FESTIVALSPosted by Miss BB Aug 10, 2009 16:52:31What a cute festival!!!
What else could you say about the
Picture On that was held in the lovely little village of Bildein last weekend.
The small venue is just behind the church, where else can you find a backstage area at the backyeard of the church with proper toilets, perfect prices for drinks (and how delicious the Kaiserspritzer was), brilliant food and amazing bands, yes that is what you need to have a cute festival!!!
Despite the rain (that was NOT at the forecast!), the damaged car (including a quite adventurous slow drive home) and the totally pissed people (who had no idea who actually was on stage), we had a great time!!! A lovely family trip!
And I fell in love with Keith Caputo and Life of Agony once again!!! I so will be at his solo show in September in Vienna!
More about the festival to come later!!!
FESTIVALSPosted by Miss BB Jul 27, 2009 11:54:16Have you put your festival gear together yet? If not, it is about time, even with a lot of the bigger festivals already gone, August is going to bring you the creme del la creme of international and local artists to the different festival locations.
Find out
here what you should not miss!!!
After all the weather chaos of the last weeks/months, I hope for the best and get ready for my first proper festival this year. (to be honest the AURAUDA with like no audience doesn’t count – still think it was a shame, lovely venue, nice bands) – the
PICTURE ON Festival.
PINKAROCKEN- close to the little “river” Pinka in the small idyllic village of Bildein, at the southern end of the Burgenland, just a few steps away from the Hungarian border, you get one of the
intimate festivals of Austria but with a
huge line up (more to the line up later). The daily capacity is only 2.500 (I LOVE THAT, no massive crowds, no long distances), still lots of people considering the fact that Bildein just has 300 inhabitants. But for this one weekend Bildein turns into
THE festival metropolis of Austria.
Already started in 2000 as an experiment to bring some festival culture to the southern Burgenland area, the Picture On turned to an important fixture in Austria’s festival calendar.
With lots of love and energy the promoters create a one of a kind festival environment - where else can you find a festival venue overlooked by a church steeple.
And it has one of the
cutest websites, if the venue looks anything like the website, it will definitely turn into my new favourite festival in Austria.
But now to what a festival is really about –
The Music. Like the last years, the Picture On line-up is a
lovely mixture of local Austria and Hungarian bands with international Headliners. On Friday
Guano Apes will close the evening; yes, Guano Apes are back, the German band that made us all dance to their hits like
Open your eyes and
Lord of the Board in the end 90ies.
Sandra Nasic and her boys will show us that they did not grow old and still can rock every stage.
Saturday’s headliners are
my highlight of this year’s Picture On–
Life of Agony. All you youngsters out there might not even know them as their huge debut record
River Runs Red was already released in 1992, but believe me it is still one of the best debut records. They evolved over the years, their music got slightly quieter, they split and got back again a few years back. But I can guarantee you, their show still is energetic, musically fully developed and
Keith Caputo’s voice is more than unique (only saw him perform on his solo tour last year, mind-blowing, go
here and find what I wrote about the gig back than). I so can’t wait!
But those two headliners are far from all you get.
Friday, Mr. Chris Corner aka
I AM X will pay a visit to the little town of Bildein. With his latest record just out, expect his lovely mixture of sythieindiepop, sounding sometimes really dark and sad but still the best music to dance to. And he is just great to look at.
Mad Caddies are one of those bands every festival needs, a combination of ska, punk, Dixieland, pop, yes, that is festival music.
Julian Sullivan, New model Army’s singer and lead guitarist will fascinate you with his folk/rock while
Les Babacools, a 7 people Reggae, Mestizo, Hip Hop, Urban beats band from Munich and Austria’s own skaband
Ramazuri follow the lead of Mad Caddies and prove that this is the perfect festival sound.
If it is not enough, you can still choose to dance to
Tanz Baby!, the Viennese Duo whose home is deutscher Schlager and Neue Deutsche Welle – not really my thing, but I heard that they are really entertaining and an amazing live band.
So that’s it for Friday, what about
Saturday???
