Posts tagged Electronic
Datarock @ The Garage
Oct 23rd
3rd October 2011
There is a good reason why clubs are empty on Mondays, and that’s because they fall on a Monday. Tonight we’re in for an 80′s inspired retro night of disco-beats and danceable rock in the sparsely populated Relentless Garage.
The brave few who decided to turn up early for the support band (us included) were not rewarded with a great upcoming talent. Instead we had a Norwegian Duo with two names, two set times and two instruments (Guitar and MacBook Pro). It was tough to tell the difference between their 2 bands Syntax TerrOrkester and Baetur because they were both totally devoid of merit, end of. A very slow start!
Baetur & Syntax TerrOkester (Spot the Difference?)
Thankfully the London based dark pop band Scanners were here to liven the drab scene. Deep and melodic indie rock guitars suited the vocals of Sarah Daly who howled and yelped her way though a lively and emotionally wrought set. Mixing up twinkling chimes and chasm-like guitar reverb they struck an overcast sound that could pull both the heart strings and the ‘let her rip’-cords. Packing in plenty of cool tunes such as the sweet Baby Blue, darkly acoustic Salvation and the firecracker set closer Raw these guys turned round the nights fortunes.
Scanners
Soon the crowd swelled with red tracksuit’s in anticipation of the headline act, who burst on to stage in their own matching set. Datarock, looking like 80′s fools they kicked into their unique tongue in cheek disco mayhem. Yet something wasn’t right. Whether it was the sparse crowd, the over the top calls to go crazy (on a monday!), the sound balance (low guitars and non-existent bass) or just poor performance, the set was not going well for these norse dance vikings. Yet in one divine moment of inspiration it all changed…
“Everybody come in close (we know its a Monday) but please we have a 360 camera and were gonna film the video for our new song California”
I an instant the vibe changed from social club toe tapping to hedonistic clubbing heaven. Following up this with the introduction of Happy Mondays Dancer Bez and Guitarist Kav, guesting on a hypersonic and massively extended version of Fa-Fa-Fa, this was the shot in the arm this show needed. From here they never looked back, adding more and more urgency with their relentless party tunes including I Used To Dance With My Daddy and their biggest hit Computer Camp Love.
Datarock
Returning from a short set break, I witnessed what I can only accept as a dream. Their drummer led a karaoke version of the cheesiest song that has ever…or will ever exist, I’ve Had The Time Of My Life! It was complete with band members jumping into the crowd to lead the tune and they even managed to throw in the Sax solo to boot. But like I said. I never saw it. It didn’t happen. I didn’t embrace the cheese. I most definitely did not sing along ;)
Bez – “doin the MADchester Dance“
Nevertheless, crime to music everywhere ignored, this was a thoroughly enjoyable set from a fun time band who never take themselves too seriously (if that wasn’t obvious enough already!).
Death From Above 1979 @ The Forum
Jun 4th
6th May 2011
Noisey/Dance Punk duo Death From Above 1979 are back!
After a 5 year hiatus, tonight was the night of the long awaited (and unexpected) return to the live circuit for the first of their two night stand in the Kentish town Forum. From the doors opening, a stampede of eager fans bulked out the venue giving a great chance for a support band to make a name for themselves.
After missing out on Young Legionnaire, we squeezed ourselves in to catch the second act Jamaica. This electro guitar band’s melodies few and far between, they lacked any bass slapping gusto or dance fever to ignite their tunes. It was really very ordinary and failed to make even the slightest impression on our resident dance muso The Docktor. An opportunity well and truly spurned.
Jamaica
As the moment of arrival drew ever closer, so did the crowd…intimate is not a word I would usually associate with The Forum, but tonight you could barely move. Cue the smoke machines and madness ensued as those first distinctive Death From Above 1979 fuzzy bass lines were pummeled through our collective consciousness. Not that i could see anything mind you. In fact the crowd were torn in two, those wanting to get closer and those wanting to get away! With this in mind the enjoyment factor plummeted rapidly as small riots ensued and flailing arms met with chins while shoulders met with spines. Altogether an unpleasant experience (or I’m getting old)!
Death From Above 1979
It is no wonder then that I retreated to the relative safety of the first elevated tier to watch the rest of the set, yet I could still barely see them through the plumes of smoke. Somehow the monstrous bass and furious drumming was much louder in my expectations! They felt rather underpowered for a band who thrive on being louder than a jet engine at 20 paces. Certainly this was not the experience I had hoped for. Maybe it was wrong of me to heap so much promise on the show, what else would you expect if you hadn’t played for 5 years and only ever released one full LP clocking in at less than 40 minutes? They were most definitely road rusty.
Whether their decision to return was for artistic or personal or cough…cough…cash! It was clear that half the crowd loved every minute, while the others simply nodded along with a smug grim spelling out I.W.A.S.T.H.E.R.E.
