Another year, another wristband, another weekend in a field watching bands play. This time with added rain. I may have vowed last year to avoid T in the Park 2011 (and all festivals for that matter) like the plagues that are probably cultivated there, but there was an inconsequential announcement made in February that made me reconsider. What at first sight (one band in particular aside) was a poorer line-up that last year turned out to be marginally better for me in terms of seeing bands, though most bands throughout the weekend I saw on my own for various reasons. Here then is the opinion on all of them:
Friday
Big Country
A band my mum listens to, her first words when I told her they were playing were: "Oh they've not been the same since Stuart Adamson killed himself." I'll assume this was an accurate statement, since he was the singer and the guy that replaced him was wank. Given that all the members of this band are now roughly above fifty years old, nothing special was to be expected. Nothing special is what you got.
Mona
My one visit to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Transmissions Stage of the weekend (it wasn't because I couldn't be bothered saying the name again, honest), I chose to see this lite-Kings of Leon mob over Tom Jones. Biggest regret of the weekend. Mona weren't (and aren't) bad, but the sound in the RBBJTS was abysmal. Far too loud with this faint hazy backdrop of sheer noise, the performance was made even worse by a frankly moronic audience. I thought I'd seen everything when people tried to put to Rococo by Arcade Fire, boy was I wrong. I would vote the crowd at Mona to be the worst of the weekend, but they were merely a taster of the shite to come.
Evaline
A band whose debut album I bought on Wednesday (and have started listening to again as I type this actually), I caught the second half of their set in the T Break stage after Mona. A six-piece, their live show was short but memorable. Enough to make me spend £15 on the aforementioned debut, anyway. One of the bigger crowds I saw at the T Break stage too, and one that's justified. Best new band I've heard this year, and the album, Woven Materials, should be there or thereabouts by the end of the year too.
Romance
The program said of Romance: "Described by the NME as 'your new favourite band'," and to be honest, that should have been a warning. Out pops this skinny runt with floppy hair, leather trousers (prompting the gentleman next to me to shout "aye ye think you're Bon Jovi?") who spends the rest of the performance writhing against and actually licking the bass player. Granted the bass player was rather attractive (even for a left hander), I'll assume they were an item (hence the name too), the guitarist was actually very good and they were ok to listen to if you weren't watching them, but I really, REALLY hope that this band fails. Oh, did I mention that the singer gradually shed his clothes as the show went on?
Sucioperro
A band I'm slightly ashamed to not have heard of previously, Sucioperro had the most dedicated fan base of any band at the T Break stage over the weekend. Even though every Scottish rock band these days is doomed to draw Biffy Clyro comparisons, you could see where said comparison came from with Sucio, and it wasn't a knock. It was like a combination of the hard stuff of pre-Puzzle Biffy, the energy and enthusiasm of The Xcerts and the for want of a better word, deep lyrics (I'm assuming here, my memory's a bit fuzzy) of Frightened Rabbit. Probably my highlight of the Friday, it's a shame though that this was their third go on the T Break stage. I'd have thought they would have found success more easily but you never know. They're certainly capable of it, if they get their chance.
Aerials Up
A seven-piece who were probably trying a bit too hard to be Arcade Fire, this was nonetheless a surprisingly enjoyable performance from a band who've supported Paolo Nutini and Snow Patrol. Even with the inclusion of instruments from the string section of the orchestra, it was a surprisingly heavy performance, and they're another band who deserve success, at least based on the half hour I had in their company.
otherpeople
otherpeople (one word) were apparently going to bring 90's Seattle to T in the Park. They brought nothing of the sort. Perhaps it was from being misled by the programme, being spoiled by the three excellent bands I'd seen previously or them being on last, I was a bit disappointed by otherpeopleoneword. They weren't especially bad, but they weren't better than Sucioperro who were the closest band to them in terms of sound who'd played on that day. Thinking about it now, their performance was certainly less memorable than those I'd seen before.
Saturday
Paws
A band I saw myself after all the hospitality gimps went for a dump, Paws were better than I thought they would have been. Fairly loud and with an air of haphazardness that seemed to suit them, they battered through their half hour set with fantastic energy. They even had a pretty good crowd for a band on first on the Saturday, which I was pretty surprised about. They also recommended Boycotts, who we'll get to later.
