Keeping Rock n' Roll Alive…
Posts tagged Pop
Gaslight Anthem @ Brixton Academy
Sep 2nd
26th June2010
We find ourselves back at the Brixton academy once again. However this time unintentionally. Sadly there was a venue upgrade which caused a switch from north to south London. From the relatively small surrounds of the Kentish Town Forum to the Huge Brixton academy benefited the bands ticket sales more than crowd intimacy.
Taking advantage of the larger crowd were tonight’s support band, playing probably to their biggest audience ever. Twin Atlantic played a wide range of styles which swung from Progressive rock to Pop-centric radio friendly tunes and back with indie ethics and punk attitude. I enjoyed their set, although sometimes a bit too long was spent building up to their splendid crescendo’s. Their best song of the night was the beautiful indie prog glory of Caribbean War Syndrome.
Twin Atlantic
One thing is for certain, they are serious about creating big soaring anthems loaded with dreamscopic guitars and packed full with exemplary melodies, Keep tabs on this promising group.
Headlining were a band I have been a long term fan of ever since discovering them in 2007 after their debut album Sink or Swim and ivIe been following ever since. Seems this band has now firmly etered the UK public’s hearts as their arrival cued rapturous applause.
The Gaslight Anthem‘s sound is distinctive, with plenty of retro vibes dominating their live set-up. Plucking most of the nights material from their most successful albums (The 59 Sound & American Slang) was a sure bet for a great set. They played with a professional sheen, singer Brian Fallon’s vocals were sung with great heart and the ever present crowd-chorus backing.
The Gaslight Anthem
Yet my gripes with their show was too serious to overlook tonight. The band seems to have totally abandoned their early day punk influences & energetic power chords having their guitars being tuned firmly to pop. They seriously lacked enthusiasm, vigour and bite which I would have expected from them as their played a lacklustre run through of their hits.
Brian Fallon
I’m taking nothing away from their song writing talents which is as always superb with cracking tunes like the roaring Great Expectations, soaring upbeat strummer The 59′ Sound, bitter-sweet balladry on Here’s Looking At You Kid and set closer The Backseat. But yet I felt let down. Only playing 1 song from their début album (We Came To Dance) signals even clearly their direction into radio-rockcountry. Yet this New Jersey band selected a brilliant, but rather odd song for to cover tonight, The Who’s Baba O’Reilly. It was played truthfully, full of heart with plenty of passion.
Overall yhough this was merely an entertaining set which for most of the crowd was excellent! Maybe the old time fan miser in me got the better of me tonight. Hey, you can’t win them all!
Download Festival, Day Two
Aug 7th
A much enhanced lineup greeted us at the start of Download Day 2, as a matter of fact so did a cute radio presenter for Download FM who interviewed us for our respected thoughts (although she was drawn to us mainly because we had beer in hand at 11:30am!). After spreading the words of the DiR.net crew to the listening public we managed to get to our main stage destination for the first band of the day.
Taking Dawn were exactly what was required to start the day. A bunch of mega-enthusiastic rockers who are obsessed with hard rock and glam metal without any of the stupid hairstyles.
Taking Dawn
Their metal infused take on Gn’R era hard rock was bright, upbeat and on the whole massively enjoyable. They played their instruments precisely with more than few catchy riffs and flashy solos, not forgetting to throw in plenty of vocal hooks and melodies to get the uninitiated singing along. The lead singers enthusiasm was unrivalled as he shouted…
“I’m coming to get the whoever goes the craziest during this next song”
True to his word he launched himself off stage and bounded over the barriers right into the midst of the ever growing crowd. Amazingly he was still playing his guitar as he ramrodded through towards the lucky one. This was a great little set which I really enjoyed and as we wandered off for the next band, we could only see the singers legs as he crowd surfed back towards the stage
.
For something completely different we headed to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage to witness one of the oddities of the weekend. The Urban Voodoo Machine are kinda like a Nashville folky-blues band who wear quirky costumes that decided to hire some circus acts to be in the band. Every member seemed to have a role/character to play which gave them a real extra appeal. Their visuals were great, from the sharp suited gravel toned singer to the green ogre drummer and a gyrating Moroccan cymbal playing dancer who was wearing very little. Sonically they were pretty catchy too with their multi instrumentalists, acoustic backbone and dual drummers (who loved to jump about on their stools)! A highly effective act for a short set which brightened up an already scorching morning!
The Urban Voodoo Machine
After a last minute alteration to the schedule we were left standing in front of Atreyu. Now not being the greatest fan of theirs I was greatly surprised to hear they sounded a great deal more impressive live. Their metal grooves were mostly melodic and were surprisingly accessible. Vocals weren’t the greatest, but none of the piercing screams from the record made an airing this afternoon. Much of their set was packed with great singles like the classic rocker Blow, emo-ish Bleeding Mascara and the rip roaring pop metal of Ex’s & Ohs. Atreyu were a real surprise package of my weekend.
Atreyu
We grabbed some lunch and decided to perch ourselves on the hill to see whether Flyleaf would actually play today given their missed slot. However, you put together Beer + Sun + Food and inevitably it = Sleep. Arising, slightly sun-dazed from a nice nap we saw something which resembles the Flyleaf singers back as she waltzed off stage. Never mind hey!
Rejuvenated we dived into the shade of the Pepsi Max stage to see whats on. The Genitorturers need no introduction. tight Dominatrix style leather catsuits, over the top make-up, S&M mentality, & punk rock music. Their most attention grabbing quality was their appearance, musically it was pretty average no brainer loudness.
We Are The Fallen
We Are The Fallen were created by Evanescence’s guitar duo so that already tells you alot about their sound. Gothic styled hard rock with female vocals and middle of the road poppy rock offerings. It was enjoyable but not breathtaking as lead singer Carly Smithson (6th in Pop Idol USA season 7) did well to hit some rather high notes. However our next Female Vocalist literally blew her out of the water!
Halestorm
The third female fronted rockers in a row were by far the most impressive. Halestorm played good ol fashioned power chords and rang out plenty of hugely catchy and melodic hard rock with a pop heart. Their strikingly beautiful lead singer had the attention of all the men in the tent even before she opened her mouth or slung a guitar over her shoulder. Her voice was one of the most powerful things I’ve heard! She had the perfect rock voice which flitted back and forth from angelic to demonic in the blink of an eye, rasping high notes and blasting lows were by far their main attraction. Given they had a superb array of damn catchy tunes like I Get Off, I’m Not An Angel & Bet You Wish You Had Me Back, leaves not doubt in my mind they were one of the finds of the festival!
Megadeth
Megadeth were up on main stage and it was great to see one of thrash metals long standing behemoths doing what they do best. They played very tight and threw in a few of their classic tunes to the rapture of the crowd such as Sweating Bullets, Hangar 18, Rust In Peace & Symphony Of Destruction. This was a lesson from the old school that metal is still alive, and judging from the amount of hair flailing around near the multiple mosh pits i can safely say this was very well received.
Y&T
We departed the main stage to head for some cheesy 80′s reviver’s Y&T. They was exactly as advertised, plenty of melodic guitar lines, flashy solo’s, pop rock chorus’ and wrinkling skin. Yet they seemed to be having such a great time it was hard to fault their performance!
Deftones
Sub-headliners Deftones I have come to realise are not my thing. Here in the huge outdoor spaces their alternative-metal was drab which lacked energy with most of the crowd appreciating as opposed to enjoying. I was not on their page tonight which is a shame as I’ve only heard good things, yet i found it a bland set to sit through.
Now we find ourselves in an almighty tussle for position as the people hurdle, push, smash and steal their way to get a better view of tonight’s headliners who are on their UK Victory Lap, after sensationally scooping the Christmas #1 slot after the public led campaign to oust Simon Cowellites from the top spot. Rage Against The Machine kicked straight into Testify as anarchy reigned in the crowd as the once still mass of people around us, went absolutely mental! Leaping around, as it turns out is best way to get in the Rage groove (plus you get a decent view for half the time). With each song bringing a heaving bomb of alternative rock with humongous riffs and instantly recognisable melodies it was easy to see why these guys are so popular.
