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Le Guess Who? 2015 - Saturday

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Saturday at Le Guess Who? this year heralded the introduction of Le Feast where 15 Utrecht households each welcomed a number of festival goers in for a feed and some chat so at 18:00 Stef & myself found ourselves (shamefully sans bottle of wine) settling down amidst a small international group for food themed music, excellent home cooked dishes and chat about the festival and beyond. Definitely an initiative that should carry on at future events.

Post-dinner we caught Magma for a couple of numbers in passing in the Ronda. They'd drawn what seemed to me the first major crowd for that hall so clearly the veteran prog/jazz group were a popular inclusion in the programme. We had other fish to fry though and weren't sorry to move on upstairs to secure a spot in the Pandora for Ringo Deathstarr.

As well as playing host to many of the most popular acts over the weekend this hall also seemed to suffer more technical issues than any other so the band were amongst those slightly delayed or interrupted by such things. They started off brightly enough once back on track but were curiously less engaging than on their recorded output.

As tonight had fewer personal "must-see" acts on the bill the next port of call was to see unknown New York trio Sunflower Bean over at the Acu venue. I nicely intimate hall well filled saw the likeable band play a set mainly culled from their forthcoming album Human Ceremony. Bassist Julia Cumming, pronouncing at one point that "bands shouldn't talk that much", has a very effective quick change from sweet to aggravated when singing, whilst Nick Kivlen manages to pull off some straight up guitar shapes that shouldn't really work in the context of the band's sound but somehow manage to.

More American unknowns were on at de Helling where recent Heavenly Recordings signings Nots were just taking to the stage after my sole drenching of the weekend. Visually it looked like two of The Donnas had joined forces with an electronics fan and a librarian but there was no way a simple "Shhh" would have damped down their raucous and hearfelt performance, their first in Europe. Finally I had a need for my earplugs. Single 'Reactor' and the rest of their set were torn through and the smallish crowd can be justly pleased with themselves for including this show in their attendances.

Back up to Acu next for the final bunch of unknowns, London's Housewives. The band utilise two drummers (albeit one only has a floor tom and a cymbal) to pound away in unison whilst the guitar and bass chop away and the monk-like vocals float over the top. Both Godflesh and Om came to mind during the songs I was able to see but the overall effect didn't really grab me.

The night was finished off back down at de Helling where Wavves enjoyed a capacity crowd and inspired more stage diving and crowd surfing than I've seen in a long time. Normally you see no security staff anywhere near the stages at Le Guess Who? but the extra bodies regularly taking to the stage had them hovering on the fringes this time. 'Way Too Much' and other tracks from new album V got a look in as well as older material such as 'Take On The World'. Nathan Williams had an uncomfortable start to the show due to the mic often shocking him but, with the application of a cover, that was consigned to the past and they carried on with the business at hand with 'King Of The Beach' being the most rapturously received song of the night.

The last act seen tonight were the Jacuzzi Boys, recently seen in Glasgow as support to Ex Hex & so a known quantity and one that didn't disappoint. Playing like their lives depended on it with barely a break between tracks they started off with 'Happy Damage' and inspired far more audience participation than at that earlier show. As is only fair when the band on stage are rocking out so hard. An enjoyable end to a night spent largely at the furthest reaches of the festival.  

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Ex Hex, Stereo, Glasgow

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Seldom do I really look forward to a gig with as much expectation as twenty years ago. Jaded by age and experience no doubt. With Ex Hex's Rips being a firm favourite amongst last year's album releases, however, the chance to see the band in performance was a prospect that got the juices flowing like old times.

Add to that the fact that I'd somehow previously managed to never see a show in Stereo and the checking out of a new venue added an extra element to the night ahead. Turns out it's quite a sweatbox, enjoys good sound, only has one slightly unfortunately placed pillar and they like to get gigs on and off pretty swiftly.

With that said then Ex Hex were on stage not much shy of 9pm, getting lavish praise from the hipster fanboys at stage left and heading into all the good works from Rips - 'How You Got That Girl', 'War Paint', 'Everywhere' etc. In keeping with their '70s glam sound a cover of The Sweet's 'Fox On The Run' duly made it into the set later on.

Extended solos from each instrument and guitar duels were all part of the energetic performance but overall my expectations weren't met. No doubt I was expecting the songs to be smashed out at a pace slightly greater than on record but that wasn't the case on the night, which left things a bit ploddy for me by the end of the show. A paradox maybe but not one the bulk of the audience seemed to suffer so probably all good in that respect.

Touring support came from the Jacuzzi Boys who I'd been equally keen to see despite also having the option in a couple of weeks time at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht. They charged through 'Smells Dead', 'Seventeen', 'Strange Exchange', 'Mt. Sinai' and a shed load more, accomplished one of the coolest in-set cable reconnections I've seen on a stage and generally deserved a far better (i.e. dancing) reaction than the enthusiastic but polite rounds of applause the audience doled out. On this evidence they're a must-see in Holland.

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