5-6 APRIL, ROTTERDAM
DAY 1
Choices… it’s all
about choices you have to make. Not only in real life, but also when visiting
the Motel Mozaique Festival In Rotterdam, which took place on the 7th and 8th of
April 2013, because with so many acts on the bill at various locations in
downtown Rotterdam, it is almost impossible to see everything. The festival is
already running its 13 edition, but for me personally it was the very first
full-time non-stop visit. The festival focuses on new acts in the music industry,
which are about to breakthrough or are the bright hope for the near future.
There are also a couple of established acts programmed, just to make sure that
the festival will attract enough audience and it is quite obvious that also this
year there are a lot of visitors from all over the world. This is not so strange,
because for example in 2010 the band MUMFORD AND SONS were one of the featured
acts. They even performed a free outdoor show, so with that in mind, people are
very eager to discover the undiscovered during this festival.
I was able to see about 20 out of the 51 music performances during Friday evening/night and Saturday afternoon/evening/night, so afterwards I was safe to say that I caught a lot of the action. Starting on Friday evening, the first act I witnessed was a Belgian act called SX. Although no Hardrock and Metal bands are part of this festival, when entering the sad Corso Music Hall, it is clear that the sound/mixingboard is really way too loud. SX is a pure 80s Electronic-Poprock sounding band, but during this performance the band sounds as heavy as a Metalband, but without my earplugs, it is almost impossible to make it to the end of their performance. A pity, because musically they are not that bad at all, with a sound that reminds me of LUBA and DALBELLO, so massive keys/synths, a pumping heavy rhythm section and powerful female vocals. The guy at the mixing board had absolutely no clue that the sound quality was very messy and as loud as possible, because he was dancing to the music. Although the hall looked quite empty, some people didn’t mind the loud sound and danced their way through the set, but it became obvious after 30 minutes that you had to leave and check a different venue, as otherwise you could have been deaf already at the start of the festival.
Moving
to the most important and most professional venue of all the locations, the
Rotterdamse Schouwburg had an excellent line-up and also a terrific sound
quality in the 2 music halls. Although I was unprepared and didn’t know the
featured acts, it was a good choice to stay in this venue for the rest of the
evening and following night, because the ambiance was also very pleasant and
some of the performances were very impressive. First act to witness was a
London/UK based band called BEAR’S DEN. They are from the same district/area in
London as the mighty MUMFORD AND SONS and despite some music similarities,
throughout the set the band is slowly showing an own face. Without a doubt, this
is a fantastic band that musically combines Folk with Pop Melodies and at times
even sounds like a Westcoast/AORish band, because the smooth harmonyvocals and
rather catchy choruses even reflect some of the classic L.A. Westcoast sound of
bands like POCO and THE BUOYS (DAKOTA for the insiders among us). 1 hour of
beautiful music in a small hall and it was clear that most people did enjoy it
as well, because not many people left, unlike the SX performance 1 hour earlier.
The
festival makes it people to see a lot of different acts and when you get tired
of one performance, then you leave and go to the next venue, but as already
mentioned within the Schouwburg you can stay in the same venue and jump between
2 music halls and also rest a little in the big entrance hall. A lot the
visitors of the festival appreciated this and therefore didn’t leave this venue
at all. Up next was JOHN GRANT, a singer/songwriter I was not familiar with, but
the American musician left a great impression on me and a lot of other people
after his 1 hour-performance. He settled himself in Iceland a few years ago,
gathered a bunch of musicians, recorded a record and is now currently touring.
Although the whole setting and feeling of
the concert was rather dark and depressing at times, the diversity of the
featured music is very interesting. John has got the strongest voice of the
whole festival, which becomes clear as
soon as he starts singing. He sounds like a cross between BONO VOX, ALFIE
ZAPPACOSTA and DAVE GAHAN of DEPECHE MODE and musically it is also a combination
of them, so a very 1980s inspired adventure is what you get here. However, there
is an enormous diversity going on here, because John has a part pure 80s Synth
Pop, a lot of Electronic Pop, some Folk moments and a few of the songs can
almost be labeled as atmospheric progressive pop/rock in the style of STEVEN
WILSON. The keyboards and synthesizers are very prominent during the
performance, sometimes sounding very electronic and danceable a la DEPECHE
MODE/NEW ORDER and did I hear those QUEEN “Radio Ga Ga” synths? While at other
times sounding like a laid-back progband, with even some similarities to
PORCUPINE TREE, minus the rock. One of the most surprising songs is “I wanna go
to Marz”, which features a keyboard intro that is identical to the keyboard
intro of the SURVIVOR classic “I’m not that man anymore”, although the rest of
song is of course completely different and has little to do with SURVIVOR. It’s
just that keyboard intro that is so identical and it really took me by surprise!
The beauty of this festival is that you learn about acts you never heard of
before and JOHN GRANT is definitely an interesting name.
Then we
head over to a singer/songwriter called DAVID LEMAITRE, a German/Peruvian
musician who delivers a Singer/Songwriter type show that also leaves room open
for typical South American influences. Although he might not have the best voice
in the world, it is a nice performance to watch. Nevertheless, it was also one
of the shows that saw people going in and out very frequently, because there
wasn’t any interaction with the audience and the material started to sound the
same after a while. So an early departure from this gig was inevitable.
