John Coffey | Vera, Groningen (concert review)

December 13th 2014 | Vera, Groningen – John Coffey played last weekend at the Vera Downstage in Groningen. The concert is part of their ‘Pub Crawl 2014 tour’. It’s a tour where they chose to play in smaller venues, without a pre-sale and keeping the price low. Johan was there to write a review about the show. Pictures: Dennis Wisse.

John Coffey
John Coffey is a popular Dutch punk, rock ‘n roll, hardrock band in the likes of Refused and Foo Fighters. John Coffey is working hard on their way in becoming international, with shows in Germany and Belgium they are expanding fast. The band is working on a new album that is about to be released January 30th 2015 the album is called ‘The Great News’.

A complete madhouse
The venue has a capacity of 80 people, when you walk in it’s like some sort of old wine cellar, build of stones and a ceiling that’s just a above your head. The venue was sold out and packed in no time, as the evening was about tot start it already got a little bit warmer. John Coffey started and nothing stopped the crowd from creating a complete madhouse.The band realized how insanely small this venue was and stated this was one of their most bizarre gigs they played. While it was getting hotter by the minute, sweat is flying through the air the band starts to play their latest single ‘Broke Neck’ that you can check out below.

The band has a collection of intense songs they wrote in the past with songs like ‘Featherless Redheads and Dirt & Stones’. They really know how to pump up the the crowd. There was nothing to crazy for even though the room was too small, mosh pits, circle pits and crowdsurfing were going down, they even started to clap on the ceiling instead of in their hands. They also played ‘Heart Of a Traitor’ a new song from their new album which is worth listening.

Exhausted and satisfied
Just when you think the night couldn’t get any more crazy the band plays ‘Oh, Oh, Calamity’ and asks the crowd to start a wall of death, the crowd obeys and opens it up. The evening was coming to and end and the room reached the boiling point, everybody was soaked. The band was crammed up towards the drummer. The last song was about to be played and the audience was chanting the upcoming song already, the band finished their insane show with ‘Romans’. Everybody was exhausted and satisfied. Which isn’t so weird if you got sweat on the ceiling.