Festival report: Ieperfest 2012, day one

I've managed to hit a speed-bump of sorts when it comes to life, so my inspiration levels have decreased significantly, which equals less posts on here. Lucky for me, I had my trusty booklet on the festival and I kept notes about my thoughts, so writing will come easier than usual. This event marked the ending of the summer festival season for me and there are tons of things I need to share, some positive some negative. As I already mentioned, after this I will start posting release reviews, which I presume will be a good thing due to the fact that you boys and girls are probably bored by only reading my gig and festival write-ups.

The year 2012 saw a grand twentieth birthday of "Ieperfest", a huge hardcore happening stretched over three days in Ieper, Belgium. What started out as a modest 2-day festival in 1992 today stands as a force to be reckoned with and has become the underground event with the longest tradition. "Genet Records" and "Republyk Vort'n Vis" have been working together all these years, the fruits of their labor manifesting as a really amazing and long list of bands which they hosted. I have to be completely honest and say that in all those 20 years, this is the first time I have heard of the festival and it makes me sad, and ashamed, since I obviously missed out on a lot of amazing bands. When I saw the schedule for the twentieth edition of the event I was instantly mesmerized, to say the least.
Getting into a little bit more detail regarding the festival itself. As I mentioned above, it is located in Ieper, a small town in Belgium, just 15 kilometers from the French border. The site is located next to the road and is fairly easy to be found. There is a really big area for parking and an equally huge camping spot. The field where the camp is settled was kinda hard to maneuver, since the grass was somewhat tall and the very ground is wavy, but in the end it turned out to be manageable. Two things really surprised me when it comes to the lodging area and those are extremely clean, and nice smelling, toilets and a spot with showers. Although my woman and me were true hardcore/punk/crust and so we didn't shower during the festival, it is very neat to know that you can if you need to.
Another awesome thing was the food, though it comes with a flaw of sorts. 100% vegan dishes featuring seitan stew, scrambled tofu, pasta with minced soy, fries, vegan ice cream, fruit and many other things on the menu kept everyone filled with energy and also being extremely tasty in the process. However, the downside was the fact that you had to buy tokens in order to get food and drinks. Not only are the plastic coins entirely environmentally unfriendly, which goes against the policies of the festival, but most of the times they are hard to get since the lines are huge. The same goes for actually getting the food, since the waiting time tends to be quite long. At one occasion we actually measured the time we waited in the que, ending up being locked in the line for more than 30 minutes. My suggestion would be to make the meal distribution like on "Fluff Fest", one really big tent and multiple stands. And definitely lose the plastic coins, for reasons obvious.
One other thing worth mentioning, despite the fact that it will get its share of words throughout the review, is the "More Than Music" tent. Filled with info-desks, a small zine library and a podium for presentations, documentary movies and interviews with bands, this tent served as an extreme example of the festival's desire to educate people. I spent a fine amount of time in the "MTM" tent, but the sad thing is that every time I went there I realized that not a lot of people are present or they are just there to relax in the library. In general, I felt really alienated from the majority of the crowd because it was a completely different scene than the one I usually am a part of, so I guess it is just a different mindset of the audience. Despite that I give utter praise to the festival for trying to have an educative aspect and putting a huge accent on supporting the vegan lifestyle and the anti-fascist, ALF/ELF movements.

Now I will present to you the entire list of bands for the first festival days. I just now remembered one awesome thing about "Ieperfest", a thing that events like "Fluff Fest" and "New Noise" should really take note of. Although the timetables were extremely tightly knit, there would be only one band playing at a certain time. Even though there might have been a delay in the tent, for instance, the band on the main stage would not begin playing until the tent band was done. This way you can see everything and you don't have to stab yourself in the face and shoot people because you have to sacrifice one band in order to see another one. So festivals, watch and learn. Anyway, here is the schedule for day one:
- Sydney Ducks (T)
- Midnight Souls (M)
- Dukatalon (T)
- Take Offense (M)
- Coke Bust (T)
- The Mongoloids (M)
- Dean Dirg (T)
- Death By Stereo (M)
- For The Glory (T)
- Kylesa (M)
- Skarhead (T)
- Norma Jean (M)
- Homer (T)
- Knuckledust (M)
- The Chariot (T)
- Corrosion of Conformity (M)
- Mucky Pup (T)
- Crown of Thornz (M)
- Aborted (T)
- Funeral For A Friend (M)
- Congress (T)
- Agnostic Front (M)

