Friday 12 September 2014

Into The Great Wide Open 2014 Day 2: Wonderful Dunes



We wake up to a grey sky, but even that can't break our mood. We wash away our hangover with fresh coffee and suddenly hear familiar music. It turns out Jungle By Night are recording a 3voor12 session on the camp ground (watch it over here). We go over to watch and are treated to a small sample of what will come later. All awake and in the right mood we make our way to the main stage for a gentle start of the day.

Into The Great Wide Open Day 2, September 7 2014



Kris Berry & Perquisite
Singer Kris Berry and composer, musician and producer started working together about a year ago and released an album Lovestruck Puzzles. Today they are opening the main stage while people are still slowly recovering from the previous day. Their gentle light music is helping with it. The poppy and soulful songs are easy on the ears, which is nice for this time of the day. But they are also nothing really special and Kris Berry's voice is missing the strength of a great soul voice. It is quite pleasant to wake up with though.

Official Website | Spotify



The Kik
We decide to stay a bit longer at the main stage to watch The Kik. The Dutch beat and rock 'n roll band released a surprising second album earlier this year, that has quite nice songs on it. This band is not bad at all, but lead singer Dave von Raven's long chats, lame jokes and other monkeying around take too much time out of their set. It slows down the gig too much that never gains momentum this way. This is a shame since they are good musicians capable of writing good songs. Sometimes it's just better to let the music do most of the talking.



Official Website | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify



Jungle By Night
After some chilling around and enjoying lovely food and beers, we hurry back to the dune stage where afro-beat collective Jungle By Night have already started to tear the place apart. We arrive halfway their set and are lucky to get into the packed place. Everybody is dancing to the young boys' irresistible afro-beat and funk tunes. They have shown a remarkable development and are growing up fast. From shy boys they have turned into showmen that know how to play and fire up a crowd. Their sound and music is deepening and slowly they are creating their own genre like Dutch jazz and dance band New Cool Collective have done. The songs off the new record aren't just afro-beat but sound more funky and groovy, sometimes like music from a soundtrack. Most import of all: it's impossible to stand still. So everyone is jumping around and all I can see are big smiles in the crowd and on stage.

Official Website | SoundCloud | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube



Neneh Cherry with RocketNumberNine
We decide to stay here for the rest of the day, which means we can see Neneh Cherry perform. Still associated with her big hit 'Buffalo Stance' she has come a long way of course. RocketNumberNine are playing r&b and hip hop beats, where Neneh is singing on top of. Sometimes it's jazzy, at other times it's rap or soulful. She excuses herself for her voice that is suffering from a chest infection. It does sound more hoarse than usual and high notes are beyond her reach today. It doesn't get her down, as Neneh looks like she has enjoyed a few drinks and is in a very cheerful mood. It results in a far from perfect but definitely enjoyable show. In the end she does play her big hit, which gets a warm and soulful performance.

Official Website | SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify



Hallo Venray
Dutch alternative veterans Hallo Venray disappeared off the radar for a while but returned this year with the impressive record Show. While the dark has set in, they are showing why it's good they are still around. Their dark and grungy songs are tight and couldn't sound better at this spot between the dunes. Singer Henk Krol comes across as a friendly man and is a skilled songwriter. Their music, that is somewhere in the middle between The Velvet Underground and Neil Young, sounds warm and deep. When they play their unrecognizable but slow and intense version of Prince's 'Controversy', some people around me look up in surprise. It's nice to see they are still able to surprise us after all these years.

Official Website | Facebook | MySpace | Spotify



Sivert Høyem
The dark dunes of the Fortweg stage are also the perfect setting for Sivert Høyem. The ex-Madrugada singer's deep voice is thundering between the dunes. With a new album out he has added another selection of songs that fit right in his discography. His solo work isn't that much different from the Madrugada songs, but still you can see the fans eyes' of that band start to twinkle when he's playing one of those songs. Tonight he's looking a bit tormented and at one point is smashing his mic stand. Was he frustrated about some technical problems or was he just in the moment? It does give 'The Kids are on High Street' the right emotion and a fitting end to his show and the day.

Official Website | SoundCloud | sivert.hoyem | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify

In the dark we head back for a few more drinks and a well deserved rest before it's time for the final day. It's something I don't want to think about right now. I just don't want it to end!

More Pictures

Into The Great Wide Open 2014 Day 0 + 1
Into The Great Wide Open 2014 Day 3

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