Grace to the Backstage for the Free and Easy-Festival. Otherwise, we wouldn´t have discovered Monomanic from Munich. Postmodern - or also benchmarking - means to take the best out of inspirations and create something own and something better. Monomanic´s finest blend of Uriah Heep prog, Grateful Dead´s jams and Thin Lizzy´s guitar harmonies forced us to see them although we had nice converations on the festival ground. This band sounded that good that we were glad to see and hear the last three songs. Surprisingly good

Valley of the Sun (VOTS) is one of our beloved family bands since we saw them in 2016, also at the Backstage. Their balance between Stoner, Rock, Punk, Folk and Psychedelic creates vey interesting records since 2010. Every record contains at least 4 or 5 killer tracks. That means, their setlist will never fail and their songs are live songs. Put this together with the usual anger about issues on stage, a well-greased rhythm-section, a great lightshow and a perfectly balanced sound at the right volume and the result was an amazing concert.

This concert was an acoustic trip in a US muscle car at 55mph, smooth, silent, a bit trippy and relaxed. The band has never changed their hypnotic and grooving rhythm,  accelerated in dynamics and volume. Their kind of kickdown to climb a hill or to overtake an even slower cruising car. Their jams with a mostly clear guitar floated into a harsh powerchord riffin which leads again to the calm and relaxed sound before. I guess, we never arrived at the end of a song, we were just trippin´ and suddenly the concert was over and we remained in these fascinating soundscapes the band created.

And so we left after an remarkable evening of great music.