Day two of Summer Sundae and no-ones tired yet, oh no, as we head indoors for Her Name Is Calla (///). A local band that I’d seen before (without realising it) who overall impressed, LOUDquietLOUD type of thing, executed very well with added strings and brass (which is obviously always a bonus).
Next up it’s outside for what turned out to be the worst act I saw of the weekend, a pastiche of Johnny Cash taken very seriously in the form of Mr Plow( ). Every bit of between-song-banter is clearly perfectly rehearsed, although not enough to stop some deviations from the script which were painfully obvious through the attempted resolve. Personally, when an ‘artist’ can go from a broad Leicester accent to mid-west American it makes me be sick in my mouth and want to spit it into the faces of people that fall for it.
Back inside for Yunioshi (/) who sounded ace on their Myspace but due to ‘technical errors’ which seemed to involve the laptop containing the gold failing, they fall flat on their faces. Shame.
Then it’s back outside for Frontiers (//), who are OK but not close enough to The Cure (as suggested in their press release) to make them good. They didn’t grab my attention and if music aint doing that folks, then what’s the point?
However, Minnaars (////) are up on the main stage next and despite (having seen them before) thinking that it would be too big for them, they pretty much fucking nailed it. Heavily reliant on the laptop yes, but the live playing was impressive still. It seemed they were aware they were on the whole playing to the wrong audience but they still went for it and so did the younger folks down the front.
The Joy Formidable (///) (or The Joy Formidab as announced by the ‘I’m going to pretend I like your band when I announce it but not watch any of your set’ compère Richard) were pretty good. Boy Girl vocals I always like, and the set was good despite the two songs that have been getting radio play being their best songs by far.
Next it’s into the Rising Tent that delivered so much the day before, and it delivered again with what was probably the set of the festival from The Kabeedies (/////). Great songs, I mean REALLY great songs, boy/girl vocals, genuinely funny banter, fun stage presence. We were all pretty enthralled for the entirety of the set. All from a little newish band from Norwich. Take that The Zutons.
Back to the main for the so-called ‘Arcade Fire + Scotland’ Broken Records (//), who were good not great. For personal consumption, you might as well listen to the arcade fire. NEXT…
Emmy The Great (///), who was also good not Great. The songs are nice and her voice is beautiful, but something weird was in the air and it seemed she was a bit distracted which was obviously a shame.
On the main stage Bombay Bicycle Club (////) got the children going, and too right. They’ve released one of the best debut albums of 2009 and seem to be relishing the crowd getting into it. What they didn’t know was the children would dance to anything that either had a NME mention or a bear, but BBC were deserving and I look forward to catching them at Offset next month (review to come).
65daysofstatic (/////) inside provided me with the loudest set I have any seen at any festival or gig (previously held by the Mooney Suzuki, 2004), and it fucking rocked. Again, like Minanars they were playing largely to the wrong crowd but people seemed to get into them in their own way, and they were tight as. Plus, the front man balanced his guitar on his chin mid song! YEAH!
Over to the Rising again for Frank Turner (//) who was fine but very preachy, too preachy for me in fact so I pop over to catch the second half of Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers) (//) set which is alright, a couple of the hits seemed to go down well with the largely menopausal crowd.
Mr Hudson (/////) on the indoor stage is next, with what he later described as one of his favourite gigs ever and it was indeed very impressive. Last (and first) time I saw Hudson was at 10.50AM at Glastonbury and it was unsurprisingly lacklustre however at night it’s a whole different story, and it does feel a bit like a singles set despite the crowd only knowing the one which he obviously, and rightly, saves until last.
Following Mr Hudson is little shit Chipmunk ( ). Any artist that promotes a single/album (including release date) before they have performed a single note can fuck right off. But seen as the kids fell for it and he wasn’t going anywhere, I had to do the honour.
Greg
So, let’s get straight to business… The overview of the festival is coming at the end of the week, today is just about the bands I caught on the first day of the Leicester’s premier festival.
