05-12-2012 Di-rect
On the 5th of December the Dutch band Di-rect performed in the Metropool in Hengelo. They gave a concert to promote their last coming
album called ‘Time will heal our senses’. They played several new songs of this album, but also some older songs who are pretty popular. There
was also a support band called ‘Soul Sister dance revolution’.
I went to this concert because Di-rect is one of my favourite Dutch bands. I had seen them already three times live before this performance.
And because I knew how well they play live, I wished to see them again. Also i’ve been to all of the tours they’ve given until now, so I didn’t
want to miss one.
Di-rect is a Dutch band coming from The Hague. The band started off in 1999 with singer Tim Akkerman, spike van Zoest on the guitar, Bas van
wageningen playing bass and Jamie Westland who did the drums. In 9 years they climbed up to a steady Dutch rock band with a lot of hits on
their name. In total they’ve released 5 studio albums and one live albums. Those albums were home to at least 17 singles holding chart
position. Pretty good huh? For a band imitating the American garage-rock sound attracting a lot of girls.
But on the 12th of March a sudden end came to their success. The singer Tim Akkerman decided that he no longer wanted to continue with the
band. He went solo after his decision. The rest of the band did want to continue but didn’t know how exactly. After some deliberation di-rect
came out with a new talent show called ‘wie is Di-rect?’ In this program they searched for a new singer. And a new singer they’ve found,
Marcel Veenendaal won the competition and came to strengthen the band
With the arrival of Marcel in Di-rect a new wind blew through their music. Their sound changed from pop rock/-punk to adult Britpop. Also at
the same time marcel came, a keyboardist was added. This definitely helped layering their sound and gave some soul to their music. Because
of the striking sound change when the new singer came, people often refer to the ‘old di-rect’ and the ‘new di-rect’
The ‘new di-rect’ has made two albums. Their first album is called ‘this is who we are’. You could see this album as a sort of introduction. It
shows the amazing voice marcel has and how their music has changed. It’s hard to name a main theme, but I would say it’s about life and all its
complexions. This seems like a big theme, nevertheless Di-rect knew to completely cover this theme by layering their music with complicated
guitar riffs and meaningful texts. Their second album is called ‘time will heal our senses’. This album is made high up in the mountains of the