Roadburn! Roadburn! We’re at the mid-point between editions, the height of Roadburn-homesickness for the regulars each year. Having been sweetened by amazing announcements one after the other, the presale started on October16th, but if you live in Tilburg, or like a number of excited Germans in the line, are willing to drive 1,5 hours to get your hands on a ticket just a little earlier, there is the pre-sale party. The tickets go on sale at 19:00 and a few local-ish Roadburny bands play. Today we get treated to Eindhoven’s Radar Men From the Moon and the wonderful 3 piece, The Machine. Before and between bands local metal dj and encyclopedia Kevin Kentie spins and spins tunes that preview the known line-up of Roadburn, blended with an extra eclectic mix of stuff either seen at Roadburn or could be seen there eventually bands.
Mostly this party is about seeing your friends again, being excited and getting your ticket, but the bands are an important part to the mood. The greenroom in 013 is cozily filled with excited people who got their ticket a while earlier when at 20:30, Radar Men From the Moon take the stage. Their hypnotic repetitive space rock chugs along happily to optic illusion-like visuals. The light is low, until they get some atmospheric bottom lighting in red and blue later on in the set, giving the Trio-recently turned foursome an ethereal and extra trippy element. Audience interaction isn’t really required with a band like this and while the set drags you deeper into it’s hypnotic trance as it goes on, I’m personally missing the spiraling fractal visuals the band used at a different gig I attended, which pulled you deeper and deeper. The rectangles, lines and squares used this night just don’t have the same trippy effect. Such a minor blemish cannot ruin an excellent performance though.
After a brief reprise in which a lot of people crowd the merch stand to pick up t-shirts and records, we get treated to The Machine. These guys are pretty well known by now, having played Roadburn and several other psych-stoner festivals for quite a while. Again we get a Trio who together manage to create a delicate yet chugging atmosphere. These guys are a lot less hypnotic then Radar Men, more rock oriented, with some lovely gentle trippy bits breaking into regular thumping and rocking break outs. Very much worth mentioning: the bass plays an integral role to the sound, while most of the fuzz comes from the expertly played guitar riffs. Vocals are low key and nicely rugged, but definitely still clean, all this displayed across the most excellent Roadburn artwork backdrop by Arin Roker, and accompanied by incense to heighten the mood. Where during Radar Men a few handfuls of people still hung out in the lounge, during The Machine pretty much everyone in the venue is watching the band, nodding along and generally celebrating the official kickoff to pre-Roadburn excitement.
After the bands finished most people hung around, until finally 013 kicked the 100-ish stragglers out at midnight. A wonderful, wonderful start to what will probably be a most excellent 20th edition of Roadburn Festival! Get your tickets while they’re available, It will be a good one!
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Get tickets to Raodburn 2015
WORDS AND PHOTOS: SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS