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.

With the November weather attempting to do its worst our third time at Le Guess Who? began in a low key fashion tonight. A return to the fantastic Jenskerk, to see the festival's opening act Hildur Gudnadottir perform her mix of cello and experimental pop, was the first stop. A fitting location for the ethereality of the music and one that pulled in a full-sized crowd.

Making use of a bike this year proved to be the wise move its always been touted as (although it does help to read your map correctly) so the trip to see Eric Chenaux in the Tivoli Vredenburg's Pandora hall took no time at all. Bringing to mind the work of Robert Wyatt with his warbling falsetto his was an interesting and warm start to the Constellation Records curated element of this year's festival.

Back to the Jenskerk for another packed-out show next. Last week's Paris horrors will obviously be in people's minds throughout this weekend (Eric Cheanaux had already mentioned the festival as providing a break from the tension there) and for this, the last night of her tour, Julia Holter's response was to put music to a poem by Karen Dalton. You could have heard a pin drop in the hush that marked its playing. 

Squeezing back out through the crowd and past the queue at the door it was back up the road to the Groete Zaal of the Tivoli for the first of tonight's major German acts. The Notwist have somehow missed out on major success in the UK (not that I expect they lose sleep over that) but it's bewildering why that is the case. Given their ability to write indie gems worthy of the likes of a rockier Teenage Fanclub as well as a raft of material that recalls (or even pre-dates) Wilco at the more experimental end of their own scale they should by rights have swept all before them. With their binary lights and pounding performance they'll just have to remain a favourite of those in the know for the time being.

Saltland were next on the list for us but upon climbing the stairs to Pandora we were met by the crowd streaming out some 12 minutes early by our reckoning. A quick look at the programme showed there was time to fit in the unknown The Homesick, part of the the Subbacultcha Presents slice of the festival, over at Ekko. They were tonight's revelatory act. Laddish post-punk from a Dutch trio clearly very at home in the live setting and going down a storm with the home crowd. Bags of energy and talent aplenty on display.

Majical Cloudz were the final act at the Jenskerk tonight. Whilst rather bizarrely not drawing in the same keen crowd as the earlier performers they managed to make far better use of the excellent acoustic properies of the ex-church than for whatever reason Julia Holter had been able to. Having it seemed arrived from Canada during the day Devon Welsh (bearing very fair comparison to David Byrne) apologised a number of times for having little in the way of chat but whether jetlagged or due to having other concerns on his mind his and Matthew Otto's performance was flawless. 'Are You Alone?', 'Heavy' and 'Childhood's End' all featured in the set and it's hard to think of a place where they could have come over any better.

Reconstituted krautrock pioneers Faust were next on the agenda. True to their roots there was a theatrical element in the shape of three knitting girls at the front of the stage. Beginning with a tribute to the victims in Paris and beyond theirs was a thunderous performance of a far more industrial nature than expected but one ideally suited to the cavernous space of the Groete Zaal. Managing to make a hurdy gurdy sound like an air raid siren & harbinger of doom was a particularly evocative part of their dramatic show.

A quick train ride up to the far flung DB's brought the first hiccup of the night as, due to timings seemingly being close to an hour out of kilter, The Great Communicators were not that far into their set rather than The Mysterons just getting ready to take to the stage. Vigorous and sweet-voiced indie from the Amsterdam/Hague quintet was a pleasure to take in nevertheless and they're undoubtedly not the only band appearing over the weekend who, if things go well, can enjoy wide appeal outwith Holland.

Given the train times the only option was to finish the night back in Pandora for a final dollop of Canadian entertainment in the shape of Ought. Live it turns out that frontman Tim Darcy's performance is a curious mix of Jarvis Cocker's sinuousness married to Mark E. Smith's vocal mannerisms, a combination that makes it hard to take your eyes off him. The floor of the hall was packed so they were keenly received by the vast majority of the crowd but for me there was something lacking in terms of the transition of the material from Sun Comes Down and its predecessors from recording to live. Maybe the balcony wasn't the best place to appreciate them from. Nevertheless it was well past the witching hour & so time to head off.