For the departure to Wondelgem we had made a strict time-schedule. On some previous issues of The Dirty Scene Tour, it happened that we were only ready soundcheckin' after 8 pm, which is a bit too late. So now we would leave a bit earlier and we had made appointment at 5 pm. In the afternoon I still had Zjantie on the phone and I had remembered him one more time at our appointment. Keez arrived 20 minutes before time (time we filled with drinkin' an Australian pils, Foster's beer) but guess who arrived at half past 5 ? Indeed, Zjantie, and when you know that Zjantie is the owner of the van, you'll understand that his presence is essential to start loading the van. So our schedule was already spoiled from the start. We drove to Deinze in order to pick up some guys from Mise*en*Scene (which finally wasn't necessary as they had enough cars) and after 15 minutes of fun we left for Wondelgem with a small caravan of 2 delivery vans and 2 cars.

Wondelgem is a suburb from Gent, but is not mentioned on a lot of maps. Worth mentionin' on the road to Wondelgem is that we passed the distillery "Filliers", which is very famous for its fruit liquors. And talkin' about fruit liquors, the sell of my own home made fruit liquors was again a success at the Christmas market of our hometown Schuiferskapelle. I also finally found a place where I can buy empty halflitre-bottles, so I now can sell the liquor in bottles too, somethin' what people ask me already for years (otherwise they have to come to drink at my place). But let's go back to Wondelgem. We quickly found the place to be, and found that the place was located at the first floor. Just like with the gig in Oostende, we again had to move all the stuff over the stairs to the pub. And as this wasn't enough, there were another couple of stairs to reach the stage. Anyway, in contrast with the Oostende-gig, we were now with enough people to empty the van. In our time-schedule we had foreseen to start settin' up at 6.45 pm but it finally was 7.30 pm till we could start. We were welcomed with music from the Flamin' Groovies, a sixties punkband, and this was a nice welcome. Few people know the sixtiespunkscene, especially not the people in youth clubs. And indeed, the bartender was a sympathetic guy of over my age and that explains a lot. While we were settin' up things we furthermore heard the Ramones but suddenly also some techno-stuff. Well if you have read our report of our previous gig in Deinze, you know our opinion on techno on punkgigs. Anyway, it was over 8.30 pm till we all had finished soundcheckin', instead of before 8 pm as we had planned.

As Gent is a big city, we expected a lot of people in JH Tabula Rasa and there were also a lot of people who had told us to come to Wondelgem. Well this wasn't exactly what happened. Qrizz already had received a phone call from Tabula Rasa in which they told they didn't really have a punkpublic, followed by a phone call a week later that they in fact really don't have a concertpublic.  The bartender also told us the youth club is never visited by people from Gent itself, only by the local youth and even they weren't present this evenin' because one of the habituals was a boxer and there was a boxin' match with him goin' on this evenin' at another place in Wondelgem. Yeah, this was great again. Anyway, we noticed some friends and also this guy who comes about every 4 year to one of our gigs, and what makes it special, is that he nearly always comes with his bike ! 

When Mise*en*Scene started, let's say the place was filled up halfly and durin' their gig there were still people enterin' the place. Qrizz used the trick with the guitar-ampli that I always do (and which I won't tell you, haha), only his ampli isn't made for this thing. The result was a very good guitarsound in the pub, but no directly sound from the guitar-ampli on stage, and this must really suck for the bandmembers. The global sound in the pub wasn't very superior as the place was too high, and the stage too in fact, but you could hear everythin' and thanx to the good guitarsound the global sound was decent. Despite the technical problem on stage, M*e*S played a very good gig. They played some new songs which fit perfectly in their skapunk-repertoire. They have plans to record a new CD this year, so we expect we'll still hear other new songs durin' the next gigs. They succeeded in movin' the people in the crowd they're familiar with, but their skapunk also worked contagious on other people. When they finished and came off stage they presumed they had done a bad gig because of the suckin' stagesound, but they just had done a fine gig.

It was over 10.30 pm when we could start our gig. Before there was again some techno-stuff on the player, but they changed to the Ramones when I asked for somethin' else. On stage it was a bit too dark, I didn't see very well the positions on the neck of my guitar, so I suppose I sometimes played another chord than the one presumed. There were already a lot of people gone (no fuckin' idea why) and we also didn't notice the members of M*e*S. Over halfway the set I thought they might be in the backstageroom, so I asked the public if they would like to take a look there. My thoughts were right, we hope and suppose there was a lot of fun backstage, but it certainly is no big fun to play in a nearly empty pub when there's a crowded backstageplace. We had changed a bit our set and for the first time in years (I guess the last time was in the eighties) we played again "The biggest pile of shit" from our first album. When I announced the "Givin' good head"-song there was fun with this guy askin' how much I asked and if I wanted to arrange a special price for him. Anyway, we were quite satisfied of our gig and the bike-guy even said it was the best gig ever he had seen of us. Another clever guy for whom it was his first punkgig said that a main difference between M*e*S and The Dirty Scums is that the music of M*e*S is a lot more accessible than our music. And this is true, but we don't care a fuck, as long as we can do what we want, haha. He also asked for the lyrix of "Givin" good head". Another one asked us for a gig on 11/04, but as we we have so much gigs it will be on 17/05 instead, and that will make 15 gigs in a row, startin' with this night. Sadly the new gig will probably be without M*e*S, sorry guys, but you know we'll do our best.

Between the two gigs, we heard again the Ramones on the stereo, so we suppose this youth centre has only one punk-CD or better had, 'cause they bought our latest as well as the one from M*e*S. When we started a bit later with The Thirsty Scums, there were again fewer people than before. We played a very decent set, which was a bit slower than usual but still on a speed that rocks off your socks. Nobody asked for encores but we had fun in playin' and added some encores for ourselves. We received quite some compliments afterwards.

After packin' in we had some fun with the people still present in the pub. People who regularly buy a crate of Jupiler (and this is about everyone, no ?) will have noticed there are sometimes bottles of which the contents has a different taste (less good) than normal. After havin' received two of these, I switched over to Westmalle Trappist dark and I guess I quickly became drunk. I have also been busy tryin' to seduce a female workcolleague present there, in which I guess I succeeded (I surely have to ask her monday mornin'). The free Trappists tasted very well, the girl looked nice, and the music was all right, what else more does a healthy man need on a Saturday night ? When it was time to quit, we first drove some people home, and much later I found myself wakin' up in the van on the road to Tielt.