Weds April 10th
Arrived in Tilburg from Porto at just before 15. Met Walter and we had
a nice 15min chat and I gave him some CDs of some of my releases with mine and
other bands. He was in a good mood after being really sick last week and
spending 5 days in bed. Phew…
Roadburn has never been so early as this and it is going to be much
colder the next days. Sunny and 11-13C but down to 0 at night and on the
weekend only a high of 7-8C, which is 20C less than last year. Crazy….
Anyway, the free bands start tonight at the Green Room instead of the
Cul De sac. I think this is a good idea. 800 people room, instead of 120… People that are around seem to be in a great
mood. I see a lot of the same people every year, where Roadburn is just something that you do every year like Christmas but much better! Look forward to see Temple Fang, ex-Death Alley guy and some from Mühr.
We ate at the Ribs place and the food was excellent. They no longer
take cash so I had to pay with my card and get paid back by Anders and
Ann-Karin as they had left theirs in the room.
Not a lot of people when we arrive 20mins before Temple Fang were to hit
the stage so we grabbed a beer and headed up to the balcony. I had a chat with
JJ from the Obelisk. He was looking good, not as thin as last year.
Temple Fang opened with a long spacey track where the left handed
guitar player (they both are lefties) on the right sand the lead. He has a cool
voice. He would also sing some backing but this on was the only one where he
was the lead vocals. Great moody track. The bass player (ex-Death Alley) took
over the lead vocal duties and laid down that early Motorhead Rickenbacker
sound. The sounds were diverse and more
a 70s vibe with some cool guitar parts. They really rocked out on the last
number. You can still hear this is a young band that needs to get some more
hours of playing under their belt but we enjoyed it.
 |
| Temple Fang |
Great Grief, a hardcore band from Iceland, were next followed by Scottish Thrash metal band Hellripper was up next but after talking with some
old friends (Kai from Norway, Richard and some of the local psych heads, Zach
from Joy), … we headed to a Belgian/Craft beer bar on Telegraphstraat, not to
far away. Cozy place with great beer. I had three of the draft ones. Transmission,
a great IPA, Iron Dice (War Pigs, CPH) and Gatekeeper, a porter. All were
excellent.
Headed home at 12 for some sleep.
Thursday April 11th
Roadburn is about to begin. Sherpa will be my first band today in the
Church and then to the main hall for Myrkur and I hope to catch the end of
Crippled Black Phoenix. Bismuth is also playing. These were 4 of the bands I
really wanted to see today but they all play overlapping so hard choices have
to be made…
The Sherpa concert was a
great way to start the festival. Mellow
but with some heavy dynamics at times. The bass player was very unique and used
a fretless bass with an E-bow a lot on the songs and played some odd
rhythms. They just played their new
album from start to finish. IT was much heavier live. It was a pity the left
handed lead guitar player who made all the atmospheric stuff you could barely
hear him. This will be a problem the
rest of the day for many bands, too much bass and drums and too little
guitar. Great concert.
 |
| Sherpa |
From Denmark is a
band lead by female multi-instrumentalist, Myrkur. Wow. What a cool band. Two
female backing singers, mandolin, guitar, violin (Stefan from Garmarna), cello
and floor tom. Some of it reminded me a lot of Garmarna, the old Swedish folk
band, who I saw and interviewed a couple of times. Amazing selection of old Nordic songs and her
own. I really loved this.
 |
| Myrkur |
After this finished and walked as fast as I could over to the Koepelhal
to catch the last hour or so of Crippled
Black Phoenix. It was a big band with three guitars, bass, drums and piano
and synth player. They were in full flight and very much Pink Floyd inspired. I
thought this before they came out and ended the show with a 25mins version of
Echoes. That was pretty cool except towards the end they went into a strange
song, old song from 64 called Telstar (thanks Anders) and then back into
Echoes. IT was a pity the lead guitar player playing all the Gilmour parts was
so low in the mix. It would have been 50% better if he was not so buried.
Amazing how the sound guys just think the drums and bass are what is
important?? These lead parts make the song. Not just that it is heavy.
 |
| Crippled Black Phoenix |
I went to the rib place and had a quick dinner. That was excellent.