.
Rage Against The Machine
In fact the second tune of the set Bombtrack had to be halted. As worried fans and security guards looked on it was apparent not all was well! Suddenly after a considerable silence band front man Zach de la Rocha asked the crowd to take 2 big steps back, as it was getting increasingly dangerous down the front. We all took his instruction and we continued…only a little further away.
Zach de la Rocha
With a classic band on stage it is very hard to fault, Zachs raps were spot on and guitar legend Tom Morello was on top form. Tom’s array of special effects pedals and engineered sounds drawn out from his guitar were mesmerising. I especially liked his playing of the strings behind the nut and also playing with an iron nail showing that it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it! This masterclass in slow riffs and the ability to mutate his instrument to suit his needs was brilliant, there is none more creative or versatile an axe man playing today.
Tom Morello
A few more classic tracks (the Led Zeppy Wake Up, riff-mungus Bulls On Parade, funk laced Guerrilla Radio) a superb clash cover (White Riot) and a couple of political preaches (Israel’s Gaza blockade being the topic of these rants) later we all waited
Sure enough it came and passed. Not without rocking this field of baying fans with an outburst of stomping drums, huge bass, precise guitars and plenty of “F**K you I won’t do what you tell Me’s…” A fitting end to a cracking day!
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!)
Bon Jovi @ The O2 Arena
Jul 4th
8th June 2010
I forgot my camera this evening, hence no photos (Not that photos from the top tier of the O2 would be much cop anyways!).
Now in my eyes a band who are as huge as Bon Jovi playing the 2nd of their 14 night run at the worlds largest entertainment venue should bring with them a support band of high stature. So you can imagine my disappointment when I caught wind of the news that an unsigned Scottish group who won a talent search are heading up the bill. Not only that, they are the only support! I expected more, but then and again I missed the date with The Feeling as support, something I can only thank my lucky stars!
The Side after all was said and done, were actually a pretty solid hard rocking band with a very professional set of classic rock inspired tunes, not so dissimilar to those of the headline act. I was rather impressed with their guitar interplay, melodic solos and surprisingly catchy songs. For an unknown entity, they sounded superb…I was left to chew on my words!
Now I am not the O2 Arena’s greatest fan, It’s absolutely huge, seats come with warnings for vertigo sufferers, prices are high and the acts who play here are mega-stars. But the one thing it does well is sound. This is the 3rd occasion I’ve seen Bon Jovi and the sound this evening was definitely the clearest and most powerful than on both previous outdoor occasions. Also the stage setup here was quite something, with lots of huge lcd screens which manoeuvred about stage into all manner of precarious locations.
Jon Bon Jovi was his usual self, flirting with the ladies and generally being Mr. Rock while massaging his steadily increasing ego. But when you have 13,000 women screaming your name he has good reason to enjoy himself. His vocals tonight were great as he led the band through the most impressive set I’ve witnessed from them.
This was an updated greatest hits set which barely missed any of their signature tunes. What impressed me the most is they played songs which I had never seen live before. They opened with the classic riff rock of Last Man Standing, before going on a new album material circuit which wasn’t too bad. All the classics were here Bad Medicine, Runaway, You Give Love A Bad Name, Keep The Faith while Wanted Dead Or Alive was left to the encore. Just to tease us some more, returning for a third encore of Livin’ On A Prayer & Always.
Bon Jovi on their 14 night residence muttered to the crowd that they were varying their set night on night, which is probably why we were treated to some simply superb songs from lesser known albums. Diamond Ring, Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night were among these songs. A brilliant but short unplugged set was played on their stage catwalk using a wooden box as percussion, an accordion as keyboards plus acoustic guitars shows they still have adept musical talents. Another unexpected surprise lay in store as guitar legend Richie Sambora sang vocals on the cracking Lay Your Hands On Me. Though for me the highlight of the evening was hearing the epic tune Dry Country during the first encore with Its simply stunning guitar solo!
