Homeboy Jacco Gardner gets of to a rocky start with some technical difficulties. In Dutch he apologises, says he thinks it might take a while, but luckily it is solved reasonably quickly after which he and his band can play their brand of psychedelic pop, which is perhaps the best way to call it. There are loads of psych elements there, but they do make sure to never veer into the crazy, the completely out there. The organ sound especially puts its stamp on the vibe of the band, and with the projections on the screen behind them they try to enhance the vibe.The band recently released their newest album entitled Hypnophobia, which is, apparently, specifically about the moment between dreaming and waking up.

So they play a bit from that album, including single ‘Find Yourself’. The last track segues into a prolonged instrumental outro. Especially there I wish they’d put a little bit more oomph in all that. What I was hoping for is a freak out, passing the turn around to multiple band members, and maybe even get some pandemonium going with some major rhythm from the drums and keyboard and perhaps even some noisiness off of the guitars. That’s not really what they come up with though, giving a rather tame ride-out. Still, the young guns give a decent and enjoyable show, also visibly proud they got to host a stage at the festival.

Ariel Pink has brought the crazy into Utrecht, with his theatrical, artsy brand of punk-pop that includes some nifty hooks and dancey rhythms. And it includes, too, some dinner theater, some crazy fun, and some nsfw background projections. Having seen them live before, this is the most listenable turn I’ve seen them give, though still I am not as impressed with them live as I was with for instance an album recording as Before Today. Going from the amount of people there to witness the band’s live show, though, maybe I’m not in the majority on that one.

How about some heckling? Benny Maupin, a Jazz great, is still finetuning his set-up thirteen minutes over his starting time. When he finishes, he decides to first leave the stage, causing someone to call him out on that. The reasoning being, apparently, that, you know, a 75-year-old man that has played with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and assorted company can definitely not take his time to get things inch perfect and to his liking. Though, maybe it was more the fact that you want to hear more than just 45 minutes of fine, old school Jazz music from the Benny Maupin quartet consisting of an up-right bass, keys (both piano and board), drums and, of course, Maupin on an assortment of horns.

So there he goes, playing some smooth Jazz songs, with only the third song on the setlist causing a bit of a lull as that one is decidedly down-tempo, maybe too much so in this setting. He makes up for that by diving into ‘Butterfly’ immediately after, a 1974 track Maupin created with Herbie Hancock. That definitely is returning to quality right there, a quality mostly apparent when Maupin is the main player. Sometimes he takes a step back to let his trio of players do their own thing, but when Maupin picks up the horns, gives us that smooth Jazz sound, then you remember why, to many, that genre is the pinnacle of musicianship. Some of those turns are of a calm beauty that, with whiskey in hand and sitting in that expensive, leather lounge chair, one wishes more nights would end with.

And so does Le Guess Who?, the 2015 edition, which was an interesting one. The lack of personal favorites landed me at classical, experimental, and into the unknown, which provided surprising, beautiful, and interesting moments. A real exploration through the musical landscape, with everything being available and on hand. With that said, being a musical omnivore, the fact that there was so little I would even so much have on my iPod for regular listening in my spare time, and subsequently there being so many real highlights that can really hit the heart or move the body, does beg the question whether a four-day pass would have been a worthwhile expenditure. Last year the balance between the adventure of discovery and things that are within the sphere of the music I love was a bit better for me personally (with St. Vincent, Owen Pallett, Sharon van Etten, amongst others). Still, with things like Destroyer, Majical Cloudz and Kamasi Washington, along with wading through the unknown, the trips to Utrecht were still worth the trouble for me.

Things start early at Le Guess Who? on the final day so I find myself part of a respectable sized crowd (bigger than normal he reckons, if you can believe that) to see Kelley Stoltz in Ekko at 4pm. As a definite fan of the man’s work I’m obviously biased but I’m happy to name this as the best gig of the weekend. Not only do he and the band play songs from across his career (new material such as ‘Litter Love’ and ‘You’re Not Ice’ slotting in fine with the superb Double Exposure material and earlier tunes) we’re treated to ‘Hot Igloo’ and ‘Don’t Let Your Dreams Die’ from his Willie Weird alter ego, a minor Leonard Cohen/Pink Floyd mash-up and some amusing banter, anecdotes & philosophising. If he could actually have remained on stage for the three hours he joked about I’m sure everyone would have stayed put for the duration, such was the level of inclusion and entertainment on offer.

