Crescendo Festival France 15-17/08/13

I arrived only on Friday and missed the first festival day. From all comments I’ve heard, the Norwegian prog metalers Leprous were the outstanding band of the first day.

So Yes, I was really happy to arrive on the seaside, check in the B&B, rent a bike and off to the festival ground. The first band Il Tempio Delle Clessidre was scheduled for 5h30 PM, not an easy slot, because the august sun burns hot and the stage is oriented towards the sun at this time of the day. Time to look around, met a couple of usual suspects and look at the merch stands. This year’s highlight the stand from Black Widow, the Italian label which brought lots of vinyls , CD’s and something I haven’t seen before, prints of gatefold record covers on wood, in a slightly smaller scale, but beautifully executed.

Finally Il Tempio Delle Clessidre started only at 6, which was already a bit “cooler” so to speak. Still most spectators tried to remain in the shadow. Most of the bands at this festival have a 90 minutes slot, which is good, but for some bands a bit too long. IMO Il Tempio.. would have been better off with a shorter set. I didn’t know their music, but heard a lot of good things and was quite curious to hear & see them. Classic Italian Prog, with great vocals by their new singer Francesco Ciapica (and not as announced Stefano "Lupo" Galifi) and good compositions, but at least this show didn’t convinced me. The band was not very tight and maybe because they presented their brand new record the whole set was a too undynamic. I would have preferred a more compact one hour set, otherwise a good start for the second festival day.

Time for a beer and discussions at the merch and band stands and then at 8pm the second show, the Norwegian band Arabs In Aspic (BTW label mates of Il Tempio.. on Black Widow). Same reminiscence of the 70’s, but another type of vibe and music. When I discussed with a German prog fan, he praised the Leprous set the night before, but he complained a bit about their “professional” attitude.

I would say the same for Arabs In Aspic, but in a positive way, while Il Tempio…pass more as enlightened amateurs, Arabs IA delivered a 90 minute high power energic set without a flaw and without any dead time. The music a mixture of Psy, 70’s hard rock and stoner with some prog elements, with a special mention for their look! The essence of a good rock concert with lots of balls, my highlight of the evening.

Beautiful scenery after the show with the sun going down on the Atlantic Ocean. Time to get a hotdog and some French fries, another beer and back for the last concert, Hungarian powerJazzRockers, Special Providence. It’s the second time they play at the Crescendo Festival and apparently the artistic director of the festival likes them a lot….contrary to me. I knew them already and for my personal taste their reputation is overrated. On the same grounds I prefer the German band Panzerballett or the French Mörglbl Trio, just to name a few. I have got off early in the morning and for one being quite tired and two I wasn’t really enjoying the show I took my bike and left early.

Saturday morning announced a really hot day and I took a morning ride on the bike through the pine woods along the seaside. I love this area and recommend this and the festival to everybody. Lunch, followed by a good nap and off to the festival ground.

With four bands on the program, the first set started like foreseen at 5pm. The French band Hollow child played a mix of grunge and space; the first song reminded me Grobschnitt’s Solar Music with Kurt Kobain’s vocals on top. Good set and for beginners really tight!

During the change of the set, French chapman stick player Pascal Gutman, played a non-programmed solo surprise set. I liked this actually better then the official concert he’d given last year.

It was really hot and quite hard to stay in front of the stage. I found some shadow in front of the sound desk and at 6PM the Dutch Franck Carducci & band came on stage and greeted the audience in flawless French. Maybe the band with best audience contact, seen that Franck Carducci spoke with the audience and provoked some enforced audience participation. Music wise a mix of neoprog (Franck Carducci ‘s voice is quite similar to Pendragon’s Nick Barrett) and some AOR 70’s rock, not exactly my cup of tea, but the sound was great, the band very tight and  Franck Carducci dressed in a madhatter costume with Gabriel/Fish make-up and a Michael Rutherford double neck (bass & 12 string) gave a nice visual extra. The band got a cheering applause at the end of the regular set and came back to play two covers : Back In NYC by Genesis and School by Supertramp and then a nice surprise : Ange singer Francis Descamps came on stage and the band played an Ange song and it was a perfect and touching ending for a great show.

Not easy to play after such a show. At 8PM the Japanese band KBB entered the stage and front man   Akihisa Tsuboy greeted and read a text in French, a nice gesture and right from the start the good humor of the band spread from the stage to the audience and then started an amazing set. The music of KBB (Instrumental Jazz Rock) is sophisticated and easy to access at the same time with nice Celtic inspired melodies and great rhythm work and the four musicians play together in perfect harmony. It’s rare to see musicians play such a complicated music and make it look so natural and easy. For nearly the whole show you saw all four, but especially Akihisa with a big smile on the face, obviously enjoying playing music for the audience, an outstanding concert and for me the festival highlight!

Now, this was near impossible to do better and unfortunately it was not to be.

I didn’t knew the Pär Lindh Project, a classic Prog Trio (Keys, bass, drums and occasional singer) led by classical trained organ player Pär Lindh. The sound inspired by ELP, power Prog with lots of classic citations and/ or neo classic imitations. Good musicianship, but under-reheased for such a complicated music and especially the singer had some major problem. More and more spectators left the space in front of the stage, leaving only a 100 for the polite encore.

Under the line : as for the last years Crescendo is a great festival with a special mention for all the voluntaries who work there to make it happen and with a special-special mention for the two girls who work at the Crepe stand and make stoically delicious crepe after crepe for 3 days.

 I’ll be back next year.