7:30 I am sitting at the gate
waiting to fly to Amsterdam and then catch the train to Tilburg. I did not
sleep well last night so I am really tired. It will make today quite tough..
This year I am staying at a B&B quite close to the venue with my friend
Anders and all my Danish friends are camping out.
9:30 All went smooth. There were
about 10 or more on this flight going to Roadburn, some from Sweden, Norway,
Finland as well as Danes…
10:10 We got a train pretty quickly today to Breda
and then to Tilburg. A fast train for 20€. I am sitting with some Swedish guys,
one from Umeå, who has a band that used to be called Magic Lanterns but are now
called UFO over Lapland. His friend Anders is from Malmo. All very cool people.
Amazing weather today.. Sunny and warm..
11:09 We are now on the train to Tilburg
and will arrive at 11:23.. Quick trip, which is nice as I might get a chance to
rest.
12:00 At the B&B and got my
wristband and an all access pass this year. Thanks Walter.. I promise to only
put it to good use. This will be my 10th year in a row writing about
Roadburn! Wow…. 10 years of my life…
13:30 I was starving so I had to
go get some food before Anders had arrived. Schnitzel, fries and salad.. A lot
of food… and coke.. See and talk to quite a few people I know or have met from
Sweden, Holland, Finland, etc… JJ from the Obelisk…. So great to be back at Roadburn. It is like
meeting your extended family that you see only once a year. So many cool and
interesting people. All here, dedicated to the music…
15:15 I saw the beginning of the Solstafir show playing along to an
Icelandic movie. That was really cool and I for sure have to look up and see this film. I really wanted to see the Tower so
I had to leave. I quite liked their debut album and was looking forward to see
them. They started off slowly with the first two songs being not that good and
catching me but then the third song, Lucy was totally amazing. Really cool
guitar playing. The singer was really into his own zone, a bit like Joe Cocker
at times and then other times just out there.. but totally focused and into his
art. The bass player was a colourful character and several people questioned
whether it was a man or woman?? Cool bass lines… They next played a new song
called Zeitung. Also cool.. I think this is the one I filmed. The Tower ended
their set and was a long track with a lot of guitar and singing parts. Great
set.
Set List: Adrenalawine, Exile,
Lucy, Zeitung, Moonstoned, Wounds, The Tower.
Set List: Pink Flamingos, The
Vampire Strikes Back, Creep Purple, Ego Trip, Nothing Hill.
18:00 Finally, met up with Nils,
Sven, Magnus and Ausie at a local bar. They had not seen any music yet and were
taking it really slow. I also have been taking it a bit slow but Spidergawd
were up next and I needed to see them. I think they will be very good live…
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| Spidergawd |
Set List: ?, ?, ?, Fixin to Die, Crossroads, Empty Rooms, Made from Sin, Is all she Says, Into Tomorrow, Tourniquet, Blauer Jubel, Sanctuary
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| Russian Circles |
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| Moaning Cities |
Set List: Bread, Panic, New Tim, Please, Easter, Slap New Vel, 2voix, Vandel, ?
22:15 I had time to catch the last
three songs of Wovenhand, as I had
heard so much about this dark Americana guy and it was about time I heard it
for myself. He usually plays by himself or as a duo from what I understand. This
was a 4 piece band with two guitarists. I don’t know how to explain it. The
songs were, just songs, with some groove but it was not really heavy or bluesy
or…… I don’t know. The room was full but I just did not connect with it at all.
Martin from Litmus said he felt the same way..
People really seem to love it though.
 |
| Wovenhand |
23:30 Kandodo with Robert Hampson was very cool and super intense. You
could choose this or Eyehategod on
the main stage. Helms Alee was also playing at this time. Very repetitive and a
lot of spacey E-bow guitar from the Heads guitar player. Robert played more of
the heavy stuff. A lot of the bass and
drum lines were very straightforward and repeated over and over. It created a
cool wall of sound for the guitar parts to just space over and in and out. It
was very intense being right up front. Phew…. I had to go outside and rest
after that mindblower.
