22.00
While Matthew Bellamy’s pathos is softly choking us, we read the electronic notice board. The first message told us Beulah would play an extra concert at midnight and the second one told us many things: "WARNING! DIXIT THE PRODIGY – WARNING! DURING THE CONCERT OF THE PRODIGY STROBE LIGHTING WILL BE USED THAT COULD LEAD TO EPILEPTIC ATTACKS (dixit The Prodigy) – WARNING! AMPLIFIED SOUND USED DURING THE CONCERT OF THE PRODIGY MAY LEAD TO HEARING PROBLEMS (dixit The Prodigy) – WARNING! DURING THE CONCERT OF THE PRODIGY THE USE OF CAMERAS OR FLASHES IS PROHIBITED. IF SPOTTED, THE MATERIAL WILL BE CONFISCATED BY MEN ON THE TERRAIN (dixit The Prodigy)"
Well, it looks like we should prepare for Armageddon and apparently it wasn’t any better on the other side of the stage as we can see on the warning signs The Prodigy had hung there (see below). No really, how can we still take The Prodigy serious? Britney Spears is less cautious.
And so are Zoot Woman (22.40, dance). You might know them from their singles Living in a Magazine and It’s Automatic, songs they played at the beginning of the concert. So if you were standing in the front rows at the Muse concert and you decided to see Zoot Woman, you missed the hits by the time you arrived. Zoot Woman brought out their guitars, which seems strange for a band at the Dance Hall. Certainly if you take into account that the more dance-like Tricky (22.40) was playing at the Marquee. It probably has to do with Tricky being bigger and needing a bigger stage.
Oh yes, Tricky. He Who Gets Worse Every Record had brought along some friends. Actually, the friends had brought a silent weirdo along. "Who’s that shade mumbling in the back?" someone might have asked me. It’s Tricky and he was there to make the naughty kids sleepy if they managed to stay awake during Sophia’s gig. The rare highlights of the concert were the ones where Tricky was not involved in at all (especially Black Steel sprang out). The next day Tricky and friends played in Holland and their concert was virtually the same and equally disappointing. Makes you wonder why festival organisers don’t just place a cardboard Tricky on stage and play the record. Would be cheaper and it would sound the same or probably more charismatic.
More charisma at the ChateauXcrapule tent where we could watch Aka Moon (22.00). Open your eyes and see four people: a drummer, a DJ, a guitarist and a saxophonist. Aka Moon play a melange of rock, jazz and dance. Now that a rock guitar can be used in a jazz combo, I knew. I also knew that some rock bands have someone play a saxophone. But who ever knew a DJ’s scratching could be a jazz instrument? I didn’t and I was amazed. Hurrah for them playing three musical styles. Hurrah for them being there. Hurrah.
I found it unfair to dismiss the Shelter after only one DJ, so I decided to have a listen to DJ Snowbrother DHM (22.00) I was back out after one minute and didn’t any longer think I had been unfair.

23.00
Paul Daley (23.00, boiler) is part of Leftfield and was the headliner in the dance area. I really liked to listen to his music, but for some reason my feet found it difficult to follow his rhythms. Seeing that the other kids had less problems with that, I hung my head down and dragged myself out the tent, knowing I would come back for revenge.
I raised my head at the club where Fireside (22.45) were playing. A well-chosen name as they sound like you would if your ass was on fire.
Fire… that reminds me of The Prodigy (23.40, main). I guess the concert was only deafening if you held your ears close to the speakers. And the amazing light effects? Well, the lights went on and off. The band sounded like they couldn’t be arsed to entertain the crowd, but part of the crowd liked it anyway. An amazingly large number of people left the Pukkelpop grounds though during the Prodigy’s effortless exercise in tediousness. The Firestarters have become the Fire Squad. From Smack my bitch up they moved on to Don’t touch me, I’m a wussy. The many warnings were unnecessary. I only hoped one person would sprain an ankle dancing at The Prodigy’s concert and then would sue them. Just wandering if that would inspire them to the text "WARNING! DANCING AT THE PRODIGY’S CONCERT COULD LEAD TO PHYSICAL ACCIDENTS. DANCE AT YOUR OWN RISK (dixit The Prodigy)". Still, the leavers were wrong because someone was playing at the skate stage and listened to the name Less Than Jake (23.45) Before we could say anything, their frontman confessed "Yes, before you are going to heckle us, yes, we’re stupid Americans and George W. Bush is a cocksucking bastard!" And a good evening to you too. The band was actually quite a lot of fun. They even had a member with a skull mask who had a fire act. Fire act, Firestarters, Fireside… was that an omen?

00.00
Poor poor Beulah. Their singer had been in Holland and he was on time, but the rest of the band had flight problems from London to Brussels. Then their car had a flat tyre on the way to Pukkelpop. And troubles weren’t over yet… due to technical problems with their instruments Beulah couldn’t start playing at midnight. It was just over 00.30 when their first song filled the ChateauXcrapule tent. In the tent only 50 people. The rest were either unaware of the concert or preferred the company of The Prodigy or Paul Daley. Their loss! I was proud to be one of fifty people on the grounds able to read. The fifty people were either dedicated fans or people who admired the band for still wanting to play after so much bad luck. But Pukkelpop is over at 01.00, so all in all Beulah only played for 25 minutes and only because they wanted to play us some songs despite the technical problems they were still having. So I feel I can’t say anything definitive on Beulah, except that I will try to listen to one of the band’s records. In better circumstances, their post-rock could have swept people off their feet, I guess. Quite enchanting: the two 13-year old girls who kept dancing fanatically on the small wooden floor near the seats during the concert. It must have made the band feel better.

So that was it?
Not quite! Pukkelpop still had one surprise up its sleeve: an art ensemble performed a play in the middle of the main field with giant dolls, medieval motives and lots of fireworks. (Don’t worry, the audience was kept at a safe distance.) It was a very special end of the festival and the whole thing lasted 20 minutes. Only some die-hard Papa Roach fans yelled it was ‘boring’, but that’s what you get when you’re sixteen, brainless and even three days of good music can’t make you get good taste. Let’s not worry! They will go wherever the next hype will play, we will be back for Pukkelpop 2002.

(all the pictures were taken from the Pukkelpop website, except the Beulah picture which was taken from the VPRO site).

Text: Kurt Aerden