Alongside the US boys of
Life of Agony you get a mixture of German, Austrian and Hungarian bands. Replacing
Fear Factory (☹ would have love to see them) the German metalcore band
Caliban are the toughest band of this weekend, but that is exactly what you need after the wonderful marvellous indie sound of their country mates
Slut. I am not sure yet what I prefer - I have never seen
Caliban before so I look forward to them, but
Slut were so amazing when I saw them years back.
Then there are the Austrian bands
Zeronic and
Rising Girl – two bands that have like nothing in common.
Zeronic are one of those indie bands with sythie influences that are around for years now and with their latest record
Price of Zeitgeist they once again proved that there is a good reason for them to still stick around.
Rising Girl on the other hand had this huge number one hit with their single
Rising Girl a few years back, but then more or less disappeared. I am not a fan of their reggae sound so I rather say no more.
And then there are those three Hungarian bands on Saturday:
Superbutt (what a name ☺ ) that are Hungarians answer to
System of a Down,
Ocho Macho a ska World music combo that make you dance to a
Manu Chao like sound and
Mystery Gang, one of Hungary’s heroes and by now a top act internationally on all those Rockabilly stages around Europe.
So you see you there is something in for everyone. Metal, Rockabilly, Rock, Ska, Indie,… that is what a line up is all about, isn’t it???Tickets are still available at all the usual ticket offices, but I have one tip: why not go to have a lovely vegetarian dinner at Rupp’s (Arbeitergasse, 1050 Wien) and get your ticket there??? I fancy a vegetarian goulash or a schnitzel with carrot salad – Delicious!!!
See you at Picture On 2009!!!
Stay tuned for updates on that festival and all the other ones!
GIG REVIEWSPosted by GuestMISS Jul 23, 2009 14:00:40When it comes to
Bruce Springsteen you could say I’m a bit of a late starter. Till a year ago or so, I never really gave him the time of the day. Of course I knew some of the hits, how not..., but I never really develop any interest in exploring him any further.
That was until
Magic was released, or to be precise
Radio Nowhere started to be played none-stop at all radio stations. It was around the time that I moved into my flat in Vienna and didn’t have much furniture or anything really yet, so my only source of entertainment was my tiny, light blue pocket radio. I kept hearing this song I really enjoyed but didn’t have a clue who it was by and always forgot about checking it out afterwards.
It took me a couple of months to figure out who it was by, only a few days though till I ordered a fair amount of his back catalogue. Finally I understood what the whole obsession with this man and his music was, and I was mega excited when I found out that the tour of his new album would bring him to Vienna....for about 10 minutes, because that’s when I realised that he was playing the same weekend I was invited to my friend’s wedding in Switzerland. Typical! But hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do, so after checking the rest of the tour dates I decided the gig in
Rome was the best alternative option for me to go and see him. So I recruited my mum as companion, bought tickets, booked the flights and off we were.
There is a lot to say about the trip to Rome itself, but as this is a concert review and not a travel guide, I’ll leave it at saying, that the next time I travel to a concert, which no doubt won’t be that far in the future, it won’t be in Rome...
So on the day of the concert we arrived at the
Rome Olympia Stadium around 18.00. The ticket stated something about 16:00 and 20:30, so we thought that would be a save bet to be there in plenty of time...and it was. The doors eventually opened at about 19:00 and the huge crowd of people that had already assembled in front of the stadium doors started to fight for their way in. I have to say I did find it rather amusing, seeing all these adults running like hysterical teenagers to the front of the state rather amusing, in retrospect I wish I would have been one of them.
Inside the Stadium I was pretty overwhelmed at first by the sheer size of everything and the seemingly none ending masses of people that kept finding their way in. This was after all my first big Stadium concert since
Guns’n’Roses when I was about 14, so I’m just not used to such big event any more.
So we found a space somewhere quite in the back where we settled down, met a few friendly Italians, who we couldn’t speak a word with, but shared their popcorn with us, and started to wait for the concert to start. And this wasn’t to be for another while, as the Boss did not get onto stage till 22.30! Well I guess that is Italy for you...Admittedly I was getting a bit pissed sitting around for hours waiting for the show to start, but it took Mr. Springsteen roughly 2 notes to make me forget about it again. Within the first few seconds of the concert it was clear that this was going to be an amazing evening!
The next three hours where without a doubt the best time I’ve ever had at a concert, and I have been to quite a few over the past few years.
