Your Vote Counts @Carol Halls, Bucharest Romania - November 8, 2014        

"Romania can only change if the youth go to vote."

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Reporter: Ioana Nica

Photo: Mihai Radulescu

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In countries where voting is not mandatory as it is in Belgium, the turnout is quite low.  Therefore, any actions to encourage it are welcome. One of these actions took the form of a concert for those who participated in voting for the Romanian presidential elections on 2 November.

 

 

The event Your Vote Counts actually saved my week-end in Bucharest, initially planned for the Jack White’s concert. But this, at least for me, was a big fiasco because the RomExpo Hall is not suitable at all for live music, the sound being disastrous.  I know it is a struggle to put Romania on the big bands’ touring map, but at the same time it's a pity to bring them and not offering quality shows.

 

Your Vote Counts event at the Carol Halls had a very attractive concept and a line-up of Romanian bands that I wanted to see or see again and all these in a high class company: very good friends. Armed with patience, we started walking to the venue. Downtown, at the University Square, we passed the people who were starting to gather together for a  new political rally to support the Romanians living abroad who have encountered problems with not being able to vote in the first round of the presidential elections, due to bad organization. The speech heard at that moment when we were passing by gave me chills: it made reference to those who died in December 1989 for a free life. And I found it bitter that such a fact has to be summoned against politicians each time there are elections. 

 

The event concept

 

Once we reached the Carol Halls, we got access to the event based on the proof of voting on November 2. This being the concept of event: the first Romanian music event exclusively for those who voted during elections. Apolitical event, it aimed to encourage people, and especially young people with the legal age for voting, to exercise their right in the context of contemporary allegations of votes being stolen.

 

 

 

The venue – The Carol Halls

 

The space is extraordinary. It is part of a project of converting industrial spaces into cultural centers, as there are many in Berlin, for example. "Each participant in the events hosted by the Carol Halls becomes automatically a direct supporter of the reconversion project." The place is well-signaled, at the entrance there is an electronic billboard with the schedule and the concerts, the people granting access at the entrance are super nice, the place is not cold, there is a wardrobe, double screens, projections and the sound is very good.

 

The Concerts

 

Except from Velosonics who opened the event and Robin and the Backstabbers band, I saw Toulouse Lautrec, ZOB, ROA and Luna Amara, all from 10 pm till 2-3 am. Without pauses between bands, as DJ Hefe kept the spirits up with a music selection very much on my taste, especially the Rage Against the Machine songs. The event started at 7pm and continued long after we left with other DJs (Event lineup).

 

Toulouse Lautrec

 

 

For Toulouse Lautrec I'll start with the conclusion: they are good, they are very good. They released their first album "Heroes" in 2011 after two years of existence already. In autumn last year they issued their second album, "Extraordinary" in which, they say: "From the imaginary heroes of the first album, we invented some more, but also some extraordinary facts and characters of the contemporary reality." They keep a rich live activity all around the country, participation in local festivals, but also abroad in France and Austria.

 

The four members of Toulouse Lautrec do not form just another band enjoying success in the alternative rock Romanian scene. They cultivate an image backed up by a unified aesthetic, have a coherence speech, substance and a consistent message. Original videos. Their music is cohesive, simple chords in a perfect harmony which on live it leaves behind the indie sound from the album. These keep and will keep them away from commercialism. In relation with their name Toulouse Lautrec, they were asked whether there is any mutual exclusion between the decadent nobility and the free spirits, and they replied: "What Romania needs is noble spirits."

 

 

ZOB

 

 

ZOB is one of the Romanian bands which do not require any presentation. And one of the Romanian bands which does not disappoint. If during the 90s they were associates here and there with Green Day and other alternative punk bands of the time, seeing them again live on stage, singing so well, so loud, with so much energy and charisma, it is impossible not to take a bow, only in our minds at least.

 

 

 

 

They played many of their hits, they had guitar solos to prove, if only needed, that they are more than just a punk riff, and gave their intelligent, colorful and acid speeches between songs. Punk music bands don’t tell people what to do, but they always say in a very direct way what they think about the surrounding reality. False modesty and lack of sense of humor found no place during the recital.

