Sunday 21.4
As always, the whole weekend flew by in the blink of an eye, and while thankfully Sunday was clearly more quiet than the previous day, there is also that lingering feeling that things are about to end soon and you need to wait for another year to be experiencing this festival again.
After a nice – although rather fast – lunch, we began the day at V39 as per tradition for the Q&A session with Walter Hoeijmakers. This year the session was more interactive, so most of the questions came from the audience by passing around this one fancy black cube where people would ask whatever came to mind (if you are interested in hearing what has been discussed, here is the link to the full session: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tbL0xVaIPmFmHrQbf1W2k?si=492e483e8a5f42da).
After some funny anecdotes, and hearing about the past and present of the festival, along with interesting bits on how putting together a festival such as Roadburn is like from behind the scenes (and what challenges it brings) it was time to head to The Terminal for the Utrecht-based trio Laster. There have been many interesting local black and post-black metal acts this year in and around Roadburn, and these guys are no exception. Presenting their latest “Andermans Mijne” in full, and with a distinctive look sporting half-bird-skull-like masks and full black outfit, they sounded as eerie as they looked.
The new record, their fourth, set them on a new path of exploration with more avant-garde and atmospheric elements, which makes them of course a really good fit for this festival. It was undeniably a good note to start the day with, and with a less packed schedule, it was nice to be able to enjoy most of their gig before spending a few moments sitting out in the sun, waiting for the most ambitious – and pretty majestic – project of this weekend: Die Wilde Jagd performing with the Metropole Orkest on the Main Stage.
The setup was massive. So many people on stage means also so many details to take care and things that could go wrong, but once again everything worked extremely well. The commissioned piece, called “Lux Tenera – A Rite To Joy”, is an exploration of the “parallels between music, organism and psyche, of how rhythm and harmonies can transcend the energy that encourages the mental states of pleasure, joy and enlightenment”. Admittedly there was a certain calm, and positive sensation in listening this piece played by these 50 or so musicians on stage – under the direction of conductor Simon Dobson – building up over time with all these instruments expertly combined together. The two huge Japanese taiko drums were already impressive (and solemn in sound) by themselves, but the whole composition came together so nicely and organically that it almost made us forget we needed to leave for a bit to see Verwoed.
As it might be clear by now, much of our focus this year was on the most extreme bands (with some notable exceptions of course), so we wanted to witness at least part of their show as well. Yet another band from Utrecht, and yet another “playing the new album in full”-kind of show, this was a good expression on what Dutch black metal currently sounds like. Powerful, mounting riffs and beats alternating with a slower, sharper sound, this one-man project seemed to have some promising moments, and it would have been nice to hear more of it, but we got caught a bit in the frenzy of all the overlapping shows today, and really didn’t want to miss the chance on checking Neptunian Maximalism.
That proved to be the wrong choice this time, since the gig itself began with some 20 minutes delay which could have easily allowed us to see more of Verwoed, or even check the ending of the Die Wilde Jagd show right next door. Playing “Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu”, the music dipped into Indian folk music to explore the genre with an immersive, nearly meditative experience, fusing jazzy and psychedelic elements and folk instruments in this very low-key setting. The small stage felt a bit cramped to be honest, but so was the whole venue, which was really packed with people wanting to deeply immerse themselves in this performance.
However we made things still a bit complicated for ourselves on this day, and had to jump to The Terminal again for catching at least some of Devil Master. With some elements evoking Midnight and Spirit Possession (who played last year here at Roadburn) at least coming to mind, these caped foursome was way less tacky that their pictures made them to be, and turned out actually pretty enjoyable as a black/punk combo. At least until getting a bad case of FOMO drove us back to the Main Stage to see the second half of Grails. It was really nice to just lay down on the steps close to the mixer and listen to the tapestry of sound created by this great instrumental rock band – occasionally raising our head to enjoy the visuals too, as they perfectly combined with the music to form a cinematic experience.
All of that felt really relaxing and reinvigorating, which worked perfectly as the next was one of the bands on which I had most expectations on the last day. After their more intimate ambient set on Friday, Fluisteraars was now on the bigger Terminal stage to perform a regular set as well, and this time there were no terrible clashes with it (although it would have been interesting to check out JeGong, involving MONO’s drummer and the guitarist from Sum of R).
For a band that until as recently as a few months before today had not been playing live at all, this much anticipated show met the expectations quite nicely: they simply conquered the audience from the get go with their powerful deliver and magnetic performance. A stark contrast to the set from two days before, this explosively charged show made it easily one of those to remember long after the festival. The response of the crowd was on par with that, which heated up the atmosphere inside the hall even more.
Obviously there was a lot of spotlight on The Jesus and Mary Chain performing at the Main Stage immediately after, but in the spirit of focusing more on the local underground, after a short while we headed to a totally different direction. Still for the little we got to see, the show seemed quite impressive at least light-wise, the catchiness of some songs did the rest. The band is not exactly in its prime any longer of course, but that can be said of so many others that have even bigger success still.
