So, after a most enjoyable first day, I have the unfortunate timing to arrive just as Florence And The Machine are starting their set. It’s an apt name for a band who seem about as inorganic as can be. In fact, unless Kasabian change their name to Dogshite, it may be the most apt ever. Florence has a great set of pipes, admittedly, but her manufactured crazy girl playing dress up act in no way moves me. Back that up with some of the blandest tunes I’ve ever been subjected to and it’s a firm “NO” from me. Luckily The Raveonettes follow to readjust the good/evil balance. Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner fill the park with some lo-fi rockabilly tunes twinned with their trademark two part harmonies (ok, The Everly Brothers might have the original copyright, but why let something as trivial as facts get in the way).
Lykke Li has pulled quite a crowd to the second stage.She’s been touring her debut album for 18 months now, and for those who’ve seen her a few times it’s getting a little flat. Picking a Kings of Leon song to cover (Knocked Up) doesn’t exactly help with the staleness of her performance and some new material is much needed to help add some variety to her sets asap. Band of Horses are up next, and they already have a new album on the way. The set is a nice solid mixture of all three records, with some lovely folk harmonies emanating from the stage amongst the southern blues tinted guitar licks. The set goes down so well that they are dragged back out for an encore of “Our Swords”, regardless of their sub-headliner status.
Ladytron are going through the motions, but food becomes a higher priority and most of their set involves a queue for a burrito. Post noms, I head off to get a reasonable spot for the closing act of the festival, Arctic Monkeys. They are not a band I listen to that much, but their live shows tend to be something quite special. The set starts off with a few tracks from the brand new (Josh Homme produced) “Humbug” album. Two songs in and one guy in the audience is already crying with excitement. “Don’t cry. We’ll play some old stuff too” jokes Alex Turner. By the time they start rolling out the hits, the crowd are already well and truly under their spell. The songs really take on a new life in the live arena, with even the rather dull “Fluorescent Adolescent“ sounding passable. They keep the energy levels going right up until the curfew and easily have the biggest crowd of the weekend. They also produced the best performance.
Lykke Li has pulled quite a crowd to the second stage.She’s been touring her debut album for 18 months now, and for those who’ve seen her a few times it’s getting a little flat. Picking a Kings of Leon song to cover (Knocked Up) doesn’t exactly help with the staleness of her performance and some new material is much needed to help add some variety to her sets asap. Band of Horses are up next, and they already have a new album on the way. The set is a nice solid mixture of all three records, with some lovely folk harmonies emanating from the stage amongst the southern blues tinted guitar licks. The set goes down so well that they are dragged back out for an encore of “Our Swords”, regardless of their sub-headliner status.
Ladytron are going through the motions, but food becomes a higher priority and most of their set involves a queue for a burrito. Post noms, I head off to get a reasonable spot for the closing act of the festival, Arctic Monkeys. They are not a band I listen to that much, but their live shows tend to be something quite special. The set starts off with a few tracks from the brand new (Josh Homme produced) “Humbug” album. Two songs in and one guy in the audience is already crying with excitement. “Don’t cry. We’ll play some old stuff too” jokes Alex Turner. By the time they start rolling out the hits, the crowd are already well and truly under their spell. The songs really take on a new life in the live arena, with even the rather dull “Fluorescent Adolescent“ sounding passable. They keep the energy levels going right up until the curfew and easily have the biggest crowd of the weekend. They also produced the best performance.
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