Tonight was by far the best show I’ve seen Bon Jovi play! It was simply brilliant and packed with classic pop rock clout! Only another 12 nights to go!
Switchfoot @ The Forum
Jul 4th
2nd June 2010
From the moment we crossed the threshold into The Forum tonight, there were people everywhere! In every direction, just hoards of fans who have arrived here at a rather early. The only place nobody was to be found was the bar! Now at any other show I would be shocked, but seeing as Switchfoot have a large Christian following, I was hardly surprised.
First up was a very energetic and enjoyable sounds of The Audio Cartel. Their clean vocals and punky riffing made for a nice pop combo which occasionally bordered into classic rock territory. The guitarist also had an affinity for the rock of ages as he abused his wah-wah pedal with impressive screeching solo’s and wailing melodies. Good fun and a perfect kick start to the night.
The Audio Cartel
Following hot on their heels were Flood of Red, another punk influenced band who has expanded their musical horizons. Sounding a great deal more epic in scope than your average angry punk band, they sound was reminiscent of Circa Survive which is no bad thing. Vocals were not particularly appealing with a mix up of high pitched squeaks and throaty screams. Their melodies were big and complex but somewhere in their skyrocketing sound they lost their immediacy and punch. Just another support band!
Flood of Red
The Forum suddenly came alive with ear piercing female screams as Switchfoot lead singer Jon Foreman hung from the balcony on stage left to announce his arrival! An unusual, but effective entrance! From the very first song he had the crowd in his hand and he could do no wrong.
Switchfoot
Vocals were spot on, with all the high notes being hit with ease. The band played a very tight set which took in all of their hit singles including Meant To Live, Dare You To Move, Awakening plus a handful of new tunes from their latest album Hello Hurricane.
Jon Foreman
The only gripe I have is the extended between song preaching about love, truth etc! I understand most of the crowd were right there with him… Hallelujah! But for the rest of us, this was just another American rambling on about god!
It was a good job then that their newer fuzzier and bluesy direction works really well in the live environment with romper stomping tunes like Mess of Me & title track Hello Hurricane providing a platform for crowd excitement (within restrained parameters of course).
A very professional clean cut performance from a very straight edge band!
From the moment we crossed the threshold into The Forum tonight, there were people everywhere! In every direction, just hoards of fans who have arrived here at a rather early. The only place nobody was to be found was the bar! Now at any other show I would be shocked, but seeing as Switchfoot have a large Christian following, I was hardly surprised.
First up was a very energetic and enjoyable sounds of The Audio Cartel. Their clean vocals and punky riffing made for a nice pop combo which occasionally bordered into classic rock territory. The guitarist also had an affinity for the rock of ages as he abused his wah-wah pedal with impressive screeching solo’s and wailing melodies. Good fun and a perfect kick start to the night.
Following hot on their heels were Flood of Red, another punk influenced band who has expanded their musical horizons. Sounding a great deal more epic in scope than your average angry punk band, they sound was reminiscent of Circa Survive which is no bad thing. Vocals were not particularly appealing with a mix up of high pitched squeaks and throaty screams. Their melodies were big and complex but somewhere in their skyrocketing sound they lost their immediacy and punch. Just another support band!
The Forum suddenly came alive with ear piercing female screams as Switchfoot lead singer Jon Foreman hung from the balcony on stage left to announce his arrival! An unusual, but effective entrance! From the very first song he had the crowd in his hand and he could do no wrong.
Vocals were spot on, with all the high notes being hit with ease. The band played a very tight set which took in all of their hit singles including Meant To Live, Dare You To Move, Awakening plus a handful of new tunes from their latest album Hello Hurricane.
The only gripe i have is the extended between song preaching about love, truth etc! I understand most of the crowd were right there with him… Hallelujah! But for the rest of us, this was just another American rambling on about god!
