5:45PM — Friday — Hotel Mercure, Tilburg

Well, there was some sleep to be had, but not much. I got to bed at around three and gave up trying at nine this morning, after nodding off and waking up, putting on headphones to try that, pillow over the head and the rest. I’m notoriously a light sleeper anyway, and Tilburg is short neither on hustle nor bustle. I slept for about 90 minutes solid this afternoon, and that in combination with the 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, has been enough. I’m not at just this moment, but if I wanted to, I could still be standing.

Place of Skulls started their set with my favorite song of theirs: “Silver Chord Breaks” from With Vision. That felt good to hear. In a little while, Winter will be on in the main stage area, and I want to be there for that, so I don’t know if I’ll post this now or later on in the night like yesterday, but we’ll see how it goes. After missing them in Brooklyn, it’s definitely something I want to catch this time around.

Beyond that, the night has SunnO))) and Voivod on offer, along with Earth, who switched places with Circle with Pharaoh Overlord owing reportedly to a flat tire on the way in, putting the latter on the main stage now and the former in the Midi Theatre at 8:30PM. I’d like to catch some of that.

Funny story: I was headed the photo pit to shoot Circle with Pharaoh Overlord, and security stopped me and told me I needed a photo pass. I said I didn’t think that was the case, since I had a “working” wristband (the same thing happened to me at Metalliance at Irving Plaza a couple weeks ago). Security disagreed, and I said, “Really? You’re going to make me leave and get a photo pass and come back?” and he said, “Really.”

So I went back around to where I first checked in and asked for a photo pass. Walter, who runs this show literally and figuratively, was there, but it wasn’t something I wanted to bother him with, so I asked the girl behind the counter could I please have a photo pass, and she asked me how big was my camera. I took it out, and she scrutinized its size, and said okay. I felt like I was having my junk measured. Glad to have passed muster.

I’d also like a sit-down meal, though, which is something I haven’t had in a couple days. Probably I could hit up any number of the pubs in what I’ve come to (lovingly) refer to as Weirdo Canyon — stay tuned for more on that — but time, etc. Scheduling is an issue in more ways that just trying to see bands. I haven’t talked to The Patient Mrs. since Wednesday morning Jersey time, and I miss her.

Today is SunnO)))‘s curated day, and though I’m still disappointed they didn’t take my suggestion and call it SunnO)))burn, it’s been pretty good. I got to see the one-man drone/noise oddity of Keiji Haino — easy to see the influence he’s had on the day’s curators as he played through three full Marshall stacks and an Ampeg bass rig — and a couple minutes of Year of No Light‘s live soundtrack to the film Yampyr, which was cool in its way. You know how sometimes when you sing along to a song you don’t know that well, the words remind you of the different parts of the song as you go? You finish the line, and so forth? They were kind of finishing the line of the silent movie. Cool to watch, and it synched up to varying degrees, but a bunch of skinny French dudes droning out has its own appeal, at least judging by the crowd it drew.

I didn’t get to see Mamiffer or Trap Them, and I tried to catch a couple minutes of Aluk Todolo, but as usual, the Green Room was impenetrable. Hopefully I’ll have better luck and/or timing when Beaver starts up at 7:15.

Interesting mix so far. Right now it’s more allergy meds for me and then back over for Winter. More to come later.

Tags: Circle, Keiji Haino, Pharaoh Overlord, Place of Skulls, Roadburn 2011 Adventure, The Netherlands, Tilburg

This entry was posted on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.