Left a drizzly Rotterdam at midday Sunday for a short train ride to the city of Breda, NL in the south of the country. Just one stop on the Eindhoven-bound Intercity operated by Nederlanse Spoorwegen. The fare was 11.4 euros.
The walk from Breda’s train station to the hotel took me through a beautiful public park with dozens of chickens running around. I’m in Breda for just one night to see Remember Sports, the great Philly band on their first-ever European tour. Their show last night on the closing day of Left of the Dial at Cultuurpodium Perron was excellent. The band ended with Out Loud. Each of the four members took turns singing on the number off the 2021 LP Like a Stone. Lead singer Carmen Perry unwound her cord and walked back her mike to drummer Julian Fader so he could do the final vocal part. It was a moment the crowd seemed to love.
In that same venue earlier in the evening, the Welsh band The Bug Club brought in what appeared to me to be the Dial fest’s largest audience. Bass player Tilly Harris observed the crowd size early in the set. “It’s a bloody full room!” she said. Their tune Flower in the Rain sounded incredible. What’s unique about the song is that it’s one of five numbers recorded together in one take and released under the name Intelectuals. A five in one.
The card reader at Perron wouldn’t accept my plastic as I tried to buy a big cup of Grolsch. Anxious patrons in line behind me grew impatient before a guy told the beertender he’d pick mine up. I tried to pay him in cash but he wouldn’t take it.
A long corridor leading from Perron’s entrance to the two-stage main room included hundreds of free lockers (with keys) which people were stuffing their jackets and things into. Again, smart and forward-thinking but impossible to imagine at a US venue.
On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at Foo (an ice cream shop doubling as a fest venue) to see the Leeds band Mush. They were great. Early Stones, Ultimate Painting sounds.
Many of the escalators in Rotterdam’s busy public spaces don’t activate until one enters. Smart. I don’t think I saw a single member of law enforcement while circulating Rotterdam. It appears whatever program(s) the city/country advances, it’s leading to at least the appearance of less than rampant scenes of suffering.