Roadburn Festival Kicks Off Today, John Baizley Of Baroness Curates The Weekend


 

The Roadburn Festival, the world première event for all things heavy, diverse, avant-garde, and underground begins today in Tilburg, NL  at various venues, under the watchful eye of founder Walter Hoeijmakers. John Dyer Baizley of Baroness curates this years’ fest and performs with his band as well. The fest is nearly a sellout with some limited tickets available for Sunday. Full details below. Continue reading


Carcass, Angel Witch, 1349, Skinless And More To Play Netherlands Deathfest 2018


 

Carcass, by Meg Loyal Photography

Having just completed its latest edition three weeks ago, Netherlands Deathfest 2018 has announced its first wave of bands! Carcass is the first named headliner along with Angel Witch, 1349, Sadistic Intent, Skinless, Broken Hope, Devourment, Rotten Sound and more! Details below: Continue reading


Roadburn Adds Whores, Integrity, Bongnzilla, Oathbreaker, Cobalt, Disfear, Trans AM And More


Whores, by Photography

Whores, by Jonathan Arevalo Photography

This year’s Roadburn Festival just gets better and better. The fest has now added twenty new bands such as Whores, Integrity, Cobalt, Bongnzilla, Disfear, Big Business, Trans AM and more. More details below: Continue reading


Blues Pills – Kadavar – Stray Train: Live At Tilburg, 013


Blues Pills, by Susanne/ A. Maathuis Photography

Blues Pills, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography

On a chilly Sunday evening, the small venue of the 013 in Tilburg is slowly filling up with Hard Rock lovers looking for a nice evening of musicianship and fun. Continue reading


Roaburn Festival Pre-Sale Party – Live At 013 Club


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Like every year, when the Roadburn tickets go on sale, there is a small gig at the 013 venue. Tickets go on sale a few hours early here, and with the exciting announcements made so far for Roadburn 2017, tickets will be going steadily. Playing tonight are Ortega and Gomer Pyle.Continue reading


Ulver Added To Roadburn 2017, Tickets On Sale Now


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Roadburn Festival held their annual on-sale party last night, as they kicking off the 2017 festival with a party, bands Ortega and Gomer Pyle., and tickets going on sale at Tilburg’s 013 Club. The festival has also announced Ulver to play a special performance at Roadburn. Details below: Continue reading


Chelsea Wolfe, Mysticum, Magma, Deafheaven, Subrosa Added To Roadburn 2017


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Chelsea Wolfe, Mysticum, and Magma, have been added to Roadburn Festival 2017 as part of John Dyer Baizley’s (Baroness) curation of the fest. Deafheaven, Subrosa , The Bug Vs Dylan Carlson Of Earth, Crippled Black Phoenix have also been confirmed for special Roadburn appearances. The 22nd edition of Roadburn Festival will take place April 20-23, 2017 at the 013 Venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Continue reading


Baroness, Coven, Warning, GNOD, Schammasch, Les Discrets, Oranssi Pazuzu Booked For Roadburn 2017


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The ultimate underground music and culture festival of Europe will return next year as Roadburn Festival has made its first announcement of bands for 2017.Continue reading


Incubate Festival Part II: Tilburg, NL


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We’re five days into Incubate Festival and still shivering from the impressive performances of The Melvins, Girl Band and Shining. Ready to watch some more of our favorite bands and discover another handful of new ones, we once again throw ourselves into the lively heart of the city of Tilburg.

Lumerians, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Lumerians, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Lumerians opens our Friday night in one of the smaller rooms of the immense theatre of Tilburg. The audience has taken a comfortable seat on the wooden tribune that opposes the stage while the band plays a hypnotizing, spacey post-punk with a light 60’s sound to it. They are dressed up as monks in robes of a shimmering, glittery material and behind them play such fantastic psychedelic visuals that we’re too mesmerized to even think about dancing along.

