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I’ve been keeping an eye on video footage of my personal Lowlands favourites popping up on the net over the last few days. Here’s a selection, but be sure to check out 3voor12’s Lowlands page for more footage and obviously anything tagged “lowands 2008″ on youtube.
Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor (audiostream)
Blood Red Shoes – Doesn’t Matter Much/ interview segment/ I Wish I Was Someone Better (video)
Does It Offend You, Yeah? – We Are Rockstars (short clip to show the mayhem)
Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes (video)
Clik here for an audiostream of the full concert
Roisin Murphy – Overpowered (video)
Franz Ferdinand - Come On Home (video)
And another short clip to demonstrate the insanity during This Fire
Los Campesinos! – Death To Los Campesinos! & Knee Deep At ATP (3voor12 session at Lowlands)
Sadly I couldn’t find any footage of Get Well Soon or anything halfway decent on other favourites Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Lykke Li and Black Kids.
And here’s some of the stuff I wish I could have seen (sadly no good clips of The Roots and Late Of The Pier):
Underworld – Born Slippy (looks/ sounds amazing! hang on for the massive balloons at around 4:25)
(check the higher quality tv-registration here, but the ones filmed by visitors better capture the atmosphere I think)
We Are Scientists – The Great Escape
Editors – Smokers Outside Hospital Doors
And Finally, The Ting Tings - That’s Not My Name (because it was sort of our annoying yet amusing festival anthem, thanks to friend MB…)
Lykke Li
Back in the Lima tent for day three, and today it’s Lykke Li that gets us started. She is a commanding presence on stage, executing her quirky dance moves very confidently and singing in that breathy start-stop style. Although the audience seems to be enjoying the show, the energy levels are a bit low at the start of this third festival day. She calls us on it: “You’re so quiet, it’s like I’m having my own party up here!”. It works, there is more life in the crowd from this moment on and songs like the seriously cool Breaking It Up and her mashup of Dance Dance Dance with Vampire Weekend’s Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa get everybody moving. She also revisites Tribe Called Quest’s Can I Kick It in the encore, but less convincingly.
If you weren’t awake yet, the next gig definitely finished with any dozing: Gogol Bordello. Sadly they were programmed in the Alpha, as this quality Balkan bonanza is best experienced in a smaller setting, but they pulled it off. Do not be fooled by the chaotic party vibe that surrounds Gogol Bordello, this band knows exactly what they’re doing and they do it extremely well. Harem In Tuscany will go down as one of my favourite dancing-around-at-Lowlands-2008 memories.
Get Well Soon
I decided to hang around this corner of the festival terrain to check out Get Well Soon in the Charlie, and what a good decision that turned out to be! The most exciting brokenbranches find of the festival I would say, these guys really won me over even though I hardly knew any of their material. They are often connected to Arcade Fire and I can understand why, but they definitely have a sound of their own. Their Born Slippy cover got them some blogpress, but their own songs deserve a lot more attention. Will be keeping an eye on these guys from now on!
All excited I rushed over to the India tent for the next band high up in the must-see-wish-list: MGMT. However, this turned out to be a bit of a let down. Right up front they played Time To Pretend, a bit weird as the crowd were still settling in and it didn’t get the Lowlands-anthem-response I was expecting. Electric Feel was the third track, leaving a set full of less known material, played well but lacking in oomph, all a bit bland. Highlight was the only track played with real heart as far as I’m concerned: Kids. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all right?
Delayed slightly by a massive downpour of rain, I made my way over to the Charlie again. This stage might be my favourite of Lowlands 2008 come to think of it, great place to discover new up-and-comers. Luckily I caught the tail end of the Black Kids set, with personal favourites Listen To Your Body Tonight and, of course, I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You. They sounded slightly shaky, but very entertaining all the same.
Most people were gearing up for the Editors or Sigur Rós as festival closers in Sunday, but I was personally looking forward to dEUS. Having lost interest a bit over the last two albums, their latest had me all excited again. All the rumours about the band turned out to be true: they are back in excellent form and sounding better than ever. They have a great chemistry on stage and Mauro Pawlowski is a big (and hunky) asset to the band. The setlist focussed mainly on Big Guitar Tracks, which I guess is fitting to a performance in the Alpha tent. Sadly for me this meant no Little Arithmetics, but this was easily compensated with opener Slow, a riproaring version of Instant Street, a perfect execution of the single The Architect and two for the old school fans: Suds & Soda and Serpentine. Thank you dEUS!