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| Kandodo |
Set List: Kandy Rock Mountain,
Dawn Harmonix, Lord Hyena, Swim>Sun, 3-l ‘e’
I had wanted to catch a bit of Lazer/Wulf before Mugstar, who were
also overlapping with Bongripper
playing their record Miserable. Anyway,
I have known the Mugstar guys via the internet and finally met them in Portugal
last summer and they are lovely cool people. I bought a couple of their records
that I did not have. They gave me a shirt! Anyway, Mugstar were probably the highlight of the day with a 65 min set of
almost entirely high paced, intense psychedelic rock with dual guitars and a
bit of synth here and there and just super intense drumming. Wow… That guy was
amazingly powerful and drove the band to the stratosphere! End of the night for me and straight back to
the B&B…
 |
| Mugstar |
Set list: Sunburnt, Unearth,
Serra, La Valléé, Black Fountain, Flemish Weave, Fuel to Burn, Axis, Ourboros,
Bethany
Day 2
Was up about 10 and feeling pretty
good. Had an excellent breakfast. The weather looks awesome outside. Anders is
off to Utrecht for the worlds largest record fair and will be back later. Today
I plan to start with these two Enslaved side projects: Einar Selvik Workshop
and Ivar Bjørenson’s Bardspec.
13:30 Hanging out with Gustav and
Mikael at a local café and chatting about music. Really cool guys. I will check
out Einar first off..
15:45 The Einar Selvik Workshop blew my mind. What an amazing human being. He
started off for 15mins and spoke passionately about his connection to Nordic
history and nature and now music. He was very passionate and into his art and
try to convey the path of looking closely at nature and your surrounding and
becoming one with the earth again. He played 3 or 4 songs on these cool ancient
instruments and that was just amazing.. He reminds me of my friend Jesper from
Gas Giant… These guys share the same spirit. I spoke to him afterwards and told
him how much his speech and music had touched me. I was really taken. Wow..
 |
| Ivar |
 |
| Majeure |
I quickly got some ribs and beer
and then over to squeeze into see Pekko
Käppi and K:H:H:L in the Bat Cave. My friend Arto had suggested this. I
loved it. Very raw, emotional simple passionate freak flag blues stories..
Pekko is so into what he is doing and playing this far out lyre like instrument
with wah and some effects and the way he sings like he is possessed by a
Haitian voodoo priest.. far out…
 |
| Pekko Käppi |
Set List: Hogweed, Rubberlegged, A Norwegian Requiem, Voodoo, Sjö &Land, Medic, Flapping Lips at Ankle Height
 |
| Brimstone |
Straight
away I was up on the balcony for Focus.
I had seen this classic prog band from Holland about 5-6 years ago as Sweden
Rock and thought they were excellent. Today was no exception. High quality
mostly instrumental jazz-prog rock that takes you right back to the early 70s.
The band plays the same classic songs every show plus a few new songs. All the
players are really excellent. Amazing guitar player.. The room was so hot I was
going to pass out so I had to go get some water and then I came back. Great
concert.
 |
| Focus |
 |
| The Heads |
 |
| Agusa |
 |
| Skuggsjå |
Day 3
 |
| Coma Wall |
Death Penalty, the guitar player from Cathedral’s new heavy metal band. They are fronted by a powerful (German?) female singer. She reminded me of Doro from Warlock on the faster songs. This was straight up 80s metal. The guitar parts and riffs were really good. It was nothing new at all but hard rocking metal. I think I saw 4 songs..
Miava was the first band I have been
able to see a bit of in Cul de Sac as it is alwasys so packed it is impossible
to get into. This is the worst venue for the crowds. This was an instrumental 4
piece bands playing really groovy dynamic stoner rock. The guitar player on the
left looked a lot like the guy from Monkey 3. Musically they had some
similarities at times but this band rocked harder. Cool stuff..
 |
| Miava |
 |
| Domo |
After
Domo I tried to see a bit of Messenger
but it was really laid back neo-prog folk but I could not really see them and
it sounded a bit boring.. The Heads were
totally awesome and Walter did the cool visuals with a library of stuff
borrowed from Jacob of Causa Sui, who did some awesome visuals for bands here
years ago. Powerful shorter songs with only one really long piece. The sound
was not right on the big stage though. The drums and bass were just too loud
and the guitars were supposed to be really in your face and sometimes you could
hardly hear the lead guitar player. Pity.. it would have made the experience
more intense like it was upfront in the church. Phew.. Killer…
 |
| Zoltan |
 |
| Undersmile |
Zotlan had a lot of analog keyboards and no laptops but was bass,
drums and synths. They sounded like Goblin without the guitars. They had some
cool movies. I really liked it but I did still miss the guitars. Undersmile was the same as Coma Wall
but electric and I did not like this at all. It was just hard to describe but
it drove me away.
 |
| Mugstar |
Hung out with my Danish friends for Zombi and this was pretty cool for the 20mins or so that I saw but the synths were mostly just preset sounds and not that much real playing but he had to play the bass as well. Still some pretty cool music.
 |
| Zombi |
I did not seem much before going to the green room to join the Finnish people to hear the melodic progressive rock band Sammal. This was really a great concert. I loved it and is was the most happy music I heard at the entire festival and the singer was amazing. Fantastic voice and although they don’t play really long prog songs, they do them all really well and have a great guitar player. Excellent concert. Wish they had played a bit longer though. Great come down after an intense day…. Amazing day of music. One more to go…
 |
| Sammal |
White Hills are the first band on
today. I will meet them before and after the show as I will play with them in
two days. Feel pretty fresh today for the 4th day. Had lunch with
Arto and Anders and then headed over to the 013 to see if the White Hills
people were around. We hung out and together for 30mins before their set and I
met the new drummer, Rodney, from the LA band Farflung.
