Day two of Le Guess Who? 2015 and the big guns of the weekend were getting rolled out with some potentially ear-splitting acts on offer later in the evening's programme.

First port of call though was Moira to see the earliest act of the day, the homegrown project of songwriters Thjis Kuijken and Geert van der Velde - Black Oak. Think Buffalo Springfield and you'll be pretty close to the mutually beneficial and harmonious semi-acoustic americana they and their fellow players produce. Perhaps at times lyrically over-simplistic theirs was nonetheless a warm and engaging show.

On to the first of the bigger acts & more Canadian performers as The Besnard Lakes appeared in the Ronda at Tivoli Vredenburg. Here then was the first oddity of the night - sound at a moderate level and ample space to walk around freely in the upper reaches of the hall. Not that the band cared as they turned in as tight a performance as expected but for my money they're better appreciated in slightly more intimate surroundings and with greater volume.

Upstairs to the Pandora next for the unknown quantity that is Kaki King. Visually she takes the everything-produced-by-one-guitar thing to a new level as the instrument is fixed in place to allow it to also be utilised for projections and with the larger ones behind her the show realises her current project The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body. For me though if you've seen one person sample slapping the body of their guitar to get the drumbeat etc. you've seen them all.

A swift cycle to see more of the Kicking The Habit programme at Moira found up and comers Hooton Tennis Club just getting into position. Clearly an unknown quantity in Utrecht they didn't enjoy the largest of crowds & fell foul early on of a lack of spare guitar strings but you can't be too harsh on a band wherein one member sports a Brudenell Social Club t-shirt and which performs with such gusto (particularly 'Up In The Air').

Titus Andronicus were the second act of the night in the Ronda and were still running through the soundcheck when I got back there (interesting use of Grand Funk Railroad and 'Tarzan Boy' for that) so you had that odd experience of a band of their level all being on stage already then leaving to come back a little later as if none of us had been able to see them prior. They've a lot of songs to get through so there's no messing about once they return and energy aplenty being expended by all concerned. 'I Lost My Mind (+@)' and the rest are greatly appreciated by the main body of the crowd but again there's not the level of volume you'd expect and movement around the hall is comfortably achieved.

The reverse, at least as far as movement is concerned, is the case from now on at the Pandora. Protomartyr pack the place out, resulting in a one in/one out barrier having to be manned at the foot of the stairs. For my money the sound they were provided with was a little too clean, thereby making the overall performance seem a little pedestrian in places. Given the crowd reaction that's probably quite a minority opinion though.

Handily with the use of a bike this year the Tivoli de Helling is sooner reached than in years previous so squeezing in at the back of the rammed hall to take in some of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown takes no time at all. A performer for whom time seems to have stood still he's all over the stage, whooping up the audience (who need little encouragement), removing the keyboard from its stand so its player needs to come with it to keep the music going as it's the most important element of the band's sound and other antics. Even at this early stage people are calling out for 'Fire' but I presume that's always held over till the very end as I head off back into the city after the spirited version of 'I Put A Spell On You'. Definitely a highlight act of the weekend.

Once back at the main Tivoli the popularity of the Pandora means I've now failed to see Metz twice at Le Guess Who? With no wish to mill around in the vague 'queue' I head downstairs to the Ronda to see what Belgium's Evil Superstars are all about. The festival blurb mentions them in the same breath as dEUS, an act I've never got to grips with, and it turns out that I can't really do that with Evil Superstars either, despite their enjoyably cartoonish rear projections. If the Foo Fighters decided to start employing jazz time signatures and funkier basslines then this is I think the result you'd get.

Leaving Ronda as quickly as I arrived does at least allow time for some food from the Just Like Your Mom concession. The vegan carrot cake was grand but the jury's still out on the sausage roll. It also makes it possible to beat the rush and get into Pandora in good time for Viet Cong, who once more pack the place out but don't get the volume they deserve although they're not to everyone's taste as it's "five minutes of my life I won't get back" according to one audience member. Musing on whether some of today's programming should have been swapped around keeps me occupied on the cycle home.

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.