"Where... Exactly... Have You Been?"
Hello all! Hope you are well and good. We are enjoying the bank holiday weekend here in the UK (we get today, Monday, off as a national holiday) and like many thousands of British people I took myself off to the Leeds leg of the Carling Weekend music festival. I've written long entries about the atmosphere and the 'lifestyle' bits of the weekend before, so I'm not going to that again - which is fitting, because this year I decided to really focus on the music, on seeing as good a blend of bands over the weekend as possible. To which end I managed to see:
Friday:
- Gym Class Heroes (7/10) - good pop fun
- Billy Talent (8/10) - ace, manage to be angular and abrasive but still fun and entertaining
- The Cancer Bats (7/10) - not quite as good as when I've seen before, but "100 Grand Canyon" was great
- From Autumn To Ashes (9/10) - absolutely superb. Brilliant mix of tracks (including the storming first 4 tracks from "Holding A Wolf By The Ears") and the performance was super-tight without being mechanical. And Fran Mark makes an amazing frontman, no matter what he may say about being too shy for it. His vocals, ranging from singing to hardcore screaming, were phenomenal
- Against Me (9/10) - never seen them live before, and they were as good as I'd hoped they would be. The tracks from "New Wave" were great, particularly a skyrocket version of "Thrash Unreal", and the oldies were so much fun. A great, great goodtime band.
- Nine Inch Nails (9/10) - I've always quite liked their more tuneful output (the noise stuff doesn't do much for me), and musically they stuck to that tonight. But what set it apart was the visual presentation, which was like nothing I've ever seen before. Such incredible use of lights, video screens, equipment. Stunning is an overused word, but this truly was it. And the band were tight as anything as well
- The Smashing Pumpkins (8/10) - was exactly what you might have expected, in that the old stuff was wonderful, and the new stuff was a let-down. The "Zeitgeist" material just isn't strong, and this comes across clearly in a live setting. Also, and I know this is a touch lame, but you do sit there missing Iha and D'Arcy...
Saturday:
- The Sounds (8/10) - another fun party band, and a good performance too
- Sparta (9/10) - have written a lot about this band recently, so will limit my commentary here to say that they are on fire. Brilliant.
- Manchester Orchestra (9/10) - the best new band of the weekend, by far. A wonderful, moody, atmospheric performance with heart-rending vocals and a shiver-inducing guest appearance by Jesse Lacey on a set-closing "Where Have You Been?" that I will remember for a very, very long time. Stunning
- The Draft (8/10) - the new band from all of Hot Water Music minus Chuck Ragan. Great fun, an awesome performance, and as soon as they get some more material to go with the "In A Million Pieces" songs they'll be spot on
- Jimmy Eat World (mainstage performance) (8.5/10) - the band that, clearly, I'd been looking forward too most all weekend. This performance was really good, they played a lot of the 'hits' but you got the sense they were keeping a little something back, which made sense later. Set was:
Salt, Sweat, Sugar
Lucky Denver Mint (in a mainstage set! Incredible)
Authority Song
Blister
Work
Big Casino (new, and FANTASTIC) (great lyric - "all the salt in the world couldn't melt that ice")
The Middle
Futures
Hear You Me
Get It Faster (stunning)
Sweetness
Pain
- Interpol (8/10) - only saw little bits of this, but they seemed really on form, and "Mammoth" was amazing live
- Brand New (7/10) - I've had enough of writing about this band doing what they are doing at the moment, it's making me a bit sad. Another wilfully obscure performance, with a set full of slower songs played at almost a dirge-like pace, and some bizarre talk about "the poor women and children" and how they didn't think there was "a point in making people feel artificially happy through music". Right.
- Jimmy Eat World (Lock-Up Stage Headline set) (10/10) - wow. So this is what they were saving that something for. One of the greatest live performances that I've ever seen. Just incredible. And I'm not saying that because they are the band that means the world to me, I'm saying that because on this night they absolutely slayed the place. It wasn't an 'easy' set as they chose not to repeat many of the 'hits' that they had played and instead threw out some rarities and many album tracks, but as well as sending the loyal fans to heaven they managed to keep a tent-ful of fairly casual followers rapt too. A lot of energy, but beautiful, beautiful performances. And my god, they played some songs that I never, never expected to hear live, and that I certainly never expected to hear played so well. Set was:
A Praise Chorus
Crush (!!!)
If You Don't, Don't
Polaris (my god. One of my top three Jimmy songs, and played so well it was ridiculous. Jim and Tom put this almost Explosions In The Sky guitarwork over the top of the rhythm, and it was just jaw-dropping)
Your New Aesthetic
Thinking, That's All (holy crap, this was good. Never thought I'd hear this)
Disintegration (nor this - and it was a total stunner. Thousands of people singing the "Stay On My Side Tonight" bit was awesome)
For Me This Is Heaven (ludicrously good. Just... wow. Sniff)
Goodbye Sky Harbor
No Sensitivity (Yes! Yes! Yes!)
23 (the moment at which I turned to absolute mush. Another moment that I'll always remember. It just took off, and one of my favourite songs ever became something even better and communal and perfect0
Sweetness (again, because you have to, and because it can't be beaten live)
Pain (almost a thrash version, with some real guitar shredding)
And I know this sounds lame, but at that point the rest of the bands kind of ceased to matter a little bit. I went to see a few after that, of whom Mutemath stood out for being much, much better live than on record and having a great live show, and The Academy Is... were as awesome as ever. But the weekend belonged to one band - and, for once, I don't think I'm alone in having that opinion, given what other people were saying on the way out... How excited am I for "Chase This Light"?
