Saturday 20.4
On a quest to enjoy the city of Tilburg before diving into the festival madness, each day we found something different to try out, and Saturday the choice landed on a cosy little street that leads to a traditional Dutch pancake house. After getting our fill of food it was already time to get to The Engine Room as today the schedule was especially packed. Not only the schedule but the festival area as well: where did all these people come from and where were they the first two days? Apparently the single tickets for Saturday ended up being sold out, and already from the get-go there was this feeling that everything was more crowded than normal.
A small side note: for a while today The Junction was holding a seminar – from what I gathered – on how to act when you see people being harassed or mistreated at such an event. While I fully understand the idea, I found it a bit odd to have this at Roadburn of all places, being one of the most inclusive and nicest festival ever. Also the same spot was closed for “beer malfunction” reasons immediately after. I wonder what happened… But let’s dive into the festival part.
Slipping in to see Knoll wake everyone up for good with their infectious fast-paced grinding noise, a “Portal meets Full of Hell” (now that’s a collaboration that would be cool to see) kind of feeling, the darkness engulfing the hall with these ominously chilling riffs and the malicious vocals – and yes it was really dark, there were just a few “vintage” lamps lighting up the stage – did the rest, setting an eerie atmosphere. Even more intense was the following show at the nearby Terminal where Couch Slut was getting ready. After seeing (most of) their performance, I really wished I had gone to see their secret show the previous night, as the tales from those who were present made it sound incredible, and judging from this gig I find it believable. The vocalist herself mentioned before the show while showing up with sunglasses on that they were still recovering from last night hangover, and you could see that in her face. This was now technically their second European show after the one the previous day, and the sheer intensity as well as the somewhat disturbing lyrics wrapped into their sludge-noise rock offer was something both exciting and unsettling at the same time. The singer Megan Osztrosits eventually started hitting herself with the mic until nearly half of her face was covered in blood, all while screaming her lungs out – and still having the occasional beer – at the audience. Truly a raw, brutal experience, aside from the Hello-Kitty guitar.
Roadburn has been making always an effort to promote talent, and so our next band was made of young students from the Metal Factory institute in Eindhoven. ONEIROPOREIA made thus their debut here as part of an educational project, and it was actually quite refreshing to see these kids taking inspiration from the likes of Kairon:IRSE! or Oranssi Pazuzu, mixing some more progressive and rock elements and delivering some seriously interesting music to avid – and often picky – connoisseurs such as the Roadburn audience. It was also nice to see that most of the first row was made of the band member’s parents, so excited in support of their kids they were really proud to say “that’s my daughter/son up there!”. The whole thing, especially after the dark and intense beginning of this day, felt very uplifting.
Back to witnessing long queues, and back to The Enging Room for Sunrot. A mix of sludge, doom and drone elements, was an interesting enough combination to have us check out these enthusiastic guys at least for a few minutes, before running towards the Main Stage. Not enough to really be able to fairly judge on the performance, but they sure seemed to have a good energy going, and the excited crowd seemed a testament to that. So we went for the first time today to 013 for the commissioned work “Lion’s of the Lord’s Elect” created by Kavus Torabi. The veteran British-Iranian composer delighted us with his psychedelic avant-garde rock in an intriguingly soothing manner. Not being much of a nerd for experimentation I could still appreciate this unique piece crafted solely for the festival, and enjoyed the melodies and riffs created by this talented mind.
Eventually we had to move back to The Terminal for the second – more official – set of Agriculture. Their “ecstatic black metal” turns the paradigm upside-down and makes this traditionally angry, violent music feel almost happy. The members themselves seemed happy, smiling and having a blast while playing, and again like earlier this week, and like in many other shows in this festival, one could really see this connecting thread between the band performing on stage and the audience, acting almost as one, and taking energy from each other. The whole place was so packed that in contrast it felt really weird to see a much sparser audience back at the Main Stage for The Keening. And on this note things seemed to be getting a little out of hand on the Koepelhal area where no matter what or where, there were just long queues everywhere: to the shows, to the toilets, to the merch stands, to the food and beer stalls… that started to affect the mood with a growing sense of anxiety as it felt like there was no escaping it.
In that sense it was a relief to be able to breathe for a few minutes, and take in some dark folk emanating from SubRosa’s Rebecca Vernon’s new project. The peace didn’t last long though, as we were headed back to the crowded Engine Room for the second UBOA set of this weekend: “The Origin of My Depression” or the “Shutdown”, as opposed to the previous “Meltdown” set.
