Simplon UP:
Dan and the Middle Men + Donkey Kung Fu

The 2^nd of March it’s time for a night full of garage rock and garage punk in UP!

Dan and the Middle Men is an energetic garage rock band from Groningen, with influences ranging from Led Zeppelin to Soundgarden. Dan and the Middle Men started as Daniel Devoy’s solo project in Dublin. During the Covid pandemic, Dan found ‘his middle men’ in Groningen and the four-piece band was formed. In 2021 the band released their first EP ‘Pattern Recognition Machine’. Heavy slow grooves and energetic fuzzy riffs characterise their sound. A successful combination, because their single “The Haze” was voted the 6th best song from Groningen soil in 2022 by 3voor12. Briefly: you certainly don’t want to miss this band.

Donkey Kung Fu is a trio from Amsterdam that makes alternative rock with small noise, rave and pop influences. Armed with a lot of samplers, loopers, and other obscure effects pedals, their music is all over the place on stage. There is a lot of improvisation, so every live show is different! Sometimes it sounds like a runaway Atari computer with bouncing electronics and robot bleeps, sometimes like a fairground ride with QOTSA-like tempo changes. With their debut EP M3tal (2021), Donkey Kung Fu tributes their common teenage love: metal. The second EP Kung Fu EP (2022) followed exactly 6 months after the debut EP, and on this EP the band takes a step further in terms of effects. Donkey Kung Fu has previously played at Popronde, Incubate and Grasnapolsky. Their show at Grasnapolsky was described as ‘Franz Ferdinand on speed’. Now it’s time to hit the stage of UP!

The dj of the evening is DJ Wijtske.