Brussels, Belgium

Back at the beginning of July, I decided to spend a few days in Brussels since I had already planned to attend part of the Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. It was one of my final European mini-vacations and I definitely want to return at some point to do a cross-country brewery tour.

I split my time in the city between sight-seeing and volunteering since some friends of friends were hosting a big “Serve The City” event that week. I had the opportunity to help paint at a refugee center and a children’s daycare. Despite the hard work, it was great to give back and meet some other people while in the city.

Unfortunately, on my first day in town, I got a call from my Californian friend Chris (who had interned in Geneva last summer). He and three friends from home were backpacking through Europe after graduating this year, and I was actually expecting to see them in Switzerland over the weekend when they’d be crashing at my place. However, while in Bruges Chris had his passport, Eurail pass and credit cards stolen so they returned to Brussels to get a new passport at the American embassy. Of course, this meant they needed a place to stay in Brussels and all the hostels were booked due to Serve the City. I mentioned the guys’ plight to the head of this service initiative and in a wonderful example of Christian fellowship, we were able to find volunteers to house the guys for that night which was really cool (plus I got to see them a few days early). Fortunately, the rest of my time in Brussels went smoothly and Chris and the guys were still able to make it to Geneva in time for the 4th of July.

All that being said, how about some photos of Brussels?






Comics are known as “BD” in French-speaking countries and are really popular in Belgium which gave birth to the Smurfs, Marsupialami and Tin Tin among others. I saw several buildings featuring the characters in wall paintings like this one.


Quite possibly the city’s most famous landmark, the Manneken Pis, which is in fact a child pissing.






I found it interesting that graffiti on public monuments is left standing. In Switzerland, this would be gone overnight.


From the city's great art museum: a Hieronymus Bosch detail. What a crazy, crazy man.


The Death of Marat. Even more amazing in real life than in art history class. Go figure.


Inside the brewing museum. It really wasn't much more than a video, but it was a comprehensive video and came with a free pint, so well worth it.


And finally, a gorgeous art nouveau building.

Towers Of Beer

Over the course of my two years in Geneva, I had several occasions to visit Les Brasseurs, a microbrewery with four locations in the region. Not only is their beer great (especially the amber), but they serve it in a way not uncommon in many European nations: by the yard. Yes, Les Brasseurs specializes in towers of beer. I know I mentioned this practice at least once before, when Joe came through last summer, but the sheer glory of it cannot be understated. Thankfully, I had a final opportunity to enjoy one with some friends a few weeks before departing.

Behold, the tower of beer:

Such Great Heights

Some time ago now (at the end of June), Adam and Julie returned to Geneva for take 2 of paragliding (an item on my "things to do before I die” list). As you might recall, they had come through towards the end of March and we made an unsuccessful attempt thwarted by wind and rain.

This time, however, was much more successful. In short, we had gorgeous weather and great flights. We again headed to Interlaken and it proved a wise choice as the beauty of our surroundings was unsurpassed.

I won’t do much in the way of descriptions because in this case, the pictures are worth much more than anything I could attempt to describe. I will, however, say this: somewhat counter-intuitively, paragliding was one of the least frightening and most fun things I’ve ever done. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I’d be jumping off a cliff, but the truth is you just need to run down a gentle slope and the parachute just lifts you off the ground in a way I can only describe as “magical.” I highly recommend it.


En route to our departure point


Preparing for flight


Julie lifts off


The rest of the group getting into the thermal lift area


My flight instructor Dominick and I over the city




I even got to take the reigns for a few minutes to steer; fun stuff


another aerial view of Interlaken


amazing

After touching down and having another great rösti, we headed back to Geneva to go to a friend’s going away party.
In addition, being back in Geneva allowed us the chance to do some other fun activities on Sunday. One thing that it took me that long to finally get around to was exploring the Salève, a mountain just across the border in France. We didn’t have time to both ascend and descend on foot, so we took the funicular up and hiked down. It was another breath-taking day with some spectacular vistas.


Le Salève from below


Geneva from atop the mountain

Finally, that evening before Adam and Julie returned to London, we had the chance to stop by a music festival sponsored by AMR, the school that puts on the Tuesday jazz jam sessions. It was a nice way to end the weekend, relaxing with beer and friends.


