Here I am once again enjoying Caribana Festival in Crans-près-Celigny (Nyon), the first festival of the Summer! Being back at Caribana Festival is great as usual, small and cozy, the greatest thing of this festival is probably that you can see all the concerts if you want to. Because when a concert is over at the Scène du Lac, the one at the Grande Scène begins.

Day 1 – Wednesday June 3

This first day is dedicated to rock and what rock!! I let you discover the bands I’ve had the chance to see this year 😉

6:45pm-7:30pm, Scène du Lac

John Dear

John Dear is a Lausanne duo composed by a guy on the guitar and a charismatic girl on the drums. Their powerful and effective mix of beats and riffs is pointed out right from the first few notes. They play many instrumental bits in which the sounds’ intensity is even higher. The girl plays the drums banging on the plate with a bell.
They have some really addictive melodies where the guitar riffs beautifully scratch the drums’ constant beats. In the last song the riffs and beats chase each other getting louder and louder until they reach the climax, with the drummer standing up while playing! Just wow!

7.30pm-8:30pm, Grande Scène

Kill It Kid

These British band combines gospel, blues and rock. The result is an original sound, tying its roots in old blues. The two singers have both incredible voices which give you goosebumps.
It´s impossible to stay still when they play, their gospel sound touches your soul and makes you drift away with the minds whereas their riffs and drums beats make your body shake. Raging riffs at times; gospel music at others, there is something for every taste in it! They’re also cool with the public saying that it´s great to be back at Caribana Festival and be on the big stage this time!

8:30pm-9:30pm, Scène du Lac

John J. Presley

This British three piece composed by guitar piano and drums creates an effective mix of blues and rock. The singer and guitarist drifts at times into melancholic meanders, making the chords of his guitar vibrate. The voice of the girl in the background and the piano add a softer touch to their music.

9:30pm-10:45pm, Grande Scène

Skip The Use

This band from France set Paléo Festival on fire last year! Always in Nyon but in a different place this time they once more reconfirm themselves. The charismatic lead singer is an hyperactive showman who can entertain the audience incredibly well. They take the audience through a marathon of punk rock anthems.
They make the public sit down count to three and everybody jumps, hands on the air! They make us move all together at once to the left, a bit dangerous but fun!
A medley including Rage Against The Machines’ “Killing In The Name Of” gets everybody singing and screaming! They also play a song for the people of Northern France (where they come from) the frontman teaches the audience how to sing along to the “la la laa laa”, beautiful and fun moments! In other words, with Skip The Use the fun is assured!

11:45pm-1am, Grande Scène

Marilyn Manson

I found a lift back to Lausanne last minute (yey!) so that I could enjoy nothing but The Pale Emperor’s show! Throughout the concert it’s constantly reconfirmed that tonight he is indeed in perfect shape and is in a good mood. I can assure you that this wasn’t the case when I saw him in August at Openair Gampel. Here, despite addressing the audience with the usual “motherfuckers” he is pretty friendly! His stage entrance is pre-announced by some sort of dark Church music. and here he comes Marilyn Manson in person, icon of a generation and love him or hate him, his music is truly powerful! As he comes in he turns the microphone over his head, playing with it.

Half way through his concert he plays the song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, during which he makes the audience sing the refrain and scream along with him, how beautiful!
Afterwards, claiming that rock is not dead he plays his song “Rock is Dead”, which sounds amazingly the opposite and rocks! He also plays some songs taken from his new album The Pale Emperor they rock like hell and the audience’ response is pretty awesome!

Marilyn Manson sings “Reach Out To Touch Me” from a music stand, the audience joins in in the singing.
For the last song, the microphone is covered in flowers and Marilyn Manson is wearing a black coat with a kind of mask on it! Just to finish in his dark style!

Simona @TakeMe2aConcert