Rockfreaks.net

author PP date 04/07/23

Orange Feeling is such a curious phrase to describe. It's the atmosphere and the sunny, wine-carton, or beer-fueled fuzzy feeling inside that this place is unique, like no other festival out there, where you are part of a community that still wears its hippy origins on its sleeve. It's a coalesce of weird experiences that can only be understood by having attended the festival in the past. It's speedo-wearing dudes roaming around the festival site, a toy horse as a flag replacement to identify your location within a crowd, body shots from a navel filled with lukewarm rosé wine, or a flag of Queen Margrethe II. On paper, they are disconnected from each other. At Roskilde Festival, they are part of the Orange Feeling that creates memories, much akin to those when you are singing your hearts out or crying to your favorite Blur songs together with 60.000 others in front of the largest stages in the entire world.

Thus the exploration of Roskilde Festival continues on our magazine's part, albeit it's these days more for the atmosphere than a wealth of relevant bands or musical experiences to look out for. Sure, there were a multitude of primarily fantastic performances, but the breadth is just not there anymore, nor it has been for the better part of the last five to ten years.

Indeed - looking through the lineup this year it is truly few and far between solid names when it comes to rock and metal, and all related subgenres. Artists from the punk rock realm and hardcore continue to be shunned, save for the ultra-experimental types (Soul Glo is an amazing booking, for instance) that typically don't frequent other posters of genre festivals across Europe.

Yet watching Queens Of The Stone Age filling up most of the arena grounds means there is an audience. Blur's gracious handling of Orange Stage was one of the best performances on that scene in years. It certainly does appear there's a crowd for this type of music, so why not invest a little more into booking more artists in these genres? The whole experimental and forward-thinking argument can be thrown out the window with crap like Tobias Rahim, Kesi, Busta Rhymes, and Kendrick Lamar topping the bill this year. None of them were able to conjure that Orange Feeling on Orange Stage in the same fashion as Blur did, for instance.

Oh, and what the hell is up with the "punk" bands like Special Interest, et al on the lineup? So many artists are tagged as punk in the official program when you explore it via the app, yet have virtually nothing to do with the genre. They are hipster, pretentious, and often pompous experimental groups that are plain weird and appeal to a non-existent audience based on the empty stages they were performing on. Would it really hurt to book even a dozen regular punk and hardcore bands amongst the 160+ artists?

The festival area experienced arguably the largest changes last year after having been on a break due to Covid-19 for the previous couple of years. New stages like EOS have replaced the old Pavilion area as an open-air stage instead, giving a new look to the far west corner of the festival and a more lively feel next to the industrial containers of Apollo. As a result, the area feels more integrated into the festival rather than a sideshow or a walkthrough as it did last year.

Old classics and new encounters

Elsewhere, you have classics like the Gringo's Bar area with its sandy surroundings, or the BusBus and Ski Burger restaurants. Gutter Island's namesake bar has moved next to another new stage, Gaia, which replaces Mantra from previous years. It looks a bit like Pavilion (it might even be the same tent) but is more centrally located. It's surrounded by the 1664 bar (a newer staple), and as a brand new addition, a Koskenkorva-themed bar (which warms my Finnish heart).

Food & Drinks - in stark contrast with Copenhell

After having experienced the profit maximization exercise that was this year's Copenhell, Roskilde Festival all of a sudden feels strikingly cheap in comparison. The beers are priced at 50 DKK each, but the difference maker is the 0.4L cocktails for 70-75 DKK or the food that (outside the Food Court specialties) was mostly attainable for under 100 DKK no matter what you purchased. If you're on a budget, the classic Spaghetti stand has been here for 40 years and charges 60 DKK for a Bolognese that's double the size of anything you could buy at Copenhell. You could save even more money if you went for a Dahl priced at 50 DKK a portion. The curry at 75 DKK, the 'rabbit bowl' for 85 DKK… the options for cheap food were almost endless at this year's festival.

Sure, you could splash out at the Uformel burger (available only in the media village - sorry) or a culinary experiment at the food court, but at least you had the option to go cheap.

