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Thursday
THURSDAY
 
Ufomammut – Main Stage
The Italians of Ufomammut had the honour of opening Roadburn 2009 on the main stage. This doomrock band started out playing for a half-filled venue, which gradually changed into a packed room. I’ve seen them once before but I must say that the band can’t impress me as much live as they do on record. Tonight was no exception, the hippie jams brought with utterly low frequencies was okay to start the day with, yet again it missed the power to really impress. In my opinion this is mainly caused by the drummer who needs to do some weightlifting in order to really pack a punch. Other than that, the nice drony guitar and bass riffs and the psychedelic vocals did sound quite alright, making the performance still somewhat enjoyable. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/ufomammut
 
Gomer Pyle – Green Room
First band in the Green Room on the Thursday was no other then the new Dutch stoner sensation Gomer Pyle. I heard good things about this band, but up until now I hadn’t had the chance to witness them live. Every year the Dutch bands are scarcely present in the line-up, but Gomer Pyle is one of the few Dutch prides with a slot on the Roadburn bill. When we walked in the Green Room, we were absolutely knocked over by the sheer mammoth volume this band produced. It was loud! This was a real pleasant surprise in the early afternoon, great songs, energetic band and a crystal clear, heavy and loud sound. Musically this band plays catchy, groovy stoner/grunge. A bit like a bastard son version of Kyuss meets Foo Fighters meets Dozer, but also a real heavy Soundgarden comes to mind a couple of times. This is a real promising band that can go far, because their music is heavy, but yet mainstream enough to appeal to a lot of people. Like to see them again, great performance! (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/gomerpyletheband
 
Rose Kemp - Batcave
Rose Kemp is a daughter of a pretty famous Scottish folk, singer-songwriter, so she inherited her musical-genes of her dad! Rose creates her own unique style of music though. It’s a perfect mix between real heavy doom riffs, folk and singer-songwriter stuff, accompanied by her unique vocals. In early 2009, she released a truly masterpiece called Unholy Majesty that absolutely floored me! I was anxious to see her perform and to check out her fellow musicians. The Batcave was absolutely packed with people that where stoked to check her out. Rose entered the stage dressed up as some kind of Wicca-witch/druid in a huge black cape. After the first chord was played, the mood was set! Heavy, eerie, dark and doomy singer-songwriter stuff, with loads of atmosphere. The dark vibe comes across perfectly on the LP, live it sometimes lacked the intense dark vibe. You’ll forget that in an instance though, because when you look at her play, you will get scared! She plays with so much passion and energy, that it looks like she is possessed by some kind of demon. The range in her voice is also amazing. She growls, sings real high-pitched, but overall she sings perfectly crystal-clear. Goose bumps all over! Luckily she played a lot of songs from the Unholy Majesty album, but also songs from her first LP. Awesome to see, that a trio like this can produce such a heavy, doomy atmospheric music. All hail the Wicca-witch of doom! My first personal highlight of the festival. (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/rosekemp
 
Baroness – Main Stage
The band I was looking forward to the most, was already the second band on the main stage on RB’s first day (Which had a killer line-up). Baroness is considered a diet version of Mastodon by some, a good act that can become a great band by others. Songs like ‘Rays On Pinion’ work really well in this setting. Baroness proved they deserved a stage like this and played a great set, with ‘Wanderlust’ as an early highlight. Let’s hope there sophomore album will be even better and that they can maintain their live qualities! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/yourbaroness
 
Minsk – Green Room
Relapse Records is always a good quality indicator for bands, so although I hadn’t ever checked out Minsk’s 2007 release The Ritual Fires of Abandonment, I was obliged to go to the green room. Still totally unaware of the amount of dBs this band produces. With the help of thick layers of synthesizers they created massive walls of sound, best described as a modern take on doom metal. This American band, so not hailing from the capitol of the East-European country Belarus after which they are named, made every little cell in our bodies tremble as if they held ice cubes to their nipples. That is if cells could have nipples of course. Minsk has the ability to create it’s own atmosphere, building slowly up towards massive climaxes where the regular instruments mix perfectly with the electronics. (Sledgehammer Messiah)
www.myspace.com/minsk
 