The band which kicked off the festival for me was "Dukatalon" and it was a truly pleasant surprise. Not only was it really cool to see a band hailing from Israel, but the output they presented was excellent. This three-piece project mixed tones of sludge and post metal, creating a heavy and eerie sound wall of sound. They excel at making truly enormous and perfectly flowing soundscapes, a trait which is quite impressive since we are dealing with a trio here. The band just swept away everything, no special effects or makeup, just straightforward stomping, overtly grim and mood-bending atmospherics. This was definitely the surprise of the day and I recommend that you all check them out. I'm yet to take a listen to their recordings, but I'm pretty sure that they will grasp my liking even at home.

"Coke Bust", strike two. And I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. The band was equally energetic as on "Fluff Fest", but back there they just sounded better. In the Czech Republic, the songs were much more discernible and, at the same time, far more aggressive, while on "Ieperfest" they ended up being too noisy and just not that violent. I still like the band though and it was a pleasure to hear "Fumigation", "No Authority" and all of their other tracks they performed on tour. Once again, definitely take a listen to these guys and keep an eye open for them.

My initial plan was to go and see "Dean Dirg", but as it turns out they cancelled. And not only that, but the band actually broke up, which really made me bummed out since I basically could have seen one of their last ever shows. So instead I kinda hanged out with my girlfriend and our friend until it was time for "Death By Stereo". I have to say, this ended up as being a sort of black sheep of day one due to the fact that the band managed to piss me off with just one of their live statements. The band started out fairly well, providing a great amount of energy and being instantly entertaining. At that point I really regretted the fact that I missed their show in my hometown some time ago, since I imagined a smaller show being even more energetic. Then, however, came a couple of sentences from the singer where he noted that "there are not a lot of emo kids in the crowd". "Good, they are hurting our scene." Okay. First of all, and this is coming from someone who is mainly going to punk festivals and gigs and I am sure that a lot of my readers will concur, I really disapprove of any sort of verbal oppression, intolerance or insults, unless the said statements are against the system because that's what this is all about basically. Even if I wasn't a punk and an anarchist, it's safe to say that my dear mom and dad did a fairly good job at raising someone who is not an intolerant douche. Second, those words sounded like they came out from 2006, when people mistook a movement of teenagers wearing eyeliner and checkered bracelets for "emo kids" and went around to beat them up. Even if you're gonna bash something, at least learn your damned terminology. I might fall into the category which you might call an emo since I listen to emo obviously. You know, bands like "Rites of Spring" and the tightly connected screamo like "Saetia" and yeah I'd go and cry my eyes out on their show, or I'd go and listen to "Orchid" and smash your brains out. Those words on stage, coming from someone who started out in 1998 when emo and screamo were truly strong, are really disgraceful and just stupid. Maybe I'm being too judgmental and I take my music seriously, but I'll leave that to the readers to decide. All in all, total disappointment.

Ages ago I was dying to see "Kylesa" live, yet there I was on "Ieperfest" being ready to see them a second time. Previously I saw them in Nijmegen, a show about which you can read here, and I was really curious how they will sound like on this occasion. And it is safe to say that I definitely enjoyed their performance on the festival far more than in "Doornroosje". "Said And Done", "Don't Look Back", "Unknown Awareness" and "Scapegoat" are just some of the songs which were performed and which sounded far more awesome than on the previous show. The sound was much more gigantic and even more clear and impacting than before, so it really seems that the band can do no wrong. Additionally, I have to say that the female vocals were excellent this time, since previously I had some complaints. On this occasion everything was definitely like on recordings, nicely executed singing and screaming which was on par with the album material, a strong and heavy instrumental section and a truly massive sound overall, something that "Kylesa" is well known for. Overall, this was a superb performance, way better than I hoped for. 