Jacco Gardner was curating the programme in Pandora today so a look in at the chiming charms of Eerie Wanda was possible. Crowd sizes generally were on a par with Thursday & Friday today so the hall wasn’t packed out but there was a good level of appreciation for the band’s whimsical and mildly psychedelic output. Fans of a poppier take on the psychedelic side of things could head to the Ronda where Byron Bay's The Babe Rainbow (looking and sounding a tad out of place beside the rest of the weekend’s bill) were dressed to impress and giving it their all. Pandora would though probably have been a better setting for them to do it in.

What festival goers there were on the day clearly knew who they wanted to see so public areas were far less congested but bottlenecks did develop due to the smaller number of performances on the slate. As such it was impossible for me to see Follakzoid once I got back to Ekko. There was queue out of the gig space into the bar so, making it a point never to queue, I turned tail back to the Tivoli to pass the time before the second of the shows I was personally most eager to see – Mikal Cronin (with added horns & strings).

As part of his chat Kelley Stoltz had referred to Cronin and himself sharing a resemblance and having seen them both in the space of a few hours I’ll admit to there being a bit of a “separated at birth” thing going on. Cronin has far less chat but then as it’s the first time he and his band have been augmented by violins & brass there’s probably more to concentrate on than usual. In all there a dozen players on stage and the Ronda hall does full justice to the fuller sound produced. Final song ‘Change’ was the one I was expecting to really resound with the extra instruments as it’s exciting in recorded form for that very reason but throughout the set you were constantly being reminded of how expansive Cronin’s creations actually are. Great garage rock it may be but his talents for arranging and incorporating more traditional instruments cannot be underestimated. A further great show raising today to the top of the weekend pile.

Jacco Gardner naturally caused one of the regular Pandora access issues but we were lucky enough to have had five minutes or so to steal a march on the latecomers. As mentioned in an earlier piece the hall was prone to tech issues over the four days and so after the first song of the set there came a bit of a gap as pedals were plugged into each other in a different order so as to nullify a persistent buzzing. After that delay though the set progressed as you’d expect and there was a greater sense of band/crowd interaction than when I’d previously seen the show at the Liverpool Psych Fest. For all his falsetto and supposedly fey attributes the live setting fully allows for the darker elements of his work to shine, in keeping with the Giallo imagery associated with the Hypnophobia album.

More tech issues mean the start of the Ariel Pink show was delayed back downstairs in the Ronda. Some people were getting very stroppy about not being able to hear either their own or other folk’s vocals. That finally dealt with the first song upon returning to the stage contained the word goodbye a lot so, coupled with the trashy rear projection, the surrealistic nature of what was in store was readily confirmed. Dancing was certainly possible as the underlying funkiness of the bulk of the songs was very to the fore but, possibly due the theatrical element referenced by that projection, there was an air of the band going through the motions with its leader in his little baffle pillbox conducting proceedings and occasionally playing his duck whistle. A fun performance but one lacking warmth. 

Jacco Gardner’s Cabinet Of Curiosities contained as it’s crowning glory Os Mutantes. Re-discovered in the Nineties after decades of cult (if any) following outside of their native Brazil they put in a performance that at one and the same time managed to give the impression that they had all the time in the world, whilst that they were also keen to make up for lost time. An impressive feat and one that causes you to wonder whether those acts witnessed who’re supposedly in their prime will have the desire (or even the fan base) to manage the same. Yet another good addition to the list of older bands Le Guess Who? has scheduled over the years. 

The festival returns for its tenth year on the second weekend of November 2016 with Wilco confirmed as the first headliner. Early bird tickets are available for just 92.50 euros here so do yourselves a favour and plan ahead.