It was a good job then that their newer fuzzier and bluesy direction works really well in the live environment with romper stomping tunes like Mess of Me & title track Hello Hurricane providing a platform for crowd excitement (within restrained parameters of course).
A very professional clean cut performance from a very straight edge band!
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!
ATP Pavement Festival: Day 3
Jun 24th
After a dip in the swimming pool complex with its incredible cool water slides, (with rather long queues and dramatic names like The Black Hole & The Master Blaster) then having watched the Monaco GP we were ready for day 3.
It started quite slow really with Pierced Arrows, who were devoid of life and energy. They played basic bluesy riffs with weak vocals that failed on most levels to captivate the audience.
Arriving at the ‘normal’ Wax Fang I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t always wear afros and 70′s style glam wear. Their set was a mix of tight riffs melded together with huge sound that really worked here on the Main Stage. They played with a lively spring in their steps and had the backing of the crowd, most I expect were here (like me) on the back of their stunning Prince show. The only down side was their material wasn’t particularly memorable post-performance, but this did not dampen their spirited performance.
Boris
After yesterdays gargantuan effort, we thought we’d check out the weekends second performance from Boris, this time performing their so called ‘classic’ album, Feedbacker. Given an album title like that and Boris’s sound you can imagine what it sounded like.
In fact I have to imagine also, as I fell fast asleep during the first song after sitting down for a rest (As it turns out 3 out of the 4 recharged our batteries during this show). 45 Minutes later I awoke to find a desolate and empty arena. I promptly headed out to find the rest of the DiR team who were busy putting a huge hole in the Pizza Hut buffet selection, much to the annoyance of other customers.
We didn’t really see anything for a while after this, brief sweeps past The Clean weren’t attractive enough to warrant our full attention, neither was the uber-northern song smith Terry Reid (Who looked like a cross between Pat Butcher and Jack Duckworth ). We returned to the fold to see the outspoken legend that is Mark E. Smith and his iconic band The Fall.
The Fall
Never one to shy away from controversy, Mark decided to pull the majority of his set from his latest album which despite its decent standard was somewhat of a disappointment. Very few popular songs were played as even Mr. Flowers (a self confessed Fall freak) didn’t recognise a single tune!Still the set they did perform was typical Fall. Musically tight and vocally shocking with Mark’s grumbles coming across as clearly as radio Belgium in a electrical storm. Nothing he did made much sense. From wandering around aimlessly on stage, twiddling dials he should never be let near, pulling out his band member’s amps or erratically attacking their instruments. Still it made for good comedy value at least.
We all wondered if we would hear a song we knew in the encore. Not surprisingly the answer was no! The crowd shuffled away in dismay while we stood and pondered what to do next, which turned out to be a master stroke as The Fall unexpectedly returned for a 2nd encore! This time they got it spot on, playing a song we knew…We Are Spata F.C.. From being quite a way back, we were suddenly right down the front for this cool tune. But as quickly as they returned they buggered off again. This wasn’t a bad show, I’d just expected more…a lot more.
After flitting back and forwards between Enablers and The Raincoats, chilling outside in the cool air enjoying relative peace was the most engaging option. After all I was waiting for the old school punk attitude of The Authorities.
The Authorities
These guys looked every one of their aging years but don’t let that fool you into thinking they are past it. They invoke the sound of punks early days of three chord wonders, crunching melodies, male dominated thinking and tracks of no more than 3 minutes long. They were on top form and blasted their way through some top punk numbers. Showing no signs of nostalgia, they clearly felt it was still 1972 and we were all willing to peek inside the time warp which had opened up onstage. A 30 second guitar rattle brought about the end to a high octane set as they powered down the final amp of ATP Pavement 2010.
ATP have the right idea when it comes to festivals! Civilised, laid back and comfortable, things not normally associated with festivals. I guess that’s why it this weekend was such a success despite a lineup which was barely got us excited before arrival. A long drive awaited us in the morning, but we all knew we’d be back soon for another installment of ATP genius!
