a review of times past

I arrived back from the Electric Picnic but I thought I'd give myself a day or two to digest the weekends events. I think I have most of it clear in my head although there's a couple of fuzzy spots here and there. I'll attempt to give you my musical highlights of the acts on offer down in Stradbally.

I pretty much stuck to the main stage on Friday night and as a result I saw Hot Chip, Bjork and LCD Soundsystem. Hot Chip looked a bit lost on the big stage and they didn't really do it for me this time. Sorry chaps. Bjork was all orchestral and freaky and was leppin around the stage like a woman possessed. The show was a visual treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Others seemed to feel that the show was a little slow-paced but what the fuck do they know! This was my first time seeing LCD Soundsystem play and I thought they performed rather well. I'm glad I saw them but in truth I wouldn't be arsed going to see them again. Afterwards there was engagement in varities of madness before finally crawling into my sleeping bag. I was rudely awoken in the early hours of the morning by a few lads from Tallaght belting out all manner of tunes. One moment it was Bowie, the next it was Planxty. Although versatile in their choice and delivery of songs, I felt it was a wholly inappropriate time to be showcasing their talents. I did notice that at least one of them was from Dublin band The Things.

And so I greeted Saturday. I made a valiant effort to go to early gigs but as we know readers, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. I finally made it in to see !!! but I only stuck around for a couple of tunes. They sounded like The Gossip. I also took in a few tunes by The Undertones and they really had the crowd rocking. A little bit of nostalgia never harmed anyone. I managed to see a few tunes by Electrelane as i traversed the festival and I'm really glad I did. They were a bit like a female Ride. You can decide if that's a good or bad thing. I popped over to Easystar Allstars on the main stage after 5pm where I was treated to some original material and also their covers of several Pink Floyd and Radiohead tunes. Dubtastic. Unfortunately it conflicted with MIA elsewhere. Fuck it. The dub reggae vibes ushered me gently into the mood to face the rest of the evening. It was just what the doctor ordered. Next up was Ladytron but i didn't hang around too long because i wanted to check out Ratatat. I was really impressed by both of the bands but i'm glad that I saw more of the latter one. They rocked the gaff and I'll definitely be looking out for their stuff in future. I took a breather for a while before checking out The Jesus and Mary Chain. I saw these guys a few times more than 15 years ago and I should have left it at that. That William Reid is looking more like Phil Spector every day. Pile of pants. I think it was at this point that I caught Si Schroeder in the Body & Soul area and he was brilliant. Well done Si. I finally checked out The Chemical Brothers who purveyed their wares to the attendant masses. It was a bit shit to be honest. The visuals were pretty good though.

Sunday, the day of rest. My arse. Up with the bleedin lark again but still making poor progress on the early entry into the festival. Made it into Horace Andy who was genuinely great. You get an awful lot of old reggae geezers peddling a load of tripe but Mr Andy was the real deal. His band were pretty deadly too. Big up ya chest Horace. I wandered around and sat outside the Electric Arena where I heard about 5 tunes from a band I didn't recognise. As it turns out it was Jarvis Cocker. As it also turns out he was rather good. It was over to Sonic Youth afterwards and this was really impressive. Kim Gordon, not the greatest singer, not even the best looking chick but by jaysus she's sexy. Thurston Moore still looks like he's 17 while Lee Ranaldo looks like a high school music teacher. I hadn't seen them since they played McGonagles in 1990 but they're still rocking all over the world (a la Status Quo). I managed to take in a few tunes by both Rilo Kiley and Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip and I enjoyed both. Whilst most people plumped for Iggy Pop I decide to divide the time between Fujiya & Miyagi and Dub Pistols with Terry Hall. Fujiya & Miyagi were unbelievable and as a result i only saw the last two songs by the Dub Pistols. It gladdened my heart when the last song they played was 'Gangsters'. I caught a few tunes by the noteworthy Go Team before the finale on the main stage by Primal Scream. I stuck around for six tunes before heading into the Body & Soul area. I caught the last two improvised tunes by a band made up of members of Architecture in Helsinki, Final Fantasy and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. It was well worth catching even though it was completely by mistake.

I'm sure I'm leaving a few bands out but you get the idea. All in all a nice jaunt down the country. However, if i'm going back next year I'll be leaving the tent at home and slumming it in some nice place instead. I'm getting too old for all this outdooor stuff.