This year, my "summer festival season" started with TW Classic, which can be seen as the precursor of Rock Werchter, which takes place in the same area one week later. On the agenda this year: Gabriel Rios, Brian Wilson, Novastar, Arno, Duran Duran, and Lenny Kravitz. As you can see, a mixture of Belgian and foreign bands.
We arrived too late in Werchter to see Gabriel Rios, but since he is playing at almost all Belgian festivals this year, and he is not one of my favorites, I did not really mind. The concert of Brian Wilson, ex-member of the Beach Boys, was pure nostalgia. One noticeable thing of this performance was the amount of people on stage: a mixture of young and older people. Nice to see! Perhaps, the music they brought was not the kind of music you would expect at a festival, but it was a great warm-up for the rest of the day. Besides other great songs they, of course, played "good vibrations".
Later on, Novastar with front man Joost Zweegers, one of my favorite bands, was performing. This band is really loved. On national level (Belgium), it has been rewarded with three awards earlier this year: Best singer for Joost Zweegers, Best band for Novastar, and Best CD for "another lonely soul". This band is really great live! They always have a great time on stage, and this can be felt in the audience as well. They played a mixture of old and recent songs which was a good choice: e.g. "caramia", "the best is yet to come", "never back down", etc.
The next artiste was the very well-known (although in Belgium) Arno. With his raucous voice, he sings bilingual songs (French and English). Arno does not only play music when on stage: he also makes jokes now and then, and tries to get contact with his audience, in which he always succeeds. Famous songs of this great musician are: "oh la la la", "ratata", "les filles du bord de mer", "putain putain", etc.
The last group but one of the day was Duran Duran. For me (and some of my friends), this was a big disappointment. I really did not enjoyed this concert. I expected more of it I guess. Everybody was waiting for "the reflex" but unfortunately they did not play it, even though the audience was asking for it…
Last but not least was Lenny Kravitz, who I really love (remember my column on Rock Werchter 2004?). It was really great to see him again (it was my third time). He played at least one song of every CD he ever gave out: e.g. "minister of rock 'n roll", "fields of joy", "stand by my woman", "let love rule", … and of course "are you gonna go my way". As usual, there was a terrific light show, and his outfit was really great as well. It was great to see him back! I'm sure I will enjoy the memory of this festival for a long time!
