Tulp

‘Listening or whispering’ is on signs in the Paradox, the jazz stage of Tilburg and the surrounding area. There is dark red velvet, there are chairs, one drinks specialty beer from glasses on feet. A single singer with acoustic guitar sings with his eyes closed: « Pour your love, all over me. » Welcome to Metalfestival Roadburn?

Ceci n’est pas une metal festival. Roadburn, which was canceled by the Coronacrisis five years ago, has since changed unrecognizable. Firstly, this is due to smart programming: not standing still, keeping moving, searching for innovation, experiment above known. So that Patrick Walker with his solo project 40 Watt Sun at Festival Roadburn, who is singing beautiful, bare love songs in the paradox, is not, ehm, contradictory idea. At the festival where weird was looked up in 2017 From hip -hop group Dälekand from the dark -hearted pop singer Zola Jesus a year laternow stood a bizarre Japanese ritual (Kuunatic), Canadian Americana (Ora Cogan), Welshe Gothic-folk (Tristwch y Fenywod), Memorial Irish Drones (One Leg One Eye) and more paradise birds.

Triumph of Death

With that there are almost no big names programmed, you see no controversial reunions of lost legendary acts, and the Artist-in-Residence are also relatively unknown figures. And that is exciting, but also necessity, because despite the reduction in scale, there are concerns about the costs and this was (again) the most expensive edition ever. So that there were many acts on the main stage that, despite their big qualities (Messa, Thou), should first have to make some meters in smaller rooms, or that you sometimes had to choose between four bands that all had played on Roadburn more than three times, it is there. You can be critical of, and you have to. But it says something substantial about the festival industry, where festivals have large and small difficulty in keeping their heads above water due to rising costs, regulatory pressure and an audience that is increasingly difficult to afford the increasingly expensive tickets. That is not so new normal. Roadburn is still available.

And yes, a few real headliners were certainly missed. But it is also great that Roadburn felt alive, relevant and full on the spot, with a multi-colored audience where the black shirts with texts such as ‘Triumph or Death’ are you welcome, shoulder to shoulder with a growing number of denim jackets on which rainbow flags and other queer symbols were hewed. And Chat Pile and Big | Brave, a few of those multiple alumni, managed to save the matte Friday with their secret shows (who were so secret that there were long, long lines).

Gift from a show

A highlight a day later came from the Norwegian metal band Dødheimsgard, who great album Black Medium Current (2023) Played in its entirety, with the flipped Shaman Yusaf Parvez as a mesmerizing Showman – they rarely play in the Netherlands, this was a gift from a show. A few hours later, Øxn (with Lankum’s Radie Peat) stood the large room from 013 with their newly seventh show ever, full of slowly built up mads of folk songs, full of pastorally sung murder and manslaughter. And with another secret show for the books: the Japanese psychrockers from Bo Ningen demolished the skate park with grooves so tightly that you could have a shink channels on it.

And luckily, there was besides about the bizarre complex deposit system with buttons that I saw grown up adult bartenders, also a band to bake. The Turkish-Dutch Psychrock party band Altın Gün, which we have already seen at every festival in the Netherlands. And it turns out: Roadburners also have hips, and they cannot resist the thick anatolian grooves as listeners elsewhere.

So well, the question that is always gown around in Tilburg with this type of water separation act: « Is it Roadburn? » And the answer is: what would it be? The world is changing, so do this festival. But Roadburn is not just the line-up. The audience, that’s Roadburn. Their common desire for narrative, hypnotic and very authentic music and community. That is not just lost.

Festival Roadburn, heard 18 and 19/4 in 013, Spoorzone and Paradox, Tilburg. There until 20/4.

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