By coincident I found out that the Popronde was in Eindhoven last Friday. Popronde is a festival that travels through the Netherlands. You pay 5€ for a ticket and can go see different up and coming acts in several locations throughout the city. As I did not know any of the acts and it was raining that night we decided to stay at one location for the evening, at POPEI. I simply cannot describe how amazing it felt to be at a concert again.

Unfortunately we were a bit late for the opening act and missed part of the set. Micah & Julia awaited us on the stage: Micah with an acoustic guitar, Julia with an incredible mane of hair. Julia immediately won me over with her voice, singing in harmonie with Micah. Their whole performance was acoustic, some even without the microphones, and it was enchanting. It really put a smile on my face. I would not be surprised if they would make their way onto bigger stages in the future.

The following set was done by Indigo Pastel. A group of interesting looking people with an interesting choice of songs. The one that is stuck best in my memory was called „Doberman Rockefeller – woof woof“, which was also the entire content of the text. They seemed quite nervous in the beginning, which they later explained by ‚performing in front of standing people for the first time‘. An absolute entertaining band with a drummer who reminded me very much of Adam from Sex Education (with long hair).

After this edgy bunch came quite the opposite: a young women with her e-guitar, dressed in white, accompanied by her bassist&pianist, dressed in black: ANNNA. „The Latvian born Dutchy“, as she describes herself, writes and produces her own music and, further, designs CO2 neutral merch. I really enjoyed the concept of her electronic-based indie. However, it felt a bit like they were still looking for their own vibe on stage. It might have been better if people would stop talking during performances (something, that I find very annoying and disrespectful either way) or if they would have performed with more musicians (which they, apparently, sometimes do). Or maybe it was just due to nerves or an imperfect soundcheck. After all, I would definitely go and see them again.

The last act we saw was MEAU. A young woman with her band and very deep lyrics in Dutch about things that affect her. I savoured her performance way more than I expected after quickly listening to her recordings. I have to say that I would prefer it if she sang in English, but this could partly be based on me not being a Dutch native speaker. However, especially during the live performance of her latest song „Dat heb jij gedaan“ (Translated: You have done that) I could easily forget about that. This woman with her energy during live performances will make something of herself, I am sure of it!

If you are interested in seeing the Popronde, it will be travelling until the end of November throughout the Netherlands. On their website you find more informations about which acts are playing where.