Underage Festival 2009

I managed to find myself flying to England on the same weekend as two excellent sounding festivals, Underage festival and Field Day. Unfortunately, I had to take the former, since Field Day does not allow anybody under the age of 18 to attend. I had my doubts, the line-up wasn’t quite as excellent as last years (Foals, The Maccabees, Four Tet and Gallows to name a few), but I came in with high hopes.

My eduction of Marina and The Diamonds consisted only of an acoustic version of “I Am Not A Robot” (snagged from The Music Slut) and I can’t say I was completely impressed. She performed a fun type of pop music which didn’t really blow me away and probably won’t justify a purchase from me, but will keep that name snagged in the back of my brain.

Flashguns were on the stage after and disappointed. They were good, but I wasn’t expecting such a serious and melodramatic performance. I’ve only heard fast-paced “Timehouse Blue” and “Good Witch/Bad Witch”, which lead me to believe they would be jaunty and fun, but instead they came on playing something that sounded like it was off the second Maccabees album, rather than the first.

The XX have already managed to impress me with the single “Crystallized“, and the rest of their post-rock, slow and mellow songs which they played and were new to me, were extremely enjoyable. I cannot wait to pickup their CD and see them once again in a club environment in October.

We left after Two Door Cinema Club, but it was left on a high note, for their energy was magnificent. They started to slow down when they started to realise the huge problem of the day. Fortunately, they still ended on their best song, “Undercover Martyn“, which I was so worried that they would miss.

I didn’t leave so early because I had something else to do, I left early because the people there were hopeless. This is what Two Door Cinema Club realised during their set. I came in expecting many kids who would be there for the scene, but it was literally everyone. For example during Two Door Cinema Club, there was no dancing. There were a few mosh pits in the center, which broke up after ten seconds. All the bands I saw, played brilliantly, but it was the crowds fault that the day was so disappointing. Unless Underage festival decides to grow up, avoid it like the plague, unless you really want to just “see” one of the bands.

More pictures here.

Here’s a nice account of Field Day.

Southside Festival 2009 – Day 3

The Horrors played at midday on the main stage to an unsurprisingly, tiny crowd. I’m not sure if they were frustrated or the technicians had messed something up, but their set sounded awful. The guitar was too loud and every time the lead singer screamed I would reel back in pain. Maybe this was the point, but hopefully they will sound better if I manage to catch them at the end of the year, here in Munich. Their music, doesn’t seem to be quite suitable for a festival and might sound better indoors. After retreating further back, “Sea within a Sea“, their finale, felt brilliant.

I actually caught The Rakes at my first gig, supporting Franz Ferdinand, and they seemed much better. Maybe at the time they hadn’t perfected their art, or I was unwilling to listen, whatever the reason, they did well. I wasn’t blown away, but it was solid. Half an hour late, they blazed through an action packed set of highlights from their past three albums, including all my favourites, even less well known tracks from their first, like “Open Book“.

The Wombats, as usual, were brilliant. Full of energy and humour they came on with the tried and tested method of declaring yourselves better than The Beatles. “Kill The Director” was again my highlight, it’s just their most fun song. This time there was the added bonus of being in the most pit with a bunch of metalheads, who were looking up bright eyed at the lead singer and hanging on his every word.

I came in with incredibly low expectations for Katy Perry, who wouldn’t? However, she failed to meet even these. I only stayed for two songs, and I’m not exaggerating when I say the crowd sung better than she did during “Hot n’ Cold”. Katy Perry cannot sing. It can’t be redeemed by the best part of her concert when thirty seconds of The Beach Boys “California Girls” was played from a record, as an intro.

Unfortunately, to my shock and dismay, we missed Pixies, one of the greatest bands of all time. Hopefully, I’ll catch them another time. Instead my festival day ended with Joshua Radin. Previously unknown to me, I was dragged there quite willingly, it is difficult to imagine a singer-songwriter being bad. Joshua Radin played a mixture of bluesy, happy songs with the rest of his band and mellow songs with just him, his guitar and a bassist for the rest, with the latter being more frequent. It was calming and he was quite charming, with shocking and personal anecdotes.

This year was a fantastic experience, with great bands, amazing friends and a really nice atmosphere. I can’t wait for next year’s festival season.

More pictures from the festival here.

Southside Festival 2009 – Day 2

Johnossi played to a reasonable crowd on the main stage, and though they were only a duo, delivered enough energy for their explosive songs. Everything sounded pretty good, and Johnossi even played “Family Values”, a track I was surprised to hear because of its slow tempo. They ended with their best song “Man Must Dance” to much happiness, it definitely has a good festival feel; “A monkey needs to dance, and so do you”.

