From tearjerkers about Grindr to seething, poetic punk: these acts at Eurosonic are about to break through

The concert has been going on for a while and the line in front of the tiny Lutheran Church is motionless. Brit Jacob Alon has only two songs out, and yet there is already a buzz. Fortunately, this is also the festival where many professionals sprint out of the hall en masse after ten minutes. On to the next act, to see as much as possible. Suddenly there is space inside again.

“The next song is about poppers and Grindr,” Alon grins in front of the pulpit and under the church organ. Their strumming guitar playing is reminiscent of Nick Drake, the high falsetto does the rest. Most visitors listen breathlessly: something special is happening here. There are still some business visitors at the front, busy taking notes on phones and chatting too loudly in their colleagues’ ears: that Jacob Alon could make some money.

Nearly 275 young European acts will present themselves at the three-day Eurosonic in Groningen. Some have already broken through in their home country, others fit the festival into a strategy around a debut album, with, in addition to an official performance, a number of free or private sessions during the day – all in the hope of breaking through internationally.

For the visitor it is a blast through the city center. From room to room, from row to row. You can easily see the headliner of the future in a tiny venue, because the international music industry is drawing inspiration for the festival and stage programming.

Eighties

The punk duo Big Special, from Birmingham, spits out their frustration. Besides the singer, there is only a drummer on stage. The rest of the music is from tape. And yet it works. This is mainly due to the enormous stage presence of frontman Joe Hicklin. He switches between spoken wordangry screams with turned away eyes and beautiful singing, with a big eighties sob. The drummer stirs things up and shouts along loudly. This performance is already sparking under the high suspended ceiling of Huize Maas, but it will set tents on fire at festivals.

While the festival is much about acts that will dominate radio and festival summers, there are also acts that will look for success elsewhere. In a sense of community, for example. Brògeal looks for it in the Irish and Scottish folk tradition. Sing-along full of traditional instruments, by a bunch of swaggering guests with neatly cut bangs and fast sports sunglasses. Like modern Peaky Blinders.

Or take Tarta Relena. Two Spanish singers in robes who have been doing research for years into music that has sometimes been passed on for a thousand years in small communities on islands and culturally strongly connected regions. From Crete to Andalusia, in Catalan, Greek and long lost languages. The line between folklore and avant-garde appears to be wafer-thin. They perform alienatingly beautiful a cappella as if from a fever dream. But because of the shreds of electronics, it could surprisingly also work in a steamy club.

Schoffies

Not that all performances will open doors. The Spanish María José Llergo is already scoring serious numbers on the streaming services with her flamenco pop and beautiful sessions on YouTube. On stage the music appears to have an annoyingly high Eurovision uniformity, with an even more annoying drummer who doesn’t know how to stop.

The Amsterdam indie band Personal Trainer gives a completely different feeling. They do it without millions of streams, but thanks to an enormous live reputation – with which they already sell out halls in the Netherlands – there is a long line outside the entire show. That can hardly go wrong for them.

It is no different at Soft Launch. It’s a strain to fit into the audience, where you find a bunch of rascals singing in sweetly sweet four-part harmony about that one Catholic girl they are so in love with. But with a can of beer in hand, and the bored attitude of a Brit pop star from the nineties. They show a lot of radio potential and are irresistible on stage: that’s good European business.

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