That said, the food queues are still ridiculous if you want to eat at a reasonable time (say between 17:00 and 21:00). Expect at least 40 minutes of wait for almost anything on offer, and you can forget about the food court lines that appeared even longer. Roskilde simply needs more food booths spread out across a larger area of the festival site, period.

Camping - it keeps changing

The camping area continues to adjust its climate footprint: an even larger portion of the available grounds was now dedicated to clean, silent, or otherwise pre-booked spots where the focus was to leave no trace (or at least, very little behind) when you leave the festival. And those parties, beer bowling, and other activities out there? Still, the best party in the world if your liver can handle being at the festival for eight days in a row.

Gloria - something needs to change

Gloria continues to be the one stage at the festival that just does not work no matter which way you look at it. First of all, there's a maximum capacity, after which you cannot get in unless someone comes out. Or back, if you need to go to the toilet, to buy a drink, or just to get away from the maddening heat (and often the terrible smell) inside the venue. Anything remotely popular here, and you're basically fucked. Not to even mention it looks and feels like a freaking vampire cave. It needs to change (or be burned down).

Orange Stage - the pits are open!

Orange Stage has probably been the most refreshing change this year. And no, it's not the classic Alien fucking cow that has disappeared - that staple of Roskilde continues to be there for any concert worth watching, it seems. It's the fact that in the past, almost one-third of the area was blocked by their enormous double pit structure: left and right pits at the front, followed by an additional two large pits right behind them. The crowd control barriers are still there between the main crowd and the back pits, but they are now fully open from both sides, meaning you can traverse through, and do not need to queue before the concert. It opens up so much more space and a possibility to get a much better view rather than be stuck staring at the video screens all concert long, or alternatively, at miniature-sized figures somewhere over a hundred meters away (or so it felt, at least). Kudos for this change.

Arena Stage - the area is now complete

The surroundings next to Arena on the east side add so much more flavor to the festival site. There's a multitude of bars and food available here, plus many more trees (or maybe I just never noticed them in the past?) to make the area an awesome area to hang out in even when there isn't a concert happening on stage. The Brooklyn bar here is my favorite.

Yours truly has been attending a conference in London, electing to leave early to catch a flight landing at 21:55 at Copenhagen airport. Armed with a wristband that I picked up already on Sunday, I rush directly from the airport to the festival site in hopes of making it on time for Queens Of The Stone Age. I'm lucky with a Donkey Republic bike available at the Roskilde Station, so I get to avoid the shuttle bus queue or the direct train to Camping West and can check my bag into the press area to arrive just on time to buy a beer ahead of the Queens Of The Stone Age set at Arena. People are in high spirits and the area is absolutely rammed with people.

Queens Of The Stone Age @ 23:45 on Arena

It's been a long while since I've seen this many people packed into Arena at Roskilde Festival for a rock show. Not only is the tent packed to it its limits, but the bordering regions are also full, suggesting that the 17.000 capacity Arena was nowhere near a big enough stage to accommodate the stoner/alternative rock legends in Queens of The Stone Age. After an initial delay of around ten minutes and a build-up of excitement, the roar of the crowd is back-chilling as the band immediately opens with “No One Knows". The hums echoing at the rafters of the tent are a true reminder that the orange feeling is still possible to induce during rock concerts, something which has been a bit of a concern for the past many years.

Queens Of The Stone Age

The older track “The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret" elicits a huge response as well, suggesting we're in for a ride, even if on stage Josh Homme & co are mostly standing still without much of a production to accompany their set. It's almost as if they want their songs to speak for themselves, as such. Tracks like “My God Is The Sun" and “Carnavoyeur" are enjoyable as well, even if by the time we reach “The Way You Used To Do" the crowd is noticeably more subdued than it was during the rowdy beginning. Here, some Elvis influence solidifies Homme's star-like stage persona, but it is when he breaks down “If I Had A Tale" midway to rant off at the security that he comes to his own: "Look at me! You bald guy over there, look at me when I'm speaking to you! Stop telling the crowd what to do", he says, before continuing to describe how tonight we are live, we are together, we are one. After several rounds of telling off the security and letting them explicitly know that they work for him, they loosen up a little and we see dozens of people on each other's shoulders, a rarity at Roskilde otherwise.

