Lunes 14 Jul 2008, 19:48
i ended up able to go as i got a ticket on ebay for £26. this ended up only being £20 when i met up with the guy, and bought him a beer and he said not to worry about the £6. Awesome. First band i saw was:
Saturday
Black Sun
these guys had power in spades..i was expecting a dirty doom riffathon and wasnt dissapointed, they played flawlessly and thier songs were very varied, bit of post rock,bit of doom, plenty of riffs and a awesome drummer. id love to see them in a club enviroment however, a half full aircraft hanger does not befit them, as i found later the sound was better when the stage was packed.
Saw a bit of Guapo, i didnt find them very interesting, so i went to witness the spectacle that was Justice Yeldham. Well, i cant say id ever want to sit and listen to his music, but as a performance its unmissable..im sure theres a few of u here that saw this? for those that didnt this is a chap that uses broken glass and various audio bits n bobs to make noise with his moth pressed against the glass and sharp edges of glass. he cuts his face a lot. quite intense viewing. I saw a bit of Thrones next, bored the shit out of me, same as last time, but id imagine hearing it on record would be very different. next was:
Oxbow
Fucking amazing. ive seen the Oxbow duo live before, and that was brilliant as it was but nothing quite prepares you for the full experience with full band. the sound was perfect, they played "Curse", room was full, "She is a find" was sublime (requested it to eugene earlier in the day),atmosphere was excellent, and eugene was fiddling with his cock. Excellent.
After that i thought nothing could top that, but The Heads came incredibly close with a loud, sprawling set that consisted of some of the most dancable noisy stoner rock ive ever heard. all the riffs were catchy as hell and the noisy solos were to me, reminsent of saint vitus in a way, but obviously way more psychadellic. brilliant end to a great day!
Sunday
Orthodox were the first band i saw, and on record Gran Poder is just a stunning sleep-like doom album. Live, they were stunning too, the sound was good, all clear there….up until the thrashy bit during Geryons throne were it seemed to all of a sudden it just turned to noise, you couldnt hear the guitar, bass was unaudible, it was just a mess. it was such a shame, as it started off so well. I had to leave to get food and meet my mates missus, but i was put off by the sound so didnt go back until Asva.
Asva …i had waited all weekend for this performance, and I can safely say, i havnt seen a live act thats made my ears actually hurt since high on fire at this same festival in 2006. it was painfullly loud. but by god was it amazing. for those that stuck this out, and a lot left because it either wasnt thier thing, or too loud, This was a great set that only consisted of 2 songs from the new album. But the 2 songs played were so densely layered, I had no complaints…other than my ears bleeding. one word i left with though? Amazing.
Earth however bored me to tears. this is a big shame though…as i really really like the new album. i dont know and cant work out what it was, could have been Asva being so powerful, i just expected more and was left feeling let down. They just appeared to have no real passion for what they playing too. Im probably completely alone with this opinion, but the people I was with thought the same so I stuck around for at least 2 or 3 songs and then went to see Red Sparowes.
Red Sparowes were what I expected of them really, Melodic sweeping and heavy post/prog rock, and although i have both albums, i am more familiar with the 1st one so two tracks from that expertely performed really made the set for me.
I saw a bit of Fucked Up, it wasnt really my thing so i went to meet up with friends at Scruffys and ended up seeing Arnocorps. was certaintly a stylistic change fro the rest of my weekend and they were a hell of a lot of fun, id never even heard them before. Commando was ace, and Terminator obviously a popular one, made the crowd go mental. by this time it was nearly 10:30 so i figured it go back to see Gravetemple and get the last bus after it.
IMO:
.heres the scene, dry ice, lots of it, and it was attila standing in a red shirt with a black tie moaning and groaning with stephen o malley playing nothing but feedback for 20 minutes and some other bloke making his guitar screech like a murdered whore. after 20 minutes of this almost frightening torture, the drummer finally showed his head, he got behind the drum kit, started up some tribal beats, and then just got faster and faster and faster, while the feedback, screaching and groaning got louder and louder till it hurt. it was a cacophony of epically shite caliber, that only stephen o malley could do. i think hes suddenly come to realisation he can get onstage, shit out of his guitar, and the morons will buy it.
But yeah, otherwise, I had a great weekend!