Under Tower festival - Brussels - 22/6/2013

I irritatingly managed to catch about 2 minutes of Tervueren before having to go off to see Taxidermists, then run off to Another Belgian Band, to pass Peplum on the way to Rodolphe Coster. This was going to prove to be a real festival day, with clashes, smashes and splashes, and the odd gem.

Highlights:

Serious Kids - The Cramps sounding like Lords of the New Church with a hint of Birthday Party. Oh yes - this was an absolutely stunning lecture in stagecraft and alt-rock attitude. Nuff said. Must see again.

Thom C - Better voice and better songs than Jasper Steverlinck (Arid). His soaring light tenor with immaculate pitch and amazing technique combined with some excellent songs wowed everyone in the room.

Rodolphe Coster - Wild electro-bonkerdness with a Joy Division flavour to it. He pulled a sizable crowd and kept them captivated. The most original and engaging one-man-performance I have seen in a very long time.

Lowlights:

OK - your voice is fab, you make the minimal accompaniment work well, but an entire set consisting of the covers of the songs that have most irritated us for the past 5 years is really not a smart move.

I can appreciate that you can sing 5 notes fairly well, but don't go past that range, as it gets badly out of tune. I've heard better arrangements from a 3rd year classical guitar ensemble.

I was looking forward to you lot, but left after 30 seconds to avoid ear damage. Don't drown out the drummer. And don't bark into the microphone in an attempt to hear yourself above the guitars - it sounds crap.

Honourable mentions:

Another Belgian Band, for again coming out with some fantastic tunes. They have not lost their magic touch for really very quirky subjects and intertwining melodies, and I'm looking forward to the pending album.

The Kongs - last minute stand-ins, and a good solid, entertaining old-school hard-rocking set.

She Goes Electro - verging on mid-period New Order at times, with a very lively and enthusiastic front-man.

Peplum; Yoko Syndrome; Ambulance; The Paranoid Grill - I only caught snippits of this excellent 4 hours of indie-pop-rock on stage 2. All are worth talking about in more detail, but as I can't have caught more than 6 songs between them, that will have to wait. 

Taxidermists - As fresh and entertaining as they always are, their unique combination of pure Punk attitude and Brusseleer humour managing to make a very serious point about not taking anything too seriously.

The Vogues - More punk à-la-Brusseleer, this time with a classic British flavour, and a rather irritating festival clash with Serious Kids.

Julien V and Mathias Bressan - both of whom I missed almost in their entirety, but I could tell from the crowd reactions that they were both popular choices.