Rock Werchter 2023

[thewayiam]

Rosalia and Ben Howard are about the two worst additions I can think of to a Rock Festival. 

Rosalia, Queens then Monkeys is awful.

Friday looks good but Sunday my god.

What happened Rock Werchter?

Edited December 14, 2022 by thewayiam

[49Lawson]

20 minutes ago, Toshbas said:

Will Ben Howard be the second headliner on Friday then? He's more like a Barn name, no?

Certain Ben Howard has played a couple of times in the years I’ve been; he’s definitely not a first timer and I don’t know for definite but I’d be shocked if he’s headliner size.

[tmolvik]

8 minutes ago, 49Lawson said:

Certain Ben Howard has played a couple of times in the years I’ve been; he’s definitely not a first timer and I don’t know for definite but I’d be shocked if he’s headliner size.

Ben Howard is of course not anything remotely close to a headliner. If that insanely enough should be the case, then RW can close down and throw away the key. 

[Jefb]

2 hours ago, Gossard said:

Of course everybody meant third down when they said subbing 😆

AM are announced as headliners, not co-headliners, just as headliners.
https://www.rockwerchter.be/en/news/arctic-monkeys-at-rock-werchter-2023

It doesn't say anything about co-headlining in the QOTSA announcement.
https://www.rockwerchter.be/en/news/Queens-of-the-Stone-Age-join-the-Rock-Werchter-2023-line-up 

Yes everybody meant this, like mentioned, Qotsa and Arctic Monkeys are co-headliners and Rosalia is sub. That´s how RW works a lot of times

2022:

Anne-Marie (sub) - 21Pilots (co-headliner) - Imagine Dragons (co-headliner)

Royal Blood (sub) - The Killers (co-headliner) - RHCP (co-headliner)

 

[BenG92]

2 hours ago, Gossard said:

It doesn't say anything about co-headlining in the QOTSA announcement.

Are there any announcements where they explicitly state somebody is a co-headliner? Think you're taking some of their wording a bit too literally

[EV123]

I am already looking forward to @Gossard and @thewayiam reaction when Lizzo is our following announcement confirming she is sub/co-headliner on Friday or Thursday! 😍

Rosalía as sub is an amazing addition in any case!

[VolkIreland]

3 minutes ago, EV123 said:

I am already looking forward to @Gossard and @thewayiam reaction when Lizzo is our following announcement confirming she is sub/co-headliner on Friday or Thursday! 😍

Rosalía as sub is an amazing addition in any case!

Plz noooo

[Johnpf1]

At least Rosalia will be at supper time so can get food and have some beers as I would imagine her fans aren't waiting around for QTSA or Arctic Monkeys afterwards. 

Can live with Ben Howard a lot more. Not the greatest singer - songwriter but there are a lot worse around as well.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Johnpf1

[Ohad]

1 hour ago, thewayiam said:

Rosalia and Ben Howard are about the two worst additions I can think of to a Rock Festival. 

Rosalia, Queens then Monkeys is awful.

Friday looks good but Sunday my god.

What happened Rock Werchter?

Well, it's rock oriented, but clearly not a rock exclusive festival. 

[BenG92]

13 minutes ago, Johnpf1 said:

At least Rosalia will be at supper time so can get food and have some beers as I would imagine her fans aren't waiting around for QTSA or Arctic Monkeys afterwards. 

Forget "her" fans, I think a lot of people who love music will be watching all three. If I was there Rosalia into QOTSA would probably be the highlight of the weekend for me. I'd just piss off after as I'd rather take Ambien than watch AM again. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by BenG92

[Rico_Pliskin]

8 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

Forget "her" fans, I think a lot of people who love music will be watching all three. If I was there Rosalia into QOTSA would probably be the highlight of the weekend for me. I'd just piss off after as I'd rather take Ambien than watch AM again. 

Next AM album should be AM-bien.

[Nicklord]

Rock Werchter 2007 top 2 lines:

Muse, Bjork, Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, QOTSA, The Chemical Brothers, Keane, Peter Gabriel, Metallica, Faithless, Incubus, Tori Amos

At least 4/13 aren't rock at all and some are on the border

[Johnpf1]

12 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

Forget "her" fans, I think a lot of people who love music will be watching all three. If I was there Rosalia into QOTSA would probably be the highlight of the weekend for me. I'd just piss off after as I'd rather take Ambien than watch AM again. 

So you aren't going to RW I gather? So the people who are lyrical about it are the ones not actually going to watch this awesome programming

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Johnpf1

[branvan]

Ben Howard was my favourite concert of the whole weekend at Rock Werchter when he was playing the last time! It was magical. So please stop complaining about him. 

[49Lawson]

I had a listen to Rosalia, not really my thing but I could imagine it being fun live in an afternoon in the Sun after a few beers. I’d likely be at Puscifer in Klub C at that time anyways.
 

But I do think when people start arguing about sales metrics as the justification for people being there over things that fit the genre you start end up having two different arguments and it just goes around in circles. I don’t dispute Rosalia is big enough to play that slot based on the numbers people have been throwing around; but if that’s the way the festival goes you probably open it up to the likes of Bieber, Drake etc headlining (because they’re big enough, not because they match what the festival is “about”)and then the festival moves away completely from what it was. Which is absolutely fine if that’s where it’s heading, they have to survive but I think people need to be a bit more appreciative that their ‘core’ audience aren’t going to be fully supportive of that and that’s fine.

I don’t really have a dog in this fight, I’d much rather the line up looked like it did x amounts of years ago but it they still have loads more on offer than anywhere else for my tastes, and I’m sure come March it’ll still probably be the strongest line up about.