Datarock, to put simply, were fun. With their signature red jumpsuits and excellent sense of humour, Datarock put on a great show. I just managed to get in the tent for my favourite song, “Computer Camp Love“, which had more people singing along than I expected, considering the audience was German. They continued with lots of wild head banging and funny crowd interaction and before playing their final song, they mimed fantastically to “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life”.

Franz Ferdinand are one my favourite bands, and so I’m sorry if I declare them the highlight of the weekend. It was not just because they delivered some amazing songs, they skipped over even the highlights of their second album, they just know how to work a crowd. Alex Kapranos’s sexiness helps a bit too. Half way through the set, the best track from their new album; “Bite Hard” simply blew me away. As the piano interlude started, Alex Kapranos romantically went through the members of the band and then as the bass swept into everyone started jumping. Next they played “Take Me Out”, which as expected, was the most popular song and had everybody going insane. “Lucid Dreams” was also pretty incredible, as the whole field turned into a giant rave, as the instrumental half of the song kicked in.“This Fire“, as the final song was changed from it’s short punk three minutes to a crazy epic eight minute version, with plenty of crowd singing, guitar throwing and every other trick you can think of. Time restraints left the crowd in a fury, everyone had wanted to see so much more.

Thanks to Claus Meyer for the Franz Ferdinand picture.

More pictures from the festival here.

Southside Festival 2009 – Day 1

Enjoy this years summary of Southside 2009, held in Southern Germany. There will be three parts, one for each day, with this being the first.

As Paolo Nutini opened with his most famous single “New Shoes”, with a motley crew of musicians, I was disappointed. All you could hear was the vocals and the drums, but as he pushed through his collection of songs, some familiar from his first album and the rest unknown to me, I started to notice I was actually becoming happy. The music was sounding nice. His feel good mood was rubbing off on everyone. To top it off, the sing along to “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty” seemed perfect and “These Streets” seemed especially beautiful because of the electrical guitar accompanying Paolo Nutini and his acoustic guitar.

Fleets Foxes were on next and they were breath taking. They just know how to bend and warp sound to make beautiful music. For example, the guitarist started using a bow to play his electric guitar and it added so much atmosphere to the song. And instead of being obnoxious, the crowd was silently standing in awe. That was until they started “White Winter Hymnal“, which the crowd started singing along to and slowly dancing as Fleet Foxes picked up the pace. I came in expecting them to be nice, but they simply blew my mind. They played and sung to perfection and the crowd seemed to do their duties also to perfection.

The next band are one of my friend’s favourite bands, and she has quite obsession with the singer. I can see why. She came on in her strange clothes, a ‘petite’ build and grandma glasses, but her voice was incredibly powerful and fit their anthem pop sound very well. The whole of The Asteroid Galaxy Tour was suitably dressed, the saxophonist was sporting a pink blazer, the ‘trumpeter had zebra trousers and the second part of the actual duo looked like a chav with a serious amount of style through pearl chains, with an added bonus of playing bass really well. The crowd loved them, and I have to say I did too, and I enjoyed their opener the best, “Push The Envelope“.

My knowledge of The Whip was limited to their single “Trash“, but I still really enjoyed their set. My theory of it just being house music with guitars, was very much true of their live show, compared to their records. It was just a giant rave in the tent, and though I enjoy house music, I found their synth lines seemed to be twice too long and slowly the songs all blurred into one. They were quite good, but just didn’t quite hit me like most of the other bands did.

Friendly Fires started just after midnight, a perfect time for their disco rock music. I really, really enjoyed it. They played everything I wanted them to, with fantastic dance moves and lots of energy and enthusiasm. You could tell it made an impression on the people in the crowd, the lead singer came on stage to murmurs questioning his sexuality, but it quickly turned to hysteria as everyone danced as furiously as possible. Enjoy my favourite of the night “In The Hospital“, even though all their track were fantastic.

More pictures from the festival here.

