Underage Festival
Well, the Underage Festival was last Friday, up at Victoria Park, and was quite a day. It was a pleasingly small site, meaning if you felt like it you could zip between different stages at your leisure, and the weather was balmy. I don't think I've ever seen so many teenagers in one place - the park was littered with prone bodies, as well as many more active ones clustered around the four stages, or just generally being exuberant. Anyway, the day's events for me went as follows (pretty much all sets were about 30 mins):
Lethal Bizzle
First up on the Radio 1 Stage was the Bizzle (as he likes to refer to himself), supported by a guy on the decks and two extra MCs, all sporting matching Lethal Bizzle t-shirts. They worked their way through his hits, including 'Uh-Oh', 'Bizzle Bizzle' (not exactly subtle...), the rapidly-approaching-classic-status 'Pow! (Forward)', and a cover of House of Pain's 'Jump Around,' which I'm not generally a big fan of, but worked pretty well in front of a crowd of indie kids used to it being played at least once a day on X-fm. I heard Tiny Dancers also played it later in the day, which to my mind is probably going a bit far. The reaction, as usual from this sort of crowd to a grime artist, was pretty enthusiastic, with everyone jumping, shouting and waving their arms when instructed to from the stage. Then again, pretty much every crowd was like that all day.
Crystal Castles
A highlight of the day. They spent an age to soundcheck, but once they came on stage proper, nobody stopped moving for the next 25 minutes. I wasn't expecting them to be that good (or well received live), but then I wasn't expecting one of a dance duo, half of whose songs don't even have lyrics, to spend the entire thing at the stage front with a mike, bouncing up and down with the crowd. Pleasantly surprised.
Blood Red Shoes
Third time I've seen BRS, and they seemed a little more lacklustre than usual. Maybe it was that half of their set was new material, or they tossed away ‘It's Getting Boring By The Sea’ at the start of their set, or maybe I'm just getting bored of listening to their (admittedly quite repetitive) noise. Not sure whether I'll give them another look-in at Reading.
Hung around for a little while, before separating from everybody else I was with (who were going to see Late Of The Pier) to see Vincent Vincent and the Villains.
I’d also seen this lot before, at a smoky Camden venue on the Crawl earlier this year, and I had to say it suited them a little better. Also disappointing was Vincent’s haircut, which removed from his wonderfully evil features. Nevertheless, the band were great, with a good mix of old favourites and new songs (about 3:1, just how I like it), some nice showmanship from Vincent, and swagger which said “we don’t care if Rumble Strips are ahead of us in the billing and it just makes us look bitter, we’re going to play ‘Johnny Two Bands’ anyway.”
Another break, in which I got myself something to eat, saw a little bit of Cajun Dance Party from a distance (they didn’t look very good), and the assorted elbows of Matt &Kim jutting out of the billowing smoke in the Converse New Music Stage. Then at 5:15, it was time for
Foals
To my mind, on record they sound a little thin, but live Foals are a whole other proposition. Tighter, faster, guitars strapped up to their chins, they appealed to the part of me that wants Bloc Party to turn around and go back the other way with their sound. I had to be off before they played “Hummer”, but it was still a good set even though I knew very little of it, and that seems a good test as any to me of a band’s worth.
The Rumble Strips
The “the” still irks me, it seems unnecessary. But this is pretty much all I have in the way of complains concerning the Rumble Strips. Since I last saw them 8 months ago, they’ve grown smoother, grown a permanent bassist, and grown in stature immensely. Soulful, glorious, my band of the day, even if I missed Motorcycle. Hopefully the album will be as good as this was.
Saw all of Pull Tiger Tail, who have such a shiny Pop finish it would hurt if their songs weren’t so catchy and they weren’t so good looking. Saw the last two songs of Jack Penate, which were, luckily, ‘Second, Minute or Hour,’ and ‘Lost on the Platform,’ reminding me that the intro is indeed longer than on the radio, and that everybody really seems to love that song.
Before Jack were Mystery Jets, at an odd low position (surely they should have headlined instead of Boy Kill Boy, at least?) in the day’s line-up. Only caught half of this after Rumble Strips, but I was a little bemused. Firstly, no Henry Harrison - the band looked a little lost without his presence onstage, and Kai had to fill in on his lead lines, with less then perfect results. Secondly, of the five songs I saw, two were new, one other was pretty damn obscure, and one was ‘Purple Prose’ - it seemed an odd festival set. Still, at least they played ‘Alas Agnes.’
Finally, the headliners - of the four available, I saw caught some of Patrick Wolf, GoodBooks and The Young Knives. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time for Boy Kill Boy :P. Saw 15 minutes of Patrick Wolf, who basked in wild adulation from the massive crowd streaming into the Converse/Artrocker stage to see him. Me, I didn’t quite get it, although I like him a lot on record - I’ll have to do some more listening before trying again at Reading. Then over to the Converse New music tent for 10 minutes of GoodBooks, playing to a disappointingly small crowd, but still giving it their all to great results, and breaking into Klaxon’s ‘It’s Not Over Yet’ at the end of ‘Walk With Me.’ Finally, to the Young Knives, who were wonderfully awkward on stage. “It’s strange,” noted The House of Lords, “as I don’t normally like young people, but you lot seem alright.” Beach balls emerged to ‘Weekends and Bleakdays (Hot Summer),’ ‘Loughborough Suicide’ went down very well for an album track, and I realised I’ve forgotten the words to ‘She’s Attracted To.” Ooops.
Last but not least, I caught the last song of Lightspeed Champion’s secret set at 4.00, ‘Stay the Fuck Away From Me,’ which was sweetly crude, but annoyingly drowned out in places by Pigeon Detectives playing over at the main stage.
Final thoughts - 1. Teenagers (not Teenagers Teenagers, although they did play - I mean youths) want a circle pit in every crowd. The only crowds lacking that I saw were Lethal Bizzle and Crystal Castles (too much movement), and GoodBooks and Vincent Vincent, but only because the crowds were too small. Yes, even to Rumble Strips.
2. I really hope they extend the Festival to 18s again next year.