Kaderock - Around Musicon The Hague, 3 June 2023

Kaderock this year turned into a two day festival. After the sold-out closed doors of last year, the old people music went to the Friday and the (Hang) youth was welcome on the Saturday. As I am young at heart it was Saturday for me too, also as the two best bands would play that evening.

Our start with live music was surprising. With guests at home I city-toured as a guide and to my surprise found that the Hofvijver had a regatta. Apart from boats rowing against each other it also meant live music and beer stands. So our start was at the Lange Vijverberg.

At the end of the afternoon I went with Ricardo to Musicon in order to find that the entrance moved to the other side, since the last time I could make it. A busy street meant queueing for coins and beers, but soon that got smoother. The first band of interest was Temple Fang and they played well. Their spacey, stonerish music at relaxing speed came alive well and the outbursts did sound fine. A good way to open the festival.

Than it was outside as two stages were at the street and square. No names I knew of, but I did bump into friends of Tiago who asked if I also came for Hang Youth. Never heard of them my reply was: no, for Graceless. It turned out that Hang Youth was not bad. Singing about Belastingdienst and seeing some young people jumping around angry, while they never paid a cent of tax in their lives was good. I watched from a distance as at Kaderock you always meet people you haven't seen for a while. Nicest surprise this year were Petra and Wim being in town, whom I had not seen in some 20 years. Noone changed and our difference in lenght still stands strong as well.

Musically the festival would end for me in Musicon again, where Graceless gave us a strong show. One of Holland's leading Death Metal bands got the room moving and gave us Die on Demand, Where Vultures Know Your Name and the likes. A great ending of Kaderock, but not really. Outside there was still some 15 minutes of Rudeboy Urban Dance Squad. I never liked this crossover from teh nineties and still don't. The exception being Faith No More, who ar e on a different level. This just is not for me, but some people go down on memory lane to the nineties. After that set we learned that our new major is a bastard, so all bars closed at 22:45. This was written at the coin machines, but noone took that all to serious I found by reactions. Finally I noticed that wearing a shirt with a classic song opening results in many questions. René sang the lines to me, but most people had no clue. Women being confused and in awe, while upon leaving the area a girl even ran to me asking if my mother really was a witch and been burned alive. Nope, still very much alive and kicking, so ending the day with a smile.