The Porrs


Me and Adam enjoying some tasty Calvinus

My Summer in Music Festivals, Part 3: Lollapalooza

After missing 2007’s Chicago-based Lollapalooza due to being in Europe (and I think I was in Budapest that weekend, so I really can’t complain), it was nice to be able to make it back this year. While the lineup wasn’t quite as interesting to me as that of 2006, the rest of the attendees seemed pretty impressed; for the first time as a 3-day festival, the event sold out all 3 days! And it certainly felt more crowded than 2006 – it took me the better part of an hour to exchange my ticket for a wristband and make it inside on Day 1, causing me to miss the majority of Rogue Wave’s set. However, I still had a great time and was able to get good stage position for the artists I was most interested in.

Of the acts I saw, here’s how I felt their live shows stacked up:

Underwhelming: MGMT, Duffy, Cat Power (I enjoy studio albums from all of these artists, but they lacked something live)
Decent: Cool Kids, Black Kids, Rage Against the Machine
Good: Rogue Wave, Gogol Bordello, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Radiohead, Lupe Fiasco, Flogging Molly, Kanye West
The Best: The Go! Team, Explosions In The Sky, Okkervil River, The Raconteurs, Mark Ronson


The Go! Team rocking the Bud Light stage


The Raconteurs were again great. Sure, I’d just seen them in Montreux but they’re such a good live act that I couldn’t resist seeing them again. Of course, this time I was a bit further from the stage…




The madding crowd gather for Radiohead who performed unopposed the first evening. I am honestly not that big a fan of the band, but they put on a solid show. Especially amazing were the unrelated fireworks visible to the left of the stage during the middle of their set. They worked perfectly with “Everything In It’s Right Place” and then climaxed in time to the apex of “Fake Plastic Trees” which was incredibly serendipitous. A beautiful ending to Day 1.


The beautiful Buckingham Fountain in front of the Chicago Skyline by night


Lupe Fiasco owns the stage on Day 2.


Flogging Molly, who I’d seen about six years ago on the Warped Tour, delivered an energizing set of their Irish-punk anthems.


Another Lollapalooza, another Gnarls Barkley performance. Their cover of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” was a highlight.


My favorite performance of the weekend was British producer Mark Ronson (who delivered my favorite album of 2007 in Version. He brought out a number of special guests he’s worked with including rapper Rhymefest (Ronson plays guitar in the background).


Kenna also joined the festivities…


…as did Aussie crooner Daniel Merriweather who kicked out a great version of the White Stripes’ “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told).”


Ronson jams on an instrumental of Coldplay’s “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.”


Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet pops up for Ronson’s cover of Radiohead’s “Just” and proceeds to scale the stage scaffolding.


Then, all of Phantom Planet joins him on stage for a raucous version of “California.” Awesome! What a way to end a great weekend of music.


Also, Kanye West was there. In all seriousness, he put on a good festival-closing show for his hometown.

My Summer in Music Festivals, Part 2: Montreux Jazz Festival

As I mentioned last year, the Montreux Jazz Festival is really a two-week series of concerts rather than a traditional festival. The line-up this year was quite good, though the expense of tickets made seeing many shows cost prohibitive. As it was, I went to two concerts the first week which combined were more expensive than my Lollapalooza 3-day pass.

Even so, I’m glad I was able to make it. The sound, lighting, and video production at MJF are stellar and it was a fine way to start saying goodbye to Switzerland.

On Monday, July 7th, I joined my friend Lee and some other folks to see Vampire Weekend (who I’d just seen in Belgium) and the Raconteurs, the second band of the White Stripes’ Jack White. I’d seen the latter band two years ago at Lollapalooza and it was easily one of the highlights of that weekend. The band puts on a killer live show and the chance to see them at a more intimate venue like MJF’s Miles Davis Hall was irresistible. And, unsurprisingly, the band were amazing. It was definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen recently and Vampire Weekend were a great opener, though they didn’t play any longer than at Rock Werchter even though they had more time allotted.