Bruce Springsteen has pretty much everything you can ask for of a
Stadium filling Rock Star; he’s got the songs, the talent, amazing charisma and more energy on stage as any other younglings these days.
Seriously, how many people can claim of them to stand onstage for 3
hours without a single break and perform one better after the other? I guess he must draw all his energy from his music, as it seems to work for himself but for the entire crowd.
40.000 people, aged between
2 and 65, and everyone was dancing, jumping, singing or whatever they were capable of for the entire show. Despite my still wounded foot, two days of sightseeing behind me and generally rarely being still up after 23.00 I didn’t stand still for the entirety of the concert. It just wasn’t possible.
The setlist was a
mix of old and new, hits and not quite as big hits, stuff he plays a lot, songs he doesn’t play that often...so generally something for everyone. Like it is usual for him, he played a lot of song requests, where a special compliment to the rest of the band and their roadies has to be paid. The changeovers between the songs were smooth and effortless and it was clearly visible that these guys have played with each other for a quite a while, as everyone knew exactly what they were doing and still appeared to have an amazing time.
It’s hard to pick a highlight of the night, as there were just too many to mention them all, but his moving dedication of
City of ruins for the people of L’Aquila, the cute little boy he got one stage to sing
Waitin’ on a sunny day with him, the extremely sexy performance of
I’m on Fire or one of my favourites
Promise Lands are probably the moments that spring first to my mind. Then again, there was the amazing opener
Badlands, the first last song
Born to run, the proper last song
Twist&Shout where he managed to get everyone to do one last bit of dancing and that at 1.30 in the morning,...as I said far too much to mention...
I’m still on a high from the concert now beside it being 4 days ago. But sitting in the office, listening over and over to the setlist of the concert helps to dwell on that wonderful evening...
SetlistMiss Tanja
FESTIVALSPosted by MissAna May 18, 2009 23:36:42Day 3 - TGE 2009
On the last day of the TGE the weather had finally turned to our benefit: sun was shining from the morning till the evening. The change in mood was obvious with punters and promoters, which could be noticed on basically two things: a) there
were significantly more people around and b) the schedule was working (better).
So what was on my schedule on Saturday? Beach, matinee shows, street gigs and again a LOT of good good music.
In chronological order, this is who I saw:
1. Maths Class - Matinee Show @ The Hope
It was nice seeing the boys that kinda made the TGE 2008 so much fun. They didn't change much, apart from having a new bass player (or did the old one grew hair / changed his face / switched his body? Dunno.). Especially musically it seemed to me that the show was very much the same as last year, which was a bit - disappointing. But maybe it was just me being slightly impatient for standing in a dark stinky room at 1 pm on a sunny sunny day.
2. Magic Magic - Relentless Street Gig @ the beach
Considering that I was hoping and expecting to see IDLEWILD perform that very same street gig on the beach and being very disappointed when I heard that they cancelled, Magic Magic were a very nice watch. Indie-Pavement-y-kinda music is what I generally like quite a lot, and these guys showed even a good portion of humour, fighting the problems of (literally) broken guitars, long breaks and similarly annoying stuff. Lovely!
Later on during the White Denim's gig (which turned out to be the musical highlight of the festival) a guy of the Relentless-crew came up to me and apologised that Idlewild didn't perform (nice guy, indeed!). It turned out that the band decided not to do the street gig as they were afraid that it would rain. Rain? In England? Noooo... I mean: WTF ?? They became old and boring.
3. The Veils in The Horatio's Bar were again truly amazing. Can't wait to hear the new album!
4. Official Secrets Act @ Po Na Na
Fun and fast! Looking forward to seeing the guys supporting Art Brut in Flex coming Tuesday.
5. You Animals @ Honeyclub
It was quite a surprise and indeed a delight to realise that You Animals were the "Special Guests" before Sky Larkin and Johnny Foreigner in the Honeyclub. I made sure to be there early and enjoy their funny, super energetic and truly lovely performance (yes, although the singer was "slightly" drunk)!
6.+7. Sky Larkin & Johnny Foreigner @ Honeyclub
Both bands were a safe bet. I know both albums literally by heart and love them. Sky Larkin's performance was better, though. Johnny Foreigner rushed through the show and messed it up a bit - but I don't think people really noticed. The audience was actually quite up for them. (Or was that the excitment of the upcoming Idlewild show?)
