Circa 1:00AM: Hotel Mercure, Tilburg, The Netherlands: In case you’re wondering how tired I am, I was sitting up on the balcony waiting for Triptykon to take the stage… and I fell asleep. And I don’t mean I nodded off. I was out. For at least 25 minutes. I was dreaming.

I can barely keep my eyes open to write this, and a big part of me is tempted to just leave it for tomorrow, but I want to at least get some things down before I go to bed. First and foremost is how well they’re treating me. This hotel, this venue, this festival. Everyone. It’s fucking great.

Second, although once I woke up and they took stage, Triptykon was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening, a standout moment in my mind is when Roadburn organizer Walter came out on stage to announce Candlemass wouldn’t be making it for tomorrow and thus wouldn’t be playing the festival. The crowd applauded. Sympathy applause for Walter. It was beautiful.

Think about it. If there’s a group of people who know and have come to accept life under the doctrine of “shit happens,” isn’t it doomers?

Trinacria went on after Thorr’s Hammer in the main room and were, as they were on their album, good and weird in nearly equal proportion. They wound up being on at the same time as Comus, but I managed to catch some of both sets, for which I was thankful. Comus played some new material from a forthcoming three or four (apparently it’s a debate) track EP. The titles I caught were “The Return” and “Out of the Coma.” I think they’re working on a theme.

I’m getting a cold, which is a bummer. Also, my toilet won’t stop running. I don’t want to call anyone because it’s late, but man, it just keeps going, and my sinuses are pounding. It’s quite a combination.

Once Comus were done, it was all about Triptykon. The schedule of who’s on when and all that, I have no idea. I just went to the main room and waited in case they went on early. They didn’t. And just as they were taking stage, I told myself, “Alright, just a couple songs, then I’ll go to bed,” but I stayed the whole time. Even through the end of “The Prolonging,” which they closed with as they close the album. That song is 20 minutes long. And I felt it.

But don’t let me make it out to be a hardship. They were fucking incredible. They opened with “Goetia” from Eparistera Daimones, and did a couple Celtic Frost tunes for good measure, even going so far as to bring Nocturno Culto (of Darkthrone; his side-project Sarke played today) on stage for a startling rendition of “Dethroned Emperor.” He had a notebook with him he was using as a cheat sheet for lyrics. It ruled.

Alright, that’s it. I’ll pick up in the morning.

Tags: Roadburn, The Netherlands, Tilburg

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.