dEUS headline Antwerp's Live is Live during European tour

Belgian band dEUS will headline Antwerp’s second edition of the Live is Live festival on Sunday as part of their 2023 European tour. The group’s anticipated set featuring songs from their newest album, How to Replace It, will be held on the open-air mainstage at Middenvijver Park in Linkeroever.

Their new music, released in February, is the group’s eighth studio album and the first in more than 10 years. “We have been playing the best of dEUS for 10 years at concerts,” says Klaas Janzoons, the band’s keyboard player and violinist. “After a while, it feels like cheating even though people keep wanting to hear our old songs. Now we have brought out new stuff and can mix it with our classics, so the audience is surprised.”

While the band has seen several members come and go during their 32 years, Janzoons and Tom Barman, the lead vocalist and guitar player, are the two founding musicians who have been with dEUS from the beginning. The current tour sees them joined by drummer Stéphane Misseghers, bassist Alan Gevaert and guitarist and vocalist Mauro Pawlowski. Since 2004, Misseghers, Gevaert and Pawlowski have played on and off with the band.

dEUS were formed in Antwerp in 1991, and their music is best described as experimental rock. The latest album showcases an eclectic mix of tracks that came together during concentrated, short and explosive jam sessions. “When you release an album, you never know what will happen, but it is going very well. We have received mostly enthusiastic reviews,” says Janzoons. He says dEUS have never released an album if they don't feel comfortable about it and strive to avoid the danger that comes with growing older as a band such as putting out music that would be considered “old-fashioned”.

The tour, which will see the band play 62 venues, has already seen four sold-out concerts in Brussels' Ancienne Belgique and several other stops on the Belgian circuit, but Sunday will be the first stop in Antwerp.

“I’m not nervous most of the time anymore when I go on stage, but doing a hometown gig, there are a bit more nerves than normal,” says Janzoons. “It’s going to be 32 degrees, steaming hot, and we are going to be rocking like 35-year-old guys.”

The European dEUS tour started in March and will continue until the end of November.

(MOH)

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