Young Clitteband played at Catena, Leiden on 30th May, to (for them) an unusual, yet very enthusiastic audience!
Catena is a students’ club in Leiden. Once a year, they invite bands to play in their building. For the 30th May 2025 show, they invited from the The Hague-Leiden region two more or less mainstream rock bands who knew each other, and one punk band who the other bands did not know yet: Clitteband from Hilversum.
In principle, admission was only for Catena club members. However, some punks circumvented this rule; one of them wore a patch saying ACAB, with the explanation that this abbreviation means ‘All Cats Are Beautiful’.
The context for Clitteband of this concert differed from previous times when I had seen them: now unlike playing with two other riot grrrl bands in Resistor in Leiden; unlike playing with seven other young punk bands in Paradiso in Amsterdam; also unlike playing in the Vorstin in Hilversum, as only punk band in the line-up, but with many of their punk fans in the audience at this free concert.
How would the Catena audience react to them, the only non-regional band, the only punk band, the only band including women?
The music started later than the 19:30 which the poster says.
Salesmen played first. You could hear that they had rehearsed together for a long time; a tight band. Four middle-aged men, on drums, keyboards, bass and guitar/vocals. Mainstream rock, long guitar and drum solos.They clearly had fans, who applauded and danced.
The last band of the evening were Medgar, calling themselves alt-rock; from Leiden, with one of the four members from North Brabant province. They got the band name by adding the letter M before the name Edgar. They later found out that Medgar is also a name, known from the murdered United States civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
At 9 o’clock, between these two bands, Clitteband came on the stage. This was their first gig with their new backdrop.
Singer Emmi Dijk wore a purple dress and black fishnet stockings on this occasion, with her red hairdo a bit reminiscent of the B-52s. She is usually a singer and guitarist, but sadly, her guitar was broken, so she only sang. “A pity; but on the other hand, it meant that this time I could move more on stage” she told me.
So, this left Siem Bockweg, in a Viagra Boys T-shirt, as their only guitarist. This night, drummer Lucy Kliphuis and bassist Dieseldump wore all black. Dieseldump started the set with shouting the first two words of their first song: “Pieter Broertjes!!”, the name of the mayor of Hilversum. The song is ‘Killversum Mediarat’.
The song title alludes to the band’s hometown Hilversum calling itself ‘Mediastad’ (Media City), because many national TV and radio stations are there, and also to death and rats. Its lyrics are about prejudices against punk in Hilversum: “If you don’t wear a respectable upper middle-class polo shirt and your hair is not conformistically combed, then police may consider you a public enemy.” Immediately, the audience started moving frantically, matching the movements of the band members, especially Emmi.
Clitteband continued with another fast punk song: ‘Ich Bin Wasschmasin‘ (title in German. English translation: I Am A Washing Machine). It is often their last song at concerts, now, it was the second one. The people in the hall continued to pogo frantically, throughout the set till the end.
Their third song, ‘Roze Zonnebril‘ (Pink Sunglasses), had not been on their ‘Kattekwaad‘ album, though I had heard it already at their Hilversum gig. Emmi announced it with “There is so much stuff in the world making us angry! So, what should we do? Dance!” The ska-influenced tune caused mass skanking.
Then, ‘Zwartrijden‘, about fare evasion. It was also in their Hilversum set, but not on the LP. The next song ‘Hand in hand’ I had never heard before. Then came ‘Schurft’ (Scabies), also new for me.
They followed it with ‘Basisschool’ (Primary School) which they had also played in Paradiso. The lyrics say that powerful people, like politicians, should really go back to primary school. Here is the video of them playing it at Paradiso:
The next song, which is on their album, is ‘Gore Gozers‘ (Filthy Blokes). Lucy announced it, calling out toxic masculinity and misogynists (like the Tate brothers, who were accused in three countries of raping underage girls and other crimes, then released after the US Trump administration pressured the Romanian government at the Munich international security conference).
Before the next song, Emmi asked: “I have seen a man with a T-shirt which said “I am scared of women”. Is he in the hall?” He was not. Emmi: “Get him from elsewhere in the building”. The T-shirt man arrived in the hall. Emmi: “Come on stage. Are you really scared of women?” The T-shirt man: “Yes, of most women”. Emmi: “Correctly so!”, while pushing him off the stage to great applause. Immediately, the band started their next song ‘Feminist’.
Finally, their last song: ‘Roken Op Schoolterrein‘ (Smoking On The School Ground). The title is a bit similar to the 1973 song ‘Smokin’ in the Boys Room‘ by Brownsville Station, later covered by Mötley Crüe. Clitteband begin this song with with an a capella intro. This video is of that song at Paradiso:
Clitteband proved very convincingly that they can set audiences on fire – even not out-and-out punk audiences!
On 27th June, Clitteband will premiere their new EP at the Vorstin in Hilversum:
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