In any case, more appealing to us was the off-road show happening at the LOC brewery, with black/crust act Radeloos///Ziedend from Njimegen. This was one of the most raw and truly immersive gigs witnessed over the course of the festival, with the vocalist jumping on the counter and in between the audience here and there throughout the set. Luckily the brewery was not as crowded as when Terzij de Horde played their set in the last Roadburn, which gave enough room to fully enjoy the experience. It also looked like there had been some improvements to the “stage” area. The show was really tight and entertaining, and I regret nothing for deciding to come here.
As the festival’s ending approached (and still no news about any conclusive secret show was on the horizon), it was Dödsrit who had the last word on The Terminal stage, after performing a couple of years ago in the tent that had been set up to replace the Hall of Fame while the venue was still under renovation. Now you also see why it was more fitting to enjoy Radeloos///Ziedend and THEN come here already charged with that much needed energy for this kind of music (of course a lot of people might have also been interested in the third UBOA set, but there is just so much to do and so much one person can do at a time).
Playing mostly from their new record “Nocturnal Will”, the Swedes tried to transfer the same energy from their early appearance at this festival into this bigger stage, but it was hard to shake the feeling that this kind of band works much better on a smaller setting, especially after having just seen a really powerful show in the same vein. Not that the show itself wasn’t good, but of course there is a whole different atmosphere when the band is not playing right in your face, in a cramped, sweaty club.
This could still have been a good ending to the festival as a whole, but eventually after a much deserved craft beer break – the last one at The Junction – we decided to go with the flow and see where things would ultimately lead us. In this case it was first Cloakroom on the Main Stage, not exactly up our alley in terms of music, but the really nice cloudy background and low lights on the three musicians made for a nice setup to their shoegaze-y performance of their “Dissolution Wave”. Having a bit of a hard time to focus at this point, it was still enjoyable in the heavy riffs and their melodies, up until we decided to check the final band of the festival at the Next Stage, and that transformed into a big dance party for everyone present. The psychedelia and the contagious rhythm made it really hard not to dance at the beat of the drums and everyone was having the best time, smiling, laughing, forgetting all the fatigue and melancholy of the festival being at its end for some 50 minutes of shaking your body around that felt like coming right out of those 80’s-style party cruises.
If I had any doubts initially about this band being the last of the festival, it became immediately clear how fitting it was for them to be exactly in this spot on the line-up.
That last burst of energy started to wear off quite fast after the show however, so after the traditional hangout and post festival hugs and drinks, it was time to walk back to the accommodation to finish packing things up before heading to the next thing.
This Roadburn was a bit different for me in many ways on a personal level compared to the earlier experiences, and while being still a bit hectic at times, especially feeling a bit too much on mid-afternoon of the Saturday, I also managed to sit down for a while – or chosen to – and enjoy just the moment, being it a show I really wanted to see, one I did not expect I would have liked that much, or just to catch a breather and chill. Sometimes with old friends, sometimes with new faces, sometimes by myself. It’s so important to be able to pace yourself. But more importantly in the last few weeks towards the festival I was reminded of how I love being part of this kind of atmosphere, and that going to concerts, taking photos etc. is such a huge part of my life and what fuels me in the good and bad times, and everything in between. Being these few days a year in Tilburg makes me feel so much in my element that it really almost becomes a home away from home, aside from all the good memories of my times in The Netherlands so far, being surrounded by such kind of community of like-minded weirdos just propels you to want to make more and more of these memories, and I think most of the people who love this festival can understand what I am talking about. It’s really beautiful that what was born as a music event became so much more and created something meaningful for so many. I think, and I hope, that the guys who relentlessly work every year to make this happen should be very proud of what Roadburn has become. And let’s not forget all those volunteers who work hard to make everything work smoothly during the event as well!
As far as musical highlights go for this edition, I feel like Chelsea Wolfe stood one step above the others for how beautiful and emotional that show was, but from Khanate to Mat McNerney’s commissioned work, from Lana Del Rabies to Fluisteraars, or Wiegedood, Couch Slut, Agriculture… once again there was so much good stuff that it’s really hard to say “this was so much better than that”, or not really even fair when talking about different kinds of music altogether. What matters is that this concept the festival evolved into actually works in bringing bands, fans, everyone together, and I for one am glad to be able to explore and push the boundaries of my musical taste and horizon in favor of discovering something new and interesting (or also something old that I didn’t know of). So eventually you stop even wondering – in large part at least – about who will be playing next year and the year after that, and so on, because you know that you’ll find something good, and mostly you are going to the festival for the experience itself. There can’t be any better way to express how meaningful an event has become, when people start thinking about it like that.
Text and Photos by Marco Manzi
Photo Gallery at https://marcomanzi.kuvat.fi/kuvat/2024/April/Roadburn/Sunday/
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