September 4th, 2006
Electric Picnic review: Friday and Saturday
My back hurts, my legs ache and 20 hours sleep wouldn’t go amiss, but this year’s Electric Picnic was well worth it. Really enjoyed practically everything I saw except for a disappointing Hot Chip and Bernard Sumner’s constant shrieking during New Order’s set on Saturday night.
Especially loved The Rapture, PJ Harvey, Yo La Tengo, Redneck Manifesto, Halfset, Massive Attack (I nearly cried when Liz Fraser turned up for ‘Teardrop’) and 2 Many DJs.
Jape, as Mish has rightly pointed out (and took this pic ), is a total genius and played possibly the best set of the weekend.
In the end I was working so there’s a full review of Friday and Saturday in today’s Irish Times with a Sunday report due in tomorrow.
Subs are required for the Times so I’ve pasted it here:
Crowd erupts to the robotic sound of ‘Cars’
Sinéad Gleeson
Review: Electric Picnic: Friday, September 1st and Saturday, September 2nd
If you’re going to brave a wet weekend camping in Laois, there’s no worthier trade-off than the best music festival on the Irish circuit.
Lofty praise perhaps but the Electric Picnic’s boutique marketing has definitely given it an edge over competitors. Expanded to three days this year, Friday evening was kicked off by Spankrock, whose funky hip hop was not for the faint-hearted PC brigade. Devendra Banhart and his backing band Vetiver converted many who didn’t know who they were before Friday. Festivals suit some acts more than others and Antony and the Johnsons, while poignant and on form, seemed unsuited to the main arena. PJ Harvey was without her band and was all the better for it, opening with Oh My Lover to a crowd she held in the palm of her hand. The typically quiet singer chatted constantly between old (and some excellent) new material.
Massive Attack oomphed up the bass as they delivered some polished standards leaving their untouchable Unfinished Symphony for the encore. Horace Andy - a regular collaborator - made an appearance, as an “angel called Elizabeth” turned out to be the luminous Liz Fraser from The Cocteau Twins on Teardrop.
Saturday’s proceedings were kick-started by Richie Egan who had a busy weekend, playing with The Redneck Manifesto, and twice as Jape (showcasing music from his much anticipated new album). Backed up by David Kitt on keys, Egan proved that he’s the best thing to happen to Irish music in decades.
We’ll never know if the Sugababes’ sampling of Are Friends Electric coaxed Gary Numan out of hibernation, but he was far from lethargic in the appropriate setting of the Electric Arena on Saturday. The amicable crowd were enthusiastic but as soon as the robotic riff of Cars pounded out, the place erupted. Critics of DJ Shadow’s imminent album were silenced by his turntable tricksiness while Domino Records’ Archie Bronson outfit belted out coarse, infectious rock. The 80s were well represented on Saturday, with New Order and Gang of Four. Bernard Sumner and co were worth it for Blue Monday and Love Will Tear Us Apart, but overall, there was something lacking in their live sound. Gang of Four were under-attended while their inheritors, Bloc Party, played to a full house, a musical irony in extremis.
One of newest (and best) additions to the festival was the Foggy Notions stage, which played host to a diverse range of acts over Friday and Saturday. David Edwards aka Minotaur Shock is one of the best things to happen to electronica in years and by all accounts, his aural panorama was one of the weekend’s highlights. Tapes and Tapes proved they are no Clap Your Hands Say Yeah wannabes and Wales’ very own Super Furry Animals fulfilled their much-lauded live reputation.
September 4th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Wow! Wish I could have gone. Have seen Hot Chip several times on TV festival coverage and they are distinctly underwhelming. Such a shame as I love the album. Have seen Massive Attack live but they’ve never done Unfinished Sympathy when I saw them - I envy you Sinead! Sounds like an amazing festival, so annoyed I coudn’t get home for it.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Lovely review there sinead. Only caught a few songs by Hot Chip but i thought it sounded quite good. Maybe the lovely crawdaddy stage would have been a better choice of tent tho. It was def my fave venue of the weekend (and not just because of the southern comfort ;)). Polly and Jape, closely followed by the YYYs were my personal faves. Though there seemed a lot more than 30,000 people there tbh. What surprised me most though was seeing just how popular B&S seem to be now… the place was absolutely jammed (I want my band back damnit!).
September 4th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Subs are required, all right! That should be the Archie Bronson Outfit, not outfit; and Tapes and Tapes should be Tapes ‘n Tapes. Hate to be pernickety, but…
September 4th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Alex, you’d have loved it. Lots of good dance stuff too (Nathan Fake, Coldcut, Basement Jaxx)
Cheers Mish, definitely think Hot Chip would’ve sounded better over there. It looked like there WERE another 10,000 folk there alright.
Macdara, I copied and pasted from the online version and my draft had both spelled as you have them. Perhaps the sub-editor wasn’t a music fan
September 4th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Sinead, i thought Nathan Fake cancelled??
September 4th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Brilliant writing, Sinead. I’m so glad to see you in there as a music critic.
And MacDara, admit it. You LOVED your pernickety moment.
September 4th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
I am so, so, so pissed off I wasn’t there just to see PJ. Patsington rang me afterwards basically to tell me how much I would have loved it - I thought her last few gigs here were a bit disappointing because her theatrical performances were so OTT they were verging on panto. So the news that she played on her own, playing the guitar, doing old stuff without all the dancing and grimacing, well, it almost made me cry with jealousy. Her ‘95 Olympia gig is still the best gig I’ve ever been at in my life, but none of the subsequent gigs have really captured the magic.
