Cross-Linx Rotterdam

"Takes me a day to remember a day, I didn't mean to let it get so far out of hand ", this is how The National's front man Matt Berninger sings in their song Lemonworld, which is one of my favorite songs from their latest album High Violet released in 2010. I can somewhat relate to the feeling that it arises; here my dear readers you have one reason, why it takes me a while to update my blog. I have a bad short-term memory; it could take a week or two for me to process a happening properly in my head, however I do manage to update something within a day. Seldom. 

In mid-February took place this festival called Cross-Linx in four Dutch cities during four days. Wanting to see The National (an indie band originally from Ohio, now based in New York), I got my ticket to the one in Rotterdam. Being an Interpol fan and hearing constantly about how I should listen to The National, I finally did last spring, when the first song I heard from them was Bloodbuzz Ohio, it immediately impressed me. But it wasn’t until late autumn that I learned to love them. 

A day before the concert I listened to the other bands which were also going to perform. A Danish band called Efterklang sounded interesting with their umm “a lot of beats, horns, piano, electroish”- sound. Not that easy to describe, you just have to listen to it yourself. Or they do belong to a genre, but we don’t learn this stuff in music and media management school. If it helps, they have artists such as Jónsi, Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors related to them. Those who know these, congratulations, we’re on the same page.

Efterklang - Modern Drift

Anyways, I was glad to realize that there will be more than one good band playing at the festival. Then I noticed that there will be even more, when I familiarized myself with New York based Buke & Gass. No, it is not written or pronounced with a P. It’s pronounced “HELL YEAH I’M GONNA GO SEE YOU GUYS!” 

It’s always good to find out more about the bands playing a few hours before they’re going to play. 

So, the first to go were the Danes. There were only sit tickets available, which was a new experience for me, and hopefully the last one. There was always someone’s head in front of me and I felt uncomfortable sitting, who goes to a concert to sit? PFF. After finding a comfortable standing position somewhere in the side, their show was already over before I noticed. It took about 40min, but it felt only half of it, probably I was just so anxious to be the only one standing in the venue area. But they had this great orchestra playing with them, which gave even a more majestic touch to their music. Good bands keep on coming from Legoland.

Then it was time for the NY duo. The area in which they played in looked more like a place to store big boxes. And apparently to play awesome music. The band’s name comes from the instruments they’ve created themselves. Buke= electrified six- string ukulele. Gass= cross between guitar and bass. A rocking cute duo. Bought their CDs, got one of it signed and the set list. YEIIII. Oh look there’s the girl’s gum wrapped in the set list. And it’s still soft.

I was already by then happy of all the brilliant music I’ve heard, but there was still the icing on the cake. The use of the strobo board, front man Matt with his wine bottle and running through the crowd with a 50m mic wire and eventually disappearing somewhere for a while and then literally rolling back to the stage and just pure rock n’ roll made the icing delicious. Pity that we had to run to the train station just before the show ended. I need to jog more.

It was a great day of great music. 

It's 5am, I’m listening to an artist, which we missed in Rotterdam; Canadian Owen Pallett. Though we did see him playing violin with The National, his music alone is too good, that I hope I’d have the chance to see him on his own show.