Musical Monday #25

It's completely unforgivable, but I realise I didn't properly write about Reading festival after that first post about the Thursday. There's still three days of bands to report on -- relying only on my moleskine notebook for the bands I saw and a drink- and sun-addled memory of the weekend. But it went a bit like this:

Friday

The first day kicked off with the polka dot dresses and three-girl harmonies of the Pipettes. As the first band of the festival, they pulled a big crowd and had that simple feel-good sound that got people to their feet and set the tone for the weekend.

In the Radio 1 Lockup tent (an almost exclusively punk stage) there was The King Blues -- a band I know solely through Suicide Bid, since they share some members. Their mix of an acoustic sound and political lyrics is catching on quickly, and they are getting a big following. It's one of the things I love about a festival is that you can wander from the Pipettes to the King Blues.

A band that I hadn't planned on seeing were Gogol Bordello -- I knew nothing about them, but when a few people mentioned wanting to see them, I figured I had nothing better to do. What a surprise they were -- the surreal and explosive gypsy punk sound really blew my mind, they're one of the very few bands I can say sound nothing like anything else I know.

More familiar territory was The Gossip -- although I was totally unprepared for how good they were going to be. I knew Standing in the Way of Control, and hardly a week goes by without Beth Ditto making the music news either for her outspoken opinions, or just for taking her clothes off on stage. What started as a might as well watch, they're quite good opinion quickly changed into thinking they are very special. Beth Ditto has an incredible voice -- it has a real Motown feel to it, her passion for the music is both obvious and infectious. As a bonus, they also did a blinding cover of the Talking Heads' Psycho Killer. My only reservation is that Beth Ditto's love of taking off her clothes on stage is becoming a bit of a gimmick.

For reasons not entirely clear to me, Jimmy Eat World were scheduled to play twice on the Friday -- first the main stage, and then one of the alternative stages at the end of the evening. Either way, I scheduled their main stage appearance into the day's plans but it had been a couple of years since I last saw them and I wasn't sure how good they would be. The result was a very solid crowd-pleaser of a show -- they might not be one of the most ground-breaking bands of all time, but they played all the songs I loved.

Kings of Leon I have mixed feelings towards. I think I like them, but then I'll play an album maybe and won't be quite so sure. Just the same, live is always a different experience -- and while I perhaps didn't recognise a lot of what they played, it was a tight show and it reminded me of what I do love about the band and their music.

Overlapping slightly with Kings of Leon were Aussie punks, The Living End. Another band I didn't have a great deal of familiarity with, I was immediately taken with their passion and rockabilly style. The tent was too packed full of people for us to be able to get all the way inside, but standing on the edges we had a good enough view of the stage and were swept up in the moment when they started to play a cover of Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Sadly, they didn't go through with it and stopped before the vocals started.

Headlining Friday night on the main stage were Razorlight. Fondly referred to by many as "Razorshite", Jon and I instead to see Ash headlining the NME stage. Since Charlotte Hatherley left the band, they have returned to their three-piece routes (or as the t-shirts used to say "3 boy hardcore action") -- but their live performance hasn't suffered for it. Festival favourites, the boys knew to crank out their big hits and it's always with a feeling of slight longing that I stand in the dark and listen to songs like Girl From Mars and Oh Yeah -- particularly the latter with its simple emotion: "I don't know why these things ever end/I sometimes wish it was that summer again". Unfortunately, by the time they got to what they said was their last song of the night -- a new song -- we felt there was something missing. They had played the big songs, and played them well, but still it felt like something more was needed. We left before the last song finished -- they hadn't played my favourite song, Jack Names the Planets, but I'd never heard them play it live before anyway. We've since learned that the song we left during was not their last song after all, and they ended with Jack Names the Planets. Just the same, I was left slightly disappointed.

Saturday
A much quieter affair than the Friday, Saturday was all about three bands for me -- the first of which being Eagles of Death Metal. Sounding absolutely nothing like either The Eagles or death metal, they make very simple and straight forward rock and roll. It's easily digestible and very catchy -- although on the few times I've seen them, Josh Homme has never been playing drums -- despite that being one of the main selling points. The band were just right for a slightly fuzzy, drunken Saturday afternoon in the sun -- but again, despite playing their hits, it still felt like there was something lacking.

The highlight of the day were one of my favourite bands of the moment, Silversun Pickups. It was only the second time I'd seen them, the last time being an intimate gig at London's 100 Club, but both times I have been left almost dumbstruck at the intensity and passion of the music. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is they do and what other bands of the festival failed to do -- but without seeming to try too hard, they delivered exactly what I had hoped. I think they made an impression on the rest of the crowd in the Lockup tent -- after they finished, and I was making my way out, someone politely stopped me and asked who the band were. Contrast this to the stranger who tapped me on the shoulder halfway through the set to ask me if I had ever been to Fukuoka, because I was wearing a "Fukuoka Hawks" shirt. It seems he'd lived there at one time, although I didn't ask to be told this and would rather people didn't try and talk to me while a band are playing.