Camden Crawl 2011: Day One
May 15th
30th April 2011
A thankful DiR.net team headed out from HQ without the hassle of tube engineering works halting progress. Shortly after departing, we arrived, acquired our wristbands and were already enjoying our first band. Its great when things just work isn’t it!
The schedule was typically full of prime time clashes, but the addition of The Forum (hang on isn’t that Kentish Town), had added another headliner sized venue to the already bursting seams of the Camden Crawl + Kentish Town. We studied this at length in the blazing sunshine to the backdrop of Heights on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage. These agro-metallers were adept in fashioning walls of chainsaw guitar buzz, which when cranked up made for some cool amped up soundscapes. The screamed vocals were below average however and failed to leave an impression.
Heights
Staying put we were ready for the dance-punk of Turbowolf! Thankfully their vocalist had improved since the last time we saw them (here), but it was still more deciphering rather than listening. His energy and enthusiasm cannot be faulted, his gypsy punk attire could. Backed with electro soaked guitar riffs with metally tendencies and spiky synths this band were on top form, kicking out huge melodies and thumping bass which had even the grandpa’s an head banging. An early contender for highlight of the Weekend for sure!
Turbowolf
Due to P Moneys no show we were ready for Pendul…sorry, The Qemists! After nestling in near the back of the crowd, I was astounded at just how loud their engineer was pushing the sound system. Even people south of the river were wondering “what’s that racket?”. As it transpired, their huge Drum n’ Bass madness was pushed a tad too much. A huge Crack” signaled a muted 15 minutes as they blew a fuse, much to my relief. They restarted somewhat quieter and were much better. Its amazingly hard to enjoy something blowing a hole in your ear drums! Entertaining? yes, original? not quite. The guitars were understated and the bass/bass/snare drum beats wore thin all too quickly.
The Qemists
After a short break we returned to find the punk pop delights of Attack! Attack! rounding out the day schedule on the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage. This was by far the most accomplished set of the day. Polished pop songs with clouting guitars and plenty of vocal hooks were worthy of a much greater crowd. Still we really enjoyed this well crafted, catchy little set from these welsh boys!
Attack! Attack!
With a total of 16 venues hosting shows at 19:15, it’s beyond belief how we ended up watching such utter drivel next! The offenders were Glaswegian noise rockers Divorce. From their stage presence you felt like they were being forced to play against their will (I’ll excuse the drummer, he was quite likable, thus in the wrong band!). Their antagonistic apathy wreaked of attitude problems as they generated mere nonsensical noise from their guitars. Nothing of value came from the vocalists lips except silence! Here incessant thrashing and vocals which can only be described as squawks were utterly dreadful! They clearly thought that they were playing groundbreaking art rock….in reality, it was plain awful!
Divorce
What followed at the Barfly was much brighter, if a little more agro-centric. Turbogeist‘s speed punk was really quite good! Fast and furious riffs with poppy sprinkles gave it a really edge as you could both rock out and toe tap at the same time. In amongst their set were some belting tunes, such as Alien Girl, that sparked chaos in the mosh pit. I say mosh pit, this was all out macho man pinball! It even managed to fill 90% of the venue. The remaining 10% wincing at every clout while secretly hoping the next one to fly out, does so not near me! A frenzied set which was both dangerous and fun!
Turbogeist
Hawk Eyes (or the band formerly known as Chickenhawk), played an absolute blinder in the Underworld tonight. Aggressive alt metal was met with equally approving head banging as their hard hitting riffs and super technical fretwork took centre stage. This was not for the faint hearted as they blasted through most of their debut album including tunes such as NASA Vs ESA, Scorpieau and Son of Cern. We were even joined in the crowd by the lead singer who despite being the occasional scream merchant, has an impressive set of pipes! One to rock out to (without fear of flying bodies).
Hawk Eyes
Rounding off the night we ended up in the Jazz Cafe for the return of Dananananaykroyd. With a tiny stage for their bouncy frenetic live shows it didn’t take long for the singers to leap into the crowd, instantly sending camera bulbs flashing (guilty your honour) as their antics continued. Mr. Flowers even got a high five! Without their new album being out yet, much of the show was new to us, yet the songs on offer were as cheery as ever mixed with dazzling guitar work and their trademark dueling vocals. One new single i picked out Muscle Memory was an all out pop song with a catchy melody and bags off off-kilter kookiness which makes they so great to listen to.
Dananananaykroyd
More than any other band I’ve seen, Dananananaykroyd really look like they are having an absolute blast all the time, cracking jokes, bearing grins as wide as the Cheshire cat and bantering with anyone who dares. Their energy is totally infectious! Even when during one song both guitars and one mic malfunctioned. To their credit, they carried on regardless and had a little chuckle about it afterwards!