So far the set has been great, save for the vocals which are difficult to decipher as they are echoing a little too much than they should. The crowd doesn't mind, though, as “Paper Machete" gets everyone dancing and moshing even towards the back of the tent, it seems. Then “Make it Wit Chu" features a capella sing-along where ladies are competing against the gentlemen in an alternating chorus during an interlude that seems to arise almost naturally from within the Roskilde audience. The stage has been fairly dimly lit until this point, but then “Emotion Sickness" arrives from the new album and lights up the stage into colourful light pillars for the first time in the set. “Little Sister" gets the crowd rowdy once again, while “I Appear Missing" feels like a deeper cut, or at least not one that people seem to know. The solo towards the end of this track is just pure bliss, though.

Finally, “Go With The Flow" and “A Song For The Dead" finish off the set with crowd-pleasers that underscore why bands like QOTSA are important at the festival: they showcase true artistry, but packaged within memorable melodies and segments that achieve both depth but also a tent-wide sing-along in the process. [8]

A couple of beers only during QOTSA last night means I'm up bright and early, arriving at the festival on time for Eyes despite being in bed sometime past 3 am the previous night. It's cloudy weather tonight, yet very humid, with plenty of room in the lineup allowing for time to explore the festival site this year and planning my musical explorations for the rest of the festival. Anything remotely interesting beyond the obvious choices on the poster? Hmm.

Eyes

Eyes @ 13:30 on Eos

Beatdown hardcore in humid weather during the early afternoon. Now that's a challenge, especially for a band that usually feeds off audience energy when performing live, and now they're faced with a barrier on top of that. The stage features a small video screen with EYES written in orange against a blue background, which occasionally alternates with a picture of an old man where the camera zooms into his eyes from time to time. There are balloons everywhere to symbolize their new album “Congratulations", which is ironic considering how violently aggressive and monstrous their music is otherwise. It's an unrelenting wall of noise with one brutal beatdown after another in the afternoon heat, where the front rows are moshing and the band is swirling around on the stage, engaging in jump kicks and chaotic headbangs throughout. But is it connecting with the audience when there's a barrier like this? Perhaps not exactly like the basement-style underground shows, so it's not quite as violently immersive as this band can be at their best. Yet their Every Time I Die-inspired grooves and riff-driven hardcore pieces incite a circle pit, their tearing expression gets the crowd headbanging, and the many guest vocalists (including Jacob Bredahl) add their own flavor to the songs. “Underperformer" and “Congratulations" are both great, but it is the chaotic hardcore cuts from their new album that work best here. Given the circumstances of this being an early show, Eyes deliver an incredibly solid performance early on Thursday. [8]

Ithaca @ 16:00 on Gaia

UK's metalcore crew Ithaca has a decent amount of buzz going on lately with some even proclaiming their work as some of the best within the genre in many years. Based on today's performance on Gaia, that couldn't be further from the truth. For starters, they are plagued by an extremely poor sound, which makes it difficult to make out any guitar details from the muddled mess. The tent is barely half full, and the vocalist Djamila Boden Azzouz is off-tune and missing notes on almost every clean vocal section she has on offer. It certainly suggests a hefty amount of autotune and other adjustments in recorded output. The messy sound continues for the duration of their set, which lasts merely thirty-two minutes. That's good because the tent has been thinning out as virtually nothing is happening on stage. It's a generic mess that leaves absolutely no impression on the Roskilde Festival audience today. [5]

Soul Glo

Soul Glo @ 18:30 on Gloria

Soul Glo's "Diaspora Problems" is one of the best albums from last year. It's a unique blend of hardcore, gangsta rap, electronics, grindcore, and punk in one crazy concoction of genres. Tonight in the Gloria darkness, they start with vitriolic hardcore and grindcore that sounds like noisy cacophony performed with an ultra-intense, in-your-face delivery. They gradually shift into more genre-bending material with hip-hop-style vocals that are screamed and growled, where the unconventional instrumentation gives their set an extra chaotic vibe. It's an atmosphere of a hardcore show, yet with the ambiance of urban metal - kinda like if Napalm Death was led by Busta Rhymes instead of Barnie. There are old-school punk references that bridge into grindcore in what describes the Roskilde Festival musical profile perfectly: something unique and crazy, eccentric and enigmatic. The crowd roars as they swap instruments and throw their guitars up towards the ceiling, or while they are waved around in a dangerous, circular fashion on stage. We get to hear “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)" as one of the final tracks before the band finishes their intense set which turns out to be one of the best shows at this year's festival. [8½]

