Hayes' Finest Rock Tunes

John Hayes Project in Café Spinners Cuijk, 25 April 2009 (Ronald Says 4 out of 5)

During my teenage years I grew up in a small town called Cuijk that I still visit occasionally. A friend of mine there told me I should really come over 25th of April when John Hayes would play a local bar. And so I did!

The only thing I knew about John Hayes was that he used to play in the great funk rock band Mother's Finest. Now he's playing with the "John Hayes Project". His regular bass player was replaced with Barend Courbois, best known for playing with Dutch rock band Vengeance. To my surprise I found Gus Genser sitting behind the drum kit who used to play for Herman Brood's Wild Romance. This promised to be a loud evening. And in the beginning it sure was. The volume was way too much for the small bar. Fortunately they turned it down after the first set. The band sure didn't. They rocked hard with great grooves and Hayes was playing some killer riffs. Courbois was just amazing on bass playing solid rock riffs and funky slapping beats. Genser was doing what he's always doing: hitting hard and giving it all!

The second set they had a surprise and a guest vocalist joined in. I didn't catch his name and wasn't able to find out anymore since my good friend Mr. Beer needed my attention (if anyone knows contact me). However this turned out to be the best part of the show. It was a blend of Peppers and Rage Against the Machine and Hayes could devote himself to great solo's and riffs. After the second break they played one more song and called it a night. But what a great night! This band deserves a bigger stage to show their stuff.