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.