Impakt festival, Saturday March 31
Impakt festival is a dutch festival presentating a lot of multimedia art. Art installations, films, music, and combinations of those. This weekend was the 18th edition of this festival. Let’s have a look at the third evening of music.
After the disappointment of the first night, I had hopes that this night would perhaps be a bit better. The program for the evening was, for me, not telling. The first two acts, Jacob Kirkegaard and Tuk & Kurt D’haeseleer were not known to me. However, the headliner, Plaid, was definitely something I knew and was really looking forward to.
It turned out this evening was definitely making up for the first night. First up was Jacob Kirkegaard, who brought minimal ambient music with a touch of noise. Very beautiful, eerie, and at times a bit disturbing. Especially combined with the, also minimal, visuals in the background, which fitted the music perfectly; details that were slowly but gradually changing, eerie at times. Beautiful! A good opener.
After Kirkegaards performance the seats were removed from the room, indicating the rest of the evening would be more rhythmic. First up was Tuk & Kurt D’haeseleer. The first responsible for music, the second for visuals. Tuk brought an interesting combination of downtempo, cut’n'paste rock electronica, at times frantic, at times laidback. A very interesting way of bringing music. Visuals were again wonderful and fitting.
Last up (as far as the live performances go) was Plaid. This was the show that I was so much looking forward to, and as such I had high expectations. Plaid were able to even exceed these high expectations. An energetic show, and the enthusiasm of the audience definitely made the experience even better. Beautiful visuals by the Eyescream VJ team made the experience even more intense. What a great show! 
This evening definitely brought back my trust in the Impakt organization to put up a good show. I am already looking forward to what next year might bring. The only thing the organization will need to learn is, if an artist doesn’t perform live, to mention this upfront.
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yo! no damn eyescream vjs for the plaid show! impact kindly left me off the bill
damn
bobs: could you mail me at editor at electronicmusicworld … give me some info about yourself and I’ll rectify it in my article
‘enthusiasm of the audience’ during Plaid? I believe after the 60 minute show there was no encore because not more than four people made an effort of bringing Plaid back on the stage. I agree it was a great performance (better than last years at the same venue) but it should have lasted a bit longer.
the response from the audience during the show itself was more than I am used to for an “IDM” performance, with regular cheers. I agree that the applaus was a bit meager though.
i dont know, these “idm” performances are not exactly energetic. The music is, but just the sight of two guys behind a laptop.. They could be making some music, they could be surfing for some pr0n or just checking their email. It would be much cooler if they actually did something..
I’m used to a lot of performances from talented nerds behind a laptop. Most of the time they kind of move a bit behind the screen, with sometimes even a bit of nodding movements on the beat! Plaid however, at leastn during the five or six times I saw them, manage to look very concentrated with indeed makes you wonder. Are they playing online chess? Are they chatting with a bird or their mums? Who knows and frankly, who cares as long as they produce kick ass music with kick ass visuals from the only cool looking guy in the room Bob. Because they did live up to this expectation, I would expect from an enthousiastic audience that they would cheer to make clear they would like another song or two. This didn’t happen even though I tried to make encouraging sounds for at least five people. Try to make friends with the ladies that way. Just try.