Venue: Db’s, Utrecht (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren
A new edition of Festival de Bestuiving is up and the schedule looks nice. Ten bands would play and a surprise act is already playing some nice jazzy tunes for the people that walk in early.
 The first act to play would be the Dutch band Container. We saw them supporting for Khuda before on this very same stage. The stoner rock they make comes out with a strong bass in the beginning, overwhelming and waking up everyone. Vehemence brought in by their vocalist changes the dynamics of the performance into a one that sucks in the audience. Could have gone metal as well but the band knows when to put in a little break to let us all calm down a bit. A nice start of the festival!
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 A contrast it is on the bar stage, filled with flowers and the duo Kristal and Jonny Boy to bring some sweet and mellow songs to the audience. Certainly a nice décor for the genre these two bring and combined with a little dance here and there the dreamy part of the band relives the highlight over and over again. The Swedish duo played an half an hour set in which they showed a varied side of them in this intimate setting. It surely works for them to play here at the café stage, so close to the people and yet with a little dreamy cloud around them sometimes feeling a slight match with Björk’s dreaminess.
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 Flies Are Spies From Hell are a band that has its base in the UK. The band makes Post Rock, intense as it is and often a little step towards the Prog Rock, mainly triggered by Fred, playing keys. He is quite upfront with his parts and is not afraid to take the lead on it, bringing some melodics when needed the scent of romance in the ever crawling, thick post rock that comes from the rest of them. Yet, the band likes to put you on a rollercoaster with these changes they have in their music. It ain’t too steep but surely feel it in your tummy.
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 Katía is a bit of a disappointment, starting off just solo giving a bit of the image it would be a Suzanne Vega-like act. Unfortunately she was not too strict on her notes, which made this start a little sore. A band joined her, which made the whole a bit more solid but the damage was already done. With only slight improvement the critical eye could not be turned away and people were heading towards the bar. The song writing itself seem to be quite ok, maybe a little young of heart but it does not seem like Katía gave her best performance here tonight.
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 Maybe the best kept surprise of the evening was Loifior, a German formation that sets a professional show here. It helps a lot that their frontman is a charismatic man. Even if you don’t understand a single word of their German lyrics you simply live along with it. Musically, you are surrendered to emotional tracks, from happiness to overall dramatic in a pop-rock environment. A little indie in there is making it all bit more absurd, which the sets them apart from what is already around in large numbers. The audience fell for this band, dancing and clearly enjoying it, it seems plausible this band will return on Dutch grounds soon.
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 Independent Intavenshan is bringing a total different sort of music. The band brings reggae into the bar and combining it with dub. They needed a few songs to warm it up, but then they got their audience dancing. Obviously the relaxing tunes of the reggae, brought with passion for their lyrical subjects work out well. It’s just to question how many of the people were really listening to the words being sung, but this formation succeeded in entertaining.
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 Up next would be another German formation, Artwon Artown Artnow seem to be less caring about bounding with their audience, to create a connection with them, being more focussed on each other than giving the audience the idea of being part of a show. Or simply watching one. It is that you musically don’t want to miss out on it, but basically you could grab a chair and hang around anywhere to enjoy the music. Whether you face the stage or not. Maybe this was also the reason why various people left them before they were done. The quite heavy tunes, filled with loads of bass (I mean LOADS) are bringing their impact but it’s simply too boring to watch.
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 UiJuiJui was ready to play in the café stage. It must be said, this band is not that much fun for the sober ones, Aprés Ski goes Germany, hip electric tunes mixed with the most stupid and silly lyrics. For a couple of songs you could be wondering if they take it serious or are they just in for the joke, but then you figure you just don’t want to know the answer and move to the bar to get some booze to see if you will like it better soon.
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 Woods on Fire is one that quickly captures your heart. Light vocals immediately reminding me to the voice of Jaani Peuhu (Iconcrash) while musically there are probably a bit more into the darker areas. Post Rock versus pop often starting very private, close and small while slowly building towards more mysterious sounds, not easy to foresee the direction and before you know it the guys set down the climax of the track right in front of you. They intrigued with their show, it’s like they played a perfectly nice show, but have still some more of it that could top it all, just to keep for a next time this band shows their face.
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| Closing the evening are the duo called Men of Mega which you could describe as Nintendo Dance. Sure nice for a couple of tracks, but since when we were little we always shut off the sound to listen to some other tunes this could not capture our interest very long. A night is a night and it was yet again a very interesting edition of this festival. |
More photo’s of this event can be found at Sabinevangameren.com
Links:
Container Facebook
Flies Are Spies From Hell Facebook
Katía Facebook
Loifior Facebook
Artwon Artown Artnow Facebook
UiJuiJui Facebook
Woods on Fire Facebook
Men of Mega Facebook
Pollination website
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