Out In The Field In... Belgium

Last weekend, apart from visiting my family in Germany, I went to a festival called Groezrock. In Belgium. It sounds much more of a mission than it actually was, the Belgian/Dutch border is about 15 minutes drive from my parents house and the total driving time was about an hour. Which is why I didn't go for the whole camping-at-a-festival experience. Not that I mind doing that, I'm really looking forward be a filthy hippy for a long weekend this August when I go to Boomtown, but I was on my own and end of April is not the time you want to go camping anywhere in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany or (god beware) the UK. It really could've been a degree or 10 warmer, the evening was cold even with 4 layers on.

Obviously the Belgians are aware of that and the general volatility of the weather, so all 4 stages and the merch/market areas were in massive circus tent shape things.

None of my friends could come along, so I opted for a festival light experience and only headed to Meerhout for the bands I actually wanted to see, thereby missing out on a lot of potentially interesting happenings (like Tim McIlrath doing an acoustic set with the Scorpios or The Aquabats) but all in all I think it was a good solution.

On Saturday I got to the festival around 6pm, trudged around for a bit to get my bearings, checked out the stages and the merch, then proceeded to accidentally bump into the bassist of the Aquabats while trying to avoid a tumble of drunk people. I had missed the Aquabats set (and, having checked them out on youtube I can't say I'm a fan) and therefore had no clue who I was talking to, otherwise I would've tried to be a bit more investigative in my questions. Instead we just chatted for a while about touring and stage fright and the awesomeness of hotel nights while waiting for Pennywise to come on stage. Chad was really nice and I was kinda sad when he said goodbye halfway through the set to head back to the VIP area. Oh, btw, he's a massive fangirl for Rocket From The Crypt, he actually ran onstage to get their setlist when they were done :)

The main reason I was there was RISE AGAINST, who took the stage at midnight. By that time I was second row from the barrier, which apart from being a bit squished was also nice and warm. What can I say, Rise Against just killed the main stage that night. They were AWESOME. Tim McIlrath's voice is just... I can't even... he makes my knees go weak (he's also seriously hot, which helps).

Sunday I got to the festival a bit earlier because THE USED were on at 7pm already. Their set was a bit of a weird one - the sound was seriously shite and it was a lot less busy in front of the stage than expected (I was right at the barrier and I had space). For some reason The Used seem to come across best when they're headlining in a small club, the times I've seen them on a big stage their chemistry seemed to be slightly off (only exception being Warped, but Warped isn't that big, really). They rocked, they always do, but I felt something was missing. I would also like to discuss Jepha's fashion choices at some point. Srsly, the man was wearing a light blue denim trousers and shirt and I'm really not sure what's going with his hair...

I stayed for Billy Talent, who were quite enjoyable, but left before Bad Religion came on.

All in all a really good weekend and it was great to see my family, but in regards to festivals I very much prefer the dance ones (less alcohol, more fluffy happy people - yes, I know it's the drugs, but still).