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In Pictures : Le Guess Who? 2015

Whilst the ninth edition of Le Guess Who?, on paper, initially struck me as less exciting a prospect than earlier line-ups, the event seemed to suffer a few more cancellations than previously (all were though filled by replacements of the same calibre) and numbers of attendees didn't appear to be as numerous aside from on the Saturday night (& practically any show in the Pandora) in practice its own unique charm proved inimitable.

The Babe Rainbow

The introduction of the Le Feast element to the festival programme was, for me, a masterstroke, allowing for a greater opportunity to chat with like-minded individuals without the need to shout over noise in a bar area or at the risk of spoiling a show for other attendees. There were also plenty of new acts to be discovered, making up for that initial wondering about how to at some points fill one's time.

In 2016 Le Guess Who? naturally reaches the decade point of its existence and with Wilco already confirmed as one of the event headliners you already get the impression that many musical gems will be on stage over 10 - 13 November.

Earlybird tickets are already available here.

Further images from this year's festival can be found here.

Thanks as ever to Jess at Le Guess Who?, to Ellen & Rose and our fellow guests for the great meal and cosy atmosphere in Le Feast and to Sofia, Eva & Kostas for being fantastic hosts. Cheers too to Stef for making the journey from Nijmegen each day, hanging out and providing quality coverage. 

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Le Guess Who? 2015 - Saturday

  • Published in Live

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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