(This post ended up being about a year long, so if you just wanna listen to what I listened to over the weekend then I'm gonna put up a little playlist soon)
Thursday
The Waterboys were the "headliners" for the Thursday night, which is when there's not much going on but most of the festival-goers have arrived so there are a few acts playing. The Waterboys aren't the kind of thing I usually listen to - rock, folk, blues - but their eclectic sound, energy and showmanship made them really easy to watch, and it's easy to see why they've lasted so long as a band.
Next, I watched By The Rivers: like Fat Freddy's Drop, but younger and with more energy. You could tell that they would've had a great time playing even if nobody came to watch them, but that was what made it even more fun.
Friday
On Friday, the first act I saw were a band called Plank, who played instrumental music, but definitely not background music - imagine if you asked Foals (circa Antidotes) to write an instrumental album. They were strangely good to watch, and it seemed like they were in their own little world.
After napping trough The Phantom Band (no offence to them, just bad timing), I went to watch James Yorkston. He was like a Scottish Frank Turner, very nice and humble. When he heard an audience member asking for one of his old songs, he decided to add it into the set, even though only he and one other band member knew how it went. Seeing the two of them play with just an acoustic guitar made a nice change from the full band (although seeing a double bass being played on stage was pretty cool), and the female singer's little brother came on stage to play the spoons for the last song, which was pretty much the cutest thing ever.
The members of Augustines looked like they shouldn't know each other at all, but they gelled really well as a band, with the lead singer telling the crowd about his and the bassist / keyboard player's birthdays (that day and the day after, respectively), and talking about his brother whose birthday it was too, dedicating a song to him and shouting in a wavery sweat-or-tear-filled voice to "never, ever give up". They reminded me of Future Islands a tiny bit, but with a stronger voice at the front. They were really earnest and had a lot of energy.
Next I saw Adult Jazz, who are pretty much the opposite: super chilled out, and all their songs have a steady pace. I like the melodies they use, especially the guitar riffs and notes that copied the notes of the lead singer's lyrics.
Mac Demarco was exactly how you'd imagine him to be live. He'd got his bandmates to paint their faces blue for Blue Boy, was wearing a Simpsons t-shirt & Viceroy hat, and was asking whether anyone could put the band up in their tent for the night, adding that one of the band members "gets pretty sweet late at night so you gotta watch out". The songs were a good mix of old and new; Salad Days, Ode to Viceroy, and the set finisher Still Together went down the smoothest. Mac got people up to sing with him, crowdsurfed, and jumped off some of the rigging in the tent into the crowd. He doesn't often take himself seriously, he has a lot of fun, and it still doesn't seem that it's really hit him that he's playing gigs around the world.
Beirut were a lot more composed than Mac, putting the more well-known songs together in a group and playing through them as they'd practised. Seeing Zach Condon holding his ukulele with his jacket sleeves rolled up, smiling out at the crowd for the start of Postcards from Italy, reminded me that this was someone who'd just started off with an idea or two for a song, and was now performing for thousands of people.
Saturday
We Are Catchers, the first band I saw on Saturday, had quiet songs with repeated lyrics, making them really easy to sing along to. Apart from Citadel and Richer Man, the songs were along the same kind of wavelength: they're pretty calm, and echo some of Real Estate's sound. The use of keyboard, guitar, and soft percussion made for some really easy listening.
The special guests for Saturday at Chai Wallahs turned out to be a band called Yes Sir Boss, whose sound really captures what Chai Wallahs is all about. They're energetic, using desert rock & Cat Empire-esque ska. Their cover of Miserlou by Dick Dale and his Del Tones kept the crowd's energy up near the end of the set, but they didn't really need any help with that. You could tell they really enjoyed being there and playing for Chai Wallahs.
I went to see Neko Case because a guy on the main stage had just proposed to his girlfriend, and I had no idea who the band were so I thought he played for them. Turns out Neko Case is actually the lead singer of the band (of which the now engaged couple weren't members), and they play typical American rock. It's like if your two American aunts, who're always asking how you are (and genuinely care about the answer) have formed a band with some bikers they met in a bar. Neko and backing singer Kelly reminded me of Thelma and Louise - or maybe Louise and Louise, whichever one was more fun. They were really easy to watch, interacting with the crowd, telling stories, talking about unicorn finger puppets, and seeming genuinely at ease with their bandmates.This was their last show after 15 months of touring, so it was pretty special for them, too.
Sunday
I was working Sunday afternoon (as well as Saturday night and Friday morning), but once I finished my shift, I went to see First Aid Kit. They were a little bit Feist, and a little bit country Taylor Swift. I didn't really like them that much, except when they covered Simon & Garfunkel's America. They were pretty slow and calm, and I knew I was gonna fall asleep if I stayed to watch them.
Real Estate were a lot better live than I expected - they got really into their songs and interacted with the audience. Beach Comber and It's Real were my favourites.
I got to the main stage a few minutes before Neutral Milk Hotel's set, and saw on the screens that they'd asked not to be photographed or filmed during their set. I know Kate Bush asked her audiences to do this recently, and although it seems a little pretentious, it did mean you weren't distracted by people's cameras during the set. When Jeff Mangum came on, it looked like he'd been living in a cave or in the wild for the past 10 years - he had a lot of hair and beard under his hat (someone behind me started talking about "how great it is to see Seasick Steve perform). Even the official crew didn't film the set. The band played through In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, with a couple of other songs added in. Two-Headed Boy Part 2 is one of my favourite songs by NMH, and it was definitely my favourite to see live. The band ended with "a lullaby", Engine, and the whole thing was great. The electric saw / bass / keyboard player was my favourite person, because he had a nice hat and was bouncing around on stage. Everyone was really humble, talking about how this was Neutral Milk Hotel's first gig in Wales, and about how much it meant to them. Sometimes it was the whole band playing, and at others it was just Jeff Mangum and a guitar.
I was really glad to be able to see every band that I saw, even though I'd never heard of a lot of them before. Green Man was just the same as last year, a lovely festival in a beautiful place run by the nicest people, with some really good music.
No comments:
Post a Comment