I went straight and checked out some of Molasses, new Devil’s Blood-Astrosoniq, Death Alley member group I
watched two songs but I was just not drawn into it. Female singer was powerful
and charismatic but the music was not doing it for me. It was heavy and dark
and just a bit strange. People seem to dig it. 
 |
| Slægt |
 |
| Hexvessel |
After this I ran straight over to catch Mythic Sunship at the skate park. All the psychedelic stoner freaks
were there. We all are together at all these show. The same 40 or so of us that
don’t miss any of the psych or stoner stuff. Funny. I got right up in the front
with my friends, Anders, Mikael, Gustav, Miguel, etc.… It was time to rock.
Although the sound is terrible in this place if you are up front it manageable.
They just kicked our ass with super cool songs and great guitar solos and a really
energy and groove. Blew me away totally. This was my favourite show so far
today. I had to leave after 4 songs though as I needed to catch and see the
entire Heilung show from start to finish. Set List: Anakonda, Tektonic, Heavy Støjflade, Danske Rock
I could have run over and tried to catch the end of Midnight at Koepelhal but I just
decided it was time to rest so I went into the backstage area in the basement
and just sat on a bench and had a Pepsi. I had already seen almost 6 hrs of
music with only one short break! Hardly anyone was around so I could write in
my diary. Bliss Signal was making a
lot of noise in the green room but I needed a rest.
Mono with the Jo Quail
Quartet were next on the main stage and this was a big set up and they started
a few minutes behind schedule but what an amazing and impressive sound. The
music was very beautiful, sorrowful, and emotional and then would explode into
a heavy crazy world and die back down. They entire set sort of when through
this with nearly each number. Sometimes with grand piano but they string
quartet added a different element. It was emotional and very powerful but each
song ended up in the same place usually so it became a bit predictable. Very
cool show.
 |
| Mono |
Set List: Hymn to the Immortal
Wind- Ashes in the Snow
Burial at Sea, Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn, Pure as Snow (Trails of
the Winter Storm), Follow the Map, The Battle to Heaven, Everlasting Light
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| Pharmakon |
 |
| Crypt Trip |
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| Crypt Trip- Ryan |
They rocked the place for about an hour. A good southern vibe sneaks
into their music but Ryan uses more effects to he had these psychedelic guitar
solos. Then their friend Christian Ellis came out on 2nd guitar they
played stuff that could be like the Outlaws.
It was a solid set but one where they play all the songs 3-4mins long
with no risks taken, just straight like the record. Great way to end the night. Fun stuff.
Friday April 12th
Three shows with Seven that Spells today. It has been many years since
I met Niko and seen them play. It is always a great band. Lots of overlaps
today including Mythic Sunship on at the same time as Triptykon playing the
Requiem. This is a must see as it will only happen this one time ever. Grails
are on same time as Gösta Berlings Saga, Black Bombaim and Peter Brotzmann
overlap with At the Gates. Lots of interesting bands again today. I am tied so
I will hang out till Seven that Spells at 15. The band GOLD is on at 14 in the church. This was some pretty emotional
heavy stuff when I heard it on the net. Throane
were also on early playing their entire Rite of the Torch album. |
| Niko- 7 that Spells |
Seven that Spells are back at Roadburn after about 10 years and they have not played live much the last years. I spoke with Niko and the band backstage before the show and they were excited to play. First time ever to play sober! It had been quite some years since I saw them last and they are still as intense as they were. Amazing drummer and bass player. the 2nd guitar player also plays some synths and he and the bass player do some really great vocals as well. Niko played a few far out solos, inspired by AMT. Cool and powerful set.
This was an amazing and
very moving piece of music with lots of female voice, lead and choir (4 young girls)
plus a full metal band with two guitars, bass and drums. IT was a total of 24
people on stage including the conductor.
Nice lighting, great sound after the first heavy part, where the
orchestra was drowned out completely.
Fantastic. Wow. Congrats to
Roadburn and Tom Warrior for pulling this off. I ran into Tom later in the
night and congratulated him.
Now it was back to Seven that
Spells playing IO. Niko and they guys decided it was too boring to play
straight and had started to have some beers and loosen up a bit and totally
smashed the place during this 2nd album. Wow. It was insane and
powerful and hypnotic. Phew…
No time to get to the church to see Deafkids & Petbrick, so over to the main stage for Anna Von Hausswolff. I heard great
things about her but never heard or seen her. The room was pretty packed and
from what I gather she is a very popular artist. The music was very emotional.
