We headed over to Gent earlier this month to catch Glimps festival. In it’s third year, Glimps’ lineup is from a large number countries (with, as was pointed out in one of the talks, the view to put the emphasis on non-UK/USA music), in a format that’d be fairly similar to anyone whose ever attended The Great Escape in Brighton; a selection of venues and bars across the city playing host to their own lineup. There’s plenty to see music wise, and with a host of talks earlier on in the day the festival has it all. This year was my first Glimps, and it didn’t disappoint, the city itself was incredible (the fact it seemed to coincide with the Christmas market is certainly nothing to complain about!) and, despite me knowing only one of the bands on the bill in advance, there was certainly a lot of interesting and great new bands.
The Friday night started for me over in Vooruit, with the band Pale Grey, a Belgium based band who were completely new to me. Their songs reminded me in a way of Minus The Bear mixed with a bit of The Dismemberment Plan; brilliant vocals mixed with some electronic influence musicianship. Despite it being the first band I saw, I would go as far as to say Pale Grey were the band of the festival for me. Another highlight of Friday night had to be Swan Bride, Slovakia’s only band on the bill, who demonstrated some fantastic song writing ability and really interacted with their good sized crowd. The Antler King provided me with a nice chance to catch my breath after that, with a great stage show over at the larger of Vooruit’s two live stages, to an ever increasing audience. Sweden’s Yast rounded off my night with a nice chilled out sound next door, the room actually fairly silent, just enjoying and respecting. I think these guys have the chance to be huge. Unfortunately my plan of catching Flying Horseman, a band who had been name dropped by a lot of people I’d spoken to on Friday, was cut short due to the need to sleep – the gigs in Gent go on to a good time of night (and that’s before the afterparties!) but unfortunately having been travelling since 3am it was possibly a bit much for me!
Saturday started strong with the only band on the lineup I already knew, Revere, performing over at Charlatan cafe. This was the first time I’ve seen them with their projections, which really did add a nice atmosphere to the performance, even in the small room in the bar. The band were as tight as could be considering they’d spent quite a few days on tour across Europe. They’re another band who I expect to do big things in the near future. Following on from them over at Vooruit were Austria’s Velojet, who performed a stunning set to the busy bar, with some wonderful vocals and great use of keys, all driven along by some brilliant bass playing. They were followed up by Giantree, who I’d had the privilege of seeing perform a stripped back part acoustic set earlier in the day, who didn’t disappoint, showing that as a full live band there’s a lot more depth to their sound. They seemed at ease on the large stage and at one point had the audience playing percussion for them. A quick journey (okay, that’s a lie, I got lost and ended up wondering towards the outskirts of the city before a kind person pointed me in the right direction, getting me there just as the band were getting on stage) to Studioskoop, the cinema, allowed me to watch Charity Children, a band the program listed as German, but in fact were multi-national, fronted by a New Zealand couple who now live in Berlin with members from around Europe. They were fairly twee, but intensely enjoyable thanks to their interesting use of various instruments, and the obvious dynamic of the front-couple, happily staring into each others eyes during quite a few songs. They were incredibly joyous to watch, and I’d suggest doing so if they’re playing near you any time soon.
The finale for me came from the insanity that is MannGold De Cobre. Getting to Vooruit as the first song started, I struggled to get into the room due to the huge number of people out to see the spectacle, but the huge band on the stage seemingly mid psyche-jam was absolutely mind blowing. I’m pretty sure I just stood still for around 20 minutes, mouth dropped, mind blown. The musical talent of the band, complete with horn section, is insane, and the way the band locked together was quite incredible. If you’re still mourning the loss of the Mars Volta, or are just massively into intricate detail in your music then you simply have to give MannGold De Cobre a go. Stunning. Put it this way, my mind was so blown after this that I overslept my alarm by three hours, missed my train and got to the airport half an hour before my flight took off. If that’s not an endorsement I don’t know what is.
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