Free Hug, enroute to Hi-Five Mr Flowers!
So it was with some older tunes Black Wax and Pink Sabbath did Danananananaanana… bid us farewell this evening. They rounded off what was a great day one, for a festival whose crowning glory (of a shower and a cooked breakfast) was yet to come…oh and tomorrows lineup is pretty awesome too! Stay Tuned!
BBC In New Music We Trust Live… @ The Forum, Kentish Town
Feb 10th
21st January 2011
After gaining tickets to this absurdly eclectic BBC staged new music event at The Forum ensured that we arrived down the the Forum, in plenty of time to catch all of tonight’s acts. Seeing as there were far too many bands to be healthy on a single nights line-up its somewhat of a surprise that we had support dj’s spinning the discs before proceedings kicked off. BBC Heavyweight new music champion Zane Lowe was the first of such mix masters who did a decent job of kicking up an early evening dance party.
Zane Lowe
All of tonight’s bands are being championed right now, with the first band Funeral Party having just released their debut album which has generated it’s fair share of buzz and pre-spectacle. Sadly as with most bands tagged Next Big Things… (there are over 50 more currently on a NME Gig series, btw) they fell somewhat short. From where I was standing, their guitar riff based dancy electro-punk with indie ambitions barely got started. Vocals were remarkably weak and with fewer hooks than I dare recall, this set really didn’t do justice to their quite impressive collection of studio singles. A few glimpses of brilliance were scattered here as there as their funky disco melodies had feet a tappin’ & grooves a bustin’, but they were over far too soon.
Funeral Party
During the stage roundabout, the DJ Double Act of Nero took to the balcony and pumped out some fast rhymes and hedonistic house tunes. Some more successful than others this was most definitely a great antidote to the mid-changeover bores.
Nero!!
The tempo slowed and an air of calm descended as Jamie Woon took centre stage. His soulful grooves were pleasant enough, but carried no real enigma or special ingredient which would propel him to stardom. Yes, he had a decent voice, Yes he was so laid back it was a wonder he could even stand up…but his lack of character and slow delivery left us all a bit laboured. Good job we were all stood up, else we wouldn’t have heard him for the snores. He would probably say tonight wasnt the right crowd, he’d be right. In a jazz club, this would have been …niiiicccceeee!
Jamie Woon
Our next guest DJ was BBC Radio One’s Nick Grimshaw. Now I have no idea how this man makes a living from being a DJ. Seriously anyone who thinks that a crowd waiting for new music would want to hear a pop mash-up with an Adele song thrown in to the mix is barking up the wrong tree. In fact Nick was in the wrong forest altogether! A glee club member dress sense, an ever greatening ego and a bravado laced persona did little to improve his status in out eyes either.
It was will great relieve then, that the tables stopped turning and the small family of Marshalls (2 Amps powering no less than 8 Cabinets!) who had assembled on stage were powered up by the electo-noise poppers Sleigh Bells. For a double act, they really are chalk and cheese these two. vocalist Alexis Krauss is a sweet sounding with an almost childlike twang to her voice bringing sugary melodies to the massive sound generated by guitarist Derek Miller. Miller has his guitar set to over-over-overdrive as he picks out some shrilling guitar licks which cut through the air with all the grace of a drunken elephant. It is this polar collaboration which is both the strength and the downfall of their live performance. Swinging from jovial poppy vocals to crashing waves of noise was alluring and impressive. But It was all to easy to drown out the vocals with the intense guitar racket, and leave the general onlooker wondering if Alexis had lost her voice, or was it we who had lost our hearing? Still this was a good performance, packed with innovative edgy pop music.
Sleigh Bells
It’s a long shot to call White Lies new music, but we were all glad they were here to soak us all in gloriously rousing gloom rock. This is a band of huge contradictions (happy sad music anyone?)which is why I enjoyed them more than I probably should. I’m not generally one for sad, doom impending depressing lyrics a la Joy Division, The Smiths et al… But tonight their electro fused soaring indie rock was by far the most accomplished set. All dressed in “we’ve just left a wake” suits they set about producing the most anthemic indie rock of the night. Throwing in some older gems helped proceedings, although newer material was too shabby either.
White Lies
This downbeat set closed out the night. One, which to our ears did not herald the start of a new music revolution, but gave a decent leg up the ladder to moderate success.
Foxy Shazam @ The Borderline
Dec 11th
8th November 2010
As we approached our usual pub of choice near tottenham court road “The Royal George”, I can’t help but feel relieved. It is in fact extremely forturnate to even be still standing! With ther encroaching CrossRail development boring a huge hole in the earth, they spared this little gem of a pub. Although now it’s usual good music was replaced by the din of the huge electricity generators and digging equipment outside. Sad as it was, we had to leave!
