Donaufestival Day 4

I arrived around the middle of Nina Garcia’s set in a state of relative exhaustion, so I spent this set lying on the floor listening to her playing for about fifteen minutes before going out to recharge on carbs and coffee for feeo’s set. Garcia proved to be very beautiful on her own and an appropriate lead-in to feeo as well, with her e-guitar soundscapes creating this kind of intimate time-stands-still magic that I value so much whenever I find it. feeo sort of built on this vibe, but in song form, with her on vocals and electronics and Caius Williams on e-guitar. While I do wish I had been more familiar with her songs beforehand - I had only listened enough (and seen the two live once) to know I’m in for something meaningful - it’s definitely songs and sounds that for me worked on first impact as well, and her often clearly audible lyrics only deepened the overall bath of gentleness, warmth, sadness, … that she offered us. For Rún, who opened the programm in the late evening venues, I was honestly quite checked out, friends of mine liked them; I probably needed a break anyways, and their mixture of (I honestly have to check bandcamp to know how to describe it, which then again could be a sign of their success in experimenting) pagan folk, and apparently “trip hop, doom, …” didn’t really coalesce into anything that meant anything to me.

All the better then that caroline played next, the eight-piece post-midwest-emo-via-free-improv-ensemble band which I absolutely was counting on being my highlight of the evening and which I’ve been wanting to see for two years by now. After a few renditions of songs off their new album that were on the quieter and shorter side - all perfectly beautiful - they launched into an all-encompassing performance of their first album opener, finally making me take my ear protection out and not look back for the rest of their show. After this cathartic orchestra of free sound and feeling, absolutely paying off on my years long emotionality investment in them and finally cracking my heart properly open to their second album as well, I was relieved that I had to leave for an obligation at home anyways; even listening to Blawan (which was very good i guess) in the merch line made me quite frustrated that i didn’t just take some quiet time to let my feelings move on their own after this.

Thankfully, my comrade powered through the night and has more to tell:

After Caroline, there was Blawan, which was a big vibe change. After hanging around outside for a bit, I went in to catch the last half of Blawan’s live set. It was energetic and prepared me for the rest of the night, but I’m having a hard time remembering what exactly it was like, which I guess speaks for itself. Then came Maruja - a sweaty, masculine hurricane of sounds. Though I was at times cringed out by the “we just need more love”-coded lyrics and the implications of an all male rock band with a shirtless singer, it was undeniably an amazing performance with loud expressions of solidarity with Palestine and heavy breaks that made everyone in the moshpit go crazy. Maruja was, frankly, quite cathartic. The night ended with Operant, which sounded as if you went into a techno club in Berlin but the walls were made of metal and the dj drilled into the walls during their set - which isn’t too far from what Operant actually did during their set. In a good way.