Performing in a full Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam in May. It is a dream come true for the Eindhoven tribute band ‘Brucified’. The Bruce Springsteen cover band earned a half-hour performance at the pop temple last weekend thanks to the band’s third-place finish on the SBS6 program ‘The Tribute – Battle of the Bands’.
“I have goosebumps”, Mike Dekkers (39) of ‘Brucified’ told the radio program ‘Wakker!’ on Monday. on Omroep Brabant. “This is great. We were allowed to test run in an empty Ziggo Dome once. Then you enter there… that’s not normal dude, immensely big!”
“If you know that two years ago we played in a pub in Eindhoven for two hundred people and now for such a large audience, I must say that is a thing”, brother Nick (36) added.
The brothers are big fans of the American rock singer, guitarist and singer-songwriter. Just like the other seven members of their band. “We honor Springsteen’s music, but of course we are not the E Street Band,” Nick emphasized on the radio. “We try to make the whole thing as good as possible. Something that I think we have done well in recent weeks.”
A total of eleven bands took part in the SBS programme. The Nijmegen band ‘Queen Must Go On’ won the music competition. Second place went to Alexander Broussard and his Billy Joel Experience. ‘Brucefied’ thus claimed third place, ahead of Rootsriders. That’s a Bob Marley cover band.
‘Queen Must Go On’ earned a one-hour performance in the Ziggo Dome on 7 May with the overall victory in ‘The Tribute’. The other three finalists can also perform there, but for a shorter period of time. The Billy Joel Experience 45 minutes, so Brucified half an hour and Rootsiders 15 minutes.
The concert on May 7 is already sold out. “I already got some angry people on my WhatsApp,” Nick laughed. “They wondered how this could already be sold out. I said: logical, those people are all coming for us!”
“You will never forget this in your life”, Angela Groothuizen told the band members of ‘Brucified’ after the final, which was watched by more than 800,000 people on Saturday. “Then you immediately stand there and then you feel a tsunami of love coming over you.”
Golden Earring drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk – who, like Groothuizen, was a jury member during ‘The Tribute’ – is full of praise for what ‘Brucifed’ has shown during the music competition. He speaks of a ‘fantastic band’. “You’re going to get a lot of crowds when you play somewhere,” he said. “I swear!”
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