Thanks to the joy of mobile internet and Twitter, before I’d even had breakfast I was aware The Streets were looking likely to pull out (although it took organisers until 4PM to announce this to the crowd). I’m not the worlds biggest Streets fan but it was a disappointing start to the day (even more so when Idlewild were announced as moving up to fill their slot), and so a good musical beginning was needed.
Leicester’s These Furrows (///) were the exciting start to the festival in the otherwise largely MOR-ish Musician tent, with current Tired Irie (good Leicester band, check them) drummer Darryl taking front man duties. I’d seen this band before when they were Twenty Below Zero but they were much better than I remembered; technical and noisy at the same time.
The first sprint of the day was in order to catch the UK Festival Exclusive™ of South African BLK JKS (////). Playing to a disappointingly small crowd, it was a pretty impressive set with some incredible falsetto vocals alongside more tradition African chanting. I can’t really explain the sound so I suggest you use the old Goggletron and listen for yourselves.
Kid British (/) on the main stage next yet, utter utter über wank. Four false starts of what was set to be a Madness sampled song left them bewildered, and me too. Terrible.
Thankfully, in a little all seated tent in the back corner, Jeremy Warmsley (/////) played one of the most captivating sets of the weekend. Jeremy’s voice is one of the most fantastic things I’ve ever heard, and stripped back with just a guitar his songwriting and knack for melody really shone through. I can’t really talk about him without it sounding wanky, but his voice is beautiful and you should, will check him out.
Oi Va Voi (//) helped kill 20 minutes with their Easten-Europen-esque music, before I headed into the comedy tent to catch Robin Ince (////) with a trademark ranting, and funny it were too.
A result of Idlewild being moved up the bill meant Beardyman (/) was promoted to the main stage. As man that makes ‘Everything live using his voice’ (and about a million effects, loop pedals, samplers etc.), the first minute was interesting but then it wasn’t, at all. Covers of ‘popular’ songs. Bad covers of ‘popular’ songs.
Back into the excellent Drowned In Sound currated Rising Tent, Wild Beats (///) did a pretty decent set that drew a fairly decent crowd (no less thanks to some 6 music single airplay). Punters going to see a band for one song and then leaving became a regular pattern at the festival. I thought people might have liked music more than that to do such a thing but there we go. They were good though, I’ll see them again.
Mystery Jets (//) on the main stage were the main band I was looking forward to but thanks to the worst sound in history and about 100 pissed children (FYI, when I say this I mean ages 14-17), it was a tad disappointing. The sound only really sorted itself out by the last two songs and thus the set that should have been the best was one of the worst.
Back into the Rising Tent for headliners and other UK Festival Exclusive™ Múm (/////), things finally picked up after a bit of a lull. I knew very little about Múm but they turned out to play not only one of the best sets of the festival but one of the best I’ve seen in years. Nice harmonies, interesting arrangements, good songs plus the atmosphere in the tent was great. While the majority of children and idiots were watching the start of Idlewild or Filty Dukes, the wise were the small number in the tent.
I don’t dislike Idlewild (///) but they headlined SSW in 2005 and there is a reason why this year they were only originally third on the bill. However, they have a go and the 30 minutes I see includes the five good singles so I’m happy enough; God knows what happened in the 30 minutes either side of what I saw though.
Finally it’s indoors for The Beat (//) who were OK, but pretty repetitive. A cover of The Clash, check. A few ‘classics’, check. The crowd are happy. I should have gone to bed after Múm.
More tomorrow.
Greg
AGCS just back from Summer Sundae 2009 in Leicester and the rest of the week will see reviews of all 36 acts we saw sets of over the weekend, plus a general overview of what went down.
Tomorrow will review the Friday, with highlights including Múm, Jeremy Warmsley, Wild Beats, BLK JKS and Robin Ince.
Wednesday will take a look at the Saturdays bands including 65daysofstatic, Mr Hudson, Bombay Bicycle Club, Minnaars, Emmy The Great and The Kabeedies.
Thursday will review the closing day of the festival with acts including Bon Iver, Chairlift, Monotonix, Woodpigeon and Micachu and the Shapes.
Finally, to round off the week Friday will feature top 5 lists ahoy, plus a general review of the festival overall… queue praise/several rants.
Greg