What we found was a packed line-up at borderline headed up by electro-upstarts Angry Vs The Bear. 80′s synths, and electro-cool with a slight rocky feel to it was their staple diet and they stuck t the task well. Despite having the some awful haircuts (this was seemingly a pre-requisite to being onstage tonight) their catchy melodies were rather likable. A decent bill-footing act to get the crowd warmed up.
As soon as Neon Trees kicked off, by feelings of dislike began to sprout. A rag-tag bunch of crazy mop-tops fronted by an uber-camp, instantly disagreeable bloke with the worst haircut of the night (a flattened black Mohawk) and bags of in-your-face cockiness cast a sour first impression. This proved a hard tag to shake, which they went part way to managing thoughout their energetic electro-loaded set. Musically they were produced a spritely set of spiky indie guitars with synth heavy melodies not too dissimikar to a frantic “The Killers“. By the close of the set, a) I was happy never to set eyes on the lead singer again and b) suprised by the likability of their jaunty party electro-rock.
Foxy Shazam cast an althogether different picture. From the very instant that frontman Eric Sean Nally sprang on stage suddenly the venue exploded into a fun loving riot. The band of misfits who graced the stage were about as odd a collection I’ve seen. A huge bearded keyboardist, an 80′s throwback bassist, a ‘to the manor born’ trumpetter and on vocals, a tight leather clad “Count of Monte Cristo” with a moustache to rival the best of the Movember contenders
Eric Nally
Eric is one of those lovable frontmen who enjoys crowd interaction and being as chaotic as possible. Before even singing a note he told us of how he poked his eye out the other day, then immediately performed an inpromptu stage dive! The night continued in prety much as hectic as it began with the keyboardist mounting his instrument, many more stage dives, outlanding dacne moves, athleticism and piggybacks. Eric did plenty more incredibly odd things here tonight including proclaiming his heterosexual outlook, donating a T-shirt to a girl in the crowd (at the wishes of a bemused looking heckler), showering 100 pound coins over the first few rows of the crowd, not forgetting his downright random between song banter. As far as his vocals go, you could say he’s slightly squeaky. But despite a talking voice of a 2 year old who has just swallowed a mouthful of helium, he belts out cracked vocals in a jubilant fashion putting his hinted falsetto octave range through a punishing schedule
Foxy Shazam
All this over exhuberance was just the kind of behaviour their music deservs. Their rich layered rock songs with incessant poppy melodies and uplifting chorus lines are just waiting to be screamed out at full volume. The highlights were their first ever UK single “Oh Lord” with its piano driven freakout, “The Rocketeer” with gang vocalled 5-4-3-2-1 countdown and USA Superbowl rousing anthem “Unstoppable”.
…hmm…god knows what was going on here…
However none of these can touch the outright fun and blistering indie rock of the incessantly paced “Killin It” with plenty of glammed up guitars and headbopping dance moves. As much as their music is pop, its how they put pride into their crazy performance and play with such a bright outlook that captivated me this evenig. Surely it’s not right to be having this much fun on a monday night. A simply brilliant show from a band which deserves more attention!
The Final Farewell
Fight Like Apes @ Camden Barfly
Oct 18th
Fight Like Apes, Underground Railroad: 22nd September 2010
Tonight was the first time I;ve been to the Camden barfly for a gig, It seems to have been missed on our numerous outings thus far. Its a pretty standard small venue with decent enough sound, easily accessible bar and not too extortionate either. However it can tend to be very dark and dingy, but when the lights finally rose for our first band none of that seemed to matter much.
After hearing that Underground Railroad were the support for tonight I was hardly overcome with joy. After seeing them support for the Thermals a few years back, All i can recall of them is that they were diy punky frenchlings…playing English songs with not a great deal going for them. Since then they seemed to have switched sides and moved into noisy feedback loaded dreary indie land. Despite being supremely loud, I almost nodded off to sleep as they plodded their way though set which was best once it had finished. Although having a cello player to boost their musical interludes and soundscapes was a nice touch.
Underground Railroad
After keeping the crowd waiting, arriving 10 minutes late, Fight Like Apes soon made light work of dispelling any ill feelings towards them as they kicked off in spectacular style. Taking a huge step away from the seriousness of the support band, their lightheartedness and insane randomocity was exactly what was required. From the very off tonight, the crowd went bleeming bonkers. Very rarely have I seen a crowd this up for a crazed bounce-a-round! As soon as the first keyboard chime, snare drum snapped or bass line kicked of each song this was a call to arms that sparked moshing and pogoing on an epic scale. The only pause they managed was when the whole venue was summoned to kneel down (Which would have been easier if the moshers hadn’t spilt pint and pints of beer on the already treacherous floor) for the start of Battlestations..odd indeed!