Vampire Weekend


that band’s Ezra Koenig


the Raconteurs


the crowd getting into “Steady As She Goes”



On Wednesday my brother, who had arrived in Europe the weekend of my parents’ departure and spent the subsequent weeks touring the continent, passed back through Switzerland on his way home. We returned to Montreux that evening to see Paul Simon with several of my Geneva friends including Darryl, Katie, Robyn and Frank. The concert was excellent with Paul supplying a mix of tracks from the classic Graceland, his terrific 2006 release Surprise, and several Simon & Garfunkel tunes including my personal favorite, “The Sound of Silence.” The band brought down the house on “Call Me Al” and brought out Patti Austin for “Bridge Over Troubled Water” which I’ve now seen both halves of Simon & Garfunkel perform independently. It was well worth the price of admission and late train home.



It’s events like MJF that make Switzerland special and I’m pleased that I was able to make it part of my summer again this year. Maybe someday I’ll make it back there…

My Summer in Music Festivals, Part 1: Rock Werchter

Before I get caught up on my final European trips, I figured I’d blog about my music festival experiences this summer while last weekend’s Lollapalooza is still fresh in my mind.

I kicked off the summer of concert-going with a day at Belgium’s Rock Werchter on July 3rd. The festival is in a town outside Leuven (which is about 20 minutes away from Brussels). It wasn’t very well-advertised outside of Belgium (perhaps intentionally so), but it had the best line-up of any of this summer’s festivals in my opinion. On the day I attended, I saw Vampire Weekend, Counting Crows, the National, Mika, Lenny Kravitz, R.E.M. and the Chemical Brothers. Acts on the subsequent days included Beck, Ben Folds, Radiohead, the Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, My Morning Jacket, Mark Ronson, Panic At The Disco, Sigur Rós and the Verve, just to name a few. Like I said, stellar line-up.

The festival itself was also pretty great. There are only two stages, so at most you're only missing one other band. Furthermore, the smaller of the two stages is covered so it has the feel of a more intimate club or concert hall. Really great atmosphere. I only attended the first day because I figured camping on my own for four days would lose its appeal quickly, however I’d love to go back in the future for the whole thing.

It stormed torrentially right in the middle of the day, but I managed to stay mostly dry and wasn’t too miserable. Thankfully, it was pretty much dry again by the time R.E.M. performed. Unfortunately, their show was scheduled to go until 12:15 and the last train back to Brussels was at midnight, so I decided to stay at the festival. The Chemical Brothers played from 1am-3am, so I had entertainment until then, and by the time the bus got me back to the train station I only had to wait an hour until a train. From there I went straight to the airport and made my way back to Geneva. It was the first all-nighter I’ve pulled in several years, and though I was exhausted it was totally worth it.

Anyway, here are some photos and more commentary:




To get to the festival, I took a train from Brussels to Leuven, a bus from there to Werchter and then walked 1.5km to the festival entrance.


Vampire Weekend played the smaller stage. They sounded great and debuted a new song that I really enjoyed.




If there’s one thing I look for in a music festival it’s consistent branding. Ok, not really, but it is pretty nice to see everything so well-designed including the drink and food vouchers.


I’d somehow managed to have never seen Counting Crows before, but they put on a solid show just as everyone says.


The National lit it up on the small stage. They’re a band that I think wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without the covered setting.


Another act I hadn’t previously seen was Lenny Kravitz. I’m not a huge fan of his music, but he puts on a fantastic show of inspired old fashioned rock’n’roll.


The main reason I picked night one of the festival was the chance to see R.E.M. touring behind their latest album, Accelerate. I was able to get to the front section of the crowd and had a great vantage on the show. It was an even mix of tunes from throughout the band’s tenured career, though I felt the crowd was a bit apathetic. Oh well. I enjoyed it.






The band had great video and lighting effects, including this section which created instant pop art of Michael Stipe.


Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, and Peter Buck say thanks and goodnight from the front of the stage after their performance.

At night, both fields turned into Dj’d dance parties/rave-ups. The main attraction was the Chemical Brothers on the larger stage. It was entertaining (especially the video screens), though house music really isn’t my cup of tea.



The field at the end of Day 1. Can't imagine what it looked like after Day 4.


And now, a fond farewell to my beloved Pumas. Since they were on their last legs, I decided to give them one last hurrah in Belgium. They served me well.