Maximus

The one person to start of the festivities was Maximus, a man from Belgium with a bass guitar and a microphone. He had already started when we walked in, and we kind of had to scratch our heads if a bass guitar is the suitable instrument for a singer/songwriter. He did manage to play some nice tunes with it while conveying his songs of heartbreak and other mental issues to a handful of people, but it didn’t really grab anyone to be honest. The reference to Les Claypool was a bit out of context as well, since he used more of the legend’s humor that playing techniques. Entertaining, especially in the end when some hilarious screams came out of his mouth, but nothing really special in our eyes. (DemonDust)

The New Hip

How contemporary. Naming your band after your grandmother's prosthetics. The New Hip are a new (and supposedly hip) group from Tilburg that play music that is far from new. But whatever I'd say to make it sound bad, it'd still be okay music. Grabbing some sixties and seventies sounds and blending it with a little bit of britpop and mainstream rock it turns out to be a nice opener for the evening. But I doubt The New Hip will be as successful as your grandmother's surgery unless they write songs that stand out more than they do now. But there might be something there. Not for now though. (Napalm Lex)

Joris Dirks

The tiny tiny Batcave cafe is the smallest stage in the 013 venue. Every time a festival is held here, the Batcave is a problem area. Since the stage is so close to the ground, actually seeing a band perform is close to impossible. Bidi Bookings have solved this problem by programming all the singer songwriters for the evening in this area. It soon turns out be a successful decision.

 

Joris Dirks is the only singer songwriter of the evening that sports with a band. An interesting change of flavor this more rock-orientated sound delivers, the atmospheric mixture of melancholic pre-Kid A/Radiohead with the darker Jeff Buckley material, it's quite succesfull. However, it must be said, none of Dirks' songs really stick. But in a cozy Batcave with some borrelnootjes, who cares to mope. (Napalm Lex)

The Spores

When I first heard of this concert being held, I checked out this band called The Spores. This trio which claims to make electrostoner doompop has close ties with the Queens Of The Stone Age camp, which seems to be mentioned on every website. I don’t really know why, because when listening to the music itself on the internet I suspected this band can do fine on it’s own. This performance was definitely the best of the entire evening. For starters we were treated to a puppet show (by puppets who all have names and myspaces as well, check out the site for The Spores) on a already highly theatrical dressed stage, with light-tubes all across their stage, over the drumkit and amplifiers. This puppet show was extremely funny, we were introduced to a preacher, a rapping DJ, two middle-fingers and a guitar player, trust me you have to see it to believe it.

 

After this we knew we were in for something special. And by Jove we were right. Highly experimental pop rock with a woman on vocals and bass, a guy on guitar and another guy on drums and a shitload of samples that seemed to come from undetectable places (read: effect pedals). And instead of some random sampling, or even adding an extra dimension, the samples seemed to lead a life of their own, really making the songs whole. There was this one thing, I don’t know whether it came from the guitarist’s awesome skills or from the samples, but the manage to spew out a massive heavy stoner distortion every now and then that made my entire body tremble. Fucking kick ass. It is good to see that innovation is definitely not dead within rock music. Next time they play in The Netherlands, I’m there again!! (DemonDust)

Duffhues

Even though this obscure man's name can be translated to 'boring house', this singer/songwriter has nothing to do with YabbaDabbaDance 5. Nor is he a 'duf' character, far from it.

Duffhues comes sporting a keyboard and a packet of Marlboro Lights, and a legendary bad mood. I can't remember seeing such a grumpy person since I worked in the mortuary. He clearly wasn't in the mood for a performance, and didn't bother playing his songs with any emotion other than utter boredom, spiced with a fierce loathing for his apparent unworthy audience.

 

And so we see a cynical jerk hitting the keys raping his own song material in-between vomiting his discontent at the attending audience. Whether it's an act or not, it asks for one simple reply: laughter. And so we laughed just at as with this weird little man. Every once in a while he glanced into the audience and made remarks such as 'You really make my day. I'm done in a minute, everybody happy'. What an adorable chap. After four songs he grabs his fags off' the keyboard and walks off stage, into the crowd with a look on his face that reads 'aren’t I the greatest, you assholes?'. Luuk and I haven't had enough of his hilarious attitude, and so ask for an encore.

Unwillingly he returns to his seat and mumbles 'I don't really remember writing this song, nor the title. I don't care either, it's called 'Where are you' for all I care'. And so he rampantly starts abusing his instrument by uncontrolled smashing the keys again, before walking off for a second time seeming to think 'time for a drink'.

Duffhues, either he's a good comedian with devotion to his craft or he's the grumpy dork he seems to be acting out. Either way this is obviously an virtuous experience you can't afford to miss. (Napalm Lex)

We Insist!

 

Around the time when I was abandoned by my colleague, they started to throw some old material at us, which seems to be far more chaotic and intense according to Alex. Well, this proved to be true because how (mostly) gentile the first part of the set was, the more violent the second part became. These guys excel at mastering their instruments and putting them together to create one giant cocktail of madness. Only for the evolved musical minds, I’d say. (DemonDust)

Darker

The person to end this evening was Darker, a guy who thinks he can be a one man band. To be honest I just saw 5 minutes or so, then I too had to go and catch a train, but in those five minutes I believe I heard exactly the same tune over and over again. I checked out his stuff on his MySpace once, and then already I found it to suck. I guess it’s either not my cup of tea, or it’s just utter garbage. (DemonDust)