The Xcerts
A band whose inclusion on the bill I didn't know about before leaving, I nearly wet myself when I saw the programme. I've loved this band since 2008 (roughly), and was desperate to seem them live. They didn't disappoint, despite playing four songs from their (poorer) second album. They played the BBC introducing stage so there is actually footage of the performance: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/tinthepark/2011/artists/xcerts/ (No, I haven't seen myself), and it's well worth a watch. There was a much larger crowd than I was expecting, and Murray MacLeod made good use of this, crowd surfing (and still playing his guitar, impressively) while making the bass player shite himself. I'm glad I got to see them, second best performance of the weekend and I even managed to make other people like them, which I found especially surprising.
Friendly Fires
Next up was Friendly Fires in the pishing rain. Not the weather you're wanting when you've got a frontman in a Hawaiian shirt playing sngs from what's the best album of the summer this year. Still, vocal and climate problems aside (someone should have told him to sing INTO the microphone), they still put on a good show. They even made the rain go away in time for the next band...
Jimmy Eat World
Having missed them play at Milton Keynes the week before by virtue of not getting there early enough and struggling to find a place to watch from, I was anxious to get a good spot for JEW. I thought I had, and the pictures I managed to take would have you believe I did, but this was where I experienced what on reflection was probably the second worst crowd of the weekend, but I'll go into detail since I was more annoyed by this one. Point one: You do not pit to A Praise Chorus. You do not clear a space in a crowd and invite people to pile on to the one guy who was dumb enough to jump face first into said space. You do not push someone on the edge of a pit into said pit when they have not joined voluntarily. You also do not attempt to lift someone on to the top of the crowd AFTER the performance is finished. Wanks in the crowd aside, I had a great time. Great set-list (although no Blister, which they'd played at Milton Keynes) and great performance, I was really glas I'd went to see them. third best performance of the weekend after The Xcerts, and a band I'd really like to see again. The hot keyboard player who was on stage for some songs and not others was a bonus, as was not finishing with The Middle.
Cancel the Astronauts
With JEW over, not wanting to see the most boring band in the world followed by Three Men and a Laptop and my feet hurting, it was back to the T Break stage, first witnessing Cancel the Astronauts. I'll be honest, I can't remember anything about their performance. I remember it wasn't bad, but given that I can't remember anything else, it probably doesn't bode too well.
Conquering Animal Sound
A man and a woman with an Imac and a guitar. The highlight of this performance was hearing Age of Consent played after them, even if it did cut out before the guitar part at the end.
Boycotts
Recommended previously, and quite rightly too. Very enjoyable and fronted by a stunning woman (who I think was pumping the bass player), there was a certain warmth to their set. It felt like they were your mates' band, which was quite a nice feeling. They weren't anything special music wise, but they weren't bad (better than the previous pair of muppets at any rate) and were certainly different from your usual bog-standard indie fare. Having a hot burd singing helps too, I suppose.
Sunday
The Pretty Reckless
Creepy and a bit shit, one eighteen year old girl who can't sing very well and dresses like a prostitute along with four old men is not a good thing. They weren't especially bad, they just weren't very good.
Hurts
Hurts performance #4 for me, and the progression of their live show was evident again. A few criticisms, Theo wearing sunglasses indoors was unacceptable, and the King Tut's Tent seemed a bit too big for the performance. The added visual pieces couldn't fill it out either, nor could the 9 musicians on stage. Still, a decent performance, and one for a crowd who had all paid to see the band. Roll on November.
My Chemical Romance
A rather cramped experience made poorer by the fact that Pinky had caught whatever the fat guy out Friendly Fires had in that he wasn't singing into the microphone. Something else rather worrying happened, I found out that I know a lot fewer words to MCR songs than I thought I did. Plus it was raining during this performance, though that did cool me down given how tightly packed I was. And the following act had "had a word," so the rain stopped for...
Pulp
The only reason I went to T in the Park. Pulp, the first band I ever heard and loved, Jarvis Cocker, a man who manages to combine looking weird and sexy (even at his current age and facial hair status) with what all indie frontmen lack these days: a personality. Despite crowd problems (me being the ONLY person there to see them), despite being on my own and despite not being able to move my spine for the duration of the performance, Pulp were not what I had hoped for. They were more than I could ever have contemplated hoping for. Every song was perfect (I even stopped hating Something Changed for long enough to belt out every word), his irreverant pish inbetween songs was as good as ever, and once they were done and I was out I couldn't stop smiling followed by tearing up (as I am slightly whilst I type this) and I will remember it fondly on the day that I die (probably whilst looking at the pictures I took). I didn't even care that I wasn't right at the front when he came down to the crowd, nor did I care that all the other cunty non-Pulp fans were crushing to get to the front. My life was made, and I will forever remember my first time.