The closing act of Day 1 was a band that
alre
ady
achieved some fame and fortune in the music industry, although a massive
break-up has not happened yet. It’s THE VEILS from the UK and New Zealand, the
only rockband to perform in the Schouwburg venue and it becomes clear after a
few songs that a lot of people were very keen seeing them live on stage. It
seems that the band’s charismatic frontman FINN ANDREWS doesn’t feel too
comfortable on stage, because there are quite a few silent moments in between
the songs and besides, it’s almost impossible to understand a word he’s saying
when he actually does speak. The show itself was good enough to watch from start
to finish, although at the end you feel there’s something missing. The focus is
on their new album ‘Time stays’, but despite that fact there isn’t a single
moment during the performance where you feel that this band is finally about to
become huge worldwide. Nevertheless, it is a nice closing of Day 1 of the Motel
Mozaique Festival.
DAY 2
For
some visitors, Day 2 starts in a rather unusual place, because the Music Hall of
DE DOELEN was a place where people could sleep overnight and enjoy a nice
breakfast. The Saturday is during the daylight the part of the festival where a
lot of free-of-charge outside-activities are going on around the Schouwburgplein
are in downtown Rotterdam. Not only music performances take place, but also all
sorts of outdoor cultural and arts performances. This makes it a very pleasant
visit for anyone who is in downtown Rotterdam during the saturday afternoon.
Thankfully the weather was good enough for the outdoors, although spring itself
is still far away on this cold but partly sunny afternoon.
There
is a nice little 3ONSTAGE where we can watch every single hour between 12 and 7
o’clock a 15-20 minutes counting performance by one of the bands that perform a
full show in a venue during the evening.
I sadly missed the early performance by one of
the new Dutch discoveries, MISTER AND MISSISSIPPI, but I was able to catch 3
performances in a row during the later afternoon. First a great performance by
all-female American band TEEN, who play some sort of mix between quirky early
80s female wave/poprock and 60s garage Rock, kinda feeling like a cross between
BLONDIE, SHANDI, SHANGHAI and THE BANGLES. “Paradise” is one of their catchy
tunes, which during the evening I get to hear one more time when I pay a
visit
to their evening performance at the Rotown venue. The 2nd act in the outdoors is
a Californian duo called THE MILK CARTONS, who feel quite uncomfortable due to
the extremely cold weather, although they learned just before the performance
that during their evening gig in a church there will be heating. The 2
youngsters both hold a guitar and sing together some beautiful harmonyvocals and
musically speaking it is safe to say that they sound like a cross between SIMON
AND GARFUNKEL and THE EVERLY BROTHERS. They have humor too, because after each
song they announce that the next song will be even quieter.
And
the 3rd outdoors gig I witnessed was a performance by a Californian band called
THE GROWLERS. Although they do not feature
the world’s greatest singer and their overall sound is sounding flat and pretty
dull, they have at least a high entertaining factor. Their typical Californian
poses and retro hippy looks are making them the most colorful act of the day.
They play light psychedelic rock that comes straight out of the late 60s San
Francisco area, reminding a lot of THE DOORS and I suspect that the band was
pretty stoned before they went on stage, because all the members are unable to
keep their eyes at a normal mode during the performance. I’m afraid this band
will be a clubact for the rest of their lives, although they are able to
entertain quite a bit due to their funny looks.
After a quick dinner, it was around 8 o’clock
when I entered the Corso venue, which once again was not the most atmospheric
place to be, but after checking out the new album of the British band STORNOWAY
recently, I was quite excited to catch them live. The sound quality was better
than the night before with SX and musically speaking we were hearing some good
clean fun melodic celtic pop/rock a la BIG COUNTRY, with some progrock
influences and also a bit of traditional Britpop. Although at first sight it all
sounded quite nice, somehow the lead vocals were not really strong. In fact,
after 20 minutes the singer misses a few notes, with as result that a lot of
people leave the hall and go look for other entertainment elsewhere. Funny side
note is that only a few minutes earlier, the singer mentions that last night
they played a double bill with LAURA MVULA in London and at the very same time
STORNOWAY is playing in
Rotterdam,
also Laura is giving her first performance in Rotterdam (both scheduled between
8pm and 9pm). He jokes that she’s no good and everyone should stay and watch
STORNOWAY, but sadly halfway the set it looks like people have chosen the watch
Laura instead and that’s what I decide to do as well. Laura is the bright new
hope in the music industry, where she is already marked by the BBC as 2013’s
most talented female singer/songwriter, who is destined to breakthrough
very soon. When entering the venue of the
Schouwburg where she is playing, it becomes clear that she is indeed an amazing
vocalist, because the atmosphere in the music hall is absolutely astonishing.
She has just recently been discovered, but It was clear that the majority of the
audience was highly impressed and despite I found out that she started 15
minutes later, I am safe to say that Laura might be the winner of the festival.
