Location: Marieheide (The Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser
The first month of the new year and time for an indoor festival down South. In the middle of nowhere there is a small festival taking place called Monsters of Mariaheide. In a rebuild factory, a real stage rises, beer pulls and a lot of people listening to some bands. Last year there was a little problem with the sound in the hall as it was bouncing a lot throughout the hall. This year they have invested in big heavy curtains which did work, although it was still pretty loud and it was not perfect. However a good effort was made. The festival has real toilets, and a beer cloak where you can leave your beer in good hands so you can make your visit with the use of both hands and when you are done you just recollect your own beer. There is a little game where you need to drink some vodka and perform some tasks. Funny dressed up people from the organisation.
| Every year local bands join the competition to win a spot on this festival. This year the opening band was Grooveloeding who won the final in venue de Pul. La Stryker was second up, they brought a good dozes of energy and I guess some people liked it, but the singer was clearly imitating Mick Jagger dressed in yellow trousers running around on stage, sitting on his knees, rolling around and trying to rock like the rolling stones. They did not accomplished that. The vocals were a little off key and the music was far from coherent around tempo changes and transitions. You could notice where they stand for raw dirty rock and roll. |
| A band that is very promising is Drive Like Maria. Their lead singer Bjorn Awouters is at first hidden behind his drums, drumming like a wild man while at the same time delivering clean vocals. Pretty amazing. After a few tracks he comes towards the front of the stage grabbing a guitar. Drive Like Maria is promising because they simply rock, give a good show and stay normal. There is no attitude on stage, only one showing that they love what they are doing. Guitarist Nitzer Hoffman is a girl with a rock attitude which shows in her impressive solo’s. No wonder they they were the support of AC/DC. When you see artist on stage like Drive Like Maria you know they love to play and with that they already get the attention from people in the audience. They play very nice melodies with great solo’s without any dull moment. |
| A band that was a little tame was Blind Sight. Renowned for their energetic live performance Blind Sight is a band that knows how to convince their audience every time they set foot on the stage. The sound of the band consists of modern thrash metal mixed with lots of melodic influences. They are a metal quintet hailing from the south of the Netherlands but who played many countries. They played a tight set but something was missing, some more growls perhaps. Or was it the lack of energy which they are so known for? They played at an inconvenient time, around inner time and those who were not so font of metal found their way to the food corner. Maybe that was reason for sounding a bit tamed? Hard task as well to play metal at a all genres festival and then even around dinner time. Well the guys from Blind Sight tried to get the audience going, and a few handful clearly did enjoy this kind of music and a tiny moshpit was build at several songs. Playing new and older tracks giving the audience a good idea of what they are capable of with some slick guitar riffs and pounding drums. |
| Elle Bandita, female rock chick with an attitude. Ryanne van Dorst is only 23 years old but has been travelling around europe with her music. She formerly played in Coco Haely, Bad Candy and The Ripplets. She has a no-nonsense attitude would the Dutch say, you either like her or you don’t but she is at least doing what she likes. Rocking. Easily mixing crazy electro tunes with heavy metal guitar riffs. Normally the miss on the stage has an outraging stage presence, however tonight her humor was not there. She can make pretty good comments and jokes while chatting a bit to the audience while the band is getting ready for the next track. She gets the crowd moving and even dancing, it seems that the first people are getting drunk but all seem to enjoy the tunes from the band on stage. English power, electro tunes and raw angry punk in a nice combination takes us to a very different band The Perfect Tool. |
| Maybe one of the best tribute bands around. The Perfect Tool covers the American band Tool. The audience seemed to like The Perfect Tool. At first they clearly hold back, as the music from tool and this tribute band is totally different that the rock from the previous bands. Tool is a lot more progressive. The Perfect Tool know how to bring across a show how the real Tool would be like. Dark and mysterious, like tonight the singer hidden besides the drummer in a dark corner. It is not so much about the musicians on stage but a lot more about the music you hear and more important you need to feel. Close your eyes and let the music lead you. The crowd seemed to pick up on this and many people in the front were dancing on the music which is delivered in a powerful, intense way. This tribute band does delivers the sound and presence that made ‘Tool’ legendary. Judging by the increasing applause after every song, the audience was showing their growing appreciation for this cover-band. |
| Living colour a band that has been around for quite awhile was playing on Monsters of Mariaheide, after playing at prestigious festivals like Lowlands. Programmed to be one of the highlights of the evening, it was a bit of a let down. Bringing a mix from Jazz, rock, reggae and funk live on stage. As real artist famous artist they start late, not before they are totally hundred percent ready. Then you expect something. Sadly halfway during their set the magic was a little lost. They played good but maybe it was a generation gap? On tracks that people will know the audience was dancing and surly having a good time, but during the somewhat long guitar solo’s the crowd seemed to loose a bit of attention. They were energetic and tried to keep the audience dancing and moving, but those who were there from the start were getting tired. Personally I missed a bit of that little extra a band like this should be able to give. Do not misunderstand me, because they played tight and everything sounded well, but probably it missed the energy they had when they were younger. |
| After Living Colour this years edition was not finished but the weather was getting bad. A lot of snow was coming from the sky and you saw a lot of people leaving. Others were finding a spot where they could sit and the food corner became very crowded again. The Hot Stewards were going to play covers from 80’s songs but totally in their own style. Building a good party. If there were people who had not enough after all the bands there was a DJ playing till the doors were closing. People finding their way home in a white world. This was the end of 2010 version of Monsters of Mariaheide. 2010, a successful edition. |
More photo’s of this event can be found at Photographic Retentions
Links:
Grooveloeding Official
Drive Like Maria Official
Blind Sight Official
Ella Bandita Official
The Perfect Tool Official
Living Colour Official
The Hot Stewards Official
Monsers of Mariaheide Website
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