Festival report: Cry Me A River 2012, day one

Writing these reviews has really outstretched across a number of days and it’s rather intriguing that the places they are written on are insanely amusing. As this is being put on digital paper, my girlfriend and I are currently riding in the van of “Vestiges” on route from “New Noise" festival to their show with “Downfall of Gaia” in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The dudes from the band were awesome enough to take us in and offer us their two free seats in the vehicle, everything being quite friendly and nice. I’ll be writing more about that in the upcoming festival and show reviews, so stick around if you are interested.

Once the warm-up show was finished and the venue was clean, it was finally time to grab some much desired sleep. Although I was sleeping on the floor and there were a lot of people still awake and talking in the room, I fell into deep slumber almost instantly and didn’t wake up until morning. I was one of the first to wake up that day and Vuk was quick to follow, so soon we were up and getting ready. The plan was to meet up with my tumblr friend Ina who was supposed to guide us to our ride. But until then, a hunt for a supermarket ensued, which we managed to find all the way back from where we arrived in Munster. Yes, apparently food stores are not so common in the city, or we were just blind and retarded, so the only place to grab supplies was at the train station. After a longish walk, killing some time and getting to the meeting place on time, we were settled in the car and on our way.

To put it shortly, the ride to Versmold was extremely fun and entertaining, but in the end we were late, so much in fact that we ended up missing the first two bands. At one point we were lost on the road, since we couldn’t find the correct turn and it costed us almost an hour of lost time. Once we got there we were all kind of drained and frustrated, so we took a little breather before setting up our tents. The second we arrived I (love you, added by my better half sitting next to me, review contributor) saw dear friend Stephan, the dude behind the “Automatic Suicide Machine” blog, so a big hello to him!

Seeing as how this was my first time at the festival, I guess that some venue descriptions are in order. Located in the beautiful countryside in Versmold, Germany, the entire “venue” is surrounded by blissful fields, huge trees and an overall lack of human intrusion in the land. I say “venue”, since this isn’t exactly a gig venue per se, because it is placed inside a restaurant/hotel/motel. The entire event occured on the ground floor of the building, which is composed of a huge stage room, a kitchen where people could go and grab their breakfast, a nice section dedicated to distros and band merch and also a back way out. “Out” is the above mentioned countryside, which was occupied by tents during the festival. It was absolutely awesome to spend the time between bands outside and just enjoy the greenery and the nature around the venue. The stage room was just a plain big room with no special design or layout, which actually turned out as perfect for such an event since it manages to house all the people attending the fest and give enough space for dancing and one more big table in the back that was occupied with merch.

For those of you who don’t know, the first day of “Cry Me A River” consisted of the following bands:

17:15 Crocus

18:00 Mio

18:45 Lentic Waters

19:30 Resurrectionists

20:15 Tempest

21:00 Lich

21:45 Titan

22:30 Alpinist

23:15 La Quiete

When I was finally inside the venue, I realized that we didn‘t miss seeing “Crocus”, but that the band actually cancelled the performance for some reason. “Mio”, however, already finished their set, so my entrance was followed by the sound of “Lentic Waters” who were already somewhere in the middle of their act. Honestly, I haven’t listened to this band prior to the festival, but the bit that I saw live was quite amusing. Their sound was very unique, something that could be freely described as a weird amalgam of screamo and blackened hardcore. Massive, heavy riffs were abundant, everything being quite chaotic, but at the same time really technical. Somehow, amid the mayhem they created, the band succeeded in executing outstandingly precise melodies and that managed to leave the biggest impression on me. Sadly I was still quite disoriented from the car ride, so I wasn’t concentrated enough to pay much more attention to the performance. Needless to say, this is a band you should definitely check out and you can do so on their bandcamp page found here.

One other sad fact of festival day one was that I missed “Resurrectionists”, purely because I just needed a break to regain my strenght. Thus, I spent my time with Vuk outside, if I remember well, drinking an energy drink and just chilling out. Lucky for me that I already saw “Resurrectionists” twice thus far... which doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to see them again. Some other day.

