DIALOGUE
I arrived in time to see Dialogue kick of the day with their groovy rock and metal. This threesome from the eastern parts of The Netherlands had quite some trouble getting the attention of the crowd (about one hundred people) but that wasn’t due to their music. Opening a festival is just hard. As a matter of fact I was quite impressed by these guys. Their music is quite basic, but didn’t bore me for one single minute; a band with potential and a very pleasant lead vocalist.

LEMON
Next up was the band Lemon. These guys had played the Polderpop festival two years back and obviously liked the show so much they decided to return to Leuth. This time the band got the opportunity to play the main stage. The way Lemon presented themselves was more professional than the previous band. Nevertheless, their groovy britpop couldn’t really impress me. The band was also quite boring to watch. Bass player Mark Bongers and vocalist Ralf Hesen took the prominent places on stage while the drummer, the percussionist and the guy on samples were almost hidden in the corners at the far end of the stage. It’s nice to play on the main stage, but when you haven’t got a clue what to do with all that extra space, you’re better off playing a smaller stage.

FREZNO FALLS
Frezno Falls is the only band in the line-up I was familiar with. A couple of weeks back I reviewed their new cd Morning Star, which is not a bad album. It might be because I had some expectations for this band but their performance did not impress me much. I think that the sound of the band is just a little bit too general (too many very obvious references) to make an impression at a festival. There’s not much wrong with the music, but their pop rock proved to be no more than nice background music. Frezno Falls should have more guts and try to improve their music by taking a little bit more risk with the song writing. In this moment of time the band is playing safe a little bit too much.

One In A Million
One In A Million was something different. This britrock punk band even managed to bring along a few fans so the front row was filled with enthusiastic female fans and photographers, finally witnessing some action on the other side of the lens. I’m no big fan of the style of music this band from Tilburg is playing but they were very convincing in all they were doing. The band entered the stage all dressed up in costume, remember it was over thirty degrees Celsius! And immediately kicked off in the highest gear. Their show was one hell of a ride and quite fun to watch. One In A Million played so fast that the festival actually was ahead on schedule.

BULLSEYE POWERROCK
After a short break, to make up for the extra time, Bullseye Powerrock entered the stage. I would not be able to listen to an all metal festival, but one or two metal bands in the line-up suits me perfectly. Again, not exactly my cup of tea music wise, but yet a pretty impressive performance. I just keep being amazed by the soft characters most of these heavy looking guys show on stage. You can’t possibly write down something bad about this band after you’ve seen vocalist Marco Vreeburgs friendly (and somewhat shy) smile while he’s talking to the audience. I can imagine that the music of Bullseye Powerrock was a bit too much for Leuth, but I cannot imagine anyone not liking this band.

After Bullseye Powerrock three more bands hit the stage. Solid Rocker Boosters, Eelman and Zober. But after watching five bands in this heat I decided I was better off calling it a day. Polderpop is a friendly festival that I will probably attend next year as well.

(Review & Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)