The Triple Dutch Tour

Personal Trainer:

The Triple Dutch Tour is headlined by the brilliant collective Personal Trainer, a group led by frontman Willem Smit, with a rotating band of musicians join him on stage. This UK tour sees Smit joined on stage by seven musicians, with the groups energetic brilliance seeing them practically bursting off the stage. The set featured a number of multi-instrumentalist performances, showing just how competent this group of musicians are, highlighted most by the collective's newest member Mart, who not only managed to change guitar mid song and continue playing but also found himself playing both guitar and saxophone during several songs. Mart is joined on guitar by the brilliant Franti Maresova who seamlessly ripped through the band's high energy songs. The strings were completed by the funky basslines of Ruben van Weegberg. One of the most impressive feats of the night was Leon Harms being able to play over an hour on drums for Personal Trainer after his rip-roaring set on the sticks for Real Farmer, pulling double duty.

The personal trainer line-up is completed by Kilian Kayser on percussion, and Abel Tuinstra on keyboards and trumpet. Every musician on stage was full of energy and had talent in abundance, but these two in particular gave some of the most energetic performances have ever seen. This, paired with some funky dance moves that need to be seen to be believed meant you could hardly take your eyes off them.

A band with this many musicians could easily fall out of sync, or leave members lost in the shuffle, but everyone felt vital to this brilliantly chaotic performance, led by the infectious Smit. Willem is a vocalist that can do it all, soulful singing seemingly coming as naturally to him as the screams and jagger-esque struts were, what a performer!

The best way to describe this set would be that it felt like watching 7 best friends share a jam session for the ages. A group of accomplished musicians creating the most mind-blowingly brilliant chaos that had you gripped from the word go, and left you wanting more by the time it finished,

The Klittens:

The evening's second act were Amsterdam based band 'The Klittens', showcasing their unique blend of alt-rock, indie and punk music that is getting music lovers all over Europe hooked on their music. The band, consisting of Yaël Dekker (lead vocals), Katja Kahana (guitar), Winnie Conradi (guitar), Michelle Geraerts (bass guitar), and Laurie Zantinge (drums), entered the stage in their purposefully conflicted low energy way, before blowing the audience away with the stunning 'Manic Dixi Dream Girl'.

This mixed energy approach is a parallel to their newest single 'Reading Material', which is about trying to appear energetic when your internal levels are low. The 'low energy appearance that appeared at times by no means reflected a lack of effort, these are five musicians at the top of their game, with every second of their performance being extremely enjoyable and artistically brilliant. This theme will no doubt transfer to the bands upcoming EP 'Butter which is out March 8th.

All five members of The Klittens provided vocals throughout the set, creating the most enthralling harmonies No song showcased this more than their brilliant track Pristine Blue', which was brilliantly positioned just before punk-charged 'Acid Violet 43'. This song goes against the harmonic approach, instead being fuelled by relatable fury, most shown by Laurie Zantinge's rage-fuelled screams from the drumkit.

'Canned Air' reflects The Klittens at their very best, a slower atmospheric start that eventually builds to a euphony of big sound, with every member pushing their instrument to their limits. This was followed by 2 flawless performance of 'Atlas', a quite impressive feat given this was only the bands second time playing the song live,

One of our former Songs of the Week 'Universal Experience' looked like it would be the set closer, with the infectious tune putting grins on everyone's face, but just as it appeared the set was over, The Klittens ripped through one more quick-fire punk track to perfectly punctuate a brilliant set

Real Farmer:

Real Farmer had the job of opening the night's proceedings. The opening slot is often a difficult one, but you only had to take one look at lead singer Jeroen Klootsema to know that for Real Farmer, this would be a breeze Klootsema burst on to the stage with the presence and energy of a natural born performer desperate to share his gift, and somehow his energy levels got higher and higher. By the end of the set, he must have touched nearly every part of the stage

The DIY garage-punk quartet is completed by guitarist/vocalist Peter van der Ploeg, bassist/vocalist Marrit Meinema, and drummer Leon Harm. Together the group put on a live show that not only showcases their talent but highlights the brilliant rawness of punk inspired music. Real Farmer are preparing to release their debut album ' Compare What's There' on 8th March 2024, and if this set was anything to go by, we could be looking at one of the underground albums of the year!

They were a band of few words, preferring to let the music do the talking, and it did just that. High tempo tunes like Straightest Line, Never Enough and Perry Boys went down a treat with the Cambridge audience, who were up to dance from the word go. This was wave after wave of pure punk brilliance, and every time you thought you could catch your breath you were hit with an even heavier tune to take your breath away even more

Despite their relatively small released discography, Real Farmer feel like a band who know exactly who they are, and exactly the type of music they want to play. This showed throughout the set, with each song being played with the conviction of industry veterans who have spent years discovering what their music truly means

There could not have been a more perfect band to open the night, providing the perfect cultural bridge between the touring Dutch bands and the UK audience, showing that one thing is for certain...Good music is universal