Sept 8th
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| Sun Mammoth |
We arrived at the festival around 17:30, got our wristbands
(I got the ones for the band as well), checked into the Quibis, and we were
ready for something to eat and a cold beer. I could park the car right next to
the stage we were going to play on and sort of in the shade so this was
great..
On the Rio stage, the only stage
where bands were playing today, they were running a bit behind so we managed to
see the last 3 songs of
Sun Mammuth,
an PT instrumental stoner band. They were not bad.. Very colour haze inspired
at times, not many guitar solos.
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| Sunflowers |
Flavor Crystals, also played at Psycho
Las Vegas but we did not see them. We caught some of their set. A US band
playing dreamy post rock psych stuff. We did not see much of their set but you
could still hear them where we got some food. The Sunflowers were a wild PT
garage punk duo with a hell of an energy. This was wild and really fun stuff.
We started to run into some people we knew like Artsi, Heke, Sabine, Lone and
others so did not pay a lot of attention to them.
Blaak Heat was
the highlight of this evening for sure. Wow.. What a great US band. They were a
4 piece and mostly instrumental but also some singing but a great combination
of progish stoner 70s rock with some cool ethnic touches. I was pretty blown away.. Great band.
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| Blaak Heat |
J.C. Satan, from
France were a wild and crazy band as well. They started off pretty
uninteresting punky garage but then suddenly the concert turned into a totally
psychedelic freakout event and they really were awesome.. Super fun concert.
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| JC Satan |
Riding Pãnico,
another PT band was 6 piece instrumental band playing some really cool music.
Although they had 3 guitar players, they played solos sparingly at the start
but then really let it go later in the show with some great solos and
interaction between the musicians. Impressive playing. Cool band.
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| Riding Pãnico |
We were too tired from the 3hr drive, the experience with
the car the night before, etc. so we totally missed Thee Oh Sees but I heard really good things about them with their
two drummer approach to garage psych.
Sept 9th
 |
| Pigs x7 |
We were up pretty late like 11. Lucky last night it was not
super loud until 6am like the next couple of nights. I was due to play at a
special event called
Papir and Dr Space
which was replacing
The Papermoon
Sessions, since Sula and Lulu did not make it to the festival due to
specific requirements that the they wanted and the festival could not provide.
Pity… Anyway, there was some huge arguments and angry about his event from
Mogens (from ØSC), who basically lost out on playing a gig. I had hoped we could
just do a sort of different ØSC gig but there was a lot of miscommunication
between, me, Papir and the organizers so in the end it was just me jamming with
the Papir guys.
Before we played though
there was Pigs x 7 who played a very heavy bass driven (sounded like 3 bass
players, even though two were guitars!) stoner doom stuff. Very animated front
singer, who was getting fried in the direct sun but not a lot of dynamics in
the music.. just heavy and stoned doom…. We did not see any of the
Black
Wizards.
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| Paper meets Dr Space (foto by Sabine) |
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| Yawning Man w/dr Space (foto by Sabine) |
It was a great audience for the
Papir and Dr Space and we
played 3 or 4 songs of Papir but with more stretched out versions. I was
finding my feet during the first track but soon I felt comfortable in finding
my space/place in the band songs. The audience was totally into it and tripping
out. The band was really on fire. Wow… I managed to record this one. We also
missed
LSD and the Search for God,
that I really wanted to see. Did not see the
Silver Apples but I met him briefly.
Yawning Man was next up and I had never seen or met these guys but
they are good friends with Robb (3
rd Ear Experience) and we talked a
lot. Gary, Mario, Bill and the female bass player were all super cool. We got
on great and they talked me into playing with them on the last two songs of
their set! Anyway, they were really cool and the audience really liked it a
lot. They have songs they play but they jam a lot. A sort of dreamy desert
psych stuff. It was great fun..
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| Dead Meadow |
Dead Meadow was
finally a band we could check out. They had played at Roadburn a few times and
lots of times in Copenhagen but I never managed to see them but finally.. Wow…
This was a great 3 piece and the first band to have some really cool visual
projections.
Fantastic…
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| The Ravonettes |
The Ravonettes, a
Danish band that has travelled the world playing dreamy post rock, pop psych
stuff… A lot of people for their concert. We saw a few songs but it was not my
style of music but people were really enjoying it.
The
Brian Jones Town Massacre was next and I had talked a bit with the guys at
lunch as we were sitting at tables next to each other. Very cool guys.
I had never heard their music before. They
were a big band, 8 members with keys, three guitars, tambourine, bass, drums..
They played this sort of very stoned smooth grooving music. Several of the guys
sung lead and backing vocals. It was pretty cool but a bit too much the same
after a while. I was waiting and waiting for them to do some great jamming and
guitar solos but they didn’t unless that was at the very end, which we did not
see.
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| Brian Jonestown Massacre |
That was it for us. We did not see
A place to Bury Strangers or the
Ozric Tentacles. I really wanted to see OT as it has been some
years and they are one of my fave bands but they were not playing until
3:30-6am… I was later told they did not even start until 4am and that they had
bad sound. Way too much bass. We could feel it in our wooden hut 1km away as it
was making the door bang against the wood!!!