Friday:
- Gym Class Heroes (7/10) - good pop fun
- Billy Talent (8/10) - ace, manage to be angular and abrasive but still fun and entertaining
- The Cancer Bats (7/10) - not quite as good as when I've seen before, but "100 Grand Canyon" was great
- From Autumn To Ashes (9/10) - absolutely superb. Brilliant mix of tracks (including the storming first 4 tracks from "Holding A Wolf By The Ears") and the performance was super-tight without being mechanical. And Fran Mark makes an amazing frontman, no matter what he may say about being too shy for it. His vocals, ranging from singing to hardcore screaming, were phenomenal
- Against Me (9/10) - never seen them live before, and they were as good as I'd hoped they would be. The tracks from "New Wave" were great, particularly a skyrocket version of "Thrash Unreal", and the oldies were so much fun. A great, great goodtime band.
- Nine Inch Nails (9/10) - I've always quite liked their more tuneful output (the noise stuff doesn't do much for me), and musically they stuck to that tonight. But what set it apart was the visual presentation, which was like nothing I've ever seen before. Such incredible use of lights, video screens, equipment. Stunning is an overused word, but this truly was it. And the band were tight as anything as well
- The Smashing Pumpkins (8/10) - was exactly what you might have expected, in that the old stuff was wonderful, and the new stuff was a let-down. The "Zeitgeist" material just isn't strong, and this comes across clearly in a live setting. Also, and I know this is a touch lame, but you do sit there missing Iha and D'Arcy...
Saturday:
- The Sounds (8/10) - another fun party band, and a good performance too
- Sparta (9/10) - have written a lot about this band recently, so will limit my commentary here to say that they are on fire. Brilliant.
- Manchester Orchestra (9/10) - the best new band of the weekend, by far. A wonderful, moody, atmospheric performance with heart-rending vocals and a shiver-inducing guest appearance by Jesse Lacey on a set-closing "Where Have You Been?" that I will remember for a very, very long time. Stunning
- The Draft (8/10) - the new band from all of Hot Water Music minus Chuck Ragan. Great fun, an awesome performance, and as soon as they get some more material to go with the "In A Million Pieces" songs they'll be spot on
- Jimmy Eat World (mainstage performance) (8.5/10) - the band that, clearly, I'd been looking forward too most all weekend. This performance was really good, they played a lot of the 'hits' but you got the sense they were keeping a little something back, which made sense later. Set was:
Salt, Sweat, Sugar
Lucky Denver Mint (in a mainstage set! Incredible)
Authority Song
Blister
Work
Big Casino (new, and FANTASTIC) (great lyric - "all the salt in the world couldn't melt that ice")
The Middle
Futures
Hear You Me
Get It Faster (stunning)
Sweetness
Pain
- Interpol (8/10) - only saw little bits of this, but they seemed really on form, and "Mammoth" was amazing live
- Brand New (7/10) - I've had enough of writing about this band doing what they are doing at the moment, it's making me a bit sad. Another wilfully obscure performance, with a set full of slower songs played at almost a dirge-like pace, and some bizarre talk about "the poor women and children" and how they didn't think there was "a point in making people feel artificially happy through music". Right.
- Jimmy Eat World (Lock-Up Stage Headline set) (10/10) - wow. So this is what they were saving that something for. One of the greatest live performances that I've ever seen. Just incredible. And I'm not saying that because they are the band that means the world to me, I'm saying that because on this night they absolutely slayed the place. It wasn't an 'easy' set as they chose not to repeat many of the 'hits' that they had played and instead threw out some rarities and many album tracks, but as well as sending the loyal fans to heaven they managed to keep a tent-ful of fairly casual followers rapt too. A lot of energy, but beautiful, beautiful performances. And my god, they played some songs that I never, never expected to hear live, and that I certainly never expected to hear played so well. Set was:
A Praise Chorus
Crush (!!!)
If You Don't, Don't
Polaris (my god. One of my top three Jimmy songs, and played so well it was ridiculous. Jim and Tom put this almost Explosions In The Sky guitarwork over the top of the rhythm, and it was just jaw-dropping)
Your New Aesthetic
Thinking, That's All (holy crap, this was good. Never thought I'd hear this)
Disintegration (nor this - and it was a total stunner. Thousands of people singing the "Stay On My Side Tonight" bit was awesome)
For Me This Is Heaven (ludicrously good. Just... wow. Sniff)
Goodbye Sky Harbor
No Sensitivity (Yes! Yes! Yes!)
23 (the moment at which I turned to absolute mush. Another moment that I'll always remember. It just took off, and one of my favourite songs ever became something even better and communal and perfect0
Sweetness (again, because you have to, and because it can't be beaten live)
Pain (almost a thrash version, with some real guitar shredding)
And I know this sounds lame, but at that point the rest of the bands kind of ceased to matter a little bit. I went to see a few after that, of whom Mutemath stood out for being much, much better live than on record and having a great live show, and The Academy Is... were as awesome as ever. But the weekend belonged to one band - and, for once, I don't think I'm alone in having that opinion, given what other people were saying on the way out... How excited am I for "Chase This Light"?