Melodica Festival, Trier; April 26th, 2024
A couple of weeks ago I randomly received an email newsletter from Kyle Woolard, announcing a Germany tour. I was excited, until I realized that the dates where the one I had already planned and booked to tour with Svavar Knútur. So I sent him a message, saying I would not be able to make it. Shortly before my Svavar tour started, Kyle posted about Melodica festival in Trier and I realized it was doable and sort of on the way, so I booked a hotel and a train and spent my Friday evening in Trier. It was a fun detour for sure. 🙂
Got to the venue to early and chatted briefly with someone, who turned out to be Jen, Kyle’s wife. So lovely to meet her after otherwise only seeing pics of her on Instagram. I went inside, bought a drink and soon found a nice space upstairs on the side.
The room wasn’t fully filled, when the first act, Tal Arditi was announced. He started with a lovely guitar intro and had a great singing voice too. I really liked it. We learned that the song ‘I wanna cry’ was about feeling emotional, but having a hard time getting tears out. The upbeat ‘Lucy’ followed and I loved the underlying beats on this one.
He told us if we wanted to stand up and dance, that would be OK, but we could just as well sit or lie down. Then we heard a little about how he got to the festival. He played us a song, recently written in Ireland, called ‘Waiting for your love’. It started very slow and laid back, then got more intense, slowed down again and ended in a great guitar solo, when we thought it was already over. 😉
Tal switched guitars and told us a little story about taking this guitar on all his travels and how Senegal was the most impressive place they had been together, but all over Europe too. ‘I’m living again’ was lovely, with a nice sing-along part for us. He asked us, who knew his music and only the organizers and the sound guy did. He thanked everyone else for coming and had QR codes for us to scan. His final had a bluesy feel. I liked it. It ended in an extended guitar solo.
Setlist
I wanna cry
Lucy
Waiting for your love
I’m living again
?
We had to leave the room and go back downstairs so they could change stage and people who came later had he chance for a good spot too. I haven’t mentioned: The whole concert took place in an old tower that had been the living quarters of a rich family once upon a time. I got myself another drink and stood by the stairs, because Kyle was up next. Spent the time chatting with one of the organizers about too many concerts to see and scheduling trouble. 😉
This time I decided to sit down in front of the stage and joked with Kyle how I may never be able to get up again. He put on his awesome blue jacket and became Glorious Leader. I was hoping he’d bring that one. Someone from the festival told us that Kyle only got there short notice because some other artist had canceled. That explained why I could not remember this concert from the newsletter. He joked about the weird things you find when you google “glorious leader” and mentioned how Kyle had moved to a cabin in the woods in 2018 and not played live since.
He started out with ‘Sweet Louisa’ on ukulele, feeding that part into a loop station. It sounded great. I immediately realize that I had not listened to his music in too long, i.e. didn’t remember much of the lyrics, but was still drawn in right away and started smiling. Kyle thanked us in German and then made the mistake of asking us if we preferred German or English. When people answered “German” he had to admit that wasn’t happening. 😀
He introduced his friend Holly Lillis, who was going to sing with him. She stepped up and started snapping her fingers. Some of us joined in too. It sounded really nice. The song didn’t sound familar at all. Not sure if I’d ever heard it before. Pretty cool though, almost a bit jazzy and Holly’s voice was great.
Next up was ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ “an original about being from the south and young and very horny’. I did remember that one and even managed a bit of a sing-along. Kyle told us they were from Vermont, maybe the greatest of the 50 states and cute, where people are special and shop at Farmer’s Markets. He’d met Holly there and one day he was playing Banjo, came up with a riff and it turned into ‘Green Mountain Sun’. It was really lovely. <3
Meanwhile, more people had arrived and we were told to move up a bit so they would fit in. Kyle decided to “pimp his merch” and showed us the two albums, letting us know they were not standard. Holly added that Kyle wrote a story for the second album. Yep, it is a book too. 🙂 we got ‘November Gloom’, which I recalled a being my favorite from ‘Glorious Leader and the Analog Cabin Mystery’. It ends on the line “love yourself when you’re angry, lost and boring you are wonderful” and I needed taht during the pandemic. It reminded me of a conversation with my friend K. at the time and put a big smile on my face. They sang it beautifully.
The show continued with ‘Onism’ and it didn’t sound familiar to me at all. Not sure if i just couldn’t remember or they played it differently from the recording. It involved a lot of electro sounds and semi silly dancing from Kyle. 🙂 He mentioned how he loved Germany and that he tried to respect the culture by learning one of our songs and how he has no idea what he’s singing and joked that it sounded heartbreaking. Then proceeded to cover ‘Alles nur geklaut’. It was fabulous, despite a few mistakes, and got a great sing-along going.
Afterwards he asked Holly if she felt she understood Germany a little better now and she deadpanned “no”. He thanked us for coming and the festival for having him, then let us know he would have a new EP coming out, called ‘Glorious Leader – how I made me first million’ and would leave us with a song from it, suggesting we could stand up if we liked. That song started very electro, loop-stationy and was almost ready to write it off, but then it turned to a nice melody after all. 😉 It was still a very fun show and I was glad I went.
Setlist
Sweet Louisa
?
The Girl from Ipanema
Green Mountain Sun
November Gloom
Onism
Alles nur geklaut
New song.
Another drink, a bathroom break and telling Kyle it was a fun show, before he went out to get some air and I went back upstairs to see the last artist of the night, Finn Raber. This time, the room was really packed again and I choose standing over sitting down. He was introduced of having played the previous year and being invited again.
He joked that so far, he’d been mostly playing birthdays, weddings and divorces so far and that usually he does not any song ideas unless he travels. Thus, he’d be playing some covers too, but started with one of his own songs, ‘Rescued at sea’ about his brother having to be rescued in the Caribbean. It sounded really nice.
Finn told us about his music to be found online and how the next song ‘The Adult Tree’ was available as a band version there. It was good too, lots of pretty impressive guitar work. so far, I enjoyed the music, but didn’t feel any special connection.
Eddie Vedder’s Hard Sun’ was next and a great cover. Now, that it had gotten fully dark, the lights looked great too. He spoke about his T3 Volkswagen bus that he used to travel in and carries lots of memories, one of which turnd to the song ‘Wind and Sea’. It was lovely, but again showed that he liked long guitar solos.
Finn continues with John Mayer’s ‘Neon’ and I didn’t really care for it. Wondered if I should leave, but wasn’t sure I#d be able to get out, so I stayed. His own, ‘Are you with me’ I liked much better. Like with ‘The adult tree’, his brother had written the lyrics. He covered ‘Jist another man in need’ and again, I didn’t really care for it.
Then he spoke about needing over a year to learn the next cover, Jon Butler’s ‘Ocean’. I recognized how it was amazing guitar work, but I got bored after about 5 minutes and that was only about half the song. As soon as it was over, I walked out, even though he played an encore. Hi music was nice enough, but once again, I realized I do not care for instrumental songs all that much.
Setlist
Rescued at see
The adult tree
Hard Sun
Wind and Sea
Neon
Are you with me
Just another Man in need
Ocean
?
Back donstairs, I was surprised to still find Kyle, Jen and Holly there. We chatted for a moment and when they asked me if I liked Finn I was honest that I did not care for that last song. jokes ensued about German honsty, people a parties or small concert who want to show off their (non-existant) talents and Germans always clapping on the beat. It was time for me to say goodbye, we hugged and Kyle promised it would not be another 6 years before I played concerts again. I sure hope so. 🙂