Special Interest

Special Interest @ 20:30 on Gloria

"Eclectic punk band will make you dance while the world burns [...] Special Interest offers a refreshing and vital take on how punk music can sound in 2023 " is the headline for Special Interest in Roskilde's app. Count me interested, so I decided to check out the band I'd never even heard of by name before. That was a mistake. The realistic review and description are something totally different: it's DJ-backed music with few guitars and bass, with an industrial vibe. Is it punk? Their soundscape hasn't ever been even near punk. Instead, it's a repulsive, weird sound with a thumping beat like you're in an underground club or something. It's experimental, unusual, and unconventional, but unfortunately, not particularly interesting, which explains why Gloria is virtually empty only thirty minutes after they start their set. Overhyped garbage. [4]

I've spent most of today at work, both to celebrate the promotion of one of my employees and also because there is virtually nothing on the lineup on Friday worth making an early trip for if you're primarily into the rock or metal genres. It appears that Friday is the main day for the pop crowds, though, as the festival site feels jam-packed. The queues for food are enormous, and getting a Donkey bike at Roskilde Festival feels like it is getting more difficult by the day. It's cloudy today with a peak of the sun on occasion, meaning shorts and a T-shirt is still your best bet as it's almost twenty degrees even by 2 am. I end up purchasing a Roskilde classic after a couple of initial beers and cocktails: a carton of wine all for myself, ensuring I'm gonna be in pretty freaking good spirits by the time the clock hits 2 am for the Candy show (who the fuck thought it was a good idea to book a band of their stature so late when the afternoon was basically irrelevant?).

Code Orange @ 20:00 on Avalon

Twisted, brutal, violent hardcore is what Code Orange promises to its listeners. Vocalist Jami Morgan does not disappoint by standing in a commanding stance with arms wide open to split the crowd into one hell of a pit to start the show. Unsurprisingly, a giant circle pit forms, whilst Morgan appears to use his microphone stand as a weapon of sorts, spearing it towards the air and swinging it around in a crazed fashion. The rest of the band follows suit, delivering a high-energy scene show that ensures the pit remains active throughout the set. We're talking about relentless jumping - Jami here shouts "JUMP, JUMP, JUMP… IN THE BACK, JUMP" to egg the crowd on. "At this festival I've seen a bunch of normal people in attendance. But in this tent, you react like fucking animals", he continues, while swinging his microphone chord in huge swirls around the stage. He breaks down to his knees to scream and growl and splits the crowd into yet another enormous wall of death that stretches all the way from the barrier down to the sound booth. Avalon hasn't been this full of energy since Turnstile played the best show in this scene's history last year. It's sublimely aggressive and Morgan displays such a ridiculous amount of energy that the atmosphere is impossible to deny. "I don't give a fuck if you know us, this tent is packed", Morgan continues as he shows self-awareness of Code Orange playing in a non-metal lineup like Roskilde.

Code Orange

Unfortunately, the flow of their set is broken down several times through those songs where Reba Meyers has the lead. Her slower delivery, and softer voice act as a pause button for the crowd where everyone stands mostly still. The show takes a nose dive during these segments, but fortunately, there aren't too many of them on the setlist tonight. [8½]

Blur @ 22:30 on Orange Stage

If you've been missing the orange feeling, you're not alone. Few bands these days can offer those field-wide sing-alongs and special back-chilling feelings that warrant using that term in general. Maybe there's something about the inherent shallowness of the pop and r&b material or the immense amount of filler between the good songs, but none of that is the case here for Blur. Damon Albarn has been here in many constellations over the years, adding to the joke that together with Nick Cave and maybe Muse, he's part of the Roskilde Festival house band that appears every year.