Tom Barman - dEUS
I couldn’t help myself peeking in on Sigur Rós, as I’m fascinated by the fact everyone seems so in awe of them and it just doesn’t grab me. As I stood watching them in the drizzling rain, I could see why people love them. They put their heart and soul into that show, that much was obvious even to this sceptical onlooker. I could literally see the crowd being mesmerised and entranced by their ethereal sound, but alas, I remain unconverted. Perfect soundtrack music, but not for a whole concert.
I decided to finish Lowlands 2008 on a more punky note, and headed over to the Dresden Dolls in the India. To my surprise the tent was quite full (despite sharing a timeslot with Editors and Sigur Rós) and there were a lot of devoted fans who could sing all the songs word for word, a great atmosphere. They gave an extremely energetic performance which was also really entertaining to watch. For me, as relative newcomer to their repertoire, Coin Operated Boy was a highlight, as was Night Reconnaissance from their new album. They also did a version of The Port of Amsterdam which was very well received by the audience, just like Amanda’s news that she’d be spending more time in Holland as her sister recently moved to Utrecht. They also told the crowd this was to be their last joint performance for some time as Amanda sets out on a solo effort and Brian will drum for another punk band for a while, and that they couldn’t think of a better place to share their last gig together.
I couldn’t think of a better way to spend three days than at Lowlands, what an amazing festival. When do they start ticket sales for Lowlands 2009??
Dresden Dolls
Laura Marling
As predicted, Friday’s afterparty back at the camping made sure that Ane Brun’s early time slot on Saturday was an unattainable feat for this festivalgoer… To torture myself I listened to her session online at 3voor12 (I strongly suggest you do the same) and heard it was enchanting gosh darn it!
Thankfully there was Laura Marling to ease the pain, what a charming surprise she was! Before coming to Lowlands I had only really knew one song and was slightly afraid she might be a bit of a self obsessed teenager with guitar, but no! She was wonderful (as was her very tasty violin playing band member) and her small folky compositions won over the Lima crowd easily, despite her shyness.
The Bravo tent had a double Dutch slot up next: The Opposites and De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig, it was nice to see the tent was absolutely packed for both home grown acts. I decided to squeeze into the sea of bodies to catch the end of The Opposites‘ set and was rewarded: they closed with Dom, Lomp & Famous (the very track that gave brokenbranches some serious traffic after this post) and the crowd went suitably mad. De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig took to the stage straight after and kept the crowd going with tight performances of best sellers like Shenkie, Voor Je Kijken Doorlopen and Hollereer.
Blood Red Shoes
Now things got very exciting: time to zig zag through the anxiously waiting crowd in the India tent to get up close and personal with my number one in the highest-festival-expectations ranking: Blood Red Shoes. It’s safe to say all expectations were lived up to and then some. They gave the India crowd a kick up the backside that had me jumping and yelling the entire gig, only after their last chord did I come back down to earth and take any notice of what was going on around me. The place was one big swirling sweaty sauna of jumping bodies, the entire centre of the tent turned into a mosh pit, I must have seen at least 15 crowd surfers (which is officially not allowed!) fly by. Highlights were (the obvious) Say Something, Say Anything, It’s Getting Boring By The Sea and the ripping set closer ADHD. Please come back next year with a new album!!
crowdsurfer at Blood Red Shoes
No rest for the wicked, just as the Brighton twosome finished up, Los Campesinos! kicked off all the way across the terrain in Charlie. Navigating my way through the thousands heading the opposite direction because the N*E*R*D* set had just finished (which was great according to my festivalbuddies), I managed to reach the energetic seven piece Welsh outfit in time to catch most of their performance. I was amazed at just how young these kids are when I saw them! But youth is obviously no deterrant for giving a great show, besides playing crowd pleaser You! Me! Dancing! they ended the show with Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks, which was a big hit. One blink for yes, two blinks for no, sweet dreams sweet cheeks, we leave alone!
Thankfully a brief dip in my hectic timetable allowed for some taking-the-weight-off and dinner, before it was time to join the hords for one of the festival headliners: Franz Ferdinand. They played some of their new yet to be released material, which sounded very promising. But obviously they got the Alpha all hot and bothered with well known Franz Frenzy-causing tracks such as Take Me Out, Dark Of The Matinee and most notably This Fire, which raised the roof. The audience kept chanting This fire is out of control, we’ve got to burn this city, burn this city!. Excellent performance, but the new album is long overdue. Get it out there already!
