Claws On Roadburn

Hello from Tilburg. Ste & Patchie here, Ste at the keyboard, Patchie milling about in the background drinking 7up lager and shaking a lot.

It's Day 2 of the Roadburn Festival today, here's a brief recap of Day 1. (I'm sure you'll get better reviews elsewhere - go to google and type in "Roadburn 2008 review" and enjoy the professionals eye).

We arrived in Holland via plane, then from Schiphol to Tilburg on train. I'm on mentioning this because we had a small incident on the train where we found bullets in our carriage. This wasn't reported to the authorities though because the police might have been involved and we just couldn't be bothered with the hassle of it all!

Next incident: We found that, when we got to the hotel, some fool (I won't mention names to protect the stupid) had booked us in on the completely wrong dates. We arrived on the 17th of April and the booking were made for the 17th of March. Doh! Ok, I will mention names - it was me who got the booking all fucked up. Soz Patchie lad.

Enough of our own problems though. Here's what I can remember from Day 1 of the festival:

We arrived about an hour before doors opened and sat in the street outside a bar drinking Dutch beer while watching rock stars mingling with the crowd. Lee Dorrian and Jimmy Bower to name but 2.

The event is being held at the 013 club. I was told (by a taxi driver on the way home) that 013 is pronounced as "Nil Derteen club" by the Dutch.

There are 3 main rooms for gigs in the venue. I've been watching lots of stuff in the main room so far (Down, Grand Magus, Capricorns) and I saw some in the "Green Room" (Diagonal, The Devil's Blood). There is another room called the Batcave where bands are playing but so far I haven't had a chance to get in there! I think I'll be in there later on today though,

You can't buy beer or food with cash at 013. Instead, you need special blue tokens which you can buy at vending machines all around the club. This is how lots of festivals seem to prefer money to be spent these days as it means barstaff won't be tempted to skim a little for themselves from the tills!

The merch here is out of this world. They've got a whole floor dedicated to selling you everything that you could possibly want. This includes a cloak room to store your newly acquired swag, haha.

Orange Goblin are here, providing a DJ set for people who aren't in any of the rooms watching bands play.

No one was allowed to bring cameras to the 013 on the 1st day of the event, at the request of Down. I think it's something to do with a DVD that they're putting together or something. That said, there are people with cameras everywhere at the venue. Who listens to orders in rock and roll huh?

The 013 is a smkoing venue. Smokers from England are loving this!

They have vegan curry for some reason, and you can buy eggs rolls from vending machines for 2 euros a pop. Patchie is well fed!

Today Patchie keeps finding 10 euro notes in his clothes from yesterday, 40 or so euros so far!

We've seen lots of friends here - some who we've missed, some who we haven't. Plus we've been making lots of new friends and acquaintances too. You know how it is, Scousers also make friends when they go around the world and there's beer involved.

There's a video circulating amongst our group of Kirk Windstein (from Down and Crowbar) being made-up to look like King Diamond. It's Phil Anselmo putting the make-up on him, meanwhile Pepper Keenan is also on the video in the background singing The Family Ghost, hahaha.

Our hotel is on the other side of town from the gig, so it's costing a small fortune to get to and from all of these great shows every day!

Kirk kissed Patchie on the cheeck and told him he is not allowed to get a shave. Ever.

Our limited Dutch is improving. This has just been helped immensly by watching an episode of the A-Team with Dutch subtitles. Mr T used the walls of the elevator to reinforce the inside of a baker's van and they hid guns in the bread.

We have also found a supermarket selling minatures bottles of spirits for 2 Euros each; we've been buying up all the Jagermeister and smuggling them in to the gig to feed to Kirk.

At the end of the Devil's Blood concert, the singer came back out and doused Patchie with pig's blood.

we Lost Toby on the way home and it cost us 20 Euros.

We've been making a sort of Claw video diary while we've been here, adding stuff all the time and having fun with masks and stuff. This is our idea of fun anyway! Hopefully I'll throw some of the clips up on this page for you to see (and no doubt shake your head at) when I get a chance ok.

Today (Day 2) of the festival we are looking forward to seeing the following bands:

Danava
Witchcraft
Trouble!!!
Church Of Misery
and many many more.

The one negative thing about being here in Tilburg throwing claws at everything and everybody is that Our Claw isn't here to join in with the fun. Really, he's sorely missed.