Blur - photo by Christian Hjorth

But tonight feels special. The subtle blur sign hanging from the Orange Stage rafters. The way Albarn casually walks across the stage and addresses us with a charming, almost homely style, yet appears to hold the 60.000+ audience at the palm of his hand on every line he sings. He visits the barrier to sing a song, gives a bouquet to a fan, and in general spends plenty of time down close and intimate with the bands.

At the same time, the music is beautiful 90s-style indie/alternative rock. There's no need for a massive production with fireworks because the performance itself, and the Blur classics, are capturing the crowd's imagination in such a vivid fashion. It feels graceful and solid, down-to-earth and grand simultaneously. The guitarist is going crazy, bending the strings to add some screech to his distortion. Few of the songs have thunderous sing-alongs that no other stage in the world can match. It turns out Albarn's first time sleeping in someone else's tent was right here at Roskilde Festival when he was young.

Blur

There isn't a dull moment despite slower songs being part of the menu as well. Albarn's rock star-like persona feels like he's talking to each one of us individually, as well as to the audience at large. It's a masterful performance that features so many classics you might not even have known were Blur songs. Sure, we get “Coffee & TV" and “Song 2", but amidst those are brilliant tracks like “There's No Other Way", “Country House", “Parklife", and so many others. It's a hypnotizing show that oozes authenticity of the kind that is in stark contrast to pop names like Rihanna or Busta Rhymes that have performed here: none of them can create magic like Blur did tonight. A true orange feeling moment. [9]

Candy @ 02:15 on Gaia

Scheduling beatdown hardcore at 2:15 am on Friday night is just ridiculous considering how few relevant rock/metal names Friday has otherwise had to offer. No wonder then the tent is barely half full as Candy starts their brutal set, but they are committed to a high-energy onslaught nonetheless. The tent erupts in manic circle pits as their vocalist paces the stage in a crazed fashion. He's jumping, two-stepping, and straight-out ravaging on stage, and that energy rubs onto the crowd that essentially becomes one enormous pit for the duration of their set. Instrumentally, the band varies between beatdown and two-steppable rhythms, fueled by plenty of testosterone and down-beat brutality alongside punk rhythms and a hardcore base. "LET'S GO!!! ARE YOU HERE WITH ME", their singer screams, recognizing this is a late-night experience even for the most committed Roskilde warriors. Luckily, no such worries are necessary as the pit is engaged in two-stepping and circle/mosh pits on demand while Candy is virtually laying the stage to waste. Sure, the tent might have been half-empty, but this energy was matched by only Code Orange earlier. Incredible thirty minutes of pure intensity, or as I jotted down in my drunken notes, "fuck me what kind of energy in here". [8]

What an experience last night was. I got super drunk on wine and had a great time with Candy (oh God, why does it have to sound like I was with a stripper), getting home to my Copenhagen bed somewhere around 4:30 am as a result. It's cold and rainy today, and the lineup takes a nose dive once again. This time with a bigger problem: the only interesting bands are early afternoon, and late night leaving a huge gap in between. Sure, there are fewer queues for food and I manage to get a huge bolognese just when it stops raining so I can enjoy it out by the benches nearby. But given the all-in experience last night, and the fact that mostly everyone I know isn't at the festival these days anymore, I decide to only catch a couple of bands early today before heading home, as there's just too long a break with nothing interesting on until Siamese (or Lock Up and Wargasm, the late-night acts today)

Black Country, New Road @ 15:15 on Arena

The multi-instrumental collective Black Country, New Road has been enjoying plenty of buzzing hype lately. That is no doubt due to the authenticity and pure artistry that they offer through their folksy indie rock. They are armed with a multitude of vocalists that alternate from song to song alongside an array of instruments like violin, piano, saxophone, accordion, and much more. Today, they spend an extra twenty minutes adjusting the sound on stage so they get it just right and out comes a sense of warmth through an experimental indie rock lens. There are moments where the saxophone and violin create a playful dynamic, crescendoing into a loud and abrupt ending. But there are also moments where their keyboardist May Kershaw cheekily looks at the camera and winks while playing a soothing piano segment and singing in her beautiful voice. It's a rich, enjoyable soundscape that is simultaneously easygoing, yet its relaxed nature means the Arena crowd is mostly there just to watch, not much else is happening. Decent, but does not grab the audience given its somber and quiet style. [6½]

