Leeds Festival 2010: Festival Day (Part III)

Due to the lack of consistent internet connection in the days immediately preceding the festival I was not able to download the schedule, but I (wrongly) assumed that there would be large, clearly visible schedules on sight. This lead to me missing a number of my top bands to see as a wandered from stage to stage trying to catch a few familiar notes.

I tried to commit bits of the schedule to my phone, but to little avail (it would have been entirely fruitless anyhow as I lost my phone early on in the festival day. Due to my vague knowledge of locations and set times I missed out on a number of my top “sees” for the day, but I still caught a some pretty solid ones.

The Lock-Up stage home to some raucous punk-rock good times

The Rats (aka Gallows)

The Reading and Leeds festivals of course cater for an indie rock crowd in general, but there are distinct characters to each stage or marquee, in the mood for comedy or the newest of the new and you can park yourself in the comedy tent or in front of the BBC introducing stage and if you are jonesing for some body shaking, bone-crushing relentless and merciless punk rock get thee to the Lock-Up stage. That is where I caught up with Gallows, billed under the name The Rats (there were plenty of not so subtle tipoffs about the bands true identity ahead of the show, they may be in need of a new pseudonym).

Frank Carter’s enthusiastic performance whipped the crowd into a frenzy. I pressed myself up against the barricade and observed the chaos as he orchestrated a tent-engulfing circle pit. My first live Gallows gig has been long-delayed and long-awaited and it did not disappoint though it did lead to the loss of my phone and near loss of my sneakers, I managed to recover my missing low-top after the sweaty, exhausted and sated crowd cleared out in between sets and restore to its rightful place, if only temporarily.

BBC Introducing Stage

The BBC introducing stage had a considerably calmer tone more pork pie hats and stripey t-shirts than Mohawks and hardcore moshing. I wandered back on forth to this stage throughout the day, lingering a bit longer if something caught my ear. One such band were local lads (from York and Leeds) Club Smith.

I missed out on Gary Powell’s (The Libertines) The Invasion of… set. Unfortunate since in spite of their mixed critical reception I have really enjoyed what I have heard of them so far.

The Libertines

The Good Old Days: The cover of the first album looms large over the mainstage

The second headliners, but definitely the main event for me. I had suffered through Dizee Rascal’s high energy (but not my cup of tea) performance. I don’t have as severe an opinion of Dizee as many of his detractors out there, but it is certainly not music for which it is worth being crushed and trod on. Unfortunately  being sandwiched between The Cribs and The Libertines I had to stick it out for his set for prime real estate.

Nostalgia abounds, but the boys in the band lived up to the hype

My strategy was successful and I was front and centre for The Libertines. It was well worth the crush and crunch to feel the crowd swell with elation as Pete, Carl, Gary and John all took to the stage. The songs were spot on the energy was fantastic in spite of a break during the performance to try and help out the crowd being crushed in the front (by this time I had relocated slightly further back, I was also shoeless and sans asthma inhaler).

`Horrorshow’ was a highlight

In spite of the rumours of a cold atmosphere backstage there was plenty of energy on electricity on it. There was a frisson in the air and the crowd roared and wooo-ed every time Pete and Carl embraced. A heady mix of nostalgia, oxygen deprivation and damn-good rock and roll cloud my exact memories, leaving me a bit short on words to describe the event, but it was an amazing performance from an amazing band that (for better or worse) re-ignted the hope that one day they will make a proper go of it.

Arcade Fire

Canada’s own officially closed the first night. Completely exhausted I retired to the back of the crowd and watched on video screens, but even from a distance cold and shoeless I still enjoyed the unabashed joy of the performance.

Honourable mentions: These posts have been far too long already so here are a few other my fave performances from the day:

The Cribs

I understand the relief of many at the departure of Marr and though I think it will be good for the band I like the distinctly Smiths-tinge he imparted.

Yuck

A good band, heavily Pavement/Sonic Youth inspired but doesn’t feel overly-derivative,  but nothing made me want to stay and watch them rather than check out what else was happening. I gotta say I think that Yuck’s sound/noise layering is awesome and actually works pretty well against their melodies, but I just can’t connect with it emotionally.

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~ by ashotinthedark23 on September 3, 2010.