Roadburn Festival 2011, Tilburg, the Netherlands – Day One (by Noise Road)

Where were you?

Where were you when, in clear breach of the Geneva convention on sub-audible sonic warfare, Sunn O))) caused the mass bowel evacuation of Tilburg?

Where were you when Circle and then the Master Musicians of Bukkake tripped our collective b@lls?

Godflesh performed the industrial masterpiece, Streetcleaner, for the first time in 17 years.

Ludicra played Europe for the first time.

Year of No Light delivered a booming live soundtrack to the silent movie Vampyr.

Doom super group Shrinebuilder stood burning before us, a volcano in their wake.

Where were you?… Noise Road was at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg.

Also, where were you when I lost my camera? Seriously, you better have a pretty decent alibi between the Godflesh and Soilent Green sets…

Ah, it was a sh!t camera anyway, and I’m an even sh!tter photographer. You did the eyes of the world a favour by preventing another visual assault from the likes of Noise Road.

There and Back Again…

Noise Road woke at 5am in a B&B near the airport of Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh.  Plane, trains, bus and we were at the festival site in the fields outside Tilburg.

The Netherlands has transport down.  A smaller centre, like Tilburg, has such magnificent venues, as the 013 and the Midi Theatre, because the excellent rail system allows people to travel from all over the region.  Festival goers didn’t have to stay in Tilburg or the campsite. They could base in any of the surrounding centres.

The train journey itself between Amsterdam and Tilburg is the Netherlands of postcards – Canals, fields and windmills.

Roadburn

Roadburn does not just have incomparable lineups and curators.  It also has the punter in mind.

A shuttle bus picks you up at the train station and delivers you to a campsite, with goats fighting for the higher ground (that’s not a metaphor – its a campsite with actual goats, ponies and roosters).  After a few curses at your tent during construction, that shuttle bus then hauls you 7km back to the door of the venue.  Later in the night, though you don’t remember the way home, that bus does.

At the campsite, there is plenty of space for your new friends from around the world.  The organisers have resisted the temptation to increase the capacity of the festival, in order to keep the communal vibe.  The festival sold out in 15 minutes, so obviously the demand is there.  Lots of money could be made.  But that’s not the spirit of the festival.

The bands are underground and about the music.  So are the people…  and, undoubtedly, so are the organisers.

I met a couple from Melbourne.  They told me that, due to an internet issue, no one was able to book Roadburn tix from Australia.  So the organisers held back tickets to ensure that Australians, who were willing to travel the world, were able to find a home in a Tilburgian field.  Good people.

Day One

The cafe strip that leads on to the venue was a parade of beards, cigarettes and band t-shirts – each band t-shirt more obsucure than the previous one you locked eyes on…

These are the people that keep the underground alive.  They spent their hard eaned traveling from the UK, Ireland, America, Germany, Norway, Spain…  As soon as the building holding the merch opened, they were throwing euros at the merch tables.  I was in the merch room within an hour of the opening of a 3 day festival and already some items had sold out.

Alcest

Alcest lulled us into the dreaming world of Roadburn.  Their lullabies fogged out any nightmares of the supposed real world outside of Tilburg.

Standing in a strange one dimensional format, the guitars and drums all in a line across the stage, the Frenchmen brought their warm tones and sweet take on metal.

As I exited the main hall, I was halted by booming doom from the Green Room venue.  Punters were backed up all the way out the door.  Year of No Light were playing their latest album, Ausserwelt.  It sounded huge.  I had never heard any of their stuff before that handful of notes, caught from 10 metres outside the door.  But that was enough to convince me that I HAD to see their set tomorrow morning.

Continue reading: Roadburn Festival 2011, Tilburg, the Netherlands – Day One: 14 April 2011 « Noise Road.

This is the first part of Noise Road’s report on Roadburn 2011.  Read Part 2 and Part 3 here.

Tags: Noise Road, Roadburn, Roadburn 2011, Roadburn Festival, Roadburn Festival 2011

This entry was posted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 5:13 am and is filed under 2011, Festival News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.