Fight Like Apes
Lead singer MayKay is instantly likable with her cheeky Irish charm, quirky nature and ecstatic dance moves. She pours every ounce of energy she has into each and every syllable while manically flinging her body at all angles.Vocally she is so exuberant that you get entranced in her delivery and performance. Her voice is softly sweet one second, the next it’s out of control stopping at the edge of squawking.
MayKay
Her and the rest of the bands in-between song banter is cracking, pulling out insults and jokes while rally interacting with those who have payed to see them. After a spillage incident, a slightly odd older (& rounder) gentleman donated his pint to which the response was to drag him up onstage to sing. Needless to say, he was having a whale of a time!
With the release of their new LP The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner just around the corner, plenty of new tunes were given an airing tonight, most of which were fantastically received. The pick of their new tunes were Jenny Kelly and Come On, Let’s Talk About Our Feelings, both upbeat electro bombs of high intensity genius. Yet FLA still found time to cram in all of their hits from their debut with the pick of the bunch being I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me with its fast/slow loud/soft dynamics & crowd chant of “You’re So Fired“, Jake Summers with its crowd chant of “Jake Summers is the Man” and Something Global with its crowd chant of “Give Me My Hook” (see a pattern here?).
For an encore they added more randomness into their already unique blend of punk/electro/newwave/whateveryouwanttolabelit by playing one of the most genius covers, an amped up Salt N’ Peppa’s Push It! A simply great way to end the show which has seem more than its fair share of high octane disco vibes, raucous electro-popping and outlandish quirkiness. A show which took me totally by surprise, cementing its place as one of the highlights of the year!
Glastonbury 40th Birthday
Jul 15th
It does get pretty busy!
Wednesday
The festival experience started on the delayed 20:15 train service towards Glastonbury on the Wednesday evening due to pikeys nicking the signalling cable near Iver. Despite the ensuing problems at Paddington this worked out well as I happened to sit next to a member of a Glastonbury band, Nu from The Yearner Babies. It was great to hear about an up and coming band who were due to play two sets over the weekend and at a number of other festivals over the summer whilst she was enthusiastically filing her nails, which I was told essential for all violinists.
Thursday
Rather than head down with every man and his dog (animals no longer allowed on-site) on the Wednesday we headed down early Thursday morning, arriving at the festival site at 6:30. With no traffic or queues to park this was definitely a good plan and it didn’t take too long to find a place to pitch our tents and pop ours up, whilst our neighbours were still fast asleep. With the music on Thursday’s limited to the smaller tents and predominantly in the evening we had an opportunity to get the rest of our supplies from the car, relax in the sun with a few ciders getting to know our Scottish neighbours who took the coach down from Edinburgh and meet up with some other friends. The stages which were open were packed so it was nigh on impossible to get in anywhere or near to the stage. However, we did manage to see Beardyman on the WOW! stage who is without doubt the best (and only) beatboxer I have ever seen. Singing/making noise to classic tunes such as Golddigger and Stevie Wonder’s Superstition (the first of many for the weekend) clearly demonstrated the talent this guy has (check out Kitchen Diaries on Youtube for further evidence) and a number of people who initially thought it was a rather strange DJ set were amazed . It was a fantastic way to start the festival and a real highlight so early on in the proceedings. The huge crowds in the dance village soon inspired us to move elsewhere and we passed the next few hours smoking shisha in the Glade bar, a real bargain at £7.50, and drinking Chai in Green Futures.
Friday
After freezing during the night and starting to cook as soon as the sun came up (the downside to pop-up tents) we managed to get ourselves up and ready for the first real day of music. There was only one act who we and seemingly the rest of Glaso wanted to see – the Aussie legend, star presenter of Animal Hospital, artist to the queen and inventor of the wobble board, the man him-self – Rolf Harris. On route to what would have surely been the best act of the weekend a call from a friend changed our plan. Mumford & Sons were playing a secret gig at the BBC Introducing stage, as advertised on a small sheet of paper outside the tent. We joined the small crowd and waited patiently for Jo Whiley and the band. Although they only played three tracks (including one song twice) the catchy folk songs which are so characteristic of the smaller tents throughout the site were very well received.
Mumford & Sons Secret Performance
After some tasty jerk chicken and rice and peas (the food at Glasto is consistenly good) we moved to the Green Future field, past the unremarkable Stranglers who were playing on The Other Stage. We caught the end of Rodney Branigan in the Small World tent, who wowed the crowd and wouldn’t come back for an encore because he couldn’t beat playing two guitars at once! After that were Mazaj, a two-member band who specialised in Arabic music. The female member did not exude enthusiasm and was perhaps focussing on playing, bored or jealous of the belly dancer who came on stage.