“Tempest” was next and I went to see them just so that I could respect Vuk’s flabbergasted state of mind concerning the band. I have to say that I am really happy that I got to see this band more than once. This performance definitely proved to me that the band can be unique and awesome on each of their sets. Much like on the warm-up show, they were radiating energy and passion, backed once again by insanely driving tunes. Each step of the way they were more and more intriguing, especially since this venue seemed to be far more capable of sustaining the enormous sound “Tempest” managed to create. I’m kind of pissed off at myself since I forgot to write down their set list and a lot of time passed now so I can’t remember it, but if memory serves me well they changed the list of songs they played when compared to the previous show. This little feature I really find cool, since most touring bands just stick to one setlist for the entire tour, which can prove to be a bit dull if you end up seeing a band more than once. So again I have to say, this is a project that always manages to impress and if my previous reviews about "Tempest" didn’t make you want to check them out, then this review definitely should.

Next band in line was highly expected by yours truly. Not only does “Lich” share members with “Battle Of Wolf 359“, but their recordings have been impressing me day after day ever since I heard about them. They managed to utterly live up to my expectations in concert and even successfully surpassing the quality of the recorded material. The entire set was just a wild unleashed beast, stomping and grinding everything in its path. A lot of people try to compare the two projects mentioned above and thus find flaws in “Lich”, but I seriously have to disagree. This band has an overtly different style when it comes to both its music construction and the flavor of energy and mood which is oozed during their performance. If people would just stop linking the two bands they would find out how both of them are truly amazing in their own regards. Overall, their set was highly entertaining and driving, which definitely signals a really awesome future ahead of “Lich”, seeing as how they have to offer a lot at the moment and also showing enough space for an inevitable growth.

Then came “Titan”, one of my personal black sheeps of the festival so to speak. I didn’t listen to them a lot prior to the fest and thus I went to see them live without an opinion, but from the very first tones they made I just couldn’t find enjoyment. It’s not that they sounded bad, but it just seemed I couldn’t find anything special in their performance and it ended up not being my cup of tea. Something similar happened to me with “Alpinist", despite the fact that I really love them on recordings at home. Maybe it was me being tired or distracted, but after a couple of songs I was tempted to go out of the venue. Luckily, both bands play on the upcoming “Fluff Fest”, so I’ll give them another chance to amaze me live.

The end of the evening was definitely reserved for the most, personally, expected and loved band. None other than “La Quiete”, screamo legends from Italy were planned as the closing act of the first day of the festival and just seeing their name on the timetable made me become completely assured that it will be a gig to remember. And to be completely honest, I find myself at a total lack of words to express my thoughts about their performance simply because it was truly mind-blowing. Witnessing songs such as “La Fine Non è La Fine”, “Raid Aereo Sul Paese Delle Farfalle” and “Metempsicosi Del Fine Ultimo: Nevrastenica Oscillazione Fra Poli Estremi”, yeah the guys love long song names, was an experience beyond perfection for my ears. One thing definitely has to be mentioned here and that is the fact that the band had some serious technical difficulties during their set. As much as I remember, there were occasional troubles with one of the guitars and with the microphone. But despite those mishaps, “La Quiete” endured and provided an absolutely astounding performance. It was amazing to see how the band stood strong against the unexpected obstacles, lashing out their very best at the audience and not losing an ounce of quality or amount of radiated passion in the process. My mind was just blown away. All those songs that I really love and which manage to make me shiver when I listen to them at home succeeded in doing the same thing live in concert, although increased a thousandfold. And there is really not much else I can say, other than show my endless thanks to the band for doing what they are doing all these years and for traveling from Italy to Germany to give us such a spectacle.

And in the end, regarding the “La Quiete” show, I have to give a truly negative shout toward certain members of the crowd, who proved to be the only bad thing that happened during the mentioned band’s set. Just standing randomly on the stage in front of the singer and following him around is not cool. At all.

Once the venue went quiet, Vuk and me hanged out a bit outside in hopes of sparking some kind of conversation with other people. Since we failed miserably, it was soon decided to just hit the tent and sleep. It was an awesome day and more was yet to come. Hope you enjoyed this write-up and stay tuned for my review of the second day on “Cry Me A River” fest!