ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2026 • THE SPARK: Wednesday, April 15th

- The Bad Bird Catches The Spark -

feat. BAD BREEDING, CRIPPLING ALCOHOLISM and THE BIRD EXPERINCE

Yes, after that detour with Maud the Moth and Aidan Baker it's finally time to report what happened in the middle of April in Tilburg, South Netherlands!

There's nothing noteworthy to tell about my relatively smoothly car ride from Northern Germany and I don't feel like starting with an essay about the whole meaning of Roadburn Festival within the bigger picture of life, so there are just two little pieces of business before getting to the important stuff:

1. If you're new here and wonder about the weird low-fi visual style of this blog: Most of my Roadburn photos were taken with a Digital Harinezumi 2.0 toy camera (all horizontal or upright rectangular pics) or my not-the-best-at-this smartphone (all square pics).

2. Check-in at my rural accommodations, waiting for my roommate to arrive and saying hello to a couple of the many cats there: 

Done. And now let's go straight to the absolutely packed Next Stage in the 013, where the proceedings started with the free warm-up night called The Spark!

Not only the room was filled to the brim, but the stage itself never had been as crowded on a Roadburn Wednesday as well. The Bird Experience, a group headed by Heath singer and insane harmonica (plus pedalboard) wizard Mees Vullings, came as a big band version of twelve muscians. Half of those I couldn't even see most of the time, because the whole brass section and the bass player were hidden behind the Hammond organ from my point of view, while the frontman was blocking  the percussion player and gospel background singers.

But at least I could hear everything. After the band entered the stage with masks, which they hung onto a clothes tree, and played an intro track, which felt like an occult incantation, the crowd's reaction was very reserved, because it was alright, but you just didn't know where this was leading yet.

The following answer to that question was a wild exploration of 60's and 70's Psychedelic and Prog Rock and Blues, whose inspirations surely cut deeper than that, but in the moment felt like the voodoo lovechild of Arthur Brown, The Doors and Santana to me. With so many layers of organ, keys, rhythm, guitar, brass, vocals and that damn crazy harmonica The Bird Experience felt like a primal conjuration of Rock'n'Roll spirits for the days ahead. Well done, you soulful, wild dark eyeliner hippies!

Of course I knew the band by name. How couldn't I? If you've ever heard that there's a group with the name Crippling Alcoholism that's very likely to stick.

Visually they're mostly a blur, because that cozy socks/ open house slippers combo of the tourist guy energy frontman kind of overshadowed everything else. Musically the sextet brought a mix of sometimes Hardcore/Sludge heavy, sometimes wearing-sunglasses-in-the-dark danceable, but always melancholic Post Punk, which - also attitude-wise - very much felt like the Goth version of Chat Pile.

Cool. Repeat in Jake Peralta voice: Coolcoolcoolcool.

Cranking up the crass the night finally exploded with the raw and dirty Crust Punk energy of Bad Breeding, who exceeded in bringing the anarcho spirit of good old English Punk into the here and now. Wild shit and a severe case of Fuckyeah.

And so ended a good warm-up, which I would rate somewhere in the middle of all Sparks (and Hardrock Hideouts in the Cul de Sac bar before that) I've witnessed so far. Even though I liked all three bands, there have been editions which stood out a lot more with their own vibe distinct from the rest of the festival, especially given that both Bad Breeding and Crippling Alcoholism would be playing official and secret shows later on, starting not even twenty-five hours from now.

So The Bird Experience had been the only really exclusive element of The Spark, and I wonder if that was an odd deliberate choice or if it was some kind of compromise, because other plans didn't work out.

However the fire had definitely started and I couldn't wait to see it burning through the road during the four exciting days to come!

reviews of the other festival days coming soon!

MAUD THE MOTH and AIDAN BAKER live on board the MS Stubnitz, Hamburg (April 24th 2026)

After Roadburn Festival comes the Roadburn Blues, that thing where you have seriously developed an entitlement for amazing performances, secret show announcements and a community of kindred spirits to share it with on a daily basis. But instead you get the disappointing grind of everyday life.

Before my five-part Roadburn review - which is in the works, but always takes its sweet time - comes my report from the first show I visited to actively fight Roadburn Blues. And with these two performances, which would both have been absolutely worthy of being a part of the festival, I made the absolutely right choice.

I had a moment of doubt though. The audience boarding the MS Stubnitz didn't exactly look like the usual Ambient/Drone/Expermimental crowd (if there even is something like that) - and a look at the merch table revealed that some Polka thing was playing. Wait! What?
I actually had to check the date, remained confused for another moment, before I realized that there were two parallel events happening on the ship and I had to go to another room, where I had never attended a show before. With the stage being on floor level it felt much more intimate, while still having those huge Stubnitz acoustics. Perfect for this night's artists.

AIDAN BAKER

Aidan Baker came with a guitar, his effect board and a violin bow, delivering a truly beautiful, emotionally laden Ambient set in several unbroken connected movements. You could both feel the endless experience the male half of Nadja has with this kind of performance, as well has the soul he still pours into it.

The biggest break of the flow happened towards the end, when everything was caught in a rectangular loop, before Amaya López-Carromero aka Maud the Moth joined in on eery vocals and keys, together with her guitar player (and also Healthyliving bandmate) Scott McLean. Their improvisation was a stunning finale for this immersive show.

MAUD THE MOTH

Since everything was set up anyway, it wouldn't have bothered me at all, if they had just continued with Maud the Moth's show immediately, but of course they took a little breather, before the singer sat down at her keyboard to play one older song, which just consisted of piano and her half-operatic hauntingly beautiful voice.

After that McLean joined her for a set of manifoldly layered newer tracks, in which synths, guitar, samples, loops and López-Carromero's spectacular singing grew to breathtaking dramatic highs.

And just when you thought the mixture of ethereal Neoclassical, Experimental Post Something music couldn't get better, Aidan Baker came back for one last trio performance during the finale "Kwisatz Haderach", the last track from Maud's recent 2025 album "The Distaff". And wow, what a mighty way to finish this night! Roadburn Blues definitely beaten - for now.

Cool, I see you actually scrolled through all my pictures! So normally the review would end here, but since the band in the ship's main room was still playing I also stayed for a couple of their songs, which somehow added to the Roadburn feeling, when you walk out of one thing and into something worlds different. So here's my absolutely unqualified "review" of that show as well:

HEPTA POLKA

As the name says, these are seven guys playing Polka (and other Folk music with inspirations from all around the globe). When they switched on their party mode it was definitely too much and a bit too shallow for me, especially after the spiritually charging music I had witnessed before.

But when they took it slower, Hepta Polka actually developed some intriguing depth... so between these poles all in all this had propably been a pretty good show as well, I guess. But that's it now! Any more of my opinion would really be presumptuous.



Weird place to end a live report, I know.



Deal with it!