Kylesa / Sierra / Jagged Vision @ O13, Tilburg 04/02/2014
I’m doing double duty tonight, both reviewing this gig and being the dj. Luckily both duties can be performed without any trouble.
Opening the proceedings today are Jagged Vision from Norway. These guys play a highly energetic show. This being a Tuesday, the crowd isn’t all that enthusiastic yet, but the energy of the band does come across and gets the crowd a bit more fired up. The Norwegians play a mixture of hardcore and some stonerish bits. It is a bit too hardcore for my liking, but it is played tight and with passion. The singer does his best to get the crowd going, but alas, the people are not in the right mindset for their grooving hardcore it seems. Still, Jagged Vision deliver a good show.
Next up are Sierra. These Canadians play some fierce stoner with some psychedelia mixed in for good measure. Sabbathian riffing flows into spaced out fuzziness. The vocalist is great; his voice is strongly reminiscent of Wino. Also Sierra’s music reminds me of The Hidden Hand at times. The crowd is definitely more into this sort of stuff than the hardcore before and heads move in unison with the grooves laid down by this three piece. For me this was the best band of the night.
And now for the main course of the evening. The sound of a Theremin signals the arrival of Kylesa. This band has been in Tilburg before and clearly has amassed quite a following in my hometown. The hall is filled up nicely, which for a Tuesday evening is quite a feat. Honestly I am not that familiar with Kylesa but they put up an impressive show. The sound is great and the band is clearly in a good mood.
The weird set up of two drummers works well at times, yet at moments they are slightly out of sync with each other, which is a shame. Also, I don’t really see the use of having two drummers that do exactly the same thing. Why not have them work together in such a way that they achieve things a single drummer could never do?
The one other disappointing thing is Laura Pleasants vocals. Unfortunately they miss the spot in quite a lot of cases. Maybe she is tired, maybe a bit stoned (this happens in Tilburg…) or maybe the sound on stage is to blame, fact is she is off key a number of times. When she does hit the mark, the vocals are great though. The crowd seems to be forgiving of these small flaws and demand an encore at the end of the show, which they get.
An interesting night for me with three bands I was not familiar with .All bands played a tight set and had great energy and presence. Band of the night for me were Sierra, because their style was most to my liking.
Scribed by: Kevin Kentie
