On April 20th and 21th the twelfth edition of the Roadburn Festival took place at 013, a venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands with a capacity of 2500 people. It was completely sold out. More than half of the tickets were sold to visitors from outside The Netherlands, consolidating Roadburn\'s position as Europe\'s premier festival for worshippers of heavy drums and mighty riffs. For two days 013 was completely transformed in Planet Roadburn with visitors from Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, US, UK, Finland and Japan.

Orange Sunshine
Friday April 20th: the first day opens with Dutch powerhouse Orange Sunshine, featuring Guy Tavares on drums and vocals. The group manages to catch the soul of the motor-blues garage-punk and acid proto hard rock era of the late \'60\'s and the early 70\'s with their bluesy fuzz rock. Great band to start this festival.

Clutch
Next are electrifying groove-rock behemoths Clutch, featuring Jean Paul Gaster on drums. They are rolling like a freight train, for a major part because of Gaster\'s drumming which is reminiscent to the late Led Zeppelin sticksman John Bonham. Clutch have been around since the nineties, and their experience proves on stage! Without problem the group wins over the audience. On top of that Eric Oblander of Five Horse Johnson and Scott \"Wino\" Weinrich of The Hidden Hand join the band as guest musicians.

Porn
San Francisco band The Men of Porn, also simply known as Porn, specialise in a melange of Southern rock, sludge and noise. Heavy, muddy soundschapes alternate with squeeqing guitars and samples. Dale Crover, also in The Melvins, cuts through the slow riffs with heavy drum solos.

Blue Cheer
Seminal fuzz-rock pioneers Blue Cheer do a one-off show. Original drummer Paul Whaley and the rest of the band emphasise on their legendary albums, \"Vincebus Eruptum\" and \"Inside Outside\". Hailing from San Francisco, the group mix heavy blues, rock and a bit of jazz with heavy metal. Their show dicharges into a long psychedelic jam. They have been around since 1967 and still play it very loud. Hooray for the golden oldies.

Big Business and The Melvins
Jared Warren and Coady Willis, the guys from Big Business, are part of The Melvins too now-a-days. So headlining this first day of Roadburn are two bands. The stage shows two drum sets in a mirror image (drummer Coady Willis\'s left handed), sharing some cymbals.

Big Business start with their set, which flows directly into the Melvins\' after half an hour. The transition is seamless, the effect immense. Initially Dale Crover joins them on guitar, but switches to drums later. When Coady Willis and Dale Crover fuse their drums, everything becomes incredibly intense. The surplus value of their double drums and the multiple vocals is even more clear than on their latest record, \"(A) Senile Animal\".

The Melvins are the first post-punk band to revel in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath. As All Music Guide once described: \"Their music is oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the silly mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos —it\'s just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime\". Thanks to the excellent work by the rhythm section, their show is tremendous and one of the festival\'s highlights!