My slightly delayed opinions on everything I saw on Saturday.
Post-War Years
A boring indie-rock band. The only memorable part of their performance was when the singers hand started bleeding and everyone had to rally round for a plaster. I had one, but I didn’t give it to him.
Collapsing Cities
Quite rubbish, but they got gradually better and ended on a really good song. We were all singing “Seriously!” for ages afterwards, even when we’d forgotten how it really went and just ended up singing it to the tune of Obviously by McFly.
Esser
One of the supposed next-big-things of the festival, I’d heard a bit about him already and was interested to see how he’d shape up. Again, he started badly, but ended on a catchy tune called Headlock, which was stuck in our heads for quite a while. He’s got potential, but I’m not sure if he could ever be huge.
The Crash
Until this week I’d never seen a Finnish act, and now I’ve seen two! These were really good, although quite cheesy. I’d definitely recommend you look them up, especially if you like Under The Influence of Giants. The best bit was their song in French!
Broken Records
After dragging a friend to Alphabeat and The Crash, I had to let him pick something, and hence I ended up at Broken Records. They’re supposed to be the Scottish Arcade Fire, but I do distinctly remember Arcade Fire being quite good, so I’m not agreeing with that comparison too much. Still, my friend enjoyed it.
Viva Machine
Just caught the end of these as I arrived at the Brighton Coalition (the strange new name for The Beach – that’s a club, not the actual beach). They were a rock band with an electro sound, but I wasn’t really impressed, and glad I didn’t have to see it all.
Robots In Disguise
I planned to see Santogold, but she was ill so I saw this female electro duo instead. They were fun and put on a good show, but I can’t help feeling they could be fantastic if they had better songs. They’re much better in theory than practice, although I really enjoyed their cover of You Really Got Me by The Kinks.
The Automatic
Not a band I was desperate to see live, but I did quite enjoy singing along to Monster and Raoul, I must admit. I do like that bit with the layered vocals of “let’s go back to work” at the end of Raoul. I didn’t however have a clue why my friends were all gushing over how “hot” the lead singer was… huh?? He’s in the Automatic, isn’t that instant unhotness?
The RGBs
Another electro girl group, and I liked them a bit more than Robots as they had an element of Fannypack meets The Light Bulb Project about them. The good thing about electro bands is that you at least remember them, unlike all the blokes with guitars bands who all blend into one at festivals. They had great outfits, especially the lead singer, who was dressed in a sparkly gymnastics outfit complete with rosette.
Sam Sparro
Definitely the star of the night for me, and perhaps the whole thing. This time I agreed with my friends on his hotness, and despite being a big supporter of glasses-wearing, he did look better without them. His album tracks were all good, Black And Gold was unsurprisingly amazing, and he ended on a cover of Gypsy Woman! It was a great end to the festival, and lovely to see a proper pop star after all those guitars.