8. General Fiasco @ The Volks
If you wondering why you are not reading "8.Idlewild", then wonder more. I decided that it would be more exciting to see other bands that I haven't seen before and to make a change of venue. Considering what I later found out about the street gig and how good the other bands were, I am very happy about this choice. (Although Idlewild remain one of my fave bands, of course.).
Anyway! General Fiasco from Ireland were really really good and I really really liked them. They write fine songs, they play them perfecly and they are nice guys. No wonder Steve LaMaq digs them. Check them out!
9. Hockey @ Audio
Meant to become BIG. (=Big as in MGMT-big)
10. White Denim @ Pavillon Theater
Psychodelic Surf Rock at its absolute excellence. I loved the drummer's place in the middle of the stage. The absolutelly packed Pavillon Theater loved every bit of the show. We all went home happy.
That was the crowning of and the end of the TGE'09. Weatherwise it might have been a bit of a struggle, but musically TGE topped itself - again.
FESTIVALSPosted by MissAna May 16, 2009 11:54:12Waking up in Brighton with a lovely sea-view from the hotel. :-)
However, the pitfall of arriving late at the TGE and doing the sprints around the city on the first day, became obivous on this second day of the festival. I was tired with a capital T. My feet hurt, my back hurt... it was quite a challenge to get out of bed.
But I did of course, and I did quite a bit of walking around the city during the day, which was quite enjoyable in the sunny weather. But that was a short delight. In the afternoon the sunny turned to rain and a wind went off that was literally making me fly. Wow! It was quite a challenge to walk from one venue to the next but I gotta say: the waves looked amazing!
So what was on the second day? Plenty of good music, of course!
Lovely THE VEILS from New Zealand with their spaeric sounds and beatifull energy. I fell in love with their show on the spot. (@ Although I found the show on the 3rd day in the Horatio's Bar even better!)
Then gorgours BLIND PILOT from Oregon, USA that - again - I fell in love immediately, which was not surprising as I am a big fan of Ryan Adams and especially Whiskeytown, and these guys sounded very much like that. It was
nice also seeing a band that uses different instruments than e-guitars. There was a contrabass, a benjo, an accoustic guitar and drums. Lovely hillbillies, indeed. ;-)
Afterwards I went to the Artrockers stage to see BETTY & THE WEREWOLVES, but left after 2 minutes after realising that either these ladies can't hold their guitars OR the sound-guy doesn't know which buttons to press. It sounded seriously awfull.
Another punishment of the day was the queue in front of the Honeyclub where (it seemed) everyone wanted to see THE TEMPER TRAP and METRIC. Well, I did too, but waiting in line in the winds & rain was clearly no option. Luckily enough I found out that the Australians (The Temper Trap) are booked to play on the Nova Rock festival in Austria in June. Triple-yay to that!
So, back to Pavillon Theater for the super-awesome THE PHANTOM BAND from Glasgow. Described as "a band of skewed genius" delivered of a show of car-crash indie, folk, pop, blues, post-rock and some stuff that is frankly uncategorisable. My mouth was open the whole time. Amazing!!
Last two bands of the evening were both young and very very good:
VIVIAN GIRLS from Brooklyn, NYC - the all-girl-post-punk band
and THE SOFT PACK from San Diego - the all-guys-post-punk band. Both clearly bands of the moment and very enjoyable.
That was it for the second "leg hurting & shitty weather" day of the TGE 2009. Now off to make a plan for the last day here. Some goodies are awaiting...
FESTIVALSPosted by MissAna May 16, 2009 11:41:52Arriving on the same day when the TGE kicks off has its benefits: I went straight from the bus to the hotel, literally threw the luggage in the room, then (almost) ran to the press area to pick up my wristband, picked a free Red Stripe from the lobby, said a very short hello to a few people and 5 min later I was standing in front of the Komedia Theather waiting for the first act of the festival to start. So it was in total 5 hours from door to door, Vienna - Brighton. But I guess, it did help that I knew my ways around here, and kinda remembered the "Lanes" with their labyrinth-like streets. Who knows how the whole thing would have ended otherwise...