She stood in the fog behind a keyboard and had a haunting range of amazing
voices and a powerful band. It was not really heavy metal, some sort of
dramatic emotional rock, not pop at all. Hard to describe but quite powerful
and captivating.
 |
| Anna Von Hausswolff |
I did not get to see much before it was time for the 3rd Seven that Spells record, Omega. This
time, the band went for powerful hypnotizing and the drummer was given 3 short
drum solo and an even a high hat solo. Amazing drummer. Powerful singing, rhythms,
and dynamics. Nico, leader and lead guitar player held back though and was
happy to let the others lead the way and drink some beers (I think he drank at
least 6-7 during the set). Wow. Powerful
stuff and a lot of like the Finnish band Circle at times during this set. Let’s
hope they decide to play more live dates in the future.
 |
| Grails |
Finally, I got a chance to sit down after almost 5 hrs of continuous music to catch some of Grails on the main stage. I had seen them play a beautiful show way back here on the main stage but this was something different now. They used to play this beautiful post rock style stuff but now it was more heavy, dramatic and nearly space rock but sadly, they seem to cut all the songs short, just as I felt like they were going to go somewhere big, the songs all ended. Damn. I was really left wanting so much more… Very cool films they showed, some a bit disturbing.
I went down to the backstage to get some water and said hello to the Gösta Berlings Saga guys, whom I had
known for quite some years. They were excited to play. They hit the stage at 20.20 and wow. They had
two guitar players, one being Henrik Palm, who played on a few songs on the
last album but was here for the full set. They had a stand in drummer, Jesper,
since Alex, could not make it. Anyway,
this was a very cool and diverse 75 min set. Sometimes, were early 70s Swedish
prog meets King Crimson and other times, strange electronic stuff, where both
the main guitar player and bass players were playing small keyboards. IT could
almost become techno like, and Henrik would play some cool guitar as well and
throw in the Prophet 8 or Mellotron and you get something really unique.
Captivating concert. I was blown away. Set List: Sorterargatan, 354, Tera, Bergslagen, Europa, Artefacts, Island, Fundament, Veras Tema, Sersophane
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| At the Gates |
Now, I finally had a break to go out and get something to eat. I had
not been outside the building in nearly 7 hrs now. I grabbed a half pizza and
then back in to see At the Gates. The
show opened with Jesper (Fontän) coming out and playing some lead guitar and
then disappearing. The band came out and played an instrumental King Crimson
track and then Tomas returned and they went full into heavy metal attack mode,
very 80s inspired. I did not see it but I saw that Matt Pike (Sleep) came out
and helped the band play, the Tempter from Trouble later I the 90mins set. Also, Anna von Hauswolff, help them to perform a Philip Glass piece. Sounded like a very diverse and cool set.
For me the final act of the day was the Portuguese band, Black Bombaim featuring the free jazz
saxophone player, Peter Brötzmann. I
grabbed a Pepsi from back stage and briefly said hello to them in their
backstage room. I had seen and met them before in Portugal. Super nice people.
Told Peter that one of my old friends had played with him back in 1980 but he
did not remember. Super nice.
Anyway, they hit the stage at 22:30 and played a little less than an
hour. I think they played 5-6 long pieces. The sound was not very good at first
as you could not hear the guitar hardly at all and the sax was way too loud and
dominant. If it had stayed like this
most people would have left but thankfully they got it sounding pretty good.
Anyway, the rhythm section was laying down some awesome grooves and this gave a
lot of freedom for Peter and Ricardo to really play some spaced out stuff. I
really felt like Ricardo was holding back and always giving the space to Peter
and not playing enough until the last track and then he really let it go and
played some amazing guitar. It as a great show.
My feet were killing me. I really wanted to see Loop with the guitar
player from the Heads. Wow. This was going to be incredible, but I can’t stand
anymore. Feet are really in pain. Should have brought my Birkenstocks. Big
mistake. Amazing day and I saw 8 hrs of
music in 8.5 hrs. Only 30 mins break. That was tough.
Saturday April 13th
Wow. Yesterday was the psychedelic rock day for sure and now it is
going to be some heavy stuff with SLEEP doing a 2hr show tonight at 21. I hope my feet will be ok today or I can at
least find more time to sit down. Being in the green room for 5 straight shows
was tough.