 

 

 

 

 

ROA

 

Perhaps the biggest proof that Your Vote Counts made room for all (good) music styles was the presence of the next band. The style changed and so the public in the first rows. The atmosphere was subtlety introduced by DJ Hefe who played Hacktivist - Niggas in Paris during the break between ZOB and ROA. Rise of Artificial is a musical project founded by Bogdan Popoiag (Dj UNU ') and Cezar Stanciulescu (Junkyard) in 2010. They have songs widely played in heavy rotation on the radio, with versions both in English and Romanian. Their two albums which can be played online on their website as well.

 

They put together a setlist illustrated with a speech according to the event concept. They refused the audience request for more commercial songs but they had to give into the request for encore, because, although they played long after midnight, the energy of the room was impossible to be ignored.

 

 

 

 

 

Luna Amara

 

I can’t help mentioning that Luna Amara is one of my old favorite bands. First time I saw them, like a thousand years ago (read at least more than 10 years), it was at their first concert in Bucharest. And I remember that night not only because it was my birthday, but also because it was the fist time I heard the band. Original music, built on everything that was quintessential in the 90s and carried further on. There never stopped at a style which could bring them commercial comfort. They have combined grunge with heavy rock and alternative music. Unlike other bands of that time, there were not using the trumpet to play ska-rock. There were always way ahead of their time, therefore it took them five years to issue an album, although they were already largely knows in Romania through hundreds of live concerts. Social messages, direct, radical attitude, lack of compromise and constant presence in the independent civic campaigns.

But Luna Amara is more than that, Luna Amara is the counterexample to prejudgments: they did not split up because of different musical tastes, they did not fought over leadership although they have two completely different vocalists, they did not reach the level to perform at Sziget festival or to open for Faith No More, Apocalyptica, Amorphis, Paradise Lost, Alice in Chains or Clawfinger just because they sold their souls to a record label. Is there anything more to imagine? Well, yes. Their message at Your Vote Counts was at least remarkable: if five different people like them, each of them with a different political choice and voting different candidates, can make music together and go together on the same stage, then the free right to vote can not be a cause for dissensions.

 

 

I'll go even further beyond establishing Luna Amara as a reference for artistic freedom of expression in Romania. Their song Folklore is a very old piece. Yet, still of actuality. One of the references is to the young people fallen for freedom in December 1989. And again, for the second time in that day, I found it bitter that such a fact has to be summoned against politicians each time we refer to elections. 

 

 

 

 

 

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MORE INFO:

► Toulouse Lautrec

WEBSITE: http://www.toulouselautrec.ro

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/toulouselautrecband

  Toulouse Lautrec - AUR

  YOUTUBE Channel

 

 

 

► ZOB

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ZobOfficial

WEBSITE: http://www.zob.ro/

  ZOB LIVE @ Zilele Prieteniei Bergenbier, Bucuresti 2014

  Prietena mea

 

 

 

► ROA

FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/roamusic

WEBSITE:http://www.roamusic.ro

  ROA LIVE @ Zilele Prieteniei Bergenbier, Ploiesti 2014

  Ne place

 

 

 

► Luna Amară

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/LunaAmaraBand

 Luna Amară - live at Bucovina Castle (full show)

 

 

 

► Robin and the Backstabbers

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/RobinandtheBackstabbers

WEBSITE: http://www.robinandthebackstabbers.com/

► Velosonics

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Velosonics

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Carol Halls

 

About the project: http://e-zeppelin.ro/halele-carol-viata-noua-in-haine-vechi/

FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Halele-Carol/1427181530885544

 

 

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Contează-Votează

 

FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/conteazavoteaza

WEBSITE:http://conteazavoteaza.info/

PROMOs (YOTUBE Channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFAhgl7lLua8hmv-Kjtts0g

 

 

 

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MIHAI RADULESCU FOTOGRAPHY 

WEBSITE: www.mihairadu.ro

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MihaiRaduPhoto

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