They start young at Glasto!
Next up were Bombay Bicycle Club in the John Peel tent, who we watched from afar whilst soaking up the sun and played a fantastic samba version of Always Like This. We headed back to the tent for a bit of rest, but could still hear Kele who played some of his new up-beat songs and then some classic Bloc Party tracks. After re-charging our batteries we headed to the Pyramid Stage and saw the New Yorkers Vampire Weekend who entertained the crowd with their sing-along tunes such as Holiday and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.
Vampire Weekend on the Pyramid Stage
Soon after finishing their set we joined the rest of the crowd moving to see Florence and the Machine on the Other Stage. To get a good view we watched from the Railway Track, a long distance from the stage but a fantastic view of the crowd. Florence really worked the crowd and seemed to be having the time of her life. Her covers of Candi Staton’s You Got the Love We and Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain were superb and she will almost certainly be back for years to come. As the evening approached we moved on to the dance areas, starting with a sunset performance by Hybrid in the fantastic tree lined Glade tent, and then the Dance East tent where Zane Lowe played a DJ set to warm up the audience for Chase and Status. The tent packed out in anticipation of this band who are emerging as one of the biggest dance acts in the UK. Joined by other artists such as London rapper Tinnie Tempah the base shook the crowd into action and by time Plan B arrived and ended their set with perfect renditions of End Credits and Pieces the crowd were ecstatic.
Saturday
In recent years there has been a large influx of rappers in to the Glastonbury festival and on Saturday morning it was turn for East London boy Tinchy Stryder, albeit more of a pop act than hardened rapper. His catchy songs were a pleasant start to the morning, but it wasn’t soon long until we left in search of some proper rock at the Other Stage, starting with Reef. It’s a shame to be well known for one particular song, but at least it’s a great one – Place Your Hands went down a treat. Things got heavier next with Coheed and Cambria and the disappointingly small crowd welcomed something different. The band must have been baking in the afternoon sun but the lead singer, a Hurley lookalike from Lost, still managed to blast out a number of familiar and not so familiar songs that metal heads appreciated as much as those who weren’t.
Coheed and Cambria - a bit of metal!
Unable to move due to the extreme heat we stayed for Imogen Heap, who surprised me at least by being English. She was clearly an enthusiastic and talented musician and was actively engaged with all of the other musicians on stage. She also got the crowd involved particularly for Hide and Seek, familiar to fans of The OC. After a walk around the impressive Arcadia, Shangri-La and the Unfair Ground areas we returned once again to the shaded and spacious Small World Tent in Green Futures. We dozed away to Tina Brackman, a British guitarist living in New Zeeland who said her songs always send people to sleep but didn’t seem too offended. She had tragically lost a hand in an accident, but soon returned to music which has been a massive part of her life. Her confident performance and chirpy persona was made it a very worthwhile performance.
The coolest stage at Glasto
After waking up we moved to the Leftfield stage for Frank Turner, along with hundreds of other fans, many of which had already seen him twice elsewhere during the weekend. His popularity was soon understandable as he managed to strike a perfect balance between playing music and interacting with the crowd. Credit must also be given to a young guy called Olly who was picked out from the crowd to play the harmonica and did a fantastic job and a friend of Frank called Barbs who joined Frank for the entertaining Hot Chicks and Bacon Sandwiches.
Frank Turner in the Leftfield tent
The final act of the night was Muse on the Pyramid Stage and the massive crowd were not disappointed with both the music and show offered by this headliner, despite a lack of acrobats, hot air balloons and UFOs (having seen them at Wembley Stadium before)! We were waiting for the inevitable guest appearance at some stage during the set and when The Edge came on and joined them in playing Where The Streets Have No Name the crowd went wild – a fantastic evening which was extended in Cocktails and Dreams, where a guest appearance by Limhal (80s popstar) kept everyone entertained, even if most of us didn’t know who he was!
Muse
Sunday
It was the final day and we were sad to be packing up but glad to not be spending another night in our nightmare pop-up tent. Thank god it didn’t rain – these tents are surely not waterproof! Having practiced putting the tent back in the bag (N.B. it took us almost an hour on our first attempt) we managed to pack it away in a record time of about 2 minutes, much to the disappointment of our friends and neighbours. On route to the car we took a break and watched Paloma Faith on the Pyramid Stage, whilst enjoying some refreshing ice creams from the ideally situated ice cream van. She certainly can’t be knocked for enthusiasm or entertainment value and her soulful and poptastic tunes such as New York and a cover of Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime went down really well with the early morning crowd. After the stress of carrying everything back to the car we joined 30,000 other fans to the football field near the cinema. There were 50,000 fans in another field near the dance area so it must have been brilliant for non-fans who could enjoy a crowdless festival, at least for a couple of hours. If we won the atmosphere would have been brilliant, but the abysmal result and missing acts such as Slash, Temper Trap and Holy F*** meant that it really was an afternoon wasted. Never again….The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Pyramid Stage. First up was Jack Johnson who was background music to chatting with a friend from Switzerland (apologies to any fans near-by). Faithless then took centre stage and Maxi Jazz seemed overwhelmed with the fantastic reception from the growing crowd who waited in anticipation for classic tunes such as Insomnia and We Come One. We were not disappointed, but a later night time set would have been much more appropriate. The final act of the night and of Glastonbury 2010 was Stevie Wonder, but rather than watch the legend of motown we made our way home to avoid the mass exodus of people at the end. We got home in good time and watched the footage the next day – not the coolest way to end the weekend, but perhaps a rather sensible plan.
