Left of the Dial: Cool Things at 2024's festival

One of the coolest showcase festivals we've ever been to, Rotterdam's Left of the Dial leaves us feeling energised and looking forward to doing it all again in the future

Feature by Tallah Brash | 25 Oct 2024

Rotterdam’s Left of the Dial isn’t like other festivals. The organisers come at it with a unique vision, and the artists who make up its lineup are its beating heart. First things first, if you didn’t already know it, Rotterdam as a city is cool as fuck. There is art literally everywhere you look, and the city’s architecture is extraordinary, from the looming warped asymmetry of its central train station, to the giant mirrored plant pot-like building that houses the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen via the gargantuan Bram Ladage Markthal, a combined apartment complex and food court building that serves as a peephole to even more impressive architectural feats that lurk behind it. When it comes to music, Rotterdam is the birthplace of gabber, and its jazz, pop and alternative scenes are vibrant.

We had a truly magnificent time at Left of the Dial. It was refreshing, energising and eye-opening as to what a showcase festival can be. So in lieu of the usual chronological festival report, here are some cool things that happened instead.


Image: Barrel Organ playing Left of the Dial by The Replacements at the Opening Ceremony by Guus van der Aa

The Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony is a short sharp burst of utter joy as hundreds of us squeeze into Arminius, a former remonstrant church turned arts and culture venue. On our way in, a barrel organ plays a fairground version of The Replacements song the festival takes its name from, and as we enter the venue we’re handed an envelope that says ‘Do not open this envelope until 18:45h’. 

At the stated time, we open it and learn that as well as the barrel organ version of the song, it will also be played on the church organ. As it plays, banners unfurl from the balcony – one with the song’s lyrics, the other with the opening speech. "We want you to go home with lots of newly discovered music, more friends and nothing but wonderful memories," it reads. The letter also lets us in on a secret – unbeknownst to Saloon Dion, the Bristol band who open the festival – the organist has been practising the first song of their set for weeks and will play it when they arrive on stage. We wait in restless anticipation as LOTD flags are waved overhead and inflatable microphones rain down from the balcony. When the band realise what's happening, they look equal parts excited and perplexed. Someone hands them the letter and they punch the air in excitement. What a start!


Image: Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself? Conference Session at Left of the Dial by Marcel Boshuizen

Unique Conference Ideas
We meet with some of the team behind the festival on Friday morning ahead of their inaugural conference programme. Someone told them that to truly be a showcase festival, they need to introduce this element, but of course, much like their opening ceremony, they’re doing it on their own terms with some true Left of the Dial thinking. Alongside more standard panel discussions, a session titled Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself? puts able-bodied festival goers in the shoes of wheelchair users, with the challenge set to navigate their way around a venue, while a three-hour installation features an ambient, 100 times slowed down version of The Replacements’ song with whispered industry tips layered over it – tips like how to sell more merch, how to get booked to play a festival and more. It's a pretty surreal, but genuinely soothing experience.


Image: Savage Mansion Play Bands On a Boat at Left of the Dial by Tallah Brash

Bands On a Boat: Above Deck With Savage Mansion
On Friday and Saturday afternoon Bands On a Boat sees two one-hour boat trips set sail along the Nieuwe Maas (the river that bisects the city), each soundtracked by two Left of the Dial bands; we’re fortunate enough to wheedle our way onto the second Friday session featuring Glasgow band Savage Mansion and London-based, Edinburgh artist Samuel Nicholson. Despite the choppy waters, the two perform spectacularly, Savage Mansion frontman Craig Angus and Nicholson’s backing band all proudly donning the boat-themed LOTD sailor hats as they pound and contort through ear-splitting sets.

We catch up with Angus and find out why he loves the festival so much. “I love Left of the Dial, man. Having been there with Former Champ and now Savage Mansion it really feels like something that everybody involved really cares about… The way it's tied into The Replacements tune, these people are romantic about alternative music in the same way that the narrator of that song is. When someone provides that climate, especially in the context of being a musician in Scotland right now, where income streams are narrowing and venues are threatened and public money is disappearing from the arts, when someone conjures up something like LOTD you can't help but get swept up in it, to revel in that good feeling but also to want more for your own community. 

“The boat show was a special one.” He continues: “I had no idea what to expect but it was such a joy to play to such an enthusiastic crowd of music lovers. I was in a blissful state for the duration of that show, although I was also trying really hard not to fall over, which I almost did a few times. Samuel's a really cool guy. I hadn't heard his tunes before we went over but what a talented performer and writer he is. It was cool to have the Scottish presence there this year.”

Dan Carey Watching No Windows
Speedy Wunderground label founder and top tier producer Dan Carey is in town with his band Miss Tiny who, like many other bands at Left of the Dial, play multiple shows over the festival’s three days. He also speaks on a panel at the festival’s smartly curated conference programme. He’s busy. Whenever we spot him, bands are lining up to talk to him. So it’s a rush when he sidles up alongside us during No Windows’ second show at the festival, in Waalse Kerk, a venue that's a little trickier to get to than some others.

Playing as a four-piece, the Edinburgh duo of Verity Slangen and Morgan Morris are joined on stage by drummer Ryan Bradley and bassist Heather McRae. In between fumbling for misplaced capos and telling stories of their car getting broken into in Brussels, they run through tracks from Point Nemo and Fish Boy, the scuzz and backing vocals of Shout (Red Song) a warm and woozy alt-pop joy; the partnership between Slangen and Morris is nothing short of heartening, and when they perform a track just the two of them, it's pure magic. At the end of their set, we see Carey go over to talk to them; we’ve no idea what was said, but how cool. Maybe it's a sign of things to come?


