By Klaas Guchelaar

I spend a lot of concert-visiting time in Vera. After that the Oosterpoort theater and Simplon round up my top 3 of locations. All in Groningen. But in my twelve years of concert-visiting I have never been to Viadukt and that’s a crying shame. So it’s a good thing that Kendler was to have their EP presentation in Viadukt. A kick-ass band so I couldn’t go wrong there and with the added bonus of discovering the Mountainbirds.

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Last week Dame Flux: the artist formerly known as Flux (and Irene Wiersma if you really get to know her) together with musical partner Corneel Canters presented her latest album and where else then Vera to have the album-release? The crowd was fittingly welcomed with champagne as the album is called… ‘ Champagne’.

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On May 5th we celebrate freedom in the Netherlands, it was the day the Second World War ended for the Netherlands in 1945. There are festivals all over the country with a bunch of mayor bands and a lot of local bands. This year was my first visit to the festival in Groningen.

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Kendler will present their brand new EP on May 11 in Viadukt in Groningen, but last Friday they played a full-band gig in Vanslag and that was a great opportunity to see the band after having seen frontman Gijs on his own at my livingroom concert recently.

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Last Friday I was back in Borger again, this time for a gig in the Roots on the Road series. They had a great band on with Ha Ha Tonka and opened with a set by New York based Christopher Paul Stelling.

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A day after my livingroom concert Chris took his I Took Your Name project to the Vanslag podium in Borger. A great chance to see him play his songs on electric guitars and a good excuse to visit that fantastic stage again.

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Late 2012 a plan was hatched that I hadn’t thought possible a short while earlier. A livingroom concert in my very own livingroom. The months, weeks leading up to this very moment were filled with a different anxiety. Having the event combined with Record Store Day was a nice coincidence.

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Last Saturday was of course Record Store Day as any music lover will know. A great day to celebrate the independent music stores. Not only by buying lots and lots of music but also for watching a lot of great bands playing instore sets.

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Meadowlake is a young band from Groningen, but you wouldn’t guess they’ve been playing for about a year when you hear them.

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After two intense concerts on Thursday and Friday (with lots of photos to edit) I was really tired and very nearly skipped the gig in Simplon on Saturday, but curiosity won me over. I just had to see Rachel Sermanni after all the positive things I heard about her. And I’m very happy I did. [Read more →]

Sofie Letitre brought her full band to a gorgeous new stage in a church in Borger. A huge room with beautiful styled windows, a chandelier and a big church organ set the scene for a superb gig. [Read more →]

Torre Florim and Roos Rebergen came to Groningen to present their second album to a wildly enthusiastic Vera crowd on Thursday evening.

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I decided to give Ben Caplan a try in Vera last night. What I’d seen on Youtube sounded promising and the word of mouth buzz was good too, so it seemed a very good idea to end the week like that. I wasn’t really expecting the venue to be as crowded as it turned out to be.

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Wende perfored in Vera last week as part of her clubtour for the upcoming album The Last Resistance. It has veen a while since I last saw Wende as she has taken some time for the new album. Written in Berlin coupled with strongly posed portraits in black&white I couldn’t help but think of “Heroes” album of David Bowie, from David’s Berlin period. For the current clubtour Wende is accompanied not by a whole band, nor an orchestra but a very tight unit of only two men on guitar, bass and electronica.

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Eindelijk is het dan zover, na een aantal huiskamerconcerten in het Groningse te hebben bezocht mag ik nu dan toch met gepaste trots mijn eerste zelf georganiseerde huiskamerconcert aankondigen. Op 20 april spelen er maar liefst twee Groningse acts in mijn woonkamer en ik hoop jullie hier te mogen verwelkomen. Met wat passen en meten moeten we toch zeker plek kunnen maken voor 25 bezoekers (vol=vol!).

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