[49Lawson]

Apologies for the double post but just to further build on what I said; I think what some people (myself included) are feeling a bit down about is that there isn’t really a major music festival that caters to what we want anymore. Every festival seems to stretch themselves so thinly to cater for everyone now, but there isn’t a ‘major” festival which focuses on all of the guitar based genres (for lack of a better description).

Last year’s Mad Cool was probably the closest any festival has come to achieving that since the pandemic, but Werchter used to be the absolute masters of it. I think that’s why you probably get some of the regulars more vocal about it in here than any other forum on here

[BenG92]

16 minutes ago, Johnpf1 said:

So you aren't going to RW I gather? So the people who are lyrical about it are the ones not actually going to watch this awesome programming

I can't because I'm doing Glasto, but the most exciting acts on this lineup so far are mostly the non-rock acts. 

On one hand you've got RHCP who are an immediate repeat booking, AM's new album is an absolute turkey, Muse haven't made a good album in 18 years. Meanwhile Stromae's live show is electric, Rosalia had one of the best albums of the year, Fred Again is the biggest name in electronic music in a while. 

All subjective of course but the rock in Rock Werchter this year is shit, frankly, aside from QOTSA. 

[Johnpf1]

3 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

I can't because I'm doing Glasto, but the most exciting acts on this lineup so far are mostly the non-rock acts. 

On one hand you've got RHCP who are an immediate repeat booking, AM's new album is an absolute turkey, Muse haven't made a good album in 18 years. Meanwhile Stromae's live show is electric, Rosalia had one of the best albums of the year, Fred Again is the biggest name in electronic music in a while. 

All subjective of course but the rock in Rock Werchter this year is shit, frankly, aside from QOTSA. 

I gather that you prefer non-rock anyway, so that it's subjective i agree. For myself I have no interest in those 3 non-rocks acts mentioned, except maybe Stromae. But I'm sure enough rock acts will be around as well. 

[thewayiam]

1 hour ago, EV123 said:

I am already looking forward to @Gossard and @thewayiam reaction when Lizzo is our following announcement confirming she is sub/co-headliner on Friday or Thursday! 😍

Rosalía as sub is an amazing addition in any case!

 

18 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

I can't because I'm doing Glasto, but the most exciting acts on this lineup so far are mostly the non-rock acts. 

On one hand you've got RHCP who are an immediate repeat booking, AM's new album is an absolute turkey, Muse haven't made a good album in 18 years. Meanwhile Stromae's live show is electric, Rosalia had one of the best albums of the year, Fred Again is the biggest name in electronic music in a while. 

All subjective of course but the rock in Rock Werchter this year is shit, frankly, aside from QOTSA. 

If I was in Belgium and looking to go, I'd attend Friday for a day ticket and that is all.

[thewayiam]

1 hour ago, EV123 said:

I am already looking forward to @Gossard and @thewayiam reaction when Lizzo is our following announcement confirming she is sub/co-headliner on Friday or Thursday! 😍

Rosalía as sub is an amazing addition in any case!

I would much rather Lizzo than Rosalia, that's not even close.

24 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

I can't because I'm doing Glasto, but the most exciting acts on this lineup so far are mostly the non-rock acts. 

On one hand you've got RHCP who are an immediate repeat booking, AM's new album is an absolute turkey, Muse haven't made a good album in 18 years. Meanwhile Stromae's live show is electric, Rosalia had one of the best albums of the year, Fred Again is the biggest name in electronic music in a while. 

All subjective of course but the rock in Rock Werchter this year is shit, frankly, aside from QOTSA. 

If I was in Belgium and looking to go, I'd attend Friday for a day ticket and that is all.

[Johnpf1]

17 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

 

If I was in Belgium and looking to go, I'd attend Friday for a day ticket and that is all.

Friday is the about the best day so far. Werchter is always good with that. Friday and Sunday 'stronger' line ups and fill the Saturday with crap so people are almost forced to buy a combi ticket rather than 2 day tickets with a 'dead' day in between. Last year was a prime example. What was the Saturday useless.....

Edited December 14, 2022 by Johnpf1

[neacaisa]

I think Ben Howard was third down on main stage in the Pearl Jam day in 2018. He will probably retain his spot. 

[BenG92]

29 minutes ago, Johnpf1 said:

I gather that you prefer non-rock anyway, so that it's subjective i agree. For myself I have no interest in those 3 non-rocks acts mentioned, except maybe Stromae. But I'm sure enough rock acts will be around as well. 

I don't have a genre preference, I'm doing Glasto and Download next year, did Primavera and Werchter this year. I just think as someone else said above, people looking for pure rock festivals are going to be quite let down as rock is pretty dead right now for live music. Lots of really exciting smaller acts but all the headliners are bands who've been going for decades. Or you get stuff like The 1975 who are very divisive as a pop-leaning rock act.

[tmolvik]

8 minutes ago, neacaisa said:

I think Ben Howard was third down on main stage in the Pearl Jam day in 2018. He will probably retain his spot. 

I'm quite sure he played before Anderson Paak in the Barn that year, so not nearly headliner-material then and definitely not closer now either. I don't mind him coming at all, but if people start consider him a sub for a headliner at the main stage, that's insane (but given how this year is going, I'm guessing nothing is impossible for RW currently).  

[e2p2]

43 minutes ago, neacaisa said:

I think Ben Howard was third down on main stage in the Pearl Jam day in 2018. He will probably retain his spot. 

He played second from the top in the Barn. Jack Johnson played before PJ and Jack White.