Crescendo Festival France 17-19/08

 

 

 

I couldn’t make it for the first festival day and arrived on Friday. Rapid train from Paris, regional train from Angouleme to Royan then Bus and then bicycle. Saint Palais sur Mer is a small town on the Atlantic coast on the mouth of the Gironde River. Once on the festival site towards 5PM I am struck by the pure beauty of this site right on the coast. The stage opens to the sea and the whole festival ground goes slightly down towards the sea. The stage is surrounded in a half-moon by vendor and food stands, especially effective at night, when the whole venue is lit by small lights. Three Prog fanzines are present Big Bang, Coid 9? (Phonetique transcript of ‘What’s New?’ in French and Highlands, a couple of CD retailers, a nongovernmental organisation Sea Shepherd (BTW supported by French Metallers Gojira) and some food stands run by volunteers. A big thump’s up in general for the organisation and the dedication of the volunteers, and a special mention to the woman who made the crêpes for three days from 5PM to midnight nearly without a break!!! Respect…

Time to chat with a couple of Proggers and the first concert of the day started under a hot august sun (the first bands had the disadvantage of playing with a blazing august sun in the eyes, something to arrange for the next editions IMO) The Stick & Drum duo, a French- Mexican duo opened the three days of the festival and even so for sure an economic solution for a free festival with a limited budget, this was not the best choice IMO. A more or less free form fusion with two gifted musicians, but no substantial compositions and a rather low end sound. Due also to the heat only a couple of Proggers were close to the scene while most like myself took profit from the stands and the seaside. Second band at 6PM, my mayor discovery of the festival. Gungfly, a project of Beardfish mastermind Rikard Sjöblom, where he switches from keys to guitar and delivers song oriented  guitar rock, ranging from Led Zeppelin riffling to Dire Straits finger picking. Great dynamic band which would have deserved a  bigger audience.

Time to try out some sausage and French fries while the third band Finistere is taking the stage. Towards 8PM the sky gets just beautiful and the s whole festival is bathed in a late evening summer sunset! Unfortunately the music doesn’t quite fit the nature standards and the band delivers a rather blend and long set of classic prog imitation. I knew a couple of Finistere tracks and even so the band can rather convince in the studio, on stage the music is just boring.

I took a walk on the seaside, got me a crêpe and a coffee just to be back in time for The Enid. Now, The Enid had brought the most dedicated fan base with them and I had had a chat on the Enid stand earlier in the evening and had bought the remaster of the First record. In the meantime a lot of tourists and townspeople had joined the prog fans and there was a nice crowd waiting for The Enid. Even so I am not a fan of their music I must admit it was a brilliant dynamic concert with great musicianship and atmospheres. (see video clip)

Saturday 19/08

I opened the door just to get some already warm breeze that promised an even hotter day. After some shopping, a short walk on the seaside and some good seafood I spent most of the afternoon reading and swimming. Towards 4PM dark clouds were rising announcing a heat storm and just when the Drum & Stick Duo started their concert a heavy rain poured down which didn’t stayed and after 30 minutes the concert went on. In comparison to the day before I found the music slightly more dynamic, but still nothing special. With some delay the French band The Last Embrace took the stage to deliver some straightforward rock with prog elements disserved by uninteresting compositions and a bad sound balance….

Different atmosphere from the day before with a rainbow after the rain and slightly cooler, but again a beautiful sky when the German band Panzerballett took the stage. Playing a mixture of jazz and metal Panzerballett is a great live band, the interplay of the musicians is marvellous and even so the music is rhythmically highly complex the pure energy was just communicative, helped by the humorous announcements of band leader Jan Zehrfeld and the audience was conquered, my favourite concert of the festival.

Towards the end of the PB concert clouds showed up again and after a short pause Beardfish took the stage and played a great concert that was unfortunately drowned by rain towards the end, but even so it rained now heavily the bigger part of the audience remained and asked for more!

 All the musicians who took part in the festival came then back onstage and Sebastien the organisateur made a nice goodbye speech announcing next year’s edition. Shortly afterwards the rain turned in some heavy storm with thunder, lightning and while the technicians were just about to get down the stage rigs a heavy gale went into the linen roof and the stage structure was so badly shaking that the stage had to be evacuated. I learned the same evening about what had happened in Belgium and fortunately the same thing didn’t happen here as I learned the next morning.

Under the line I had a great time and will definitely come back, mainly for the great atmosphere and even so Crescendo misses some strong musical identity and even so the budget is rather small the choice of Beardfish, Panzerballett, Eclat and The Enid showed that it’s possible to get some excellent bands for a fistful of Euros.

Here are some nice pics from the festival:

http://www.docker.ch/claude/crescendo11/