Performing this time together with her partner, the artist delivered another strong piece of work, clearly more emotional than the earlier set also for the crowd, judging from their response to it. This was the first and apparently also last time that the album would be played live in full, so if you weren’t there, you just missed it. At the same time things with the amount of crowd, all these emotions and growing unsettledness, made me want to back off from all of this for a while and retire on my own for a bit, sit down, have a nice drink, and try out what possibly was one of the spiciest sauces I have ever had in my life together with my evening meal. Bloody hell my mouth was on fire for a while, and I was not the only one!
That made me miss both Torpor and Richard Dawson, and still feeling a bit overwhelmed it was time for Irish folk ensemble Lankum. Perhaps for the weird state of mind, it didn’t quite met the expectations that were upon this set. These folk tales and traditional instruments and the old Irish pub vibes just didn’t click at that moment, although revisiting the band later on record I could see the appeal. Instead this time I left midway to be sure to secure a front spot for Lana Del Rabies, which was one familiar artist from her performance at Blow Up in Helsinki years ago, and I knew I would have enjoyed.
This proved to be the best choice, as nothing like watching this woman angrily yell at the audience while frantically moving left and right, kneeling and crawling on the stage, helped to completely reset and be able to recover from all the negative feelings earlier in the day. It was like that scene in The Green Mile where John Coffey takes away all the negativity from Tom Hanks’ Paul Edgecomb. This turned out to be one of my top sets of the festival, not only for this reason, or because it’s right up my alley, but the whole atmosphere befitting of this dark industrial noise was just perfect for the show. Again there were some emotional moments as the artist herself was teary-eyed while thanking the fans at the end of the performance, and the level of applause even before that moment truly reflected its intensity. This cathartic moment sent us completely reinvigorated into the nearby Main Stage for the main piece of the day, and one of the most awaited of the entire festival.
Khanate has been a huge influence and has made a long-lasting impact on many musicians and fans alike, their return is most welcome and was rewarded by a super full 013 in awe of their musical output. This was also by far and wide the LOUDEST gig I have witnessed in this venue and maybe ever, still in the upper balcony everything was vibrating and reverberating at each beat and riff echoing inside the hall. The four guys just facing each other on stage, lit by four spotlights – one each – and otherwise surrounded by pure darkness, the pervasive doom riffs lingering for what felt like forever inside the room, everything exceeded the expectations of seeing this band play live, the first time in 19 years, that’s half my life. Again blown away by the sound quality and the blood-chilling impact of the music and Alan Dubin’s vocals, nothing else mattered in that moment than the stage and these four madmen on it.
We still carved the time check out a bit of Cult Leader at The Terminal. Performing “A Patient Man” in full, the band’s performance resonated in me much more in its heavier, harsher output than in the slower, clean parts, but needless to say the crowd loved it, in fact some people went even more wild than normal with crowdsurfing and moshing and all.
Shifting venues for the last time today, Blood Incantation returned to the main stage with a more traditional “career-spanning” death metal set seems a bit grandiose of a statement when the band has released two full-lengths, in fact the setlist gave us two songs each, as well as the newer “Obliquity of the Ecliptic” from the “Luminescent Bridge” single. Good sound again and good quality, but after having seen the band play live more than once a year for the last 5 years or so, I could easily live without this and went to check out HIDE next door instead.
Sporting a Palestinian flag and chanting “Free Palestine” gave the band some initial applause (and a clear stance if one wants to get political). The delivery was more or less the same this band has given us constantly through their performances over the years. This time Heather Gabel came on stage in the darkness, lighting up a candle that she then blew out before their usual strobe-filled performance began. This duo keeps giving a raw, intense output that never grows old. It was also their first show at Roadburn, which made it a little bit more special for them as well. The head-spinning set, even in its forty minutes, felt still short, as engaging as it was. This lead into the dark – and somewhat chill – night here in Tilburg. This day had been so full and somewhat draining physically and emotionally, so not much room left for partying. Back to a few hours of sleep instead, ready for the final act on this year’s edition.
Text by Marco Manzi
Photo Gallery at https://marcomanzi.kuvat.fi/kuvat/2024/April/Roadburn/Saturday/
Comments are closed.