Voltmeister’s Square Wave #30

De Hip is a live music venue and eatery on the Brink, the central square in the old Hanseatic city of Deventer. The address, Brink 21, places it in the middle of the historic centre rather than on an industrial edge, which gives it the feel of a local meeting place as much as a concert hall. Visitors describe the place as somewhere you can combine a good meal with a night of music, and one review recalls a set menu served without any menu card, a dinner format that suits a room built around social evenings. The programme leans toward live bands and small to mid sized club shows. Touring artists from abroad have played the stage, among them American musicians who later thanked the room for a lively night, and a rock act that used De Hip for a warm up date before the start of a European tour. Local and cover bands are part of the mix too, and a Rolling Stones tribute session at the venue drew enthusiastic comments from people who were there. The music is broad in scope, with guitar driven rock sitting alongside more specialist events. One of the more unusual regular bookings is Square Wave, a free entry live music event for modular synthesists, organised with Voltmeister. It brings electronic performers working with modular equipment into a room that otherwise hosts band nights, which shows how flexible the programming can be. Taken together, De Hip works as a compact, central venue where a touring band, a local cover act and a niche electronic night can all fit within the same calendar.