_{Text: Sarah Fluit
Photos: Ivana van der Zant}

If you’re looking for great guitar riffs and hard-hitting drums, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are the place to be. After their mega success at Pinkpop, the band is in a packed Tivolivredenburg. The band hasn’t been idle in the meantime – they released two singles last year. One of them was ‘The Drugs’, recorded with none other than Jamie T. The band knows better than anyone how to translate their energetic songs into a sold-out Ronda.

There is so much going on during this show that you sometimes don’t know where to look. For example, Frank Carter is upside down in the audience, disappears into the mosh pit and is carried from one side to the other. The evening opened with ‘Tyrant Lizard King’ from the album ‘End Of Suffering’ from 2019. The audience goes crazy from the first moment, just like Frank Carter himself. He is already in the swirling crowd from the first song. There he is swallowed by the masses and lifted upside down. The show continues from the audience where he is welcomed with open arms. The concert is full of these kinds of interactions that sometimes make it seem as if we are part of the entire performance.

Not much later, Frank Carter speaks and asks to open a pit. His words are: “This mosh pit is for the ladies only and anyone non-binary. This is their mosh pit”. All the women move forward and start to go wild during the song Wild Flowers. If you are in between, this pit feels like a warm hug, where everyone feels safe. However, that feeling soon passed. When the band starts the next song, all brakes are released again and you risk being knocked over. This is due to the large number of men who participate again.

Carter then speaks again and tells us that it is his daughter’s birthday. He pulls out his phone and asks us to sing “Happy Birthday” to her. He films this and was showered with love from the audience. He dedicates the next song ‘Lullaby’ to his daughter and again he films this to send to her later. Not only Carter, but also Dean Richardson ventures to a public visit. For example, he plays the song “Devil Inside Of Me” from the crowd where he is held up. While he plays his guitar.

Unfortunately, good things also come to an end. To say that Carter and his band have a charismatic stage presence is an understatement. It’s hard to think of an act that contains the same energy level. They delivered what could rank as one of the most exciting shows of 2022.