Keep It Fresh

I finally got my ducks in a row, filtered through the madness and present to you Electric Picnic 2007. From a strictly musical stand point of course. More photos of the weekend will be arriving on your doorstep later this weekend but for now I offer the textual breakdown…

>>>Friday: Mwahahaha! We didn’t have any traffic problems. Sailed in! Of course in order to do so we had to be on the road at 8.30am but from the horror stories I’ve heard it was well worth. A large chunk of Friday was spent looking for fictional character John which proved to be a great way to meet people. Then I was shaved down to a tache. That’s enough on that. After wandering through the main arena and discovering they had kept pretty much the same layout as last year (this proves handy as you’ll find your sub-conscious kicks in when your lost and drunk), I caught a smidge of Hot Chip before heading to meet friends. Once a posse was gathered it was off to lady of the hour Bjork. It is at this point that I potentially put myself up for slaughter, as I don’t find Bjork’s current output to be all that spectacular. I left her show half way being thoroughly unimpressed and finding the whole affair very lacking. I moved swiftly to the Electric Arena and was greeted by an unusually smiley Damon Albarn. The Good, The Bad & The Queen played and absolute blinder, with a perfectly formed set and well placed moments of banter. When the violin quartet came in during Herculean it filled the tent perfectly and could only be topped by Mr. Albarn making us count to 32 in order to close the set. It was then a skip and a hop over to the main stage for LCD Soundsystem. I danced like a Maniac 2000 and enjoyed every moment of the set. My prayers were answered when “No Love Lost” opened the encore and “New York I Love You” proved the perfect cliched closer for bonding with new found gig buddies.

>>>Saturday: Dragged asses out of bed for some Delerentos early Saturday action. A set plagued with sound issues this was going to prove a recurring theme for the Crawdaddy tent. Then time for some Shy Child or Shite Child as Dave affectionatly christened them. Nice sound, terrible vocals. The New Yorkers should really consider getting someone else in to do that job. In keeping with the Electric Arena it was Chk-Chk-Chk (!!!) hour next and my god did they live up to the name. Lead man Nic Offer sounds just as good live as he dances like a cross between Jim Morrison and Buffalo Bill. With ears booming from a booming !!! set, myself and Dave met with some Chalets and the rest of our motley crew and headed for M.I.A. I enjoyed it as I’ve been listening to the album a lot lately but she seem a little lost on that big stage with only a DJ, MC and large banner to keep her company. Roll on Architecture In Helsinki who fell under the Crawdaddy tent curse and lost a guitar mid set, forcing them to adapt the set and ultimately end the set early. Barely caught Jarvis Cocker covering “The Boys Are Back In Town” which was pure genius and ended a set I’m sure I would have enjoyed. Foggy Notions tent provided us with Ratatat and Final Fantasy back to back. Ratatat where in flying form as usual (Sarah’s weekend highlight me thinks) but for me man of the match goes to Final Fantasy aka Owen Pallet. It was great to see a packed tent responding so passionately to one man and his violin and Pallet was genuinely humbled as he rushed back on stage for an unplanned encore. We tried for some Beastie Boys but it just wasn’t meant to be. It pained me to leave but we weren’t seeing anything and barely hearing anything so we left. It made me sad but it gives me an excuse to spend outrageous amounts of money going to see them again. So a pizza and orange juice (it was really tasty!) refresh later and the Chemical Brothers floored me with and great set and amazing (and at times quiet scary - THAT clown) visuals. Having a great crowd around us helped and when “Golden Path” was dropped it made my weekend.

>>>Sunday: Asses out of bed even earlier (it really hurt this time) in time to get over to our current favorite band, Fight Like Apes. Myself and Dave pulled the energy from god knows where, to dance and sing along with a band that appeared to feel our pain. Kieran recommended checking out The Little Ones over the Nokia tent, which came at a perfect time. Just as the rain started the first of it’s on/off appearances for the day, The Little Ones belted out some perfect indie summer pop. Following that was Good Shoes which were…well…good. I think ‘generic’ was the term myself and Lisa settled on. Bat For Lashes were a treat proving to be as good live, if not better then they sound on record. Myself and Dave did agree that our full enjoyment of the gig did suffer from having to stand with slightly aching legs. Bat For Lashes would be perfectly suited to the Sugar Club and a nice cold pint of Guinness. The rain came back so we high tailed over to Bodytonic for a slightly late but oh so fantastic DJ Yoda. His new visual set just keeps getting better and better and I’m really looking forward to his new DVD. Some dilly dallying and shinanigans later, myself, Dave and Lisa wormed up the front for the Go! Team. The rocked the joint with the perfect balance of old and new material. They flooded the stage with smoke and strobe light and rocked out for every minute they were on stage. Just as they came to and end they texts and calls came flooding in.

“Architecture In Helsinki, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Owen Pallet playing an impromptu gig. Body and Soul now!”

We ran (as Lisa and I usually do at festivals). And what a treat it was. The guys just jammed in front of about 200 people in the perfect setting of the Body and Soul forest. A unique set and a unique festival moment for sure. Thanks to everyone for letting us know it was going down.

Overall a great weekend both with the music and everything else in between. Thanks to everyone I shared it with and hello to everyone I met! And thanks for reading - that was quite the large post of travel journal proportions.

-phil