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Festival Coverage : Incubate - September, Day 4

  • Published in Live

 

Like all good things Incubate had to end but not before Paradox hosted a couple of packed out shows in the shape of the intense trio Inwolves and the dreamscape ambience of Laraarji.

V39 played host to the fun and fast Lookapony (a late addition to the bill it seems). Elements of Wavves & other similar acts inform their catchy and enjoyable tunes.

At the northern limit of the event’s reach Hall Of Fame presented the emotionally charged ethereality of duo Muscle And Marrow, followed by the equally emotive, Giallo informed sounds of Italian pair Father Murphy. The aim of catching all four of Slow Down Molasses’ sets was failed though, due to a late finish the night before, slight difficulty in getting hold of today’s programme & their being on at 3pm.

Final doses of heavyweight metal in various guises could be found throughout the day with Little Devil filling to the brim for Wiegedood, Black Cobra getting their stoner groove on in Extase (& probably winning the prize for best t-shirt image, if not for keenest price). Fans were out in force at 013 for the live return of UK doom trio Ramesses who didn’t fail to impress but unfortunately much heralded US trio YOB experienced technical difficulties of unknown origin, making for a disjointed show from the ‘90s veterans (previously completely unknown to me).

Elsewhere through the course of the day, which was for the most part a bit hard to get into musically, the fucked up disco of Pop. 1280 had limited appeal but the uncompromising music (and a possibly slightly stoned drummer) along with Satomi’s aerobic bouncing around the stage made Deerhoof a highlight of the four days. A band with a very high feel good factor attached.

Cul De Sac provided the other top shows of the day with Chilean trio La Hell Gang turning in a set of top notch laidback psych, at times oddly bringing to mind The Stone Roses' Second Coming, much as that might seem like an insult. Cool Ghouls were the final band to play this small venue and their Sadies meets Black Lips country punk was a great climax to a well put together musical programme. Kudos too for their shirts being only 12 euros.

Thanks go once again to Peter & Els for providing a home from home & also for introducing the party jazz of Bora Bora to the weekend’s musical goings on. Incubate returns at the start of December and we’ll publish the line-up as soon as we know it.

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Festival Coverage : Incubate - September, Day 3

  • Published in Live

The weekend proper sees Incubate's free shows proliferate, so today started off with a visit to Diggers record store (vinyl only for all you junkies out there) to take in the ramshackle garage tunes of trio Seymour Sachs. Nice guys but a little bit too uncentered. The Mighty Breaks, on just up the road at the Spaarbank cafe, just had the edge in terms of tighter songs etc. But then it's all down to individual taste when you're playing as much as watching.

From there it was on to Paradox for Sideshow Bob lookalike Jacco Weener and his set which was more performance art than performance. There's a first time for everything and this was the time to see a member of the audience drag the performer round the stage by a specially made shoe with a strap so that the latter can then stab randomly at the piano keys. Mental.

Hall Of Fame only had shows tonight and Sunday this year and Wren were the first act experienced there. Unfortunately they turned out to be rather unmemorable. Czech hardcore quintet Tosiro, on the other hand, presented a taut and introverted set at V39. Their stage dynamics alone provided a wealth of study.

From there it was back to Hall Of Fame for another UK act - Human Future. A sextet, they play with their hearts obviously on their collective post-rock sleeve. Too internal with their angst for my taste they were nevertheless great lads to hang out with and definitely had the drunkest drummer of the weekend. A swift look at some of the festival's art programme was now attempted but Bert Scholten had no other visitors so, despite his one euro beers and the fact he was obviously a nice bloke, requesting he play a song felt weird so it was off in search of another band.

And one was duly found, in the sassy shape of Dutch duo O, Kutjes. A pair that would in no way be out of place on Edinburgh's Fringe in August (hint, hint) their comedic but empowered take on rap and sex came over as a cross between Stereo Total and Le Tigre, particularly on the song 'Pow Pow'. You didn't need to know Dutch to get the overall humour.

Slow Down Molasses were mining the more emotional seam of their work over at Extase & going down just as well as on the previous two days. Emotions were also readily on display in 013 with Eagulls putting in a charged show  with near perfect sound against a backdrop of the film Metropolis, which was weirdly apt. They've come on a long way since I first encountered them at Long Division 3 years ago but look set to continue further still.

Mazu were the next unknowns to be checked out. Math rock is their bag and musically they deliver that fine. For me though their vocals sounded like a more annoying Hookworms. There was now a period of hanging around and blethering up at Hall Of Fame (& thanks to the chap from Mary Fields for passing on their CD) before Slovakian quartet The Ills knocked us flat with their Mogwai meets Jupiter Lion instrumental post-rock. Always a type of music where liking or disliking it rests on the thinnest edge but these guys were well & truly over that edge on the right side. Having driven all the way to Tilburg they clearly needed to blow off steam and proceeded to do so in a full on set that was lapped up by those wise enough to attend.

One more day to go and plenty of possible highlights within it.

Many thanks to Patrice for the tour round the main hall of 013.

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