Walk the Line festival day #2 May 12th 2012

For me the most wonderful thing about Walk the Line is the relaxed nature of the festival. And it’s not just the venues or the crowd, it’s also the line-up. Each year you can be confident that no matter at which venue you show up, you will be treated to something cool, special or original. For me personally this also takes the stress out of making choices of where to go, though I also have to admit this has led to mistakes in the past, especially when I missed out on Warpaint two years ago.

And maybe I’ve made a similar mistake this year, but then again, such mistakes are easily forgotten when I take the fun factor of the fest into consideration. Last year the personification of this fun factor was TEETH (or is it T3ETH?) and without a shadow of a doubt this year’s dose of craziness was deliverd in heaps by three girls from Japan and their band: Trippple Nippples. I can remember people telling me afterwards that they’ve truly enjoyed this crazy gig, but weren’t completely sure of what they’ve seen exactly. Well, see for yourself in the full gallery after the break…

But first let’s get back to the beginning of festival day #2… The day started off a ‘bit’ more down tempo in the Nutstuin, where a few free open air showcases were given by amongst others Dead Flamingoes and Liz Green. James Walbourne and Kami Thompson from Dead Flamingoes were constantly plagued by guitar amplification problems, so that did upset the flow of their set, which was a shame. Liz Green had no such problems, but then again I doubt if it would have bothered her, as even loud churchbells didn’t stop her from singing the (self proclaimed) ‘most inappropriate songs for the occasion’… She’s funny!

After some quality falafel for dinner, I made it back to De Zwarte Ruiter (‘the black horseman’) for Anna Aaron’s gig. Anna’s from Switzerland and I can’t remember having seen many bands from that neck of the woods, but her performance certainly made a strong case for the Swiss music scene! When I had a listen to her music before the fest, I immediately liked it, but I have to admit that I also thought that she was sometimes trying a bit too hard to make her vocals sound like PJ Harvey’s. During the live performance the Polly Jean influences could still be heard and from time to time also some Amanda Palmer, but the sheer quality of her songs, her strong personality and great band overshadowed all possible similarities to other bands or artists and created one of the absolute highlights of the festival for me…

For some strange reason I didn’t spend that much time at the main venue of the festival, the Paard van Troje, but I was very curious to see former Tunng honcho Sam Gender’s new band Diagrams, so I made sure to catch them playing the smaller stage of the Paard van Troje. Great stuff, proving the point that accessible (pop)music in no way has to be the mind numbing crap we are exposed to most of the time on daytime radio, but that it can be accessible, quirky and intelligent at the same time. Well done Sam!

Another band that I had been looking forward to seeing live very much after doing my homework for the fest, was Gang Colours. There’s no denying that Will Ozanne’s music is cut from a similar ‘Post-dubstep’ cloth as James Blake’s music, but Will’s songs (for the moment?) lack some of the crazy rhythmic paterns of James’ compositions and are somewhat more melodic, maybe still a bit more connected to the UK Garage scene. But anyway, Gang Colours was really cool in the intimate setting of the Humanity House.

Any band doing mic checks by saying ‘Norwich Arts Centre’ instead of the regular ‘one-two’, just have to be cool… By doing that Fever Fever had already stolen my heart before even starting their gig and they just as easily continued to do so during their performance at the Walk the Line festival. From their energy on and off stage, their fast paced art punk songs, right up to the funny Facebook photo moment (of which I’m happy to say I managed to stay out of frame, hehe), all were amazing! What a great way to end another great edition of this festival!

And as a closing ‘statement’ some Trippple Nippples again: Strawberries anyone? … What else can I say?

Seven full galleries starting off with one huge gallery of Trippple Nippples’ crazy gig after the break…

Enjoy the photos!

Trippple Nippples

Dead Flamingoes

Liz Green

Anna Aaron

Diagrams

Gang Colours

Fever Fever