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Due to various reasons, we only got to see Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Boards of Canada, Yo La Tengo and Television, catching brief glimpses of Derek Bailey and Autechre along the way. (Which isn't a bad selection I suppose). Tortoise were excellent, although I was still pretty hyped up from the long drive, so wasn't relaxed enough to enjoy their set as much as I'd have liked. The rammed hall didn't help much, but I guess we were stood in the wrong place really. Loads of good stuff but I really couldn't name them as I was far too tired and quite wrecked by that point. There was lots of bass rumbling coming over the PA and the floor was definitely shaking at times, so it was definitely loud, but also very fluid. Well groovy stuff. The Sea And Cake proved quite a draw to the 2nd stage, which is quite impressive as they were up against Lambchop (who apparently did a cover of The Sisters of Mercy's This Corrosion and didn't play Up With People) on the main stage. Playing tracks from Oui interspersed with oldies such as Parasol, Jacking The Ball, Leeora and The Biz amongst others, they were very smooth, as expected, and got the crowd going nicely. They came out for a couple of encores too, which was nice and got a massive cheer at the end. I can't understand why they're so relatively unknown over here but was chuffed to hear people saying how good they thought they were and others saying how disappointed they were to have missed them. So I'd say The Sea And Cake were the underdogs who made good on the night, definitely my highlight of the weekend, and maybe to this year's festival what Shellac were to last. Sheer class. Boards Of Canada were very impressive (to me at least), two guys doing swoonsome electronic noodling to an impressive backdrop of various illuminated patterns. They finished far too soon for me though and no encore, despite the cheers from the crowd. Instead the house lights came up, which sort of ruined the atmosphere. Quite possibly this year's Sonic Youth, as not everyone was impressed, and in fact over the weekend some people could even be heard to mutter Bored of Canada. There's no accounting for taste. On Sunday it was Yo La Tengo who were the first band we got to see, and this was the first time I'd ever seen them, which is surprising even to me, seeing how I like them so much. A nice mixture of full on rock guitars and melodies with some nice quiet bits thrown in for good measure, along with some covers, including a Ramones one. I was very disappointed with You Can Have It All (my favourite track from And Then Nothing...), as it was nothing like the performances I'd heard of from previous gigs. There was no crazy dancing and the music just never seemed to get going, it remained subdued, with whispered vocals from Georgia and not much excitement from Ira and James - overall though, a fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable performance. Good guys. Later it was time for some history in the making as the reformed Television took to the stage to rapturous applause. They took a while to get going - maybe it was an introduction or maybe they were still tuning up - but once they did things just got better and better. They played classics like See No Evil, Venus, Prove It and of course Marquee Moon, which is basically fucking timeless and the crowd raised the roof for this one. It was good to see a band like this play so well together, considering their somewhat turbulent history. I know they're not quite as old as them, but you don't get that feeling of embarrassment either, that you may get, say if you saw the Strolling Bones play together. Rock and Roll Saviours? You bet. There were some great DJ sets over the weekend too, with the guys from Stereolab doing a wonderful job on the Saturday night, before Johnny Herndon and Casey Rice from Tortoise took over, continuing the standard. Stuart Mogwai and Bob (and Carrie) Weston were down for DJing in the pub at some point too over the weekend, but I don't think I was there for either. Well, that's about it, but we missed some great bands too by all accounts, including Sun Ra Arkestra (obviously minus Sun Ra), Fred Anderson Quartet, The Ex, Broadcast and Calexico amongst others, so next year we'll definitely be more organised. However once again we met some great people and partied hard for a few days having a thoroughly enjoyable time. Roll on next year for the Shellac curated weekend with a line up featuring Fugazi, Low, Plush, Will Oldham, The Breeders and possibly Oxes, along with some others and an apparently BIG surprise. Rule absolutely nothing out! Ady |