Present Perfect

Day 2 kicked off with a great concert by De Portables, a band from Gent. A few of the members used to work at the same radio station as I did at the university, and the bass player is our favourite rock chick's boyfriend. They kicked off a rocking cover of Michael Sambello's "Maniac" with some bad news: Willeke wasn't there because she was in the hospital ! On the very day that her favourite singer - which I share with her - was going to close the festival... Ran into Geert, my technician from the days at the radio. He had been struck by a mysterious disease this year, but he seems to be on the rebound now and I'm sure a good healthy day of rock will have cured him even more ! Good to see him back.

Ran into lots of people I knew today, which was great. I hadn't expected to see so many.

By this time Jeroen and Annelies had also arrived, great to see them back !

Tried to avoid the Bloodhound Gang but failed because they were rescheduled, argh !
Enjoyed Elbow thoroughly, though I'd really like to see them play a complete show one day. Melissa Auf Der Maur was as cute as ever - even though these days everyone seems to agree with her being cute so that takes away most of the fun - but the music still sucked. Streets were good, better than expected. Bloc Party was a big surprise, fast and frenetic. Enjoyed half of Mark Lanegan then made the mistake to go see Blonde Redhead. And then it was time to see our national pride dEUS make their return to the stage. Bit of a letdown though - Tom couldn't say anything interesting between songs, didn't seem to really realize where he was, and it didn't seem like the band members liked each other very much. Playing was sloppy, mix was bad, ... Sigh. Let's just hope the new album is any good.

And after that, a few hours waiting for my reason for coming - The Twilight Singers. Rocking set, though maybe a bit too similar to the last time. Their cover of Bjork's Hyperballad (easily my favourite song by her) was great. And, thank heavens, Willeke had made it to the festival in time to see them, even though the doctor had forbidden here to come. You go girl !

Day 2 kicked off with a great concert by De Portables, a band from Gent. A few of the members used to work at the same radio station as I...