After an afternoon nap Friday, the first order of business was to pick up my festival wristband from Left of the Dial staffers working in a shipping container on Eendrachtsplein. The wristband gets you into all the gigs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I then headed to WORM, an impressive non-profit arts venue on the Boomgaardsstraat hosting fest lineups.\u00a0 I saw the Vienna band My Ugly Clementine off admiration for their full-length release Vitamin C.\u00a0 There was no mention from the stage acknowledging drummer\/singer Kem Kolleritsch\u2019s departure from the band.\u00a0 Kolleritsch quit a few months ago to protest bandmates\u2019 lack of solidarity (hostility, in fact) with Kem\u2019s activism and energy as a trans person.\u00a0 While the remaining members issued a statement via social media expressing regret about their role in the outcome, they\u2019re continuing to perform under the original band name doing many of the songs made special by Kolleritsch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like many of the venues hosting Left of the Dial programming, WORM has two adjacent stages.\u00a0 After one band plays, another starts minutes later.\u00a0 Organizers keep bands to the printed schedule down to the minute.\u00a0 Forty-minute sets.\u00a0 Sound checks happen in the ten to twenty minute gaps between performances.\u00a0 When the sound guy realized the lead singer of the German band Die Verlieler was not present a few minutes prior to the 1900 local \u201cgo\u201d time at WORM, he asked the door man to go look for him.\u00a0 He pulled up a band photo on his phone to aid in the search.\u00a0 The singer was located quickly and the doorman and sound guy exchanged big laughs when discussing where he was found.\u00a0 That conversation was in Dutch, so my eavesdropping didn\u2019t shed light.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later in the evening, I saw the Manchester, UK band Mewn at Roodkapte.\u00a0 Singer Daniel Bluer said it was Mewn\u2019s first performance outside England.\u00a0 Their song \u201cSwell\u201d sounded great.\u00a0 A smoke machine stage right actively puffed dense clouds into the space of guitarist Rachel Bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had dinner Friday night at a busy poke’ place between WORM and Roodkapte.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rotterdam\u2019s Lewsberg isn\u2019t on the fest sked this weekend but I did see the band\u2019s bass player Shalita Dietrich at WORM.\u00a0 I was too nervous to approach her.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After an afternoon nap Friday, the first order of business was to pick up my festival wristband from Left of the Dial staffers working in a shipping container on Eendrachtsplein. The wristband gets you into all the gigs. I then … Continue reading