At this stage of the day I had about 4 solid hours of jumping and shouting under my belt, but I had one little pocket of energy saved, because I knew I was going to need it badly: next up, Does It Offend You, Yeah?. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had a feeling it was going to get slightly silly in the rediculously small X-Ray container. In order to witness “the hype” up front we got there half an hour beforehand. Soon enough the place was inundated with bright young things, all painfully fashionable and glow stick accessorized. When the band took the stage the excitement in the air was incredibly tangible, and with the first synthesizer key being struck the X-Ray instantly turned into a tumble dryer of insanity. I was there with two friends, but we were immediately catapulted meters apart in different directions, unbelievable!
This insanity lasted the entire gig. Shreds of what I do remember: the vocals were quite lackadaisical (particularly on Let’s Make Out, my favourire track), but they were clearly secondary to the impact of the music, which could be felt in every bone of your body. James Rushent was extremely cocky and put down their radio friendly hit Dawn Of The Dead as “a song Spandau Ballet would love”. Morgan Quaintance insisted we scream “Fuck the Sex Pistols” rather a lot. Other than that it’s all a bit of a blur, but one I’m very glad to have experienced. What an end to an amazing second festival day.
My favourite way to start the day is by chilling out in the very relaxing hippy-inspired Lima area of Lowlands. There’s plenty of room to lounge around in the sun (yes there was sun!), drink some herbal tea or eat a fair trade sandwich and watch some of the more weird & wonderful street theatre. Another big bonus is the Lima tent, which tends to host mainly singer songwriter types: a perfect mellow appetiser to your musical day. On Friday it was Tom Baxter who kicked off the day. I only caught a few songs (Better being the standout one), but they were nice and easy on the ears, all be it not very memorable.
Next we headed to the tent of tents: the Alpha, to reconnect with our pubescent during The Presidents of the USA set. As was to be expected, the crowd responded well to their old favourites (Lump, Kitty and of course Peaches), but wasn’t to interested in the new material.
We then popped in to the Grolsch, which was surprisingly full for The National. Although I like their music, the lead singer’s vocals always turn me off, I find his singing voice a bit monotone and uninviting. I still found this to be true as I stood watching them play, but the intense sound the band produced as a whole definitely gripped me much more than the albums and made me stay for the full set.
Hot Chip
Next up my Friday highlight: Hot Chip! These guys delivered a concert packed with extremely danceable goodies which sounded thicker and less polished than on cd and had the whole Bravo jumping. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it now!! Shame about the very unnecessary Sinéad O’Connor cover at the end though.
After Hot Chip we could here The Ting Tings finishing up their show with the unavoidable That’s Not My Name in the India. Judging from the crowd’s singing which could be heard far outside the tent, it was obviously very well received.
A short break to refuel was all we had before heading to Santogold, which we decided to check out in stead of the main event over in Alpha: The Kooks. I’m happy we did because Santogold’s rock-dancehall-raggamuffin-mix was just what the doctor ordered to get the energy levels up again. There wasn’t much of a difference between her performance and the tracks as they appear on the album, but I’m not complaining with great songs like L.E.S. Artistes, Creator and You’ll Find A Way. What’s more, the show was great fun to watch thanks to her two back up singers, who busted the coolest synchronised dance moves ever. The crowd was instantly trying to copy them.
From dancing back up singers to dance diva extraordinaire: Róisín Murphy. She was her usual sultry self, changing in and out of stylish getups every few songs and twisting the audience around her little finger. The element of surprise is gone for those who have seen mrs. Murphy live before, but she still has amazing stage presence and carries out her songs perfectly, although the live versions go on a bit too long for my taste.
Roisin Murphy
Gloriously exhausted and from all of the day’s impressions and the extreme heat in the Bravo tent during Róisín’s performance, we decided to call it a night.
And just like that it’s finished. You’re back home, knackered and slightly out of touch with reality, head and heart still firmly fixed on the last four days of festival euphoria. There are the obvious advantages, your own shower which offers you more than a slight drizzle to wash your hair under, your own bed which doesn’t self deflate in the middle of the night to name but two. But even these delights don’t make up for the mild case of post-festival-depression that has set in.
So what better way to desperately cling onto the festival buzz than by spending hours reviewing and flashbacking? There will be a day by day report soon, for now, just like last year, here’s a summary of the Lowlands 2008 experience from a brokenbranches perspective.
Best overall Lowlands performance (seen by me)
Hands down: Blood Red Shoes. They hit me straight in the gut, what a performance!!