ATP Pavement Festival: Day 2
Jun 23rd
Not being woken up by a blazing dawn sun, a drunk girl falling on your tent over, or a drunk bloke relieving himself in the remnants of your bonfire was by far the least interesting but most pleasant way to start day 2 at a music festival. Rolling out of bed and beginning the almighty fry up was The Docktor who rustled us up a feast (Note: 4 blokes sharing 3 cans of baked beans with their for breakfast is not advised for those with sensitive noses or a strong gag reflex). To work it off we hit the sandy coastline for some beach football! After all it was a rather unusual glorious sunny day! A few bruises and an abundance of sand in all manner of bodily crevices later, we caught wind of a secret gig going on.
Not being able resist the urge of the secret gig we were treated to an extra special show from Wax Fang @ Reds who were set to perform the entirety of Prince’s timeless album Purple Rain.
Wax Fang as Prince
Complete with comedy wigs, 70′s flares and more than required bodily hair on show Wax Fang both looked and sounded simply amazing. Their Prince routine was perfect, from the shrieking vocals right down to the note perfect solo’s and ambient keyboards. This was tongue in cheek delight and as they played hit after hit such as When Doves Cry, & I Would Die For You. Despite playing covers this was a guaranteed highlight for the festival as they faded slowly out with the fully extended version of the epic Purple Rain, the entire crowd swaying hands aloft to cheer this inspired performance.
Later that afternoon we had the biggest clash of the weekend, music or the FA Cup Final. I was the only one who made it away from the TV as I headed out to catch Blitzen Trapper. I was so glad I did! Their Americana influenced folk was at times beautiful and bold, while always being catchy and melodic. Lead singer sounded very close to a less nasally Bob Dylan but more or less managed to steer clear of the obvious comparisons. Their instrumentation was excellent and they did not get overpowered by the size of the arena, their music suited this perfectly. On the whole a very impressive performance that I really enjoyed.
Blitzen Trapper
It was at this point I found myself pondered over the weekend’s stage schedule structure. Most bands played for at least 45 minutes each with most being granted 1 hour. Now this is a good thing if you happen to like the bands that are on, but with a limited number of bands over the 3 days, 37, this leans itself to being quite restrictive.
On the plus side though if you missed the start of a set It didn’t matter so much as they would be playing for ages anyways. Looks like this was one debate I was not going to solve in a hurry so I decided to stick my head into Centre Stage for Saccarine Trust, before promptly removing it again realising the last 30 mins for the Cup Final & lunch was a more profitable use of time.
Fiery Furnaces
Disappointed after a Pompy defeat our next band of the day were up on the Main Stage. I have to admit that I went into this show with rampaging negative bias against Fiery Furnaces. Their brand of twisted indie is not the most approachable, unless you have an arty streak or a connoisseur complex. But I can say they’re live shows are a blast. Kicking into their tunes with wistful breeziness and rampaging a noisy fed back amp the combo of pop and rock was ideal. Melody wise they had big enough progressions to keep everyone nodding their heads (Apparently dancing at ATP is un cool), and enough catchy guitar licks to make me happy. This was a huge surprise, as they dropped their sweetness and blasted their way through a very entertaining set!
Boris
We quickly shuffled our way through the crowds, we had a date with Boris. The gargantuan Japanese noise rock behemoths had some technical problems in setting up and were late in getting started, but it was well worth the wait. If Spinal Tap turn it to ’11′ then Boris have their amps set to 111 as this was the most epically loud show the earth has ever seen. A drum kick sounded like a firework exploding, a bass thump was making my clothes move and the power chords where like a head gremlin playing the migraine march on your frontal lobe!
When this audio wall hit’s you square in the face, it sends you flying into a dizzying sonic spiral of intense rock energy which is astoundingly great. The songs themselves were very lucidly progressive, with heavy sections counterbalanced with some inventive and beautiful melodies. The greatest compliment to Boris was evident in the crowd. Despite near deafening volumes which could knock planets out orbit…nobody was going anywhere! Instead they were putting fingers in their ears and remaining down the front sharing the epic sounds.
