Eventhough I was born 10 years after The Kids started playing, they – and the Belgian punk scene – defined a big part of my youth. Today we celebrated The Kids playing for 45 years (!) in one of the most beautiful historic venues in their home town. And they brought along the next generation with Midnight Tattoo and Captain Kaiser!

We started off with the melodic street punk of Midnight Tattoo. Also Antwerp locals and just as well part of my youth as I grew up in the same neighbourhood. I saw their first show in a tiny bar that doesn’t even exist anymore, on a stage that was no more than 30 square feet. Midnight Tattoo plays typical British sounding party punk that everyone loves to dance or sing along to. In their signature outfit (jeans, plaid shirt and suspenders) they put everyone in a dancing mood. After that Captain Kaiser took over the stage. With their heavy “Kempenpunk” as they call it (hard and fast punk rock) they blew the roof off of De Roma. A perfect intermezzo to prepare the crowd for what was coming.

And then, finally, we got to celebrating the 45th anniversary of legendary Belgian punk band The Kids. The gig started on a minor note as singer Ludo Mariman asked the crowd for a moment of silence to honour his dear friend and fantastic actress Reinhilde Decleir, who passed away the day before. Of course Ludo couldn’t help himself making a little joke, saying: “I’d like to ask you for a moment of silence before we start. Not a minute, ’cause after all we are a punk rock band and a minute is a very long time for us, so just a moment of silence will do…” after which they rocked just like 15 years ago.