"Norma Jean" was up next on the main stage and I was fairly excited, since I heard that they are really entertaining live. I honestly didn't listen to them before, but their tunes ended up being extremely catchy and interesting, so I enjoyed their set quite a lot. The band was also really cool to look at, bursting with quite a lot of energy and providing a fine dose of wild maneuvers on stage. What did leave a murky experience is the fact that the crowd was really stiff and unmoved, this actually happening on most of the shows on the festival, and you could somewhat sense that the band was slightly irritated by it. Or well, at least I found it quite weird to see a band jump around and swing their instruments while the crowd is just existing there. The vocalist addressed the crowd numerous of times, but to no avail. Still, the band did their part really efficiently and I definitely don't have any complaints. One of the last songs, or maybe even the last one I can't really recall, featured the singer of "The Chariot" as a guest vocalist and that was a really climactic point where everything went insane. I have to say that I would really love to grab a chance and see them in a smaller venue on their own gig, which I presume would be a totally insane experience.

Here we come to something that never happened to me while writing a review and that is the fact that two bands in a row get almost identical critique. Prior to the festival I was told that whatever I do I just have to go and see "The Chariot" so, voila, I did just that. Like with "Norma Jean", I was so pumped up with words regarding their live performances, since I only heard praises, but after the show I had no idea what to write in my booklet due to the fact that the set didn't leave any sort of impression on me. But hey, maybe that is a good thing sometimes? The sound was really fast and powerful with really peculiar melodies. Additionally in correlation with the previous band, "The Chariot" radiated with energy and they could have done a lot more, but the crowd just didn't respond properly and I think that the lack of a response really reflected on the band. Nevertheless, they provided a lot of crazy movement on the small stage, which I failed to completely see since I was standing at the left side of the entrance, so my vision was somewhat flawed. And again similarly to "Norma Jean", I hope to see them live on a gig which they are headlining, so maybe one day I get my chance.

Now was the time for a band that is probably one of the most unexpected names to get an invitation to the festival. "Funeral For A Friend", the famous post hardcore hailing from Wales, might have seemed to be completely out of place on this event, but they managed to put on a fantastic performance and end up being one of the most positive bands of the entire "Ieperfest". Ages ago I used to listen to them and, although I stopped somewhere along the way, they succeeded to bring back some truly nice memories. Aside of the fact that they sounded excellent, it was just their great attitude and energy that made me love their set. The band simply came on stage and had fun, enjoying every second of it, making it almost impossible for people around not to like them. They addressed the audience on numerous occasions, excusing themselves and saying that they know they aren't really hardcore, which I found  quite friendly in a way and, if I may say so, cute. That entire "we are all different, let's just have a fun time" attitude definitely crowned their set and it made me enjoy every second of it and with a huge smile on my face. I really haven't listened to the band in a long long while, so I forgot most of their song names and whatnot, but I do remember that they played "Bullet Theory" and "Roses For The Dead". I took a listen to them at home while writing this review and I have to say that I am extremely happy that I had the pleasure to see them live. Maybe I'm not a real fan or whatever, you might not be one as well, but I definitely recommend anyone to go to their show, you will go home full of energy.

The closing act of the day was the legendary hardcore band from New York, "Agnostic Front". No matter how well known and famous, I didn't really enjoy them live and I ended up walking away after a few songs. I have no idea what was going on, but their sound seemed extremely weak and somehow "empty" for a five-piece. I could barely notice any sort of melody, or anything else for that matter, and even the vocalist was weirdly heard. At first I thought that it was just the place where I was standing, but the sound remained obscure even when I moved through and out of the stage area. Not a really glorious end of the day, but I knew that the next one will be insane.