08-08-2014 Cityrock

Location: Leeuwarden (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

After a couple of succesful years for Into The Grave in the city center of Leeuwarden the organisation decided to do a second festival at this location. A sister festival, more Rock orientated. This year would be the first edition.

The first act today was The Dirty Denims. A good Rock and Roll party will always bring the spirit up, which we will benefit from during the whole day. The band has their base in Eindhoven and says to be inspired by bands like ACDC for example. That one becomes quite obvious as the band plays around with that during their set. Then, the band is giving you a wild performance as well. They use the whole stage and even go for a run through the audience at the end of the show. Good, as without that the danger comes around the corner that the songs are a bit too much alike as made out of the same template, but then again, it is a band that will grow some more. For the length of the set and the show they brought it was all fine today and they did a good job in entertaining the early bird visitors.

The Deaf comes from the city Den Haag and they are visibly proud of that. It is to be found on their banner and frontman Spike cannot resist to mention it a couple of times either. Their sound is not something you come across every day. It has a bit of that 60’s touch but brought with the shine of 2014. You must imagine the band be a bit raw. No words are kept in, what comes in mind is spit out whether it is all meant kind or not. An attitude that is not always the most desirable in a country where being down to earth is the way to be. As the Dutch would say: ‘act normal, that’s crazy enough’. Yet Spike and co can get away with it. And that all has to do with the music, because as for me as a writer of this article counts. No matter how much I hate the persona or attitude or whatever, if the music that comes out of it is good we will not deny that. So come I really enjoyed the band’s performance. It seems like I was not the only one either.

Also interesting to mention is that the band tried out a new song, to be said to have no name, no lyrics but just a straight idea and perhaps the fact that the good mood was all over the festival area a whole lot of people went cheering for it. Maybe the audience was not as wild as frontman Spike would have liked, he even suggested to hand out some alcohol to get people going, but the band surely brought some smiles to the people’s faces. I guess the Dutch all have a weak spot for the national rockstars.

German formation Xandria may be German but with the addition of the new vocalist Dianne van Giersbergen the band brought something Dutch in the house. Today would be the second show on Dutch grounds in this line up so a good introduction with the new album “Sacrificium” on their hands the band could bring a lot of new material to the stage.

Starting off with “Nightfall” the band seem to be having the fans on their hands easily. Of course the performance helps a lot. Dianne dressed in extraordinary clothes, the huge colourful banner behind them, it sets the tone. A few older songs were played as well, so the long-time fans who came all the way up north had some of that to enjoy as well. Altogether, Xandria made a good impression here. With Within Temptation up next, perhaps it would be bit challenging to not fall into their shadow when looking back at the day afterwards, but the band have successfully set themselves apart from that.

Vandenberg’s MoonKings is the story of Ad Vandenberg who got known of bands like Vandenberg and Whitesnake. Now back in action under the name of Vandenberg’s MoonKings they easily capture the hearts of the rockers of NL. This summer they were found at various rock festivals and we saw them for example also perform at Fortarock. At the end of the year and the beginning of 2015 the band has some Dutch clubshows planned but today they were to convince us for those.

After playing a couple of songs a whole lot rain started to poor down, but it did not really scare the festival fans away. The poncho’s were taken out of the pockets and all seems fine. With the enthusiasm of the band you can’t really feel different anyway. MoonKings constantly give you the impression they enjoy every second of their stage time to the fullest and that attitude is contagious. A Whitesnake cover got thrown in which made the audience even more enthusiastic, but no song is as breath taking as Vandenberg’s own hit “Burning Heart”. It warms you up, brings people closer and you can see various people sing along. At the end we were granted another Whitesnake cover. “Here I Go Again” is maybe the song of the day. It seems the most recognized track and with only one track left, a MoonKings one this time, the band must leave us again a bit sooner than we hoped for.

Within Temptation is internationally a settled name. To have the Dutch formation on this cozy festival in the north as a headliner is a great attraction for the festival. Some fans have been occupying a frontrow space from the minute the doors were open and some came in a little later, but when the band plays the festival terrain is full. And the visitors know what to expect, Within Temptation sets down a show with videoart, a wonderful stageset and a great lightshow. And then there are the songs that are simply shouted along by the audience. Perhaps not the best vocalists but let’s be fair… we cannot all be Sharon after all.

Sharon and her bandmates takes us on a trip through their musical history, from “Paradise (What About Us)” which comes from their latest full length album towards the last song of the day called “Ice Queen” which brought the band a large international success. And that international allure with the gentle approach of the band to the fans seems to be a winning factor once again. When the band leaves the stage the day is over and people go home. Some may return the next day for the Into The Grave festival, some may hope for a new edition of this festival next year, but with the selection of bands we have seen today we can safely say that most people seem quite content about this first edition of Cityrock.

Photo’s by sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Facebook