Now for the reason we were all here, it was time for Pavement on a Main Stage filled to capacity (you can almost feel the desolation on the rest of the site). In one form we’d seen all the Pavement members bar front man Steven Malkmus himself over the weekend already, (Spiral Stairs, Marble Valley) so when they finally got down to their actual set it felt like we were pretty acquainted with them already.
The biggest cheers of the weekend greeted them as they made their way onstage and began playing a solid all round set of their greatest hits. Their pop sound was rougher live, but this made for a far better performance. With so much joy in the room there was a lot to love and little to fault in this show. Throwing in classic tracks like their biggest hit Cut Your Hair, Stereo and Gold Soundz, Pavement were lapping up energy from the crowd and flinging it right back.
This felt like a great return for the American indie heroes, but with a room full of people who signed up to their ATP curated festival and sold out the event before announcing any bands except themselves, I ask “was it going to be any different?” Nonetheless a superb showing for the weekends main headliner!
Monotonix
After chilling out for a while on the sofa with a few of our beers, we arrived at Reds and looked on is disbelief! The queue to get in was snaking around the smokers hangout with no indication of movement. Of course everyone was here to see the fiery DIY garage rock of those crazy Israelis’, Monotonix. After asking the door security informed us that the venue was full! 5 minutes later as we walked past him into the venue I wondered what on earth is going on?
Sit Quietly
This bewilderment was to continue once inside. Monotonix were sitting on their own stage, in only a their shorts and full chests of hair in the middle of the floor with the crowd all sitting down around them. They sounded immense! None of it made the slight bit of sense, but their three piece rock captured the spirit of beer soaked garage rock and roll ethics which is so lacking in the modern era. After about 15 minutes this spirit was too hard to ignore as the seated crowd stood up, overcome with the desire to rock out!
Sadly this was quickly brought to a halt as Butlins security stepped in and dragged Monotonix off stage, citing capacity problems and accusing the band of inciting violence. A lot of unhappy faces booed them which was unfair as they did nothing wrong, the hatred was rife and if the crowd was to kick off against the security team they would have had serious trouble on their hands. Thankfully we were at ATP not Reading festival so everyone trotted off mumbling and grumbling about the appalling security operation and health & safety gone mad.
Atlas Sound
Saddened we headed upstairs to an extremely packed Centre stage where a lone American was onstage. Atlas Sound was an incredibly annoying, whiny, overly American youth who did little or nothing to impress any of the DiR.net posse. The atmosphere was weak and uninspiring almost as much as his in between song nonsense. A lacklustre showing which was one of the most dull of the weekend.
Still Flyin’
It’s 1am and the final band took to the stage. Still Flyin’ in more of a collective than a band. With 12 members on stage you get the jist why. They had 2 trumpeters, 2 percussion, 4 singers, a keyboardist, a guitarist, a bas player and a random guy whose job it was to shake a ball shaped maraca and bound about stage. It comes as no surprise then that they play pop. This was an extremely joyous set with a carnival atmosphere that had people bopping along into the wee hours. Their reggae influenced, almost ska-indie pop was great fun way to round off day 2.#
ATP Pavement Festival: Day 1
Jun 15th
After the long drive down from London to the somerset coastal town of Minehead, we pulled up in the place we’d be calling home for the next 3 nights… Butlins!!! As the DiR team arrived at the check-in desk we couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of reviving our childhood spirits and living a festival in luxury style.
Nestling down in our deluxe 3rd floor chalet in Palm Tree Place complete with shower, fully fitted kitchen, comfy beds and most importantly TOWELS!!! We were perfectly placed about 2 minutes from the main arena and 2 minutes from the swimming pool complex.
Wrenching ourselves away from watching TV and having a few beers (newly chilled in our fridge/freezer) and a couple of burgers (freshly cooked on our cooker) we headed to check out the stages and start our festival music consumption.
Shuffling into the vast pavilion complex we were greeted by an all-in one entertainment complex complete with 3 indoor stages, innumerable bars, arcade games, a bowling alley, pool hall, plenty of fast food eateries. Ignoring the multitude of distractions we headed to see our first band of the weekend, Surfer Blood on the Main Stage.
