04.12.2011, Arena, Vienna, Austria

dEUS, one of my favorite belgian rockband was performing in the Arena and served a colorful mixture ranging from their first masterpiece “Worst case scenario” to their latest record “Keep you close”.

The first time I saw Tom Barman and his band (incl. the stars of the antwerp prog-arthaus-scene Rudy Trouve and Stef Kamil Carlens (Moondog Junior, Zita Swoon)) was in 1995 at the “Forestglade” festival in Wiesen. As they entered the stage I was listening to “Suds and soda” and they totally blew me away. I have never seen such a performance before. 3 distorted guitars, a violine, the backvocals screaming “friday” throught the whole song and Tom Barman up front, a cool looking guy conducting all this bandmates to deliver an intense sounduniverse which not many can do.

With their first record “Worst case scenario” they made a masterpiece which is still one of my favorite album. Following with “In a bar, Under the sea”, dEUS was still playing an explosive mixture of beefheartesque experimental rock music. After the splitting with Stef Kamil Carlens, the ideal counterpart of Tom Barman, dEUS was recording their 3rd album “The ideal Crash” (with Danny Mommens, later Viva la fete). This album differs from their last releases and set the direction for their upcoming work. Barman switched gears back to a less experimental but more intimate  sound. With “Sister dew”, “Instant street” and “Magdalena”, dEUS demonstrated why they were and still are the most prominent belgian rock band export.

With their already 7th album “Keep up close” dEUS is touring again and I was really looking forward to this concert. Being my 4th time to see them live I knew what I could expect and I was not disappointed. Barman and his band played most of the newer songs in the first half of the concert with extensive versions of “Bad timing” and “Sun Ra” but the highlight was obviously the last two tracks “Fell off the floor” and “Suds and soda”. The audience was feaking out and even the new songs of dEUS are good, the old songs are still masterpieces which Barman can probably not reach anymore.