takeroot festival 2011

takeroot festival is one of the reason's i'm living in amsterdam. well, if it wasn't for cerys matthews (bbc6music dj) who played musee mechanique sometime last summer, i might not be here. you see, that started the ball rolling: i checked out online the band online and discovered they were playing last year's takeroot fest (also playing: damien jurado, iron&wine, phosphorescent, caitlin rose, wilco, etc.); so, i bought a ticket to the festival and booked a flight to the netherlands, then at the same time i managed to wangle a job interview whilst i was in amsterdam (en route to groningen) and then (after the festival) i got the job! and the rest is history...

so, yes, this year was my second time at the americana-fest that is takeroot. toes were tapped, banjos were counted, beards were compared (josh t. pearson has the longest, but on the whole, the beard count was surprisingly low), and of course moments were captured. i was at the fest with the very good folks of belmont bookings and you can find some of my shots featured in the galleries on their blog here and also a random jumbled-up selection is outlined below (linked to the full sets on my flickr). hope you enjoy!

man man
my first band of the day. can't remember much about them, 'cept they were a bit bonkers. and colourful and i loved their confetti (there were smiles all round once the crowd realised what was happening!).





matthew and the atlas
young matthew and his atlas were perhaps my only british band of the day? i dunno. i enjoyed their set but only could stay for a couple of songs....





the war on drugs
...before running into the large room for a few tunes from the war on drugs.





josh t. pearson
...and then running out to get a good seat for the next band. last year, the oh-my-gosh moment came from when i saw damien jurado in the seated auditorium. this year it was josh t. pearson. such a quiet attentive audience once again, even though the in-between song jokes were not so worthwhile being attentive too. ;)





the tallest man on earth
i was excited to see ttmoe again after having been blown away by his amsterdam gig earlier this summer. it started off well, but not sure in the end whether it topped the previous gig. still ace though, particularly the newly-wedded duet!






megafaun
my highlight of the day was most definitely megafaun! smiles and harmonies and a band looking like they were having one helluva time. what else would you want? an acoustic encore with audience participation and hand-clapping? check. how about some post-show bigging up of the brilliant brudenell (where the band had played the week before)? check. and a few hugs to end the day under the magnificent full moon maybe? check!














smiles all around and the end of another great takeroot. see you in groningen next year!

x