Anders decided we should go see Temple Fang again at 13:30. I was a bit sceptical to start the day so early but I had not spent hardly anytime over at the other big hall and this was the time to go see the art exhibits, look at records, etc. so we went. Wow. I was so glad. I was right up in front with a lot of the Dutch regulars, JJ from the Obelisk, etc. Sound was amazing and the band played a more tight and killer grooving show. This is going to be a great band. All the best aspects of heavy 70s rock, with nice dual guitar parts, cool and unique guitar riffs and two guys with good solid voices. They blew we away. Saw the last song of the set from the back with JJ and had some nice talks as we made our way out.
Set List: Gemini, Untitled, Part II, The Radiant, Under the Skull
(thanks to the guitar player)
Picked up the Waste of Space Orchestra vinyl (Black). All the coloured
ones were sold out already or maybe they did not have them?? Records were
delayed due to a mis-press.
 |
| Wolvennest |
I had wanted to see Confusion
Master but it was all the way back to Hall of Fame so I hung out and talked
with some old friends and then went to see Henrik
Palm. He is a young guitar player singer who is very much part of the
Swedish underground rock scene. He plays or guests with lots of people, writes
songs for their bands, etc. I am not sure who was in this band but it featured
two guitars, bass, drums and a female keyboard player. She had the exact set up
as they had for Gösta Berlings Saga.
Anyway, they rocked the place. Sometimes it was very much like Farflung
but with out the guitar solos and spacey synths. Music was hard driving; punky,
space and then they would do some more normal rock songs. A strange slow
version of Destroyer by Twisted Sister was odd. They had a film of Judas Priest
live from Nashville 82 playing on the screen behind them. That was strange. Fun
set.
 |
| Henrik Palm |
Grabbed half a pizza now and met a really nice guy whose girlfriend
could not make it so he brought his mom! Wow. Not many moms would come and even
fewer people would dare to even ask their mom. Anyway, she was doing ok and seems
to be enjoying it the event. Nice people from the UK.
The Exorcist GBG was a very
strange project with Pertus, who I had played a bit with in First Band from
Outer space playing synths, a very intense bass player and drummer. All these
guys would later play in URAN. This was like an intense version of Italian
70s detective or porno films music. A bit funky, with some crazy intense
synths. Petrus was having a lot of technical problems so the synths were not in
sync with the band for the first part and one of the pods on his synth
(Oberheim) was not working properly. It was a bit of a mess. The sound guy also
was not paying attention and the first times he played the Moog and the Fender
Rhodes there was no sound in the PA. Anyway, they really got going into some
cool stuff once the groove and synths were more together. I liked it but he
overused the same sounds on the Oberheim synth so it became a bit too much the
same. Strange stuff. 
 |
| Constant Distress |
SLEEP. What can you
say?? The band that is the ultimate Black Sabbath 1972, supernaut, riff worship
band, just blew the place apart. Amazing and powerful sound, band was just on
fire. I have never seen Pike so on top of the game and playing more solos. If
he is going to play the acoustic guitar, he should practice a bit more. It
comes across not very natural for him, a bit drunken! Anyway, mind blowing set and almost
2hrs. Incredible.
Sleep's Holy Mountain- Dragonaut, The Druid, Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme,
Some Grass, Aquarian, Holy Mountain, Inside the Sun, From Beyond, Nain's
Baptism, Dopesmoker (25 minute version), The Clarity
URAN, was just one of
the strangest things you could imagine and very intense. 3 bass players,
drummer, percussion player, 5 synth players and guy with a microphone and a
sort of vocoder like device. IT was fucked up, strange, powerful and just down
right bizarre. It all kind of had the same vibe and intensity, except a few moments. One synth was way louder than the others and this just fucked with your head. The nearly full house was not sure what to do so some down in
the front just tried to mosh to it. A
huge success. They could have had a better light show and some cool projections
and it would have been even better. Crazy way to end the festival for all those
with 3 day tickets. They played an extra 10mins which was cool as it was an
early night ending at 00:40.
 |
| URAN |
Looks to be a bit quieter today. Ha! We started the day early with the
Q&A with Walter and the curator, Tomas from At the Gates, moderated by Jóse
Carlos. This was excellent and he asked many good questions and then it was
open to the audience. One thing you find out is just how much work and how many
hours one has to put into pull off a festival of this magnitude. 200hrs just to
figure out the time schedule. Many disappointments with bands that you really
reach out and want but just logistically you can’t make it happen. As for hints for next year, Walter said it
was a completely blank slate and after some rest, he would start thinking about
it and putting things in motion. One thing for sure, not everyone you might
think is cut out to be a curator. It will take an enormous commitment of your
time and energy and you will be forced to think about things and spend time
making decisions about things you never thought of. A very honourable but not
easy job (and I guess poorly paid compared to the hours you will put in). Very
interesting. Worth the time
At 14 we went to see Lucy in
Blue, a young band from Iceland, inspired by Astra, the Canterbury scene.
