Le Guess Who? 2015 - A Second Opinion #1

You could perhaps say that Le Guess Who?’s Thursday is a bit of a teaser for the rest of the festival. Only a handful of the crazy amount of venues is actually open for business, and even in those open there are several red tape areas (though, admittedly, you could have all the world’s concerts in the main building of Tivoli Vredenburg and you’d still have a room or two to spare). That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do on the Thursday, with several highly touted names on the slate like Julia Holter, for instance, who is apparently turning the church she is performing in into a standing room affair (which probably is something that doesn’t happen during ordinary Sunday service these days).

The Tivoli Vredenburg building was renovated to the point that it’s an entirely new building, and the old venue happens to be hidden inside there is well. In the older part, which has a bit of a standing area just in front of the stage and then has a steep, college-like climb of seats, The Notwist is the band slotted to do a 1 1/2 hour show. The veteran band hasn’t invested in either a purebred singer or a vocoder-type machine in all those years, because the vocals are, well— let’s just say it’s indie rock in the sense that there’s no Celine Dion-like vocal range there.

The appeal of the band is not in the singing, though the sometimes emotional lyrics contrast nicely with the instrumental rock outs The Notwist is perhaps best known for. The singing has a tendency to happen over an indie-rock/shoegaze kind of vibe, but when the vocal part is done, the gloves come off. Jams, rock outs, psych outs, and prog outs are plugged before, after, and in between the tracks, often propelled forward by a steady, fast paced drum. The vocal bits are quite accessible, the rock outs bits are too, but sometimes they really go all out, sometimes adding the prog or a free jazz session (with horn samples, no less, if I’m not mistaken). Those are the bits that the band might lose some casual listeners that happen to be present, though going by proper fan reaction, those are also the bits that make these people lose it in the positive way.

In between The Notwist the plan was to have a quick look at what Saltland was all about, but after we’ve patiently waited for two never ending escalators to bring us to the room she’s playing in, the door before us swings open and everyone just leaves. So either she’s finished 15 minutes early in a 45 minute slot, or it’s so terrible that an exodus ensues. Lets assume the former, so back to catch some more of The Notwist before going on an evening stroll to the St. Jans Church. The Church is used for a variety of things (I remember being present for a Jeanette Winterson lecture there), and for the upcoming four days a number of concerts will be held there.

It is a rather perfect place for Majical Cloudz to perform, and the singer seems genuinely grateful to be playing on such a location. Apparently less packed than at Julia Holter’s concert an hour before, the seats are reasonably filled and definitely outnumber the two lads on stage, of which only one really is in the limelight. The vulnerable stage set-up fits the bare-hearted songs he sings. The sparse, electronic backing sounds are the only other thing present aside from his voice, which comes through clear and with a beautiful echo to give it some extra depth. It definitely works in these acoustics, with the voice filling the space as they sing about a range of pure emotions.

There is a danger in terms of the acoustics though, as when he attacks certain words, the vocals come in so loud it kind of obliterates everything in its way. It’s the actual bull in the proverbial china-shop, and linguistically it would be interesting to see if this happens only with plosives or whether that doesn’t matter. Now, the songs where this isn’t an issue, those really hit home, and then the benefit of the venue really comes out. On a song like ‘Heavy’, for instance, where he repeats the lines “You’ve got to learn to love me, because I am what I am”, the vocals are outstanding, moving from one word to another with ease, strength, and vulnerability all at the same time. And there were a couple more moments that hit the target as if witnessing an Eros vs. Cupid archery match. Maybe not the concert as a whole, but definitely those moments earned him a standing ovation to finish the Le Guess Who?-goes-to-church night for the festival’s first day.