I left after Pulp. It seemed pretty pointless to stay for an over-rated band I'd seen the week before.
Friday
Big Country
A band my mum listens to, her first words when I told her they were playing were: "Oh they've not been the same since Stuart Adamson killed himself." I'll assume this was an accurate statement, since he was the singer and the guy that replaced him was wank. Given that all the members of this band are now roughly above fifty years old, nothing special was to be expected. Nothing special is what you got.
Mona
My one visit to the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Transmissions Stage of the weekend (it wasn't because I couldn't be bothered saying the name again, honest), I chose to see this lite-Kings of Leon mob over Tom Jones. Biggest regret of the weekend. Mona weren't (and aren't) bad, but the sound in the RBBJTS was abysmal. Far too loud with this faint hazy backdrop of sheer noise, the performance was made even worse by a frankly moronic audience. I thought I'd seen everything when people tried to put to Rococo by Arcade Fire, boy was I wrong. I would vote the crowd at Mona to be the worst of the weekend, but they were merely a taster of the shite to come.
Evaline
A band whose debut album I bought on Wednesday (and have started listening to again as I type this actually), I caught the second half of their set in the T Break stage after Mona. A six-piece, their live show was short but memorable. Enough to make me spend £15 on the aforementioned debut, anyway. One of the bigger crowds I saw at the T Break stage too, and one that's justified. Best new band I've heard this year, and the album, Woven Materials, should be there or thereabouts by the end of the year too.
Romance
The program said of Romance: "Described by the NME as 'your new favourite band'," and to be honest, that should have been a warning. Out pops this skinny runt with floppy hair, leather trousers (prompting the gentleman next to me to shout "aye ye think you're Bon Jovi?") who spends the rest of the performance writhing against and actually licking the bass player. Granted the bass player was rather attractive (even for a left hander), I'll assume they were an item (hence the name too), the guitarist was actually very good and they were ok to listen to if you weren't watching them, but I really, REALLY hope that this band fails. Oh, did I mention that the singer gradually shed his clothes as the show went on?
Sucioperro
A band I'm slightly ashamed to not have heard of previously, Sucioperro had the most dedicated fan base of any band at the T Break stage over the weekend. Even though every Scottish rock band these days is doomed to draw Biffy Clyro comparisons, you could see where said comparison came from with Sucio, and it wasn't a knock. It was like a combination of the hard stuff of pre-Puzzle Biffy, the energy and enthusiasm of The Xcerts and the for want of a better word, deep lyrics (I'm assuming here, my memory's a bit fuzzy) of Frightened Rabbit. Probably my highlight of the Friday, it's a shame though that this was their third go on the T Break stage. I'd have thought they would have found success more easily but you never know. They're certainly capable of it, if they get their chance.
Aerials Up
A seven-piece who were probably trying a bit too hard to be Arcade Fire, this was nonetheless a surprisingly enjoyable performance from a band who've supported Paolo Nutini and Snow Patrol. Even with the inclusion of instruments from the string section of the orchestra, it was a surprisingly heavy performance, and they're another band who deserve success, at least based on the half hour I had in their company.
otherpeople
otherpeople (one word) were apparently going to bring 90's Seattle to T in the Park. They brought nothing of the sort. Perhaps it was from being misled by the programme, being spoiled by the three excellent bands I'd seen previously or them being on last, I was a bit disappointed by otherpeopleoneword. They weren't especially bad, but they weren't better than Sucioperro who were the closest band to them in terms of sound who'd played on that day. Thinking about it now, their performance was certainly less memorable than those I'd seen before.
Saturday
Paws
A band I saw myself after all the hospitality gimps went for a dump, Paws were better than I thought they would have been. Fairly loud and with an air of haphazardness that seemed to suit them, they battered through their half hour set with fantastic energy. They even had a pretty good crowd for a band on first on the Saturday, which I was pretty surprised about. They also recommended Boycotts, who we'll get to later.
The Xcerts
A band whose inclusion on the bill I didn't know about before leaving, I nearly wet myself when I saw the programme. I've loved this band since 2008 (roughly), and was desperate to seem them live. They didn't disappoint, despite playing four songs from their (poorer) second album. They played the BBC introducing stage so there is actually footage of the performance: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/tinthepark/2011/artists/xcerts/ (No, I haven't seen myself), and it's well worth a watch. There was a much larger crowd than I was expecting, and Murray MacLeod made good use of this, crowd surfing (and still playing his guitar, impressively) while making the bass player shite himself. I'm glad I got to see them, second best performance of the weekend and I even managed to make other people like them, which I found especially surprising.