Frequency Festival 2008 – Day 2 and 3

First Chikinki came on and impressed me with their blend of synthesizes and guitars. They turned out to be another one of the bands who I have to check out later. Louis XIV did not receive as warm a welcome as the rest of the line-up, but they still had the swagger which you would expect from their sexual innuendo stuffed lyrics. Dirty Pretty Things were up next, and fortunately I had got a place on the barrier, to get a good peek at Carl Barat and co.. They played a good set, starting out with their slower second more britpoppy album and making their way to their faster début. Their energy was quite inspiring and there were a couple of die hard fans singing along. They ended with a fantastic Bang Bang You’re Dead, not perhaps my favourite, but certainly their most popular. Anthony managed to pretty much nail the trumpet solo, and most of the crowd had joined in screaming “Bang Bang, You’re Dead!” by the last chorus. The next band I saw was The Hives, who were even better than the last time I saw them, with more tricks, even more energy and being better at persuading the crowd to dance. They didn’t need to though, the crowd was already pumped up and even in the middle of the crowd, everyone went crazy and a mosh pit started, for their first song.

On the last day, The Subways came on and put on a good show, not good enough to make me buy a CD, though. It seemed they were trying a little too hard to get the crowd involved. Kaizers Orchestra took me by surprise with a kooky mix of gypsy punk and psychedelic orchestral music. They completely took the piss of Babyshambles, shouting how unprofessional they were. They had cancelled earlier, to the dismay of myself and a thousand other Pete fanatics. This meant Kaizers got to play longer, something which the singer could not get over. Dropkick Murphys seemed like a similar version of the Flogging Molly, just a bit harder, and dare I say, less Irish. They are from Boston, but they still managed to spark some interest. Justice had the best light show I have ever seen. It was truly awe-inspiring and ignited my interest in Justice. The music was good as well, most of the tracks sounded very different from the album, convincing me yet again, that they are two very talented guys. We Are Your Friends was masterfully played, with the voice being pulled in and out again and the crowd filling in the gaps. Finally The Killers, rounded up the festival. I’m not really into Killers, and they seemed really bland. They could have just played their tracks from the album in the background and mimed. Even the best wasn’t good. The crowd still seemed to enjoy it, everyone screamed Mr. Brightside and All These Things I’ve Done, the latter being my personal favourite.

Comparing this to last year’s Rock Im Park, Frequency was definitely better, with too many bands which could have been the best of the festival.
Thanks Florian for the Hives picture and Frischi for the Killers.

Frequency 2008 – Day 1

Blood Red Shoes played the first set with great enthusiasm and managed to get some of the crowd going, something very difficult for the first band. It was interesting to see that the drummer did his own sound check, which was quite amusing. They ended with a brilliant I Wish I Was Someone Better. Then came on The Wombats, obviously one of the highlights, because suddenly the wave breaker was full. As they played their opener, Kill The Director, the crowd went crazy. Everyone stopped for a sing-along for “Little Miss Pipedream”; and the crowd sung considerably well, the festival was taking place in Austria. Madness ensued as The Wombats played their last song Let’s Dance To Joy Division.
We Are Scientists failed to impress me, even The Great Escape didn’t sound that great. The crowd had died down when We Are Scientists played, so I might not have been the only one. However, there was a great moment, for me anyway, when Dev Hynes came on and played After Hours with them.
After, I dashed to go see Lightspeed Champion, it didn’t matter, he was delayed because Black Kids were canceled. When he did go on, Lightspeed Champion started off with a shaky Tell Me What It’s Worth and throughout the show their were sound issues, none of the backup singer’s mics seemed to work. Dev then played some new songs, and was joined my Keith Murray from We Are Scientists. Dev did a beautiful solo version of Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk with most of the crowd joining in. The ending song, his famous Star Wars/Midnight Surprise 20 minute epic track, was brilliant and it was really great to seem him from the front. Sadly, there was a very small crowd, but they were a dedicated one, with definitely the biggest amount of singing coming from the crowd than any other artist. I briefly managed to shake his hand before being bombarded with people trying to get his autograph. I then caught the end of Jose Gonzales, which didn’t manage to get me any more exited for him as an artist. From a distance I saw some Flogging Molly, which has definitely got me interested in them.

The Teenagers saw a packed crowd in the UK weekender tent. The singer had a good stage presence and was witty, but unfortunately the sound quality was far too loud and sounded really awful, making me migrate outside until Homecoming, easily their best song. The singer tried to pull off getting some of the crowd to sing some of the parts, and took five girls onto the stage. Starting the song off rather badly, everyone sung in for the chorus, but it was obvious that the girls didn’t know the words and the song was pretty much ruined. I wasn’t expecting lots from The Teenagers, but all together they were very disappointing.
Lastly I saw Travis and then R.E.M from far away. Travis looked to be doing well and it sounded good, but R.E.M sounded rather dull. However, my friend swear that is was brilliant. The day started off well but seemed to get less interesting with the bigger bands, but it was still a fantastic start to the Frequency Festival.