Monday 1 July 2013

Sniffing The Grass: A Rock Werchter 2013 Warmup



Although summer has been letting us down so far, the festival season is hot at the moment and the weather fortunately seems to be heating up. Just in time for our first big festival this year, Rock Werchter. We've lost count but it has to be somewhere around the tenth time in a row we travel South into Belgium to immerse ourselves into music, "frietjes stoofvlees" and Belgian beers for four days. Let's see what bands are interesting to go see this year.

Thursday
If we can get to the stage in time let's start off on a high and let Fidlar warm up our ear drums. We can continue the party with Palma Violets, who already proved to throw a good party. After that we can choose between Airbourne, Vintage Trouble or The Black Angels who all haven't convinced me yet. Who convinced me long time ago though are Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with their greasy rock songs. I got to know Balthazar a few years ago over here and that I loved ever since are back! I don't really like Biffy Clyro's music but their live shows should be good. Of course The National is a no-brainer for me. I just love their dark songs and their last album once again is wonderful. It looks like Bloc Party is slowly starting to implode, but somehow they are still able to please me. This might well be the last time I can see them play. I don't really like any of the bands that follow afterward, no even not Greenday (too much of a circus) and Sigur Rós (just doesn't do it for me). So I may have an early start on the party outside!



Friday
Rise and shine early today and then have breakfast with the "screaming eagle of soul" mr. Charles Bradley, with his honest soul music straight from the heart. Another duo making garage rock like The Black Keys, The White Stripes and Blood Red Shoes are The Bots. They add a bit of punk to it. Let's see if they can top those famous other bands. Two Door Cinema Club just can't win me over with their catchy songs. I'll give them another shot. The Hives won me over long ago and are most certainly going to rock the main stage. Let's see if crooner Richard Hawley can do the same with his music as well. Phoenix are supposed to give great live performances so I want to find out if that's true. Kings of Leon can be quite entertaining and since there's no alternative to my taste I might as well go see them. Who I'll definitely watch are Blur of course who are the top headliner for me. I hope there will be plenty of British fans up front there to throw a great party.



Saturday
Another early rise to go check out Belgium's own The Van Jets who play great pop/rock songs. Another Belgian band I'll probably watch after that are SX who recorded some very promising music. I'm a sucker for groovy blues rock inspired by the seventies and Graveyard are the ones who are playing exactly that. Stereophonics' last couple of albums weren't that great but they made some great music in the past. Their last performance over here wasn't that good, so hopefully they are more into it today. Django Django will definitely throw a party with their catchy and danceable rock songs. Another one of my favourite headliners is Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. He never let us down and for sure will take the main stage by storm again. I love Tame Impala's music, but somehow their live shows are never as good as I hope they will be. However their music is so good that I'll definitely will join their psychedelic songs for a trip. Another early party or watch Rammstein's explosive show again that I've seen so many times before?



Sunday
No need to get up early today which is probably welcoming after three festival days. This day is not the best day for me, since it has many bands in the line-up that I don't really like. Maybe we'll go check out Bastille and Haim. Should I give Alt-J another chance? Everyone is adoring them, but like indie fan favourite Sigur Rós they just aren't appealing to me. I'd like to see Band of Horses, since I think their subdued rock songs may be worth a visit. Time for some nice food to make sure we will definitely avoid Thirty Seconds To Mars and Jared Leto's ego show. Hopefully The Gaslight Anthem are having a good day and treat us to good versions of their Springsteen-like rock songs. And I'm sure we'll go out on a high with Depeche Mode and Editors, who will set the main stage on fire with their dark music.



Check out a nice block schedule over here. Or go over to fellow blogger TBeest for another block schedule and an extensive run down of some of the bands if you know how to read Dutch. See you over there in Belgium?

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