Erstellt am: 17. 5. 2010 - 10:48 Uhr

The Spring Break

The festival to go to if you just need a break.

One of my favorite festivals in Austria, generally speaking, is the Spring Festival in Graz. This is partly because of Graz itself, with its small and charming old-school venues, coffee shops, and friendly people. It is also, of course, because the international line-up is usually amazing, and with up to ten venues open at once, it's kind of hard to lose out.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

That's them breaks...

That said, the lines can be extraordinarily long, and I don't think anyone enjoys standing outside of a venue with hundreds of freezing people, in some cases without ever actually getting in. The prices are also not always student-friendly, and many local DJs and bands are not represented.

Fortunately we also have, running concurrently, the Spring Break Festival.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

However, there was no break from the Spring weather.

"Von 12 - 15 Mai bringen mehr als 50 Deejays die Wände des Grazer Subs zu beben," an organizer who wanted to remain anonymous told me.

"Abseits der establierten Grazer Locations, die zur gleichen Zeit von internationalen Top-acts bespielt werden bietet das sprng brk 2010 dem Besucher von dub, dubstep, electro, minimal, breakcore, metal, breaks, mashup, broken beat und drum&bass einen interessanten Mix."

One night, after finding an official Spring venue hopelessly clogged with lines, I decided to go and give this alternative festival a try.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

Grazer 8-bit producer Traxxköter played an entire set on his Gameboy.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

I lucked out with the first concert. Graz local Traxxköter was playing live his cover of Radiohead's I Might Be Wrong, on (as far as I could tell) his Gameboy.

He had his own original songs too, but they were all very distinctly 8-bit, and for about an hour I geeked out dancing to the same kinds of sounds I used to play video games to, in the distant 1990s.

The next artist I saw was a live band called Massacre on the Dance Floor, complete with a live singer, an electric bass player, and a third man on the synths and laptop.

The screaming vocals weren't entirely to my taste but I really liked the band's melodies and usage of real-life instruments. I couldn't really compare them to any of the other electronic acts I'd seen recently.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

Massacre on the Dance Floor. You can't see the bass player but he's there.

Johnny Bliss, 2010

The Sub is located very centrally and the party atmosphere and line-up is indisputably very different from the Spring Festival.

In short: if it's a break you want (from the main festivities), you could do a lot worse than the Spring Break at Sub.

Johnny Bliss, 2010