September 5th, 2006 at 7:17 am
Mish - didn’t hear that but I wandered in to the Bodytonic tent at the time he was meant to play and someone was banging out the kind of tunes he plays. Got me dancing anyway!
On the whole acts cancelling thing, none were replaced as far as I could tell and I know someone who wanted to see Os Mutantes and didn’t know they’d pulled out. Personally, I was very disappointed that Viva Voce didn’t play.
Empirestateview - so kind of you to say that, thanks.
Stellanova - totally agree. I wasn’t impressed with PJ the last time, but the ‘less is more’ approach seems to really suit her.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:45 am
And MacDara, admit it. You LOVED your pernickety moment.
Yes, esv, I admit it, I totally did!
But to clarify, I was picking on the subs at the Times, not on Sinead. As an aspiring sub-editor myself it rankles me to see such mistakes make their way through that filter and onto the printed page when they’re so obviously rectified.
September 5th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Couldn’t complain with much of what I saw, Though I thought DJ Shadow took the piss a little bit. He really seems to believe his own hype far too much for his own good. All the messing around between tunes really wrecked the flow, I am having nightmares about “Break, it, down”. Coldcut were fantastic, just got stuck in, no messing about, and acted like they were there to entertain the crowd and not the other way around.
Also, have to take my hat off to Messiah J and the Expert, for putting on such a good set, they pulled an incredible amount of people for 1 in the afternoon. PJ Harvey was really good too, just a shame the sound let her down a bit.
All in all though, really enjoyed the weekend, Shadow just pissed me the hell off that’s all.
Oh yeah, and Warlords of Pez, very enjoyable, old women with broadband…
September 5th, 2006 at 10:08 am
I really enjoyed Shadow, but quite a few people I know got fed up, Patrick.
Coldcut rocked, though I still think the new Smoke and Mirrors stuff still sounds awful.
God bless the Warlords - they’ve put the message Twink left for her ex-husband up on their myspace page. I particularly love the “put your mickey back in your trousers” line.
Did you catch Modeselektor?
September 5th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
It was a good festival alright, but being as cynical as ever the water situation was appalling. After Garnier two us were refused entry to the main arena at 1.50 am to get water. Told to go down to the camps to get it we could only find water packed with CHLORINE in these stainless steel wash basins that were being used as urinals by every drunk punter in the place. I know of three people who were turned away from the welfare tent when looking for water. One of these were turned away at about 5am in the morning, when it was badly needed and was just given a bottle of the staffs water on the level of ‘don’t say anything but here.’ There were no signs marking where the water was. That was an utter disgrace. Did rave ever happen?
September 5th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
I believe the rest of that Warlords of Pez lyric is “Old women and broadband/What are they searching for?” Hilarious.
The highlight for me was Minotaur Shock, another band who seemed to be totally loving what they were doing. A guitar, a bass, a clarinet, and a laptop with some beats added up to one of the most perfect half an hours of my life - musically speaking anyway. It’s just a shame there weren’t a few more people there to see them.
I have to compliment EP on the sound quality as well for most of acts. And the main stage was definitely much better than last year, sound-wise.
Thumbs down on the toilet situation though. What a bloody nightmare. It seemed that they cleaned out the bottom of the toilets but didn’t go near the actual stalls, making them virtually unusable after 2 days. (I actually attempted to use the “she-pee” at one stage in desperation but had a total mental block about it - it just wasn’t happening!) Also there didn’t seem to be water on the campsites, although I did see a tap (worryingly, located right next to the portaloos) on the last morning. Also, would it kill the organisers to give out a free map and a line-up as you’re entering the venue? I believe they do that at Glasto.
September 5th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
James, that’s awful. I was afraid of getting get caught out so I always dragged a bottle around with me. There were taps by the loos but I wouldn’t dare use those for drinking out of.
Sylvia, fair play for attempting to use the she-pee! I actually found the toilets ok this year but that was the on site ones; I hear the campsite ones were pretty bad. I even had a pass for the VIP but couldn’t be bothered trekking over there all the time. If they’d been awful, I would certainly have dragged my swollen bladder over there no matter how far away it was.
I thought the sound was fine too, but not for Gang of Four or, apparently, Bloc Party. I found the Bodytonic tent waaaayyy too bassy - to the point where it actually drowned out some of Yo La Tengo’s quieter songs in a totally different tent later on.
John Reynolds took on board a lot of criticisms of the first year, and lesserly, of last year. You should both posts your points over in the EP forum so that there’s a chance the situation might be rectified next year if enough folk speak up.
September 5th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
I found the Bodytonic tent waaaayyy too bassy - to the point where it actually drowned out some of Yo La Tengo’s quieter songs in a totally different tent later on.
Two different problemshere, either the bass in Bodytonic was over the top (I didn’t think so) or another tent was placed too close to Bodytonic and the correctly balanced/mixed bass from Bodytonic was bleeding into the too-close-by tent (quite possible I imagine!)?
September 5th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Cahony, I think it was the former because they had a truck load of bassbins on the ground. I was talking to a friend tonight who was camped nearby and said he could feel the vibrations on the ground all weekend!