag high and making sure they make a lasting impression with every show they play. Drums and guitar, that’s it, but the sound they create is the equivalent of ten suicide-bombers going of at once.

HONKY out of Austin, Texas came to Roadkill to provide us with the best Superboogie Rock on the planet. The band has a cult status for a reason and they made that very clear with their show. Groovin’, hardrockin’ madness!!!

If there is one band in the world that punks, metal-heads, psycho-billies, crusties or whatever sub-genre you wish to label yourself with all like the same, it’s Peter Pan Speedrock! Eindhoven’s best export product has toured the planet more then once and are now on their goodbye tour. Nothing on stage indicates this, they are still playing hard as ever, with a huge smile on their face! What a great show it was!

We drove to our B&B in Eeklo while Peter Pan was still playing, we needed some sleep, it had been a long week and a long day, but a good day…