Favourite glad-I-happened-to-pass-by-act
The Opposites, I popped into the Bravo right at the end of their show and was lucky enough to catch the song that got brokenbranches a lot of blog traffic: Dom Lomp & Famous. They had everyone yelling at the top of their lungs, right to the back of the tent. Good stuff!
Sad I missed…
Late Of The Pier (heard they killed), The Flaming Lips (alas, no pink robots), Ane Brun (too damn early), N*E*R*D* (you can’t be me, I’m a rockstar!!), Le Le (although I heard mixed reviews), No Age (tipped by both Blood Red Shoes and Los Campesinos!), Yeasayer & The Hives (just too much to choose from) …
Disappointing
I’m sad to say: MGMT. I had such high expectations, but found the whole experience a bit lacklustre. Partly because they played all The Big Ones right up front in the set, when the crowd was still settling in.
Most euphoric Lowlands 2008 moment
It’s a toss up between Does It Offend You, Yeah? setting the X-Ray on fire with Let’s Make Out and dEUS’ excellent performance of Instant Street.
Best crowd response
When the entire Alpha audience kept singing “This fire is out of control, we’ve got to burn this city!” at the Franz Ferdinand gig. And again: the mayhem in the X-Ray during Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Most fun had whilst dancing with friends
Gogol Bordello: Harem In Tuscany!
Most awkward gig
Nightwish, these poor Finnish gothrockers had trouble filling even half the Alpha tent, even though there was no major act programmed in the same timeslot.
Best dancing
Santogold’s two amazing back up singers did some of the coolest synchronised moves I’ve ever seen. And of course: Ms. Roisin Murphy is the dance diva extraordinaire.
Best and worst covers
Best: Lykke Li nicely worked a bit of Vampire Weekend’s Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa into a mix with her Dance Dance Dance, it was better than the cover of the Tribe’s Can I Kick It in the encore. Also Get Well Soon’s version of the Underworld classic Born Slippy is a must-check-out!
Worst: not so keen on Hot Chip’s incorporation of Sinéad O’Connor’s Nothing Compares To You into their set.
Funniest camping moment
The spontaneous skipping and sack races that took place on the path right in front of our little camp!
Last year I attempted to define the top 3 things necessary to survive the festival season, but I think it’s time for some additional top tips.
1. chewing gum or mints
Hygiene is usually not very high on the festival priority list, never mind dental hygiene. But consider this: festivals are prime partner finding territory! Everybody is in roughly the same age bracket, has similar interests in music/ things festival-related and is up for having a good time. How tragic would it be if you spot your perfect electro goddess in the Bravo tent during the Miss Kittin set, or your hunk of rock manliness in the front row at Blood Red Shoes, but there’s a barrier keeping you from your potential true love: pungent festival breath consisting of 90% beer vapour and 10% essence of falafel. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
2. The Festival T-shirt
As any fashion conscious festival visitor will know, underneath the “I don’t give a shit how I look cause it’s a festival” veneer, there is a fierce underground fashion battle going on. It is an art to get your hair looking exactly the right combination of just-out-of-bed and indie-casual, just as it is an art to find that perfect festival t-shirt.
Do you go for the band shirt? This is a tricky undertaking. Wearing the Coldplay 2006 Tour shirt is decidedly uncool, wearing a faded David Bowie 1972 Tour shirt will earn you rock ‘n roll credit. Wearing a t-shirt of a band performing at the festival you’re attending is only allowed if the band is sufficiently underground, preferably unsigned.
You can also go for the “funny slogan” t-shirts, which are extremely popular at festivals. You know the ones: “You’re village called, they want their idiot back”, or “My girlfriend said I need to be more affectionate, so now I have two girlfriends”. Even worse are the girl t-shirts with slogans concerning their female attributes: “I wish these were my brains”… In my opinion slogan shirts are rarely ever funny to start with, and even if they are, the fun-factor wears off after about 0,12 seconds. However, when I was at a concert recently I saw a guy wearing a slogan shirt that really made me laugh, it said “I listen to bands that don’t even exist yet”. Just the right edge to take the piss out of all the neurotic music obsessives (such as myself) for those tedious “Oh you haven’t heard so-and-so yet? You have to!!” duscussions.
3. poncho
Ode To A Poncho
Such delicate consistency
You are light to the touch
Yet hardy and sheltering
We need you so much
Drying when drippy
Warming when nippy
A seat in humid times
So glad to call you mine
And when duty is done
You gracefully retreat
And fold right back up
Into a pack, small and neat