It kept Sue and our neighbor Paulo awake! All we could hear was the bass
though…
Sept 10th
 |
| Øresund Space Collective (foot by Sabine) |
Today, my band
Øresund
Space Collective are due to be the first band on the main stage at 16. We
had to be there around 14 to meet the crew, choose backline gear, and do a
soundcheck. Everything went perfect and the staff and crew are just amazing and
so professional. Every one of our needs was taken care of. Just awesome…
Due to playing, selling merch, meeting the
fans, I did not see a lot of bands this day.
Anyway, ØSC played to a smaller crowd than Paper meets Dr Space
yesterday but it was still a lot of people (400??) and they really enjoyed it.
I think we only had 3 jams in our 50min time slot but it was good. It was damn
hot as we were in the direct sun while playing and it was about 30C outside! Phew…
I met a lot of nice people and we sold 300€ worth of shirts and CDs. I sold the
CDs for 1 for 10€, 2 for 15€, 3 for 20€ and our old t-shirt design for 5€ and
the new colour ones for 10€…. Better to have people where them than to have
them in a box. We still make some money at these prices..
 |
| Papir |
Papir killed it..
What a great band and they had a bigger crowd. The people that saw Ozrics were
now starting to come back to life and go to the gigs.
Steak, who I met later and had dinner with, we totally missed as
they were just after ØSC. Cool people. We hardly saw any of the bands on the
Rio stage today (missed The Veldt, Radar Man from the Moon, and Earth Drive).
They moved some bands around as Killing Joke had cancelled. We also missed the
Cult of Dom Keller. Nik Turner’s new Space Ritual had been moved to the Rio
Stage and Mécanosphere to the big stage. Quartet of Whoa moved from the small
stage to the Rio stage.
 |
| Quartet of Whoa |
We caught a bit of the
Quartet of Whoa and I loved these guys. Organ driven, stoner rock meets
70s rock style stuff with great grooves and cool vocals (especially the organ
player) and riffs.
 |
| Nik Turner's new Space Ritual |
Nik Turner was next and we had met him back stage. It was nice to
see the bass player and guitar player that I had played with in Feb. Nik was in
a great mood as where the other guys. They had a sound effects guy named Nigel,
who is good mates with Vince, who I made some recordings with last year. Very
nice guys. Anyway, we missed Nik last night, where he played songs from his
Space Gypsy, Space Ritual and other albums, while tonight it was all Hawkwind
songs except Watching the Grass Grow. They opened with Born to Go, Watching the
Grass Grow, Children of the Sun (I had never heard him play that one),
Steppenwolf, Master of the Universe, and Brainstorm. There was one more as
well. Fun show. Nik is showing his age now though as the vocals are a bit weak
at times and he has trouble with his R’s..
Audience loved it and Nik and the band give a solid performance, with
driving bass and drums, spacey sounds and a more heavy metal guitar, not a
spacey one. Fun.
Méchanosphere was a
strange electronic set up with stand up bass, two samplers, drums, saxophone… a
2
nd drum kit as well. Dark electronic music.
 |
| Mechanosphere |
The Damned had a huge crowd and what crazy outfits these guys have.
The audience was really loving it but it was a bit too mainstream pop punk
stuff, neither Sue or I could get into it. Some great guitar solos though! Jiri
and Nick from ØSC really had a good time at this show.
We saw a bit of
Sisters
of Mercy but this for sure was not for me. Singer, guitar and bass playing
along to sampled drums and music. 80s goth pop sing-alongs. Ugh….. People were
having fun and they had some very cool lighting with all the fog and intense
colours. That was cool…
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| Sisters of Mercy |
With the Dead was
a huge surprise and this the 3
rd time I have seen them this year. It
was a massive sound. They were pretty fucking awesome. Wow.. I think they get
better and better. Much better than the record actually. I don’t think they
performed any new songs but we did not catch the end.
Later this night until 6am was Radar man
from the Moon, Mars Red Sky and then a Summer of Hate and guests jam session
which was some PT guys and the Mars Red Sky guys. I heard it was pretty cool..
There was also a third stage but we sadly did not see too many bands over there but I would like to mention
Twin Transistors, which was pretty cool stuff like Loop, Wooden Ships and we really liked what we heard of these guys.
We also so some of
Ossos D'Ouvido an instrumental band, a bit jazzy and doom. Intense drumming. I wish the guitar player would have taken more solos though. A promising young band for sure.
Just a great festival. We could tell it was a bit on the
cheap this year, with one less big stage, not the cool entrance or flyovers, no
art instillations, not very nice or many bathrooms… but this festival has
really been struggling and does not get the support it needs from the audience. A few things that could improve would be some sort of schedule by the entrance or the stages as since some bands cancelled and the schedule was altered and unless you had internet access you had no idea what had changed compared to the printed program. Also, information about the shuttles was really bad and people at the ticket box did not even have a clue... I also saw that access for handicap people was very difficult as the entrance was this deep sand and people on crutches and wheelchairs really had a hard time. This needs to be improved.
In the end if this festival is to continue, more people need to pay to come. This could be the last year. We do not know.
Nick, Pedro and Alex did an amazing job with the lineup, the great hospitality,
etc… There were some better food and drink places this year as well but beer
was much more expensive. They made you buy a plastic cup, which I think is a
good idea as there is not all this trash all around but beers used to be 2€ and
now were 3.5€. Anyway, fantastic festival. Highly recommended..