The downfall of this fast track start, is that I ended up being E-X-T-remely tired by the end of the night. But first things first.
My festival schedule kicked-off with the band from Brighton called LYREBIRDS. They were recommended by the TGE promoters and the few tracks I heard on their myspace-site sounded promising. And they were fine indeed! Their influences
may be obivous (Joy Division, Editors, White Lies), but they have a distinctive sound to them, very dark and brooding. The singer might want to work on his outfits and haircut, however..but that's a different topic.
Next band on in the JAM (formerly Watermargin) were Scottish guys WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS. The venue was burstingly
full and the band delivered a show of great post-pop-punk and jittery melodies. It was a delightfull show and
I am happy that also FM4 picked up on them recently, so we might actually see and hear more from them in Vienna.
Off to the Honeyclub for the GRAMMATICS. But damn the wrong schedule, they were not on (yet).
But I was anyway more in the mood to seeing BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB that were scheduled in Concorde 2,
so knowing the long distance to get there, we did the sprint to Concorde 2. There we saw FINK and AZIZ (both fairly
boring in my impression), but there was no sight of the lovely Bombay Bicycle Club. Damn, damn schedule !
Not wanting to loose any more time waiting, the plan was to sprint back to the city to see the last bits of
GRAMMATICS - who were unfortunatelly not particularly amazing - and more importantly, to catch the show of the
super-lovely THE RUMBLE STRIPS (again in the Komedia Theater). I love this band and I loved this show. Can't wait for their
upcoming album "Welcome To The Walk Alone" which is being produced by nom du jour Mark Ronson.
The last hours of the first day were spent: a) wating in line to see THE MACCABEES (gave up after 20min), b) waking
again all the way to Concorde 2, c) waiting for WE HAVE BAND to start (and almost falling asleep) and d) watching WE HAVE
BAND and deciding that they are exciting, but we are in no physical shape to stay awake any more.
Off to bed.
FESTIVALSPosted by MissAna May 14, 2009 10:02:13...Off I go!
There are still a couple of hours on the airplane that I will use to make myself a plan of bands that I will see, and bands that I will miss. This is making me slightely nervous ALREADY, but what the heck - the perfectionism will definitely NOT ruin this trip.
In other news - it is going to be a rainy, rainy and indeed VERY rainy weekend in Brighton. Good things that I will be busy watching bands.
Tomorrow, you will read about the actual impressions of the first day!
Whoooo-hoo!
FESTIVALSPosted by MissAna Apr 21, 2009 11:53:10
The countdown has started:
Only 4 weeks to go until the best, loveliest and most diverse new music festival in UK & Europe – THE GREAT ESCAPE – opens its doors. It is again the lovely Brigthon, it is again sunny May (14-16th). But this year the promoters are absolutely topping it: over 340 bands, in over 30 venues in just 3 days.
And reading throught the line-up, the water is running from my mouth already.
The TGE 2008 was a blast, this year will be even better!!
Full line-up:
4 or 5 Magicians * 80 Kidz * A Grave With No Name * Abe Vigoda * Adam Heldring * Advaita * Alan Pownall * Amazing Baby * An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump * And So I Watch You From Afar * Apples * Arkells * Artifacts For * Space Travel * Arthur Delany * Baby Venom * Baddies * Bang Bang Eche * Banjo or Freakout * Barringtone * Beast * Bell X1 * Ben Kweller * Beth Jeans Houghton * Betty & The Werewolves * Black Lips * Blind Pilot * Blue Roses * Bombay Bicycle Club * Brakes * Brian Borcherdt * British India * British Sea Power * Broken Records * Calories * Casiokids * Cassie and the Cassettes * Catherine AD * Chairlift * Charlie Ash * Charlie Calleja * Chew Lips * Citizen Cope * Colourmusic * Come On Gang! * Connan Mockasin * Crystal Antlers * Dag For Dag * Dan Auerbach * Dan Black *Dan Mangan * Dan Smith * Dananananaykroyd * Datarock * De De Mouse * Die! Die! Die! * Dimbleby & Capper * Django Django * DM Stith * Duchess Says * Electric City * Electric Flowers * Emily Baker * Enter Shikari * Esser * Everything Everything * Evil Nine * Ex Lovers * Fan Death * Fanfarlo * Fight Like Apes * Friendship * Future Of The Left * Futurecop! * Gable * Gang Of Four * General Fiasco * Gentle Friendly * Giantess * Girls * Gold Teeth * Golden Silvers * Grammatics * Gran Ronde * Gurrumul * Harrys Gym * Hatcham Social * Heartbreak * Heartless Bastards * Hey Rosetta! * Hjaltalin * Hockey * Holy Fuck * Hoodlums * Hot Leg * Hot Silk Pockets * Hunting The Minotaur * I Blame Coco * I Heart Hiroshima * iLIKETRAiNS * Indigo Children Invasion * Ipso Facto * It Hugs Back * Jaakko & Jay * James Yuill * Joe Gideon and the Shark * Johnny Foreigner * Juliette & The New Romantiques * Kaputt * Kasabian *Kasms * Kate Rogers Band * Kid British * Kids Love Lies * Kissy Sell Out * Kurran and the Wolfnotes * Lay Low * Let's Wrestle * Liam Finn * Lights * Lightspeed Champion * Lion Club * Little Boots * Little Comets * Little Lost David London Blackmarket * Lonely Ghosts * Luke Doucet & Melissa McClelland * Lyrebirds * Magic Magic * Marina & The Diamonds * Marine Parade Dj's * Marnie Stern * Me My Head * Mechanical Bride * Medusa * Meme Love * Metric * Metronomy * Micachu and the Shapes * Mika Miko * Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson * Miranda Lee Richard * Mirrors * Miserable Rich * Mongrel * Moriarty * Mothlite * MPHO * Mr Hudson * My Sad Captains * My Tiger My Timing * Mystery Jets * Naive New Beaters * Noah & The Whale * Nulifer * Official Secrets Act * Ou Est Le Swimming Pool * Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man. * Panama Kings * Passion Pit * Patrick Wolf * Peggy Sue * Perfect People * Phantom * Phantom Limb * Planet Earth * Pocket Lips * Polly Scattergood * Pulled Apart By Horses * Punch & The Apostles * Pure Reason Revolution * Racehorses * Racoon * Rainbow Arabia * Rebekah Higgs * Riddim Saunter * Riot Lights * Rodney Fisher * Rogues ( Roses Kings Castles * Rosie & The Goldbug * Ruby Jean & The Thoughtful Bees * S.C.U.M * Sad Day for Puppets * School Of Seven Bells * Screaming Tea Party * Sharks * Shining * Skint & Demoralized * Sky Larkin * Slow Club * Smoke Fairies * Soap&Skin * Soft Toy Emergency * Solid Gold * Sophie Hunger * Spires * Swanton Bombs * Swarathma *Telepathe * Televised Crimewave * The Acorn * The Answering Machine * The Balky Mule * The Bewitched Hands On Top Of Our Heads * The Big Pink * The Black Box Revelation * The Boxer Rebellion * The Boy Who Trapped The Sun * The Brute Chorus * The Chapman Family * The Computers * The Crave * The Deer Tracks * The Gay Blades * The Ghost Of A Thousand * The Great Shakes * The Handsome Family * The Invisible * The John Steel Singers * The Joy Formidable * The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble * The King Blues * The Locarnos * The Low Anthem * The Mae Shi * The Males * The New Wine * The Pains of Being Pure at Heart * The Phantom Band * The Pipettes * The RBG's * The Rumble Strips * The She Creatures * The Shiny Brights * The Soft Pack * The Temper Trap * The Veils * The Voluntary Butler Scheme * The Week That Was * The XX * Thomas Dybdahl * Thomas Tantrum * Threatmantics * Three Trapped Tigers * Throats * Times New Viking * Tin Can Telephone * Titus Andronicus * To The Bones * Tom Allalone & The 78s * Tommy Tokyo * Trailer Trash Tracys * Trigger Finger * Tucker * Turbowolf * TV Off * Ulterior * Ultimate Power Duo * Videonasties * Villagers * Vivian Girls * VV Brown * We Are The Ocean * We Are Wolves * We Have Band * We Were Promised Jetpacks * White Denim * Wintersleep *Woodpigeon * Your Twenties * Youves * Yves Klein Blue * Zach Hill