Grave Pleasures

Grave Pleasures, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

One big bonus point that comes with having a festival bang in city center is the abundance of good food. Overpriced hamburgers and soggy fries don’t make it on to our menu during Incubate. On our way to Hall of Fame to see Grave Pleasures, we find out that, what previously had been an abandoned industrial park crossed by rusty old train tracks, suddenly houses an atmospherically lit and freely accessible food truck festival. Dinner this weekend: sorted.

When we manage to tear ourselves away from the smell of freshly ground coffee and char-grilled hamburgers, Grave Pleasures, risen from the ashes of Beastmilk, give us a theatrical and captivating performance. Their sound is edgier than before but still has that recognizable apocalyptic feel to it. For a complete change of sound, we head off to Little Devil, where Belgian Associality shows us the fun side of punk with songs about punk granddads and a man who only drinks Jupiler beer.

Converge, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Converge, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

We’re still singing along to the chorus of the beer song when we arrive at the biggest name of the day: Converge. In a relentlessly loud performance, the hardcore punk legends live up to their name and put down one of the best shows of the week. A few hundred people are stage-diving and dancing in the pit as if their punk credentials depend on it. Frontman Jacob Bannon radiates a contagious energy as he belts out hit after hit. Sweaty and exhausted, we call it a night.

Saturday brings about a problem of an entirely different caliber. With so many different venues with each their own selection of beers on tap, we have a bit of a heavy head on our way to the first name on our list. Finnish K-X-P’s melodic, electronic sound with a definite hint of krautrock wouldn’t feel misplaced in the vaults of an abandoned Berlin power plant. However, the wooden beams, high ceilings and stained glass windows in Dudok, create a beautiful contrast to the industrial noises and ghostly sounds of the band. They put on a captivating show that calms our heads and prepares us well for the rest of the night.

 

Extase’s small stage and low ceiling sets the perfect vibe for a loud, no nonsense punk band and this is exactly what we get from Priests. Frontwoman Katie Alice Greer has an incredible stage presence. She parades on stage, screaming, singing and roaring in a skintight, giraffe-patterned suit and manages to give the audience a permanent death stare that would make Courtney Love green with envy. Priests gives us precisely what we go to Incubate for: seeing a relatively unknown act for the first time, who absolutely blows the patches off our jackets.

On the final day of the festival we finally have a sunny day and immediately take advantage of it to watch a show in the Muzentuin, a courtyard of the town’s art academy. We watch Surfer Blood play alternative rock with a lovely summer feel to it, before we decide it’s time to dive back into the loudness and head to Hall of Fame where the hardcore punkers from Jesus Police are tearing the stage to shreds. With so many bands playing at the same time, it’s sometimes tough to decide which ones to go and see and we may have been slightly favorable towards Jesus Police because of their name (it was a tough decision to skip Cocaine Piss later on).

Black Heart Rebellion, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Black Heart Rebellion, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Melodic post-rockers The Black Heart Rebellion whip us up into a Seventies progressive rock infused dream as they close the night in a ram packed Little Devil. With the imprint of the happy, sweaty faces of the crowd still in the back of our minds, we dash back to Midi to catch the second half of Wire, who have called upon about twenty guitarists from other bands at the festival to join them on stage. In a haze of perfectly orchestrated noise, they temporarily form The Pink Flag Orchestra and perform their 1977 debut album song ‘Pink Flag’ in a playful and legendary conclusion of the festival.

We cool off outside, still a little high from Wire’s brilliant performance, and convince ourselves that, yes, we still have enough spirit and adrenaline to make it to the after party in Extase. Chief Developer of Incubate Joost Heijthuijsen is one of the DJ’s, so within an hour of arrival we are part of a long conga line and attempt to dance to German schlager music. What a way to end a festival! The next day we hear that Neneh Cherry, who closed the festival in the Muzentuin on Sunday, was apparently part of that conga line and had a great time at the after party. She’s 51 years old and we had to agree she definitely beat us all at being the coolest person at the festival that night.

 

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WORDS BY CÉLINE HUIZER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS