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Vera (music venue in Groningen, the Netherlands)

VERA is an abbreviation of 'Veri Et Recti Amici' ('True and sincere friends'). Vera was founded in 1899 as a debating club and later became a student association. In 1974, Vera became a music, cinema, and dance club.

Vera runs on volunteers who are members of the Vera club. There is some paid staff, including the music programmer. From 1980 to 2021, Peter Weening was Vera's programmer. The style of music that has predominated at the music venue over the years is rock, from indie and post-rock to punk and metal. It also features reggae, electronic music such as hip-hop, drum 'n' bass and techno, and avant-garde/experimental music. Since 2021, Peter Dijkstra has been Vera's programmer.

The posters for Vera performances are renowned. They are designed by volunteers from the screen printing group. The posters are made in an edition of less than a hundred and are often sought-after collector's items. The book "Rockin on Paper" (2006) about Vera's history includes prints of 350 posters made in-house. In 2020, Willem Kolvoort exhibited his Vera posters at the Groninger Museum.

Bands before they became famous

Over time, several artists have appeared on Vera's stage and later became big. Some bands have performed at Vera several times. This overview shows the year of their debut: XTC (1979), Bauhaus (1980), Joy Division (1980), Simple Minds (1980), U2 (1980), The Cure (1980), The Birthday Party (1982), Cocteau Twins (1983), Dead Can Dance (1983), Killing Joke (1983), Sonic Youth (1983), Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1984), Sisters of Mercy (1984), Swans (1984), The Jesus and Marry Chain (1985), Butthole Surfers (1985), Slayer (1985), Big Black (1986), The Replacements (1986), Bad Brains (1987), Dinosaur Jr. (1987), The Dream Syndicate (1987), The Beatnigs, met Michael Franti (1988), Soul Asylum (1988), Scream, with Dave Grohl as drummer (1988), Nirvana (1989), Buffalo Tom (1989), Flaco Jiménez (1989), Bad Religion (1989), The Lemonheads (1989), Soundgarden (1989), Mudhoney (1989), NOFX (1990), Incubus (1991), Hole, with Courtney Love as singer (1991) Afghan Whigs (1992), Pearl Jam (1992), Monster Magnet (1992), Paris (1993), Beck (1994), Weezer (1995), 16 Horsepower (1996), Low (1996), Roni Size (1997), Squarepusher (1997), Calexico (1998), Common (2000), The White Stripes (2001), Spoon (2001), Interpol (2003), Mastodon (2003), Editors (2005), Animal Collective (2007), Deerhunter (2008), The War on Drugs (2011), Fucked Up (2011), Ty Segall (2011), Cloud Nothings (2012), Sharon Van Etten (2012), King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2014), Mdou Moctar (2015), Waxahatchee (2015), Big Thief (2018), Car Seat Headrest (2018), Oh Sees (2018), and Wet Leg (2022).

Artists with long careers

There were also artists performing at Vera who already had long careers, such as Sun Ra (1980), R.L. Burnside (1980), Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society, with Vernon Reid (1981) on guitar, Bo Diddley (1982), Alex Chilton (1986), Curtis Mayfield (1987), Jonathan Richman (1991), Link Wray (1997) en Robert Crumb (& his Cheap Suit Serenaders).

Artists from all over the world

Most performances are by bands from Western countries. Regularly bands from Japan also play, including Acid Mothers Temple, Boredoms, Cornelius, Envy, Guitar Wolf, Melt-Banana, Mono, Otoboke Beaver, and Shonen Knife. Other Asian bands came from South Korea (Jambinai), Thailand (Khana Bierbood), Mongolia (Hanggai), and China (Carsick Cars). African artists came from Algeria (Imarhan), Ethiopia (Etenesh Wassie; Fendika; Getatchew Mekurya), Ghana (Gyedu-Blay Ambolley; Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band), Mali (Samba Touré; Tamikrest), Niger (Les Filles De Illighadad; Mdou Moctar), Togo (Togo All Stars; Vaudoo Game), and South Africa (Gert Vlok Nel; Jack Parow). Several artists were also from Latin America, from countries such as Brazil (CSS), Chile (Föllakzoid), Colombia (Meridian Brothers; Los Pirañas; Romperayo), Mexico (Lorelle Meets The Obsolete; Mint Field), and Puerto Rico (Davilla 666). From Jamaica, for example, came Anthony B., Chronixx, Jah Mason, and Pat Kelly.

Eurosonic

Every year Vera is a Eurosonic stage. During that festival, numerous bands performed at Vera that became famous soon after, including Franz Ferdinand (2004), The Libertines (2005), Ben Howard (2011), Bastille (2013), Royal Blood (2014), Oscar and the Wolf (2015), Dua Lipa (2016), IDLES (2017), Black Midi (2019), Fontaines D.C. (2019), Black Country, New Road (2020), Squid (2020), and Dry Cleaning (2020).

Poll

Every year a poll is conducted among Vera visitors. Over the years, several famous bands have won the poll. There is a Wall of Fame in Vera's Main Hall with all the winners of the poll. No foreign artist has performed at the Vera as often as Fred Cole and his wife Toody. They have performed with their bands Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows but also as a duo. On their debut in 1990, they won the poll. Some bands won the poll twice: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Blonde Redhead, Protomartyr en Black Lips. Henry Rollins en Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez won the poll both solo and with, respectively, the Rollins Band en At the Drive-In.

Year	Best concert
1981	Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
1982	Virgin Prunes
1983	Kowalski
1984	The Gun Club
1985	The Scientists
1986	Giant Sand
1987	Henry Rollins
1987	Naked Prey
1988	Rollins Band
1989	Screaming Trees
1990	Dead Moon
1991	The Jesus Lizard
1992	The Gories
1993	The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
1994	The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
1995	Shellac
1996	Blonde Redhead
1997	Blonde Redhead
1998	Godspeed You! Black Emperor
1999	Mogwai
2000	At the Drive-In
2001	Zen Guerilla
2002	Prong
2003	The Thermals
2004	The Hackensaw Boys
2005	Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez
2006	Two Gallants
2007	Black Lips
2008	The Dodos
2009	Health
2010	Villagers
2011	Davila 666
2012	Triggerfinger
2013	Parquet Courts
2014	together PANGEA
2015	Mike Krol
2016	Protomartyr
2017	Protomartyr
2018	IDLES
2019	Jambinai
2020	Otoboke Beaver
2021	Black Lips
2022	Tropical Fuck Storm

Publications

• Ricky van Duuren en Niek Schutter: Rockin on paper. The Vera club. A history in posters. Spoetnik & VERA Groningen, 2006. ISBN 90-90-21438-0 With DVD Excerpts from the VERA video archives

External links

• Website of Vera