Roots of Heaven festival (Patronaat, Haarlem 28-11-2009)

I'll be honest, the only reason for visiting this festival was Lightning Dust. I really was looking forward to them, as they have released one of the greatest albums of this year with 'Infinite Light'.

As usual I left home way too late, stressing out that I might miss Lightning Dust. Another stress factor: I didn't bought a ticket in advance! Fingers crossed that it wouldn't be another debacle as a couple of weeks earlier, as I was driving 100km. to a concert which eventually was sold out. Luckily not this time!

It was very quiet at Patronaat. Almost too quiet! There were plenty of tickets available and I ran to the venue where Gurf Morlix was performing. There weren't many people in the audience.





I really liked it; he has a great voice and it was a very intimate, breathtaking performance.

After that, it was time for Anne Soldaat. I didn't have any clue who that would be and I only knew that he/she is Dutch. Unfortunately I have a certain 'thing' against Dutch singers and somehow I can't get over it (has to do something with Dutch people talking or singing English with a horrible accent). My first guess was some kind of female singer-songwriter with just a guitar. Well, almost right haha; Anne Soldaat is a male singer-songwriter and an ex-member of the defunct Daryll-Ann. He brought an entire band with him, which was great! It was very nice, I wasn't expecting much and definitely underestimated him and his music. Unfortunately I wasn't in a mood to thoroughly enjoy the music as I was freaking myself out with the fact that in less than 2 hours I would finally see Lightning Dust. There were a lot more people in the room this time and somehow I had the feeling they were solely here to see him (read: family and friends of the band).


Yes that's him







I only drank one beer and even that was pretty lethal to me. Almost every 5 minutes I had to go to the toilet. It could've been the stress as well, because (ah yes I say it again) I really wanted to see Lightning Dust. And finally! After my patience was tested to the max and standing in this dark concrete atomic bunker called the Patronaat became excruciating, the curtains were opened and there she was standing on stage: Amber Webber! The beautiful charismatic (in a cold, mysterious sense of way) lady with the magnificent tremolo voice. She and Joshua Wells are both members of Black Mountain and formed their own project with Lightning Dust. During this tour Amber's sister (indeed they look alike) Ashley accompanied them and there was also Ryan Peters on drums.















I have to say, I was a bit disappointed :( The sound in the small room of the Patronaat was horrible and the show was way too short! The show ended at a strange way: during their last track you heard a dj-mix playing through it and when they finished, the curtains were immediately closed in a blink of an eye! I guess this all wasn't their fault, but I really wanted to see and hear more... They will have another show next week, but that's at the other side of Holland and I won't be able to make it. I definitely want to see them again because this show wasn't really what I expected to be.

There were more acts performing after Lightning Dust (and in the adjacent café there were performances too), but I was a bit in a bad mood due to the previous show and decided to call it a night. The only thing I'm happy about it, are the pictures! Like I've stated in some post earlier: I wasn't feeling well with the way how things were going at the Deer Tick concert. This time I was much more concentrated and that definitely helped a lot!