16 White Hills played a really new set for them. Gone was the
electrified sonic psychedelic wall of guitar sound and in fact two of the new
songs had almost no guitar at all. A bit like the NY band Suicide, perhaps. All
but one of the first like 6 songs was from the new record. People were happy to
hear Condition of Nothing a bit of blazing guitar. The visual movie with all
these doors and windows I found a bit creepy and disturbing. Ego said that was
good. They were inspired by a Robert Wilson play they saw. Anyway, the next
part was a medley of older track including H1P1 without the long guitar part
(bummer!) and then the really cool space DBA and that was really great. I liked
that best. Eternity and Peace of Mind closed their 55 mins set. I liked it but
I have to admit it is really different and not what people expect from White
Hills. Some of my fried liked it and a lot did not, they totally missed the
great guitar solos and jams and that wall of sound, which is pretty much
totally gone now.
Set List: Intro, No Will, Lead the
Way, Condition of Nothing, Wanderlust, LSD or USB, We are what you are, H-P1,
Don’t be Afraid, Eternity,
A heavy metal band, Argus was next up but I was not at all in the mood for that. I talked with White Hills for a while and then caught some of Bongripper. These guys are just massive but again I could not handle this wall of doom with our guitar solos for more than 15mins. People were totally into it and that is cool…. Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell played a kick as set and this was perhaps the best I had seen them since the first time they played in the Bat Cave. They really had a great energy, humor and rocked! They did not play any new songs tonight, which was a bummer as they apparently played mostly new songs at their other show at the Cul de Sac two days ago.. I also hung out with them a bit backstage and they were really funny and cool people..
GOBLIN played along to the classic Dario Argento film, Suspiria in
the main hall and this you need to be there from the beginning and take in the
whole experience. I was not really up for that and I had seen the film many
times. The place was filled and the sound was great. My friend Nils said it was
awesome.
I caught the first 3-4 songs of Lo-Pan, who have the largest band
member of the entire festival. The singer Jeff is a huge guy but super cool. I
spoke to him before the show and wished him luck. He had a nice Simpsons shirt
on. They were really powerful stoner rock but the songs were nearly all the
same and only at the last song (which I came back to and heard) was there any
lead guitar really… Very powerful with a melodic and not at all screamed vocal.
People were into it for sure.
Set List: Eldorado, Re Gulus, Land
of Blind, NPD, New. Colussus, Vox, Eastern, Duke
Abrahma was a huge surprise. I only have their split single with Wo
Fat and these guys blew me away. I saw nearly the entire show and they were
great. Singer has a cool voice and I dig the variation in stoner, a bit doomy,
high intensity jammed out sections.. Very cool band. Saw all my dutch psych
fans there again… Awesome and what a surprise.
Set List: Fountains, Offspring, Headless, Heavy, Neptune, Omens 1 and 2.
 |
| Abrhama |
Set List: Fountains, Offspring, Headless, Heavy, Neptune, Omens 1 and 2.
Anathema was next on the main stage playing a retrospective show
with some of the old original members as well. I only saw the first two songs
and I did not like it at all. Some sort of pop music, ugh… Anyway, my friend Anders said it was a very
impressive show and they started with their new material and slowly worked
their way back to their oldest material where the old members joined and it got
more and more heavy and more metal. He was very impressed.
Terminal Cheesecake was a mindblowing show. I stood and watched
this show with Rodney, the new White Hills drummer. This is the singer from the
UK psych band, GNOD, their old singer. I thought this was a new band but Dave
from White Hills said it was an old band and that he actually helped push them
to get back together! Anyway, this was super intense high energy psychedelic
rock with crazy vocals, wild guitar, pounding drums, and bass lines.. just
totally over the top madness with a Ramones like singer who was out of
control.. Madness of the highest order .. Intense and far out.. Phew…
 |
| Terminal Cheesecake |
I ended the night with the Golden Grass which took me back to the
days of Humble Pie, Grand Funk Railroad, Captain Beyond…. Amazing New York
band. They played a great set for 50mins and people were totally into it… What a great Roadburn, once again. Still the best festival in the world!
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| The Golden Grass |
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