If you have ever heard a Surfer Blood song, you probably know what they look like before seeing them! Clean cut Californian yacht club types who ooze pretentiousness! Their music wasn’t bad, surf happy melodies served of a bed of fuzzy guitars and reverb soaked vocals. Music was pretty decent, yet I found them generally irritating lacking in energy and spirit. Having liked them on record, this was a disappointing set which dosed down their pop and upped their noise…something which didn’t work for me.
Surfer Blood
Heading away from the vast space of the Main Stage we headed to the Centre Stage venue (weird?) to see one of the multitudes of Pavement sideline projects playing this weekend! Once our eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the massive club venue, Spiral Stairs appeared. These guys were founded by Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg and play blues rooted riff rock with catchy pop sensibilities. This was a great little set which was upbeat and shared good time feelings.
Spiral Stairs
Their energy was incessant and you clearly felt they were enjoying playing for the smallish crowd that had gathered. A well received surprise and an early highlight of the weekend.
Taking a break we nestled down at a table to enjoy the next band up on Centre Stage, The Walkmen. Their American indie laced with some noisy rock was just the ticket! They had just the right amount of feedback and noise to balance the poppier side of their sound. They were however plagued by technical issues and had to depart stage after playing a few teaser chords of their biggest hit, the barnstorming rocker The Rat. This aside this was a good set from a band that have haven’t quite reached the heights they are capable of.
The Walkmen
Broken Social Scene was next on our radar back at the Main Stage. This huge ensemble of people play very agreeable and booming indie pop which is very much at ease in this large arena sized venue. A bright set paced with happy pop music which was some of the most polished of the weekend. However they lose marks for being rather unmemorable. I can only remember a couple of real standout tracks including Texico Bitches, with the rest fading into a lull of endless melody. Still I enjoyed my time with these guys, drifting into their pot of blissful optimistic tunes.
Broken Social Scene
While waiting for our next band we got involved in a short chat with some ‘I’m ATP born and bred, hence cooler than you’ types in which they, not only proved themselves to be righteous idiots in saying “oh I guess this is your 1st ATP then” using the most weedy of condescending tones, but also pedantic prats in correcting a total stranger on the pronunciation of Matt Groening. Still once DiR.net man Crumbs the ‘King of Camberwell’ returned with the beers, they cowered slyly off into the encroaching darkness. Note to self, avoid talking to ATP folks in skinny jeans bearing pubescent facial hair and a mop top haircut.
Mission of Burma arrived and began the onslaught. They made one hell of a racket which I found to be a long way from the riff focused approach of their studio output. The set was messy and vocally they failed to make any impression! The riffs found it hard to cut through the feedback noise doing nothing for their appeal. So disappointed with their efforts, I decided my time would be better off refueling at BK. However in my absence Mr. Flowers reported, sighting as crazy a scene he saw all weekend ignited towards the very end of the set, people were dancing and everything!
Mission of Burma
Having waited up for Quasi in the wee hours I can’t help but think that time would have been better spent catching up on some sleep. As soon as we emerged from Centre Stage, I could remember almost nothing from this mundane set. Tiredness on my part did not contribute to a positive review, but despite that there is very little i can recommend. In fact the wiser half of the DiR.net quartet did infact head back for some late night tv while myself and Mr. Flowers powered on downstairs to Reds.
Quasi
We had missed the majority of the Marble Valley set on the Reds thirds stage but this didn’t stop this from becoming one of the better bands of the day. Their lively pop and hyperactive stage antics were the perfect dose to bring us out of our Quasi induced coma. Plenty of sing-a-long moments and fun tunes spread an optimistic party atmosphere throughout. Match this with the sense they loved just being on stage and you have a great, all be it short show.
Marble Valley
Returning to our chalet, the leather sofa and a ready made cup of tea I sat and wondered why more festivals aren’t like ATP!
Day two to follow shortly.