They played very relaxed proggy stuff with some nice dual vocals, great
keyboards and organ, from a vey young looking kid. They had the whole package
except the experience. They just released their debut album a few days ago. I
did not manage to get it.
 |
| Lucy in Blu |
Fears Fall Burning was supposed to
be really excellent but we had headed over the skate park and I had some time
to chat with friends and Zach from Volcano/Joy/Pharlee. Walter and JJ from the Obelisk also showed up early and could just relax a bit.  |
| Travis and Zach (JOY, Volcano, Pharlee) |
I also had a bit of time to look at the amazing art that was displayed over at the Pit Stop area between the Hall of Fame and Koepelhal. Very cool stuff.
The Dutch band, Super Sonic Blues were going to do a set. They played last year as well and we really liked them. I spoke to the guitar player a few times. Super nice guys and they still sound good. This was a great set, really a killer sound from their amps, authentic 1973. Just some simple but excellent songs. They did one cover song but I did not recognize it. Fun set.
I caught a few songs of Daughters
and that was intense. Not a band I would listen to at home. I was surprised,
that even bands like this a bit of psychedelic stuff is starting to creep into
their psychic fabric.
 |
| Daughters |
I saw most of the Stuck in
Motion set and the first part was great as they played this long proggy 15
mins song. Really nice organ playing, strong rhythm section and a unique singer
who was also the guitar player. They
played a little of over an hour and I enjoyed most of it but at some point, the
bass player switched to guitar (and vice versa) for a few songs and then he
went to organ and the organ player played bass and musically these songs were
not that interesting. None of the guys were nearly as good at the second
instrument as their first instrument. They played some better songs to close
the set. I had mixed views but it was a nice 70s bluesy rock sound. It was only
the first song that I felt had a prog inspiration.
This was only the 2nd sit down meal I had at RB this year so
unfortunately, did not see Marissa
Nadler, who was on my must see list, did to see any of Old Man Gloom or
Ulcerate either. I tried to get into see a bit of Bossk but Old man Gloom had just let out and it was impossible. It
sounded really good though.
SLEEP. survived the 2hrs yesterday. Today, we got
the entire new record and lots more. It was much louder today where we were. I
was dead center on the balcony with Zach and Travis. Powerful and so loud. I
felt like my body was beat up after the show. The opened with a bit of Mike
just on his own and then the band came out and the opener was nearly 18mins
long. I am not sure what they played but
it was stoned, heavy, riff worship…
Incredibly powerful experience.
Leagues Beneath (18mins long!), The Sciences, Marijuanaut's Theme, Sonic
Titan, Giza Butler, Antarcticans Thawed, The Botanist, Holy Mountain
Dragonaut
One thing that I am totally amazed about is that there are many
different kinds of festivals you can see. I met a guy on the train to the
airport, who had the most amazing Roadburn, yet, he only saw one or two of all
the bands I described here. How can that
be?? They had a showcase for the label, Exile on Mainstream, a very cool label,
and if you went to all those shows, it would have been very special from heavy
to acoustic guitar music. I did not see any of the black metal but there was
lot of it and incredible diversity of what is called Black Metal these days.
They are far from all sounding like early Venom!!
You always have to make hard choices at Roadburn. Now in retrospect, I
really wish I had seen more of the amazing female artists. There were more
women than ever at Roadburn, both as fans and playing. A lot of talent out
there. Pity I did not get to see these expressive people like Emma Ruth Rundle,
Louise Lemón (one of Walter’s favorites this year), and Marissa Nadler. I did
catch a bit of Anna Von Hausswolff.
Amazing Roadburn and so totally different from last year. I look
forward to see what they come up with and be part of it once again. A total and complete artist success (as well as commercial as it as sold out months in advance). Congrats to all involved.
Favourite bands
Sleep, Gösta Berlings Saga, Wolvennest, Temple Fang, Triptykon,
Heilung, Mythic Sunship, 7 that spells (2nd set), Sherpa
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