Friendly Fires
Next up was Friendly Fires in the pishing rain. Not the weather you're wanting when you've got a frontman in a Hawaiian shirt playing sngs from what's the best album of the summer this year. Still, vocal and climate problems aside (someone should have told him to sing INTO the microphone), they still put on a good show. They even made the rain go away in time for the next band...
Jimmy Eat World
Having missed them play at Milton Keynes the week before by virtue of not getting there early enough and struggling to find a place to watch from, I was anxious to get a good spot for JEW. I thought I had, and the pictures I managed to take would have you believe I did, but this was where I experienced what on reflection was probably the second worst crowd of the weekend, but I'll go into detail since I was more annoyed by this one. Point one: You do not pit to A Praise Chorus. You do not clear a space in a crowd and invite people to pile on to the one guy who was dumb enough to jump face first into said space. You do not push someone on the edge of a pit into said pit when they have not joined voluntarily. You also do not attempt to lift someone on to the top of the crowd AFTER the performance is finished. Wanks in the crowd aside, I had a great time. Great set-list (although no Blister, which they'd played at Milton Keynes) and great performance, I was really glas I'd went to see them. third best performance of the weekend after The Xcerts, and a band I'd really like to see again. The hot keyboard player who was on stage for some songs and not others was a bonus, as was not finishing with The Middle.
Cancel the Astronauts
With JEW over, not wanting to see the most boring band in the world followed by Three Men and a Laptop and my feet hurting, it was back to the T Break stage, first witnessing Cancel the Astronauts. I'll be honest, I can't remember anything about their performance. I remember it wasn't bad, but given that I can't remember anything else, it probably doesn't bode too well.
Conquering Animal Sound
A man and a woman with an Imac and a guitar. The highlight of this performance was hearing Age of Consent played after them, even if it did cut out before the guitar part at the end.
Boycotts
Recommended previously, and quite rightly too. Very enjoyable and fronted by a stunning woman (who I think was pumping the bass player), there was a certain warmth to their set. It felt like they were your mates' band, which was quite a nice feeling. They weren't anything special music wise, but they weren't bad (better than the previous pair of muppets at any rate) and were certainly different from your usual bog-standard indie fare. Having a hot burd singing helps too, I suppose.
Sunday
The Pretty Reckless
Creepy and a bit shit, one eighteen year old girl who can't sing very well and dresses like a prostitute along with four old men is not a good thing. They weren't especially bad, they just weren't very good.
Hurts
Hurts performance #4 for me, and the progression of their live show was evident again. A few criticisms, Theo wearing sunglasses indoors was unacceptable, and the King Tut's Tent seemed a bit too big for the performance. The added visual pieces couldn't fill it out either, nor could the 9 musicians on stage. Still, a decent performance, and one for a crowd who had all paid to see the band. Roll on November.
My Chemical Romance
A rather cramped experience made poorer by the fact that Pinky had caught whatever the fat guy out Friendly Fires had in that he wasn't singing into the microphone. Something else rather worrying happened, I found out that I know a lot fewer words to MCR songs than I thought I did. Plus it was raining during this performance, though that did cool me down given how tightly packed I was. And the following act had "had a word," so the rain stopped for...
Pulp
The only reason I went to T in the Park. Pulp, the first band I ever heard and loved, Jarvis Cocker, a man who manages to combine looking weird and sexy (even at his current age and facial hair status) with what all indie frontmen lack these days: a personality. Despite crowd problems (me being the ONLY person there to see them), despite being on my own and despite not being able to move my spine for the duration of the performance, Pulp were not what I had hoped for. They were more than I could ever have contemplated hoping for. Every song was perfect (I even stopped hating Something Changed for long enough to belt out every word), his irreverant pish inbetween songs was as good as ever, and once they were done and I was out I couldn't stop smiling followed by tearing up (as I am slightly whilst I type this) and I will remember it fondly on the day that I die (probably whilst looking at the pictures I took). I didn't even care that I wasn't right at the front when he came down to the crowd, nor did I care that all the other cunty non-Pulp fans were crushing to get to the front. My life was made, and I will forever remember my first time.
I left after Pulp. It seemed pretty pointless to stay for an over-rated band I'd seen the week before.
