de-Affaire - Day 2 (Washed Out, SBTRKT, Biblio)

de-Affaire is a free outdoor festival in Nijmegen spanning seven evenings (+ 2 afternoons)

It is so very enticing to start with the phrase The Kids are All Right after my little piece about the Saturday (and I do hope our erudite readers realize that when I stated “For the kids’ sake” I’m not 100% serious, surely), but I thought that to be a movie not worth any Oscar praise, so I’m skipping over that part. Truth is though, the Sunday was not only a pretty dry day (thank you, whomever!), it certainly had a better crowd. In that the people there were at the festival and not just seeing a band, and that – and here the link in with what I stated above and in my previous report – there were more youngsters there. And with youngsters I mean young people coming there to have fun and enjoy the music and the atmosphere. Which, naturally, enhances the vibe there (oh, showing my age with that word right there). Also helping is that the bands playing today are actually pretty awesome.

Now, the midday saw such talented people as James Vincent McMorrow and Cloud Control, but priorities are always with the family (well…), so I’m missing that. Nevertheless, I am in time for – yessir – a pour out by the weather Gods. Luckily it only lasts twenty minutes and I find myself both dry and ready to see slow grinding Bibio give away a live show. Now, I can see people not liking this very well. For A) there is not much of a show, and B) there is not much pace there. But I like my slow burning disco and beats on occasion (see the Montauk Boys EP for a great example of what I’m talking about), so I’m enjoying shuffling a little and dancing a little to the sounds given. The songs are nice and slow, but they are build up nicely, with Bibio continuously adding and subtracting layers. As said, the pace might be too slow for some, and a seemingly bashful man in a cardigan twiddling some knobs might not be the most extravagant thing you’re ever going to see, but I liked it. And some other people liked it. And we danced.

Coffee makes us miss Stellar OM Source (yeah, we are hardcore like that), and then back to the main stage for Washed Out. Now, if you had called me up and said he was going to sound like this I wouldn’t have believed you. Owning the stage with a five-piece band Washed Out makes the songs less dreamy, and more dynamic and danceable. And to be honest, there is quite the difference between the heralded album and the live versions of the same songs. Gutsy, since the album has been so hyped up, but fun as well. People are dancing and moving to the beat, and it is just well fun. A more perceptive viewer might have deduced it was going to be more about fun and dancing when one of the band members came on with Native-American headgear on, to us it still was a shock. I like it though. The set was amusing, fast paced, the main man Ernest Greene was well up for it and really active, and it had the crowd going. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival.

Then we go to the Barbarossa Ruine to watch DD/MM/YYYY, who are doing their version of math rock. A la Foals a bit, Post War Years who were at the festival last year. But where Post War Years was rather more subdued, and Foals was really break-y on their first album, this is a sort of fusion between math rock and free jazz in that sometimes the instruments are soloing right on through each other. At least, that is the way it sounds to me, and it is the way it looks as well. They also have both drums and percussion, and the drummer seems to not be the one that lays out the rhythm at all. Now, I love Jazz, but I don’t love free jazz. When everyone starts playing right through each other I’m out, and so it is with this band as well. Personally I’m always more in favour of a cleaner, smoother sound.

Last band on the main stage (and of the night) is SBTRKT. On stage SBTRKT forms a duo of two masked men, one doing the sounds and one doing the vocals. Though the latter is not as straight forward as it sounds, with some looping going on to create multiple vocal layers. SBTRKT goes from house to something with a little bit more BPMs in it. Some songs I find amazing, other songs I’m less enamored with. The more BPM, the more I am not dancing. One song in particular is so fast paced most people are practically forced to stand around a bit. Luckily, most of the tracks are a bit more friendly to us who didn’t grown up with breakneck speed, and there is some serious partying going on in the first ranks. Especially the first few tracks are ace, after that I found it a bit of a mixed bag, and live I found ‘Wildfire’ to be a little bit underwhelming. Despite that, there is definitely enough to like and dance to, and they provide plenty of energy for the crowd to feed upon.

The crowd, that is the main difference maker. In the previous report I was lamenting the absence of youngsters, because I know the type of young men and women that usually come to the festival. They love music, love the more artsy feel, and they love to have a good time. Saturday I was surrounded by idiot savants talking through everything while acting as if they were oh so great with the beer they smuggled in. I had to move from my place numerous times because I was about to smack someone, and I am a peace loving creature that would lose 80% of the fights I’m in anyway. But on the Sunday there were more people, and there were better people (how about that for a nuanced statement?), and thus the atmosphere was that of how you would like a festival like this to be. Young people (and other music lovers) enjoying/partying to good music: how can you beat that? Young people dancing to my left, young people dancing to my right, young people dancing in front of me: if you were there on this day and saw that sight, that alone shows why this festival should always be present as an alternative right there. It supports -- to go the sentimental save-the-kids route again – the cultural growth of these kids interested in it, and how is that not a good cause? And did I mention it was dry almost the entire night? Wow.