The 40th Birthday Glastonbury will certainly go down in festival history as one of the best in history, but then again it is fantastic every year whether you are watching on TV or there in person. It really does have everything to offer – ecelectic mix of music, headliners who are unlikely to play anywhere else, a variety of events going on all day and night and fantastic food. Like any other festival you will always have some fantastic memories and some regrets. Here are a few of mine:
Top acts of the weekend: Frank Turner, Chase and Status, Beardyman, Mumford & Sons and Muse
We shouldn’t have missed: Slash, Mumford & Sons in the John Peel tent, The Temper Trap, Dizzee Rascal, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Yearner Babies (I really should have gone to see them after meeting a band member) and Toy Story 3 3D Advance Preview (a field full of hippies wearing 3D glasses must have been fantastic)
Next time we’ll give it a miss: England football matches, pop-up tents, the heat (although it’s better than rain) and Radio 1 coverage of the festival on the way home (no live Stevie Wonder!)
Metric @ KoKo
Jul 2nd
24th May 2010
A night of electronic pop awaited as we settled into the crowd for the sole warm up act tonight, Baby Monster. Having never heard of this apparent rising electro-duo, it was no great shock to hear a disctintly average set of indie influenced dancy beats. Vastly underwhelming, their laid back disco was uninteresting and their performance was one of the most lamely generic I’ve heard.
Baby Monster
With high woops of approval in the air, Metric and their frail disco chick front woman Emily Haines entered the fray only to seriously kick out the jams and pack a mighty punch. Jump starting the crowd into life, Metric went straight about their business producing soaring atmospheric sythns, club friendly bass lines and majestically swirling vocals.
Metric
They played through quite a lot of older tunes in the first half of the set, before reverting to material from their superb. highly acclaimed latest album Fantasies. The most rapturous receptions were held for these tunes such as Help I’m Alive (complete with hammering fist actions) and Satellite Mind.
Emily Haines
Their set worked best when they cranked up the guitars and played frantically while the wafer thin Emily was busy winning over the crowd with her jubilant vocals, funky dance moves and blazing keyboard bashing. Their best songs were the big pop-rock numbers which would not be out of place in a huge amphethetre, such is their colossal sound, with Stadium Love, Monster Hospital & Gold Guns Girls all soared and excited in equal measures.
Metric are steadily rising through the musical royalty. Given tonights feelgood show, anyone would be a fool to not to make Emily their Disco Queen!
Camden Crawl 2010: Day Two
May 24th
After an almighty fry-up, 3 non-stop hours of Scrapheap challenge and a bus ride from hell we stumbled back into the Roundhouse to pick up the schedule for day two of the Camden Crawl 2010. After learning from our experience the day before. We felt wiser and at ease glancing over the running order while tucking into some street food delights courtesy of Camden Market. Those Emu Burgers, Seafood Paellas, Samosas, Chow Meins, Tagine’s and Argentinian steak burgers had no chance while we were around!
Refueled ready for a long day ahead we set sail for the Outdoor stage ignoring the bitterly cold wind and the radiating warmth of the pubs. It was a pleasant surprise to find out the trip was worthwhile as we were greeted by the lively Electro Dance duo Dan le Sac & Scroopious Pip.
Dan le Sac & Scroopious Pip
These guys really brightened up the cold air and got people moving with their club friendly grooves. Although we were all a bit too chilly to party like its 1999 it was an energetic enough to encourage us to check out their set later in the evening.
Rolo Tomassi
One of the most intense and insane live bands I’ve ever seen were at it again on the outdoor stage as we approached, post our failure to win comedy sunglasses and an assortment of condiments at rock’n’roll bingo. These guys music can be described as a trainwreck of alternative metal ideas warped with a keyboard twist. Its brash and heavy while guitars are massively complex and slightly jazzy. Where they fail is their vocals. Their firecracker young singer, who despite being a cutesy looking girl suddenly screams nonsense with menace in her eyes, making much of the set inaccessible to most of the crowd. Their new material however brings a more electro vibe and with more angelic clean vocals this could be a turn around for these young kids.
