By Klaas Guchelaar

Last week on Thursday Mattanja Joy Bradley came to Groningen with a new band for a ‘ radio 3FM Serious Talent tour’ and I just had to check that out. Also The New Shining -another 3FM Serious Talent- was to play the second part of the gig.

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I’m starting to get the hang of vacationing. Took me a while, but the pieces are slowly starting to fit together. And so it was a good idea to have short city-trip at the end of May. The chosen destination: Paris!

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I could have sworn I had seen Steve Earle before. However I found no mentioning of him in my concert-database and looking at older concertdates in the Netherlands revealed that it must have been in either 2000 at Take Root or in 2004 with thi Jeruzalem tour. In 2000 I didn’t really visit gigs yet so it’s probably 2004 however I can’t find any photos in my archives. Still pretty sure I saw him though. Anyhow, he was back in the Netherlands last week and I made sure not to miss him this time!

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Time Shift festival is an event that celebrates 100 years of inovation. On May 26 1913 “Le Sacre du Printemps” premiered in Paris. Back then a groundbreaking and shocking performance. Now a collaboration of art and performance institutes from Groningen have organized this festival with the intent to discover what in modern day art and performance can still be renewed.

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I’m a bit behind but working my hardest to catch up. On Pentecost – May 19th- I traveled to Raalte for the annual Ribs & Blues festival. Mainly to see Nick Waterhouse, but as ever the Sunday program of this free festival is brimming with talented blues and bluesy acts. So it’s a joy to visit it every year.

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On the Friday, may 17, the second night of the ‘four days of music’ in Vanslag Antje Duvekot took to the Borger stage.

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Canadian Julie Doiron has a long standing musical career that began in ‘ Eric’s Trip’ when she was eighteen. Her solo career started shortly after that band disbanded. She has also collaborated with fellow Canadians of The Tragically Hip. And last Thursday she opened the four days of music on Vanslag

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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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