Eurosonic 2011

Eurosonic 2011
12/01/2011 – 15/01/2011
Various venues, Groningen

25 years ago the first Eurosonic Festival took place in Groningen. That’s well before those other multi-venue, one-city new band blow-outs like The Camden Crawl, The Great Escape, CMJ, ByLarm and In The City were even twinkles in a promoter’s beady eye. And before even SXSW, which began two years after its Dutch counterpart.

Back in the mid-80s people would have been moaning about how bad Brother Beyond were; this weekend almost everyone present is united in their dislike for Brit-pop revivalists Brother. But the festival is nevertheless something of a celebration, and a two finger salute to critics who wondered how on earth you make an event like this successful in a town no-one knew how to get to – and couldn’t even pronounce when they were asking Dutch state railway employees for directions (incidentally the ‘G’ should sound like you’re hacking up catarrh – if you do it right).

The idea, however, worked, and as we noted, it’s spawned a host of imitators around the world. Part of the reason for the event’s charm is the city itself – like a miniature Amsterdam; it’s picture postcard pretty and chocka with great little live music bars, care-free students zipping around on black bikes and stroopwaffel stands galore. There’s always a fist full of big buzz bands at Eurosonic – 366 days ago The Fly was immediately and passionately taken with Everything Everything. This year the performance you have to struggle to see is James Blake. Mount Kimbie‘s electronic woe is a little more up our street though.

The weekend also sees sets from Yuck, the wonderfully dreamy Summer Camp, MTV Europe-friendly rockers White Lies, grunge revivalists The Joy Formidable, The Crookes, and Tenerife troublemaker El Guincho – whose tribal live set just gets better and better. The Vaccines suffer a sore throat and cancel, while Example goes strangely indie with a live backing band.

Dutch bands use Eurosonic as their one chance in the year to catch the ear of British and American hacks – and two stand out for us. Moss, who sound a bit like Arcade Fire, and even better The Black Atlantic who mould sparse folk soundscapes. But, bands aside, Eurosonic this year is also about celebrating festivals themselves. Naysayers’ hearts sank in 2008 during the credit crunch, but all around Europe these great little gatherings are still pulling in the punters.