Post having our ears pummeled by Rolo we headed up, somewhat bitterly to the Roundhouse. This is because despite paying for your ticket to the festival, what organizers leave in the small print is the fact you need to buy ‘supplement’ tickets in order to see the festival headliners! What a scam! At £7 a go and 2 headline slots per night, you could end up paying an extra £28 to see bands you thought would see for free. Anything to get more money out of the gig going public!
The Blackout
Good job then that standing in the historic roundhouse that the next band up made the entry fee worthwhile. These Welsh post-harcdore titans played a highly charged set of big riffings, semi-screamed-semi-rapped vocals, epic choruses and all round loud fun!
Their duelling lead singers were pinballing about stage and only broke off to ply some comical between song banter. Crowd participation was high on their agenda leading sing-a-longs to their ballads (Save Our Selves, Top Of The World) and sparking mospits on STFUppercut & Said & Done.
During a mid-song interlude the crowd were instructed to all crouch down…nearly everyone obliged, a rare feat. When the power chords struck the telling bar, thousands of people leaping into the air was a sight to behold. This was a highly entertaining set from a band who have risen to the top fast, on performances like this you can see why.
LostProphets
Winner of the most popular Welsh post-hardcore band though has to go to the next band this evening, LostProphets. Their uncanny knack for writing cracking pop rock tunes which are at equally at ease on the radio as they are in the mosh pits. With a huge arsenal of hits they were firing them off at all angles to the constant pleasure of the crowd. Musically they were great and you can’t fault the songs, yet I expected more.
Having seen them at Reading festival in 2007, they were the welsh band pulling the crowd interaction stunts. Their connection with their audience was not ideal but with the quality of their music it’s only a small blip on an otherwise barnstorming show. Awards for best moshpits go to Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja, the most pogo’ing goes to Last Train Home.
Here the DoesItRock.net team parted ways… as I headed upstairs at Enterprise to check out a young band by the name of Tubelord, as others went mellowly to the sweet sounds of Emily Barker.
Tubelord
As I waited at the foot of the stairs I pondered whether or not I’d be able to get in given the huge queue that was milling around. Worry ye not as I finally ascended to the smallest venue of the weekend thus far. A tiny area no bigger than a living room with a micro stage and a superbly old sound man who clearly knew his stuff. Tubelord look as if their skipped school to be here but were all the better for it as they produced wildly off kilter rock with a firm grounding in sweet pop melodies.
Their sound was warm, as was their vocals, but these really need to be ampified greatly. Being 2 steps from the stage and not being able to hear the singer isn’t ideal. However when the drummer provided backing harmonies they band were at their best.Everybody in Enterprise were bouncing along (probably because the floor was like that of a bouncy castle…slightly unnerving) having a great time watching this band of immense potential.
Gang of Four
It was with great anticipation that we stood awaiting the return of the 70′s political post-punk rockers who have countless bands claiming them as major influences. With more smoke than a pro-cigarette convention, four outlines could be seen. Lead guitar and vocalist were clearly original band members. Knocking on the door of becoming OAP’s they looked very old in comparison to their youthful dread locked bassist. Still they were the ones who were to bring the ensuing chaos.
They played plenty of their well know hits like Natural’s Not In It, Anthrax, Not Great Men and Damaged Goods each bringing back the spirit of the 70′s disco-rock they helped form. I will say that playing these live sounded much harsher and less pop than their studio albums. It felt that in the run up to the General Election they were venting anger with their performance.
The real talking point would be the antics of lead singer Jon King. He was clearly on something more than a couple of pints of bitter. His eyes were manic and his stumbling was as shambolic as his persistence to destroy both mic stands he had available to him. His roadies were constantly running after him clearing up his debris. During Anthrax he decided to bring out a stage box with a microwave duct taped to it. He proceeded to play percussion on it using a metal baseball bat! A hugely charged political statement if ever i witnessed one.
Just to remind us they were of the 70′s ilk, guitarist Andy Gill decided to do a Pete Townsend and fling his guitar across stage after a feedback heavy interlude. This made the show even more gripping and like a good movie, it was hard to take your eyes off in case you missed anything!
Dan le Sac & Scroopious Pip
We ended the day back where we started it with some more clubbing tunes. This time the bass was heart pounding and the good time vibe was here in abundance. With pip dishing out some serious lyrics and le Sac turning his apple mac into a dance music workshop this really was an entertaining set. They really clicked here tonight and were rightly applauded for their efforts. Without a guitar is sight, this was very different act from my usual fodder, but no less enjoyable for it.
There was a lot of great talent on display this weekend of of that melee we can safely say that we had a great time! All that was said on the ride home was…”Who’s for next year?”
