The 35th edition of Rock Wechter 2009 (Belgian ‘rock’ festival) is over. It was good, great weather and great organization, but I heard often the remark that the line-up was a bit poor this year.
Simplify
My two highlights of Rock Werchter were Rodrigo y Gabriela and Seasick Steve. Rodrigo y Gabriela did it with only two guitars and no singing; Seasick Steve with a 3-string ‘piece of shit’, some other weird instruments and actually great singing. It’s surprising that such bands, with quite a simple setup and show, can do such great things and entertain lots of people.
Renew
Some bands performed better than previous editions. Placebo for example was, in my opinion, much better than few years ago. Everyone says the change of drummer did good, well, indeed! Same goes for The Killers: they gave a good show and was for me more enjoyable. Kaiser Chiefs, 4th time in a row on the main stage, were still great! Ricky lost weight, and their new songs on the newest album are much harder (I dubbed the festival Rock Kaiser Chiefs). Change is good from time to time.
Headliners
Thursday: Oasis.. booooring.
Friday: Coldplay was of course fantastic! You should see them live if you can!
Saturday: Kings of Leon, and I had no idea they had so much hits! Not much of a show, but it was indeed a great moment!
On Sunday Metallica finished, and I must say that they sounded better than 2 years ago though we didn’t watch until the end.
Other stuff I liked
Dave Matthews Band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nine Inch Nails (farewell?), Elbow, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and.. well, I missed the Eagles of Death Metal..
Till next year!