Grauzone 2025
Grauzone is an annual international dark wave1 festival that takes place in the city of The Hague in The Netherlands. Just 45 minutes by train from Amsterdam, Grauzone brings an impressive number of new and veteran dark-genre bands to a number of venues in The Hague for three nights of performances, DJs, film screenings and visual art exhibitions.
This year was my third visit to Grauzone. What has kept me going back is the overall vibe, which is open, friendly and expressive, and a good mix of new and established acts. These are a few of the bands that I saw at Grauzone 2025 and really enjoyed.
ACTORS
Jason Corbett must be some kind of crazy genius because I think he and his bandmates hit all the right nerves, perfectly blending rock, pop and bad-ass hand claps into a hot gothy dance-down. Kicking things off at the ripe hour of 5:30 pm on a Friday, ACTORS quickly gave those arriving fresh from the office with no time to slide into their leathers a bangin’ start to the weekend. But it was too short! I saw ACTORS play in London late 2022 in a smaller venue and they were even bad assy-ier, commanding the crowd with their sassy rockness. If their comin’ to your town, they’ll help you party down - def get yer tix!
Pol
Dutch brothers Matthijs and Ruben Pol are new new romantics bringing back the synthetic urgency, drama and playfulness of 80s new wave bands while also keeping place for rock-driven guitar and bass. Think Human League meets The Cars and Thompson Twins. Their performance at Grauzone included two super solid support musicians on drums and synth. They also had some rad t-shirts, but merch was difficult to get at the fest (grumble). There are still copies of their self-titled 12 inch EP available on Bandcamp.
Anika
Although she is known for her work with Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Anika’s performance at Grauzone reminded me of Tindersticks. The mood is set through and through with her voice - tone, intonation, and repetition, as well as lyrically. The short and subdued intros to each of her songs at Grauzone indicates that her forthcoming album Abyss is “frustration, anger and confusion with the world” but to tape. Single “Hearsay” brings me to the incredible drummer that accompanied her on stage. Her Grauzone 2025 performance included a beautiful rendition of Ray Davies’ “I Go To Sleep”.
Topographies
Topographies played to a cafe packed like sardines. I only managed to get this not-so-great photo by putting my phone above my head and randomly snapping. Unlike some acts at Grauzone, I don’t think spectacle is what Topgraphies is going for anyway. Their sound was great, with hints of Joy Division and Flock of Seagulls - good enough to enjoy with only the visual of some random dude’s neck and shoulders in front of me. Their four-song EP Brutality of Fact, was released (digitally) in early February this year.
Forgive me if I don’t have all the waves quite right :)