Jon and Nick had left me part way through SSP's set because Jon wanted to watch Arcade Fire -- and if given a straight choice, Nick will always follow Jon. Knowing only one song by Arcade Fire -- although I like it -- I preferred to watch the end of SSP, before joining Jon for Arcade Fire. I have to admit, they were another band I was surprised by -- I knew almost nothing by them, but some of their songs I really liked, and they played with an obvious enthusiasm and certain degree of show. Will I be hurrying out to buy any of their stuff? It's unlikely, but I'd certainly watch them live again.

Headlining on the main stage on Saturday were the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Notice how I said there were only three bands I wanted to see on Saturday? RHCP were not one of them. Don't get me wrong, I used to like their music -- and it's difficult for me to pin point exactly where they have gone so wrong. I liked By The Way, but I ended up disliking it after it got so over-played. I liked Californication, too, but it annoys the shit out of me that the band now don't seem to acknowledge they had any material earlier than this. BloodSugarSexMagik was an amazing album, but all they play from it is Give It Away. We left halfway through the set -- there was no passion, no enthusiasm and no longer any songs we like.

Sunday
Originally for Sunday, I had four bands noted down that I wanted to see. Unfortunately, with some rescheduling to make sure we would be on the front barrier for NIN and Smashing Pumpkins, I had to drop Charlotte Hatherley. But that's getting ahead of myself.

Again, over on the Radio 1 Lockup stage was a band I like very much -- Sonic Boom Six, also with connections to Suicide Bid. Their set although enjoyable wasn't anything spectacular or ground-but breaking, this was only the second time I've seen them and I do like them a lot -- they certainly filled the tent with people. The few songs I knew (I think featured in the last Musical Monday) went down well, and they set me up for the rest of the day. In a text message conversation, Claire who was at the sister festival in Leeds had recommended a couple of other punk bands to see during the day.

True to form, one of her recommendations was NYC hardcore punks The Casualties -- whom I ended up watching on my own. Although I'd never heard of them or anything by them before, they were pretty good -- in that hardcore punk way. The highlight of the set was their cover of the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop. I also had The Dwarves recommended to me -- but in the end by the time they were on, I couldn't be bothered to go watch them on my own. I thought nothing of it at the time -- but having since played some of their songs, I think I chose to watch the wrong band. These things happen.

I've already mentioned how in order to get to the front barrier for the time Nine Inch Nails were to come on Jon and I had to miss Charlotte Hatherley. What I didn't mention was how this involved pushing into a crowd of emo kids while Fall Out Boy finished. I'm pleased to say, I don't remember any of their set. I have no shame in admitting I enjoyed Lost Prophets, whom I suspect I think Jon likes because he feels a certain Welsh kinship with them. I didn't know any of their songs other than Last Train Home (which obviously they played last), but the frontman was very engaging, and the set was entertaining. Would I see them again? At a festival, sure -- but I don't think I'd see them on their own.

Our reasoning worked well -- most of the kids at the front of the crowd where we were stood had no intention of watching Nine Inch Nails, and so we had our position for the last two bands of the festival. It seemed strange for Nine Inch Nails to be taking to the stage while it was still daylight -- but once they started it was quickly forgotten what time of day it was. Unlike when I saw them earlier this year, the set was largely unknown to me -- especially since they didn't play anything from The Fragile, although on the other hand I was ecstatic when they played their cover of Joy Division's Dead Souls (so much better than the original) and the song Burn from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. The set was worthy of a headliner -- intense and powerful, and even slightly uncomfortable at times.

The highlight of the day and the whole festival was meant to be Smashing Pumpkins. Earlier in the afternoon, I'd suggested to Jon that we just left then, before the Pumpkins played, because sometimes reality can't match the anticipation. It was a joke, at the time...

In stark contrast to their recent show in Shepherd's Bush, Sunday's headline set was one of the worst I have seen of any band. I have no idea where Billy Corgan thought he was playing, because it was a far cry from the greatest hits crowd pleaser you'd expect from the band headlining Sunday night. Granted, there were many of the big songs -- like Cherub Rock and Zero, but Billy seemed to be all the things I've defended him against. Arrogant, aloof and completely out of touch to what the crowd wanted to hear. I certainly don't think anyone wanted to hear him masturbating with a guitar for what felt like hours on end, they almost certainly wanted to hear Disarm, and didn't get it. It also seemed strange that at no point did Billy introduce the rest of his band -- since he went on so much about wanting "his" band back, you would have thought he might make some mention as to who these people were.

As melodramatic as it sounds, I felt let down and even a little bit betrayed. Smashing Pumpkins reminded us on that Sunday night why we stopped listening to their music and going to their shows the first time round. And that's no way to end a festival -- please compare it to Pearl Jam closing last year's, or any number of other bands on other years. You shouldn't walk away from the band you looked forward to all weekend feeling let down.

But so as not to end on a negative note, I liked that it was the bands I least expected that were the highlights of the festival for me, rather than some of the ones I had anticipated the most. The exception being Silversun Pickups, whom I not only looked forward to more than almost anyone else, but also delivered. And so it's their music I leave you with today -- there's so many bands I could have chosen from, but these are my favourite of the moment.

Update: if you tried to play the song and it didn't work, it has now been fixed.