Militarie Gun

Militarie Gun @ 16:00 on Gaia

The last band of my Roskilde Festival experience anno 2023 will be Militarie Gun. They play a melodic brand of punk with subtle alternative rock backing. It's like listening to punk without the energy of the genre, albeit vocalist Ian Shelton is bouncing up and down across the stage. Sure, “Very High" features layered melodies that get the crowd moving as well, but most of the songs feel rather anonymous at least on first listen. There's an odd song with a hardcore base there, one with a catchy hook there, but overall the group's afternoon performance leaves no particular memory on most listeners. It needs better songs before it will matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, the last three or so are pretty good, but that's not enough to keep you entertained for the duration of their set. [6]

And there it is, our single-man coverage of the experience that is Roskilde Festival. It's a festival that continues to change and, in my opinion, loses a bit of its identity in the process. Only some years ago it was unthinkable to have shallow pop headlining Orange Stage. Nowadays it has become more like the norm than the exception. The vast majority of headliners catered to a crowd that just doesn't know better when it comes to good music. Production-heavy material clouds the inherent weakness of many a headliner at this year's festival, where an artist might have just one or two hits and the rest of it pure filler.

Fortunately, big-stage rock music makes somewhat of a comeback this year with Blur and Queens Of The Stone Age displaying why Marshall amp-fueled music triumphs over the DJ playback and the 30-second song samples of hip-hoppers these days.

Still, you can't help but look at the lineup and compare it to something like the 2010 lineup and wonder, what in the hell happened in just a short decade or so?

We're sixteen years separated from the last monsoon (2007) - and it is still my prediction that once we get a week's worth of rain at the festival and mud everywhere, a lineup like this year's means only 60-70% tickets sold the following year.

That said, the atmosphere at the festival is still one of the best around. The organization on how to get there, the trains, the work done by volunteers, the arts, the fashion, the food offering, and the focus on climate is a package few festivals offer. That alone makes the festival worth a visit if you haven't been before. Oh, and the camping experience leading up to the festival, if your liver can take it.

I'll leave you with our classic The Good, The Bad, The Ugly section summarizing our findings from this year's festival.

THE GOOD

• Seems like Crowd surfing is finally allowed - at least I saw it on multiple occasions. Absolutely the right decision.
• Way more space at Orange Stage closer up after the second pit is now open from the sides.
• You can pre-book your pit wristbands to avoid queueing all day for your favorite artists, but not all slots can be pre-booked, giving everyone a fair chance.
• The Camping site is getting cleaner by the year
• Great pricing - still cheap enough for students to get by for a full week.
• No queues at bars - for the most part anyway.
• The food court expanded to food court 2, but more is needed.
• Wine in carton: still the best value-for-money for drinking at 80 DKK for a liter of rosé or white wine.

THE BAD

• Eating anywhere between 17 and 2030 means queueing for an hour
• The bag check is superficial and basically pointless. It only takes one bad apple…
• The pant system is stupid: return 1 drink, get 5kr off. Return 2 plastic cups, the second one has to go on your wristband. Try to pay with a wristband, and get told max one can be used at a time. It's pointless to return more than 1 - learn from Copenhell how this is done.
• 'Punk' in every description yet no punk booked, wtf.
• Scheduling: why the hell is a band like Candy on at 2:15 am when there are virtually no other rock and metal names all day long?
• Not enough pissoirs are scattered around the area, so most walls turn into impromptu bathrooms for men.

THE UGLY

• Gloria is just an awful stage. It's incredibly hot inside, often smells bad, and there is no bar or bathrooms, plus it can be one in and one out at times so you can't even go out to pee or buy another beer during a concert.
• DSB trains: this needs to be better coordinated. I saw people pass out on the way back from the festival due to them being packed like sardines.
• The lineup continues to be dire unless you think mainstream pop and hip-hop have depth beyond a few songs per set.