As I sit down to write this week’s Slowpoke, I can only assume it will be a brief one because I was simply not organised enough to prepare something for this edition pre-Roadburn. And in the post-Roadburn haze, I am not sure that I have the capacity to articulate everything I would want to express about what I experienced last weekend.
My voice is croaky, my brain is not quite in gear, and my body is still feeling particularly creaky. But my heart is full and I feel very proud of what we achieved at this year’s festival. Although Roadburn has been the focus of the last couple of Slowpokes - I have been a little hesitant to write too much about it since I started this newsletter. Whilst I have a lot of personal feelings entwined with the work I do at Roadburn, it is most definitely a team effort. Presenting Roadburn only through my eyes doesn’t really do justice to the number of people who put effort, care and attention into making the festival as magical as it turns out to be.
In the weeks leading up to Roadburn, I feel like I can’t think of another band or artist that could play the following year. My brain becomes consumed with this year’s edition, to the point that pretty much all that exists is the 100 or so bands that will turn up in Tilburg in the days ahead. It usually takes a few weeks for the outside world to filter back in and ideas to start flowing, but already that is happening and the future feels exciting.
A lot of people say thank you to us for Roadburn, which is of course lovely. But I feel like the thanks should be going the other way most of the time. Obviously to the people who buy a ticket and come along for the ride, but most definitely to the artists who commit to doing something special, ambitious or vulnerable with their art at Roadburn. It is those things that elevate the Roadburn experience above and beyond other shows.
One of the greatest joys I get to experience during the days of Roadburn is getting to talk to artists about the music they make. It’s part of the reason that I love putting together the side programme so much - enabling those kinds of conversations to be opened up to include an audience. But still the private ‘thank yous’ offered for the release, relief and pleasure, the exhilaration, the freedom, the understanding, the palpable sense of community, explanations of spiritual exorcisms, the recommendations for new music, the conversations about new artistic pursuits - all of those things mean the world to me.
To loop back round to the must-see shows I recommended a few weeks ago - I failed to watch each and every band I listed, I’m sorry to say. But I am happy to report that I love Angry Blackmen in person as much as I hoped I would; they’re a pair of sweethearts currently experiencing Europe for the first time. They have recently discovered the exhilarating (yet often problematic) world of black metal, so I am crafting a playlist for them to assist them on this part of their musical journey. Couch Slut lived up to and surpassed my expectations. I still promise that I will write about them more thoroughly in the coming weeks, but for now you really should check out You Could Do It Tonight.
If you’ve never been to Roadburn and have no interest in what I am waffling on about then I promise that next week will be a Roadburn-free zone. For now, I shall linger a little longer in this afterglow.
Thank you for being here.
~Becky
❤️❤️❤️