festival funtimes
As far as I'm concerned, after the heel-turn of ATP, and the fact that bestival and latitude have jumped the shark by nearly doubling their capacities over the last few year (without oincreasing the facilities) and therefore needing to book more mainstream bands in order to rake the punters in (rather than the niche headliners which I prefer to see), there are only 2 festivals worth going two currently.
Firstly there's indietracks. Indietracks is undoubtedly the most joyful festival of the calandar, although I imagine those who don't like twee would disagree..... this year it's 2 weeks before the Ride 100 London - which means i should be practising cycling and avoiding booze - and the same weekend as the dulwitch dynamo - which is good cycling practice - so there was no chance I could go. However if tullycraft magically were annouced as headliners, then that would change.....
They announced the two headliners: Camera Obscura and Bis (the friday is more a half day and the headliners are lesser bands). Now Camera Obscura are obviously great, but to me they're more a sunshine band not an evening band, and they don't seem to change much from tour to tour.... and bis... well bis are the band I've had the most love/hate relationship with ever. Loved the early EPs, hated the first album, loved the second, absolutely adored the third. Then there was the reunion. Bis did a three date mini-tour, playing to Astoria sized venues. They sold them all out relatively quickly. After the tour, becasue they enjoyed it so much, they booked an identical mini-tour in the same 3 venues 6 months later. It got cancelled due to poor ticket sales, that's how bad the actual gigs were. The london date on that tour was on my birthday, it was one of the most dissapointing birthdays ever. 2 songs of the second album, none of the third, all played to with no stage energy to a crowd of ugly ugly people ("is this what happened to the teen-c generation" asked one of the few non-ugly people to me). I want to steer clear of bis..... so not going if they're going to play indie tracks, the fact it's the one I can't go to is IDEAL....
Then there's End of The Road.... End of the road is the quintasential mid-30s, middle class indie festival. I fit into that venn diagram, so BOOM. They don't mind if you openly bring your own booze in to the arena, and everything finished not too late, but with things to keep those that want to stayup entertained, but FAR away from the camping.
This year the two early headliners announced were Sigur Ros and Belle and Sebastian. Sigur Ros I've got no time for. They're ok, but they're the sort of band that there will always be something better on at the same time. Belle and Sebastian I'll actively avoid. When I was 20, I made a list of the best albums ever made. Belle and Seb were the only band who had two entries in the top 10 - not even drugstore could do that...... however every single thing they've done since BWTAS has been fucking dreadful, and when they headlined the last good ATP, facing a room that was so filled with love for them, they came across as coked-up arseholes overreliant on the "old songs" to proove that not everything they had written sounded horrendious..... so that wasn't looking good for me.... There were other bands annoucned too, some of which were quite good, but the headliners always get your attention.
Then came the second update. It consisted of three bands. David Byrne and St. Vincent, Firghtened Rabit and Jens Lekman. Now frightened rabit are one of those bands who bore me live. Too many sleeper blokes looking as bored as if they were doing data entry, but they're pretty much stoopidbird's favourite british band of the moment, so that'll keep her happy. While I'm never going to get excited about DB&StV, the fact their touring band includes a 25 strong brass section who do line dancing while playing, means watching them holds some interest for me.... and then there's Jens. I properly heart Jens and his music fills me full of joy....
....the minute these three was announced, there was no longer any doubt which festival we'd be going to......
Firstly there's indietracks. Indietracks is undoubtedly the most joyful festival of the calandar, although I imagine those who don't like twee would disagree..... this year it's 2 weeks before the Ride 100 London - which means i should be practising cycling and avoiding booze - and the same weekend as the dulwitch dynamo - which is good cycling practice - so there was no chance I could go. However if tullycraft magically were annouced as headliners, then that would change.....
They announced the two headliners: Camera Obscura and Bis (the friday is more a half day and the headliners are lesser bands). Now Camera Obscura are obviously great, but to me they're more a sunshine band not an evening band, and they don't seem to change much from tour to tour.... and bis... well bis are the band I've had the most love/hate relationship with ever. Loved the early EPs, hated the first album, loved the second, absolutely adored the third. Then there was the reunion. Bis did a three date mini-tour, playing to Astoria sized venues. They sold them all out relatively quickly. After the tour, becasue they enjoyed it so much, they booked an identical mini-tour in the same 3 venues 6 months later. It got cancelled due to poor ticket sales, that's how bad the actual gigs were. The london date on that tour was on my birthday, it was one of the most dissapointing birthdays ever. 2 songs of the second album, none of the third, all played to with no stage energy to a crowd of ugly ugly people ("is this what happened to the teen-c generation" asked one of the few non-ugly people to me). I want to steer clear of bis..... so not going if they're going to play indie tracks, the fact it's the one I can't go to is IDEAL....
Then there's End of The Road.... End of the road is the quintasential mid-30s, middle class indie festival. I fit into that venn diagram, so BOOM. They don't mind if you openly bring your own booze in to the arena, and everything finished not too late, but with things to keep those that want to stayup entertained, but FAR away from the camping.
This year the two early headliners announced were Sigur Ros and Belle and Sebastian. Sigur Ros I've got no time for. They're ok, but they're the sort of band that there will always be something better on at the same time. Belle and Sebastian I'll actively avoid. When I was 20, I made a list of the best albums ever made. Belle and Seb were the only band who had two entries in the top 10 - not even drugstore could do that...... however every single thing they've done since BWTAS has been fucking dreadful, and when they headlined the last good ATP, facing a room that was so filled with love for them, they came across as coked-up arseholes overreliant on the "old songs" to proove that not everything they had written sounded horrendious..... so that wasn't looking good for me.... There were other bands annoucned too, some of which were quite good, but the headliners always get your attention.
Then came the second update. It consisted of three bands. David Byrne and St. Vincent, Firghtened Rabit and Jens Lekman. Now frightened rabit are one of those bands who bore me live. Too many sleeper blokes looking as bored as if they were doing data entry, but they're pretty much stoopidbird's favourite british band of the moment, so that'll keep her happy. While I'm never going to get excited about DB&StV, the fact their touring band includes a 25 strong brass section who do line dancing while playing, means watching them holds some interest for me.... and then there's Jens. I properly heart Jens and his music fills me full of joy....
....the minute these three was announced, there was no longer any doubt which festival we'd be going to......