Monday 2 September 2013

Sniffing The Grass: An ITGWO 2013 Warmup



I'm happy and sad at the same time when it's time for the lovely festival Into The Great Wide Open. Happy because it's such a wonderful festival and we're looking forward to it so much. Sad because it's the last one of the year and marks the end of the summer. So let's just think about today and forget about tomorrow for a moment and take a look at what we can see this year.



The festival doesn't officially start until Friday but we go to the small island of Vlieland the day before. Since many people do, there's already a small program on Thursday tonight. Belgium band DAAU left a big impression on me years ago and I have never seen them since. This year is starting off in a good way.

Friday
The sea will wake us up so we can start off this busy day smiling with ITGWO regular and MC Dave von Raven and his happy beat band The Kik. Next we have a choice between Sheep, Dog & Wolf and Matthew E. White. Any suggestions? Jacco Gardner's dreamy pshychedelic music and a magical island should be a perfect combination. I love Belgium band Das Pop whose singer Bent van Looy made a beautiful solo record that I look forward to see live. Rain or sunshine today? Hopefully Spanish party band Che Sudaka will bring out the sun nevertheless.

More psychedelica music with Earth Mk. II whose record got produced by Jacco Gardner. Gospel and soul singer Valerie June sounds worth checking out. Adam & The Relevants could be a good way to warm up for the always rocking Claw Boys Claw. And then we'll dance the night away with disco mastermind Nile Rodgers and Chic. Do you think Daft Punk will show up as well? Unfortunately this means I will have to skip Nadine Shah and Efterklang. After our hips are warmed up we will continue dancing in De Bolder for sure.



Saturday
By now we should be slowly drifting into the laid back island mode. We're going to take it a bit more slow today. Some breakfast and coffee to start up the day would be nice.

I heard a lot about Elephant Stone and their psychedelic music. Sounds like a good beginning. Then I'll let traumahelikopter kick me in the balls if the espressos didn't do their job. Garage rockers Parquet Courts made one hell of a record and I finally get to see them live. I don't really know Dawes and Daniel Norgren, but they seem interesting enough to go check out. Or maybe go see The Revival Hour and their sixties inspired soul and r&b? The art and music project Zazazo could be quite interesting as well. I didn't get a chance to see The Black Angels at Rock Werchter so this time I won't miss them. Miles Kane will definitely light up the night and get our spirits high for some more dancing. Or when it's not raining we can see if there's anything happening at a camp fire.



Sunday
Fortunately today is the slowest day program wise which also ends early. It means we can surrender ourselves completely to the island today, enjoy all the great food even more and suck up the vibes. Bluesman and nature lover Sean Rowe is on early though, but he will fit right in here. The Onder Invloed project is always good for some special moments and beautiful music. Gruppo Sportivo were quite big in The Netherlands end of the seventies when they released 10 Mistakes. Now 35 years later they will play it one more time. Blaudzun and this festival are a match made in heaven and may well turn out to be one of the highlights. Then maybe we can have a small old style blues/r&b party with King Dalton. I finally get to see Bombino ad his desert blues music, who I had to skip at Lowlands a few weeks ago.
And then it's already time to say goodbye. Our boat leaves at 19.00 so we can't even stay until the end. A sudden but planned ending to hopefully another great edition. See the full schedule over here.



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