The music is a mixture of Indie Soul, Jazz and Pop, with as main focus of course
Laura’s voice.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist to make this
evening an enjoyable 3-hour trip ‘round town in order to see as many acts as
possible, so I left 10 minutes before the end of Laura’s performance, raced on
my bike to the Rotown – Paradijskerk – Gouvernestraat area, where the Saturday
night really felt like a classic Saturday rock and roll night. The hot new band
THE STRYPES from Ireland is hyped a lot since the start of 2013 and only a few
lucky ones were able to actually see them live this evening, because when I
walked up the Rotown venue, there was already a long row outside. It was pretty
obvious that the band was putting on a great rock and roll show inside and
nobody considered leaving the place, so it was sad to conclude that I could only
catch a glimpse of THE STRIPES from the outside. Thankfully down at the
Gouvernestraat an interesting female fronted American band called WILD BELLE.
They play 80s influenced Electronic Pop/Rock, with soulful vocals and despite
the overall sound was quite heavy, the mixing board got it right this time,
unlike the SX performance, so it was an enjoyable gig to watch. I only watched
15 minutes, but felt this was a band one could easily go and see for a full
concert. However, I was desperate to see a concert at the lovely
Paradijskerk,
which is an old church that is currently being restored. The church is home to a
few concerts this year and during the festival about 6 performances take place.
These are almost all peaceful singer-songwriter concerts, which work very well.
The performance by the legendary British producer/musician ETHAN JOHNS is quite
excellent to watch. Ethan is a well-known producer in the Rockworld, with an
extensive list of records he produced, including quite a few THE KILLERS albums
and he is also the son of GLYN JOHNS, who produced records by LED ZEPPELIN, THE
EAGLES, BAND OF HORSES and countless others. Glynn however is the brother of
ANDY JOHNS, who happens to be a major producer in the 1980s Hair Metal scene
(CINDERELLA, LA GUNS, AUTOGRAPH, MSG…) and little did we know that only 1 day
later Ethan’s uncle Andy would sadly die at the age of 61. Anyway, during this
evening show it is clear that Ethan feels very comfortable standing in front of
a rather large audience (approx. 400 people were inside), because when he misses
a note while playing his guitar, he apologizes, makes a joke that this never
happened before and just carries on with his set, switching to an electric
guitar a few times and musically speaking balancing somewhere between Southern
Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Americana and a little bit of Folk. After 1 hour, with
only a few people leaving their seat, I think everyone present will agree that
this was an unforgettable show.
When checking the Rotown venue again, the
all-female fronted band TEEN puts on a great Rock and Roll show. A lot heavier
than the afternoon performance down at the Schouwburgplein square, the band now
touches a lighter side of THE DONNAS and JOAN JETT, so really rocking out. The
place is packed and it feels good to be at a Rockclub just a few minutes after
being in a Church listening to (semi) unplugged singer-songwriter music. Due to
the fact that I had already seen TEEN performing earlier in the day, I decided
to head back to the Gouvernestraat and see a Canadian band called BRASSTRONAUT.
Now this was a big surprise, because without any info I walked in the venue and
heard a very interesting band playing a mixture of Post-Rock, atmospheric
Ambient Pop, some Wave and a little Progressive Rock. RUSH meets PORCUPINE TREE
meets SIGUR ROS meets THE CURE might be a possible description of this band.
They sounded pretty good live on stage, with a great sound/mixboard and enough
people to make it a pleasant stay. Definitely a band to watch out for in the
future! Down at the Paradijskerk church once again, we can find the Dutch twin
duo of
TANGERINE. They put on a nice show and sound like a cross between EVERLY
BROTHERS and SIMON AND GARFUNKEL, but everyone who witnessed the THE MILK CARTON
KIDS show will probably feel that TANGERINE does not reach the same high level.
Speaking of THE MILK CARTON KIDS, when leaving the church, the 2 musicians of
that duo also leave and drag their own equipment to a car parked on the other
side of the street (Nieuwe Binnenweg), which shows that during this festival the
possibility to approach the musicians is quite easy.
Nevertheless I went back to the Schouwburg in order to see a Belgian band called MARBLE SOUNDS. This band is playing a mixture of smooth singer/songwriter and a little folk, but also rock quite a bit from time to time, with even some great electric JIMI HENDRIX/JEFF BACK style guitarsolo’s here and there. The female singer who joins the band a couple of times is quite good actually and so we can conclude that after the performance of this band ends at midnight, they are another surprisingly great act to catch live. A lot of people came to see WOODKID, a French musician, but sadly he was rushed to the hospital earlier this evening and so, his massive show in the big music hall of the Schouwburg was cancelled. The Dutch musician JACCO GARDNER was his replacement and after a lengthy soundcheck, Jacco was able to give away a great show as closing act of this festival. Musically speaking he balances somewhere between 60s Psychedelica/Garage, Rock and a little Progressive Rock, with PINK FLOYD and THE ZOMBIES as his main inspirations. After the show, most people go home to sleep their day away until the following Sunday afternoon, just like me, because on Monday the new working week starts again, but with a great memory about a terrific festival in your memory, the week couldn’t start better… C-Ya next year on Motel Mozaique 2014!
