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Roadburn 2014, Pt. 6: “Spirit of the Staircase”

04.11.14 — 12:13 — Friday afternoon — 013 venue, Tilburg

A bit of a later start this morning for fanzine work. I didn’t mind sleeping the extra hour after all of yesterday’s running around and I’m sure I’ll mind it even less tomorrow. I had zero eyes for copy editing but did the best I could with it. “It’s a fanzine” has become a sort of go-to line for not being too nitpicky. If something’s screwed up, well, that’s only more authentic.

The issues are coming out of the printer now, and downstairs in the venue, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin have been soundchecking, the place sort of generally buzzing with activity, voices from the street below of bands loading in merch and gear, a hum of cyclical bass coming up through the concrete floor.

If you want to check out the PDF of the second issue, it’s available here. I’m honored to be outclassed by Kim Kelly’s review and Paul Verhagen’s photography.

Speaking of Paul, whose face was well familiar from the last couple years when I was introduced yesterday, he’s got photos displayed outside as well as in the venue itself. There are shots billboard-size on the outer wall of the parking deck next door to the 013, and that and the Roadburn banners around town only underscore the support this fest gets from the city of Tilburg. Particularly coming from the States, where something like this would struggle every step of the way and have to fight to even get a permit to exist, it’s amazing to see that. Was talking to a fellow East Coaster yesterday (look at me, not dropping names) who concurred: the culture just doesn’t exist for it there. You might be able to get away with it in San Francisco or something like that, but then everyone’s car will get busted into — say hello to my new stereotype about San Francisco; everybody gets robbed — and that’s no good either.

There’s a networking meeting over at the Cul de Sac going on now that I should probably be at, should’ve probably been at last year, but things ran behind compared to yesterday, so we’ll see if I get there before it’s done. Yesterday before the show proper started I ran back to the hotel. Didn’t quite get to sleep but at least laid down for a while and I think that made a difference. Not sure how the timing will work today, but you have to take your rest when you can when you’re here because there’s so much to see. No shortage today, certainly. A lot I’ve never encountered before, so all the better.

Exhausted but feeling good. It’s warm in Tilburg and the trees are green. You always forget the difference something like that can make.

 

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One Response to “Roadburn 2014, Pt. 6: “Spirit of the Staircase””

  1. Scott says:

    You have put so much effort into your Roadburn visit over the last several years, and it is such an amazing progression from your first arrival to today’s current dispatch. Pinch yourself, tell us everything, you in your element, and enjoy the moment, as you will.

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