Image: Crowdsurfing at Heavy Lungs at Left of the Dial by Tineke Klamer

Moshpit Workshop
The last day of the festival is packed. The afternoon features loads of ‘official unofficial’ shows, screenings of music documentaries and more. Our first port of call is Tonyz Rock Etiquette Session: Learn How to Mosh. Tonyz are a cool Rotterdam-based art and music collective that host shows, film screenings and all sorts of fun stuff year-round in the city. Delivered by three of its members, the moshpit workshop hosted in Arminius is funny and engaging, and yet another example of thinking outside of the box.

After accidentally (on purpose) creating a wall of death at the top of the session, advice given for moshing includes: check your outfit, help fallen angels, elbows down. For crowdsurfing, we're taught the importance of a strong Jesus-like pose, the role of the crowd and to be mindful of where you’re touching people. After these lessons, theory is put into practice with those willing, and by the end we’re ready for the wall of death and ensuing rammy. It’s fitting that after the session, the first band to play in the space is the Danny Nedelko-fronted Heavy Lungs, with many immediately putting what they’ve just learned into practice. At 4pm, we might add.


Image: AK/DK playing the 160k arcade at Left of the Dial by Marcel van Leeuwen

Watching Bands in a Retro Video Games Arcade
From art galleries and defunct docked boats to churches, salsa bars, theatres and karaoke clubs helping host around 150 bands over the course of the three-day festival, the coolest venue by far is 160K, a classic retro video game arcade. We assumed bands would just be in the backroom of this venue, but no, they all play in amongst it with a backdrop of classic retro arcades like Cyber Cycles, The House of the Dead, Time Crisis II and Street Fighter. People play air hockey behind us during the Mermaid Chunky show on Friday, while others perch on the Dance Machine at the back in the hopes of getting a better view.

On Saturday, the static guitars, techno beats and acerbic Dutch language lyrics of Gespuys, a dance duo from Delft, is perfect for the space, while witnessing Japanese noise duo HYPER GAL inciting a moshpit is unreal. But the coolest thing we see here is perhaps our new favourite band – AK/DK. On the cusp of releasing their third album, Strange Loops, Ed Chivers and Graham Sowerby's live show hits like an adrenaline shot. Reminiscent at points of artists like Snapped Ankles and Battles, the pair make the kind of math rock and disco traversing motorik, cosmic electro that truly gets the pulse racing; it's hard to wipe the smile from your face whenever they burst into sections of synchronised drumming.


Image: Mermaid Chunk at WORM at Left of the Dial by Guus van der Aa

Mermaid Chunky x3
Every time we see Mermaid Chunky it’s better than the last. On Thursday, we catch them in a teeny tiny room on a dinky stage at WORM where we have to elbow our way to the front to see/hear anything; on Friday their vibrant Mighty Boosh aesthetic fits perfectly in the retro video game surroundings of the 160k arcade. But it’s at De Doelen Up on Saturday where things really click into place and the duo of Freya Tate and Moina Moin – noted for restoring LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy’s faith in music – are fully in their element. 

Granted space to frolic their way through playful choreography in-between songs that start out as masterful sax solos or looped descant recorder melodies; when Tate drops the beat on lengthy cuts like céilí, nature girl or chaperone, from their recent slif slaf slof record – “our version of live, laugh, love,” so Moin tells us – it brings with it an intoxicating burst of joy, as eye-openingly bright and life-giving as their fashion sense. There's nobody else doing it quite like Mermaid Chunky, and Savage Mansion's Craig Angus agrees: "I feel like that Mermaid Chunky show really energised me in a way live performance hasn't for a while. And the whole band felt the same way."

Bikini Body’s Mr Tinnitus Gets a Spin at the After Party
After every day of live music at Left of the Dial at Rotown, the venue run all year round by the festival, there's an open-to-everyone after party. We go on Saturday night for a DJ set from Paris club night Supersonic. The brief is clear from the off, this is 100% all killer, no filler indie bangers: Blur, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, LCD Soundsystem, The Smiths – the lads are all there. And then suddenly, we recognise the disco drums, slinky bass, sassy guitars and forthright vocals of Vicky Kavanagh from Edinburgh babes Bikini Body. We get embarrassingly excited, which isn't very cool at all, but hearing Mr Tinnitus get played at the after party for one of the coolest festivals we’ve been to, and seeing a packed venue dance along to it without a care was pretty fucking cool indeed.  

More cool things...
Seeing Glasgow duo Man of Moon play one of the festival's bigger spaces – Perron Big – and pack it out on Thursday night. Tiberius b admitting to finishing one of their songs on the Eurostar on their way to the festival during their Friday evening set at Rotown. Meeting Personal Trainer frontman Willem Smit and Pip Blom at the Mermaid Chunky show in the 160k arcade. The dedicated venue for merch – Merch Minimart – where they can print band tees for you in any size, with the logos placed anywhere you like. Katie Healy from Dog Race's voice. The way the bands rave about how well they're treated. “We just give them food, drink and a bed, it’s not much,” says the festival's Mink Steekelenburg when we chat ahead of the conference, admitting: “It says more about other festivals.”

Finally, here's a playlist featuring most of the music that made our festival!


Left of the Dial returns to Rotterdam in 2025, 23-25 Oct; tickets on sale now at leftofthedial.nl