Orange Goblin – Main Stage
Just recovered from the fantastic performance by Baroness, Orange Goblin started rockin’ tha house like it ain’t no thang! If you’ve seen this band live, you’ll know the energy that gets blasted into the room. Personally I like watching this band in a smaller venue than the 013 main hall. Nevertheless, the show was great and the crowd loved it. OG is a good change of pace on a festival like Roadburn. The show was good, sound was good and the crowd was happy! (LondonCustoms)
www.myspace.com/theorangegoblin

ZU – Green Room
All dressed up in evil Nijntje shirts, ZU took over the stage to make everybody’s jaw drop. I had seen this Italian band, who have worked with greats like Patton and Dalek, once before in this venue. This time they fortunately didn’t play in the little Bat Cave, but in the Green Room where the sound is often really excellent. It made this trio, operating on drums, bass and baritone sax, show their full potential. The bass player knows how to create the weirdest sounds and the baritone sax is lower than you’ll ever hear. Think of fucked up jazz rhythms with often the intensity of a rhythmical metal band like Meshuggah and making noises in all different ways. This is something you’ll have to experience live, but they also finally succeeded to catch a bit of the live feeling on record: Carboniferous, check that shit out! (Sledgehammer Messiah)
www.myspace.com/zuband 
 
Wolves In The Throne Room – Green Room
Just like last year, the experimental black metal band Wolves In The Throne Room came to deliver some high quality spaced out brutality. Not as loud as last year, but a bit tighter in play though. Relentless blastbeats bashed into the audience, accompanied by spacey black metal riffs and haunting screams. If you wouldn’t know any better you’d think that this band was at the wrong festival, but a closer listen reveals that their slot at Roadburn 2009 is a justified one. The way these guys create a soundscape with fast music is almost unprecedented, and especially live they manage to really convey their music onto the spectators. See it to believe it. Definitely one of the more interesting bands at this festival for me. (DemonDust)
www.myspace.com/wolvesinthethroneroom 
 
Motorpsycho – Main Stage
Ok, so I'm a huge Motorpsycho-fan and there's no such thing as bad Motorpsycho show, but when they got booked for Roadburn I was really wondering what kind of set they would play. Last year's 2.5 hour set in Tivoli was all over the place and really song-oriented but I could imagine them going balls-out on the jamming part for Roadburn purposes.
And that's what they pretty much did. The first half hour of the show was either new material sounding great!) or stuff I didn't know (which would be weird) and then the spaceship lifted off. I think I heard ‘Greener’, ‘Like Always’, the whole last album (4 songs, 1 hour) and some really old stuff like ‘Plan #1’ from Demon Box and more that I couldn't really place (blame it on the beer) but in between that, it was Motorpsycho at its best. Just three guys playing and spacing their asses off. And when after 2.5 hours they finished their encore with ‘Vortex Surfer’ it was the icing on the cake really, only for them to come back a second time... Bringing an extra guitar-friend on stage (can't recall who it was) it was time for the final jam which lasted over 20 minutes... Needles to say, after almost 3 hours of Motorpsycho I already had my highlight of the festival on the first day. I even managed to tell Bent (the bass-player) that somewhere on Saturday-night, but I don't know if I looked to drunk too be taken seriously. (Ce-El-Wan)
www.myspace.com/motorpsychopage  
 
The Devil’s Blood – Green Room
Last year it was the year of Dutch cult-rockers The Devil’s Blood. They rapidly made a name in the underground scene with the help of a lot of famous musicians like Fenriz of Darkthrone, Watain, etc. A lot of people wanted to check out this band and see what the fuzz is all about! I have this band high on my priority-list, because I witnessed several “rituals” off them, which were absolutely brilliant! Off course I was present again in the Green Room, which they headlined on the first day. I wasn’t the only one that wanted to check out this band, because the people were even standing outside the Green Room to capture a glimpse of this band. Their previous brilliant “rituals”, got me totally excited to witness them again, but I got really disappointed today. The fact that a lot of the band members had partied the whole day and drank a lot of beer, was probably the biggest reason, they were totally off today. The performance was totally sloppy and not tight at all! One of their guitar-players was totally off and played several songs wrong. Also their unique authentic vibe didn’t come across as it should have. Overall this wasn’t the show I expected to see, better luck next time, because this band is for sure one of the best bands around in our country! Disappointing end of the first day, but luckily with enough highlights to brighten my day. (RoyBalowski)
www.myspace.com/thedevilsblood

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Details Written on Wednesday May 13th, 2009
Writer @DemonDust

Tags: #Roadburn Festival 2009