Drums & Decks playing Sunday at Vantastival 2014 by Keith Crurrams
We’ve mentioned before that there is something special about Vantastival. It could be the fact that the place is so carefree and chilled that stray dogs (and sometimes children) are allowed to wander freely about the stages. Or it could be the fact that everybody is having far too much fun to do of the usual obnoxious things that people do when gathered in large groups consume alcohol and witness live music.

Whatever it is, by the time the Sunday rolls around that feeling that the festival is something unique is pretty damn pervasive.

And even if the weather came on as inclement as ever, the Vantastival site still provided plenty of cosy nooks for patrons to duck in out of the rain.

Not least of those was our own Goldenplec stage at the Vantastibar, which remained full throughout the day, as a number of the bigger acts dropped by for an intimate performance.

Jinx Lennon may have freaked out one or two people who just dropped in for a quiet pint as he urged his audience to Make Friends with the Vegetables and Get the Guards, but the chance to see Friday’s main stage headliner in a more snug, comfortable locale was a joy nonetheless.

Later on in the afternoon John Spillane dropped by the Vantastibar on his way to a set on the main stage for a rousing acoustic warm-up. Spillane’s own brand of singer-songwriter folk with a heavy trad influence was equal parts energetic and retrained, moving from hopping ballads to tender, gentle love songs. The fact that he also performed a couple of numbers in the Irish language only made his set all the more authentic and memorable.

While things remained fairly relaxed and easy-going on the GodlenPlec stage, the Vanhalla was just coming to life when New Secret Weapon took to the stage. The alternative rock three-piece jammed their way through a distortion heavy selection of tracks from their debut album. At times it may have looked like pure chaotic improvisation, with all three lads absolutely wailing away at their respective instruments, but the mournful and melancholy structure which underlay all of their jams suggested otherwise.

From the ever so slightly pop-leaning (but still raw as ropes) Look at the State of It, to the highly progressive Epic of Gilgamesh, New Secret Weapon struck that ever-so-hard to reach balance between writing complex and inventive songs and giving in to a pure wildfire energy onstage.

By now rumours had been flying around that Engine Alley had pulled out of the festival at the last minute, and a surprise replacement act had been drafted in instead. Said replacement turned out to be none other than Duke Special. The piano man from up north was no stranger to Vantastival, having been a former headliner.

He took to the stage solo, sans backing band, dressed in a dapper suit and hat, his dreadlocks trailing down over one shoulder, and admitted with a warm humility, “I only found out I was going to be playing a couple of days ago.” Indeed his set gave the air of an impromptu party piece banged on the old piano in the corner of a bar way after closing time, and brought with it a heightened sense of intimacy that shouldn’t have been possible to achieve on the main stage of a festival.

He worked this way gracefully through the more well-known numbers like Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke up Just in Time) and Freewheel early on. From there the coy, but supremely capable maestro, broke out a series of off-beat covers, including the wonderfully odd Andrew in Drag (originally by the Magnetic Fields) and a heart-breaking rendition of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart. Melancholy and moody though the performance may have been, it was a delightful surprise nonetheless.

Back over on the Vanhalla stage a very different performance was taking pace, but one which shared a certain vaudeville element with the music of Mr Special. The Booka Brass Band brought their unique the “urban brass” sound with all the considerable energy the six-piece could muster. Moving from original numbers occupying a middle ground somewhere between classical and jazz to ridiculously lively pop covers (including Destiny’s Child’s Survivor) the band had the entire crowd dancing along and yelling for more when it was all over.

After this (and the lively Spanish guitar rock out of Túcan over on the main stage) The Hothouse Flowers were somewhat a downward shift in tempo when they appeared for the Sunday’s headline slot.

Liam Ó Maonlaí and Co took the option of reworking a number of songs into free flowing and slow burning soul jams, dragging out the likes of Your Love Goes Own past the ten minute mark.

The astronomically unhurried pace of the show was perfectly formed for an intimate, candlelit, fully seated venue, where an audience could recline in a comfy chair, sip wine and savour the nuances of the music. Unfortunately the show took place in a marquee tent in a field on a cold Sunday evening to a fully standing and largely intoxicated crowd, which was about an unsuitable an arrangement for this type of thing as it gets. In a different venue it would have been enchanting. In this one it was boring.

It would have been a bit of an overly-solemn note to end a festival on, but come one am it was time once again for GoldenPlec to take over the Vanhalla stage, as we’d done for the previous two nights. The grand finale of the weekend restored the waning party energy, and injected plenty more of their own for good measure.

Drums N Decks – a musical collaboration between DJ the Kilo 1977 and drummer RSAG was a pulsating, pounding, pummelling avalanche of rhythm and beats that didn’t leave listeners with option of standing still. By the time it was all over a slightly dazed crowd cried out not for one more song, but rather “one more set.”

Of course the weekend didn’t really end there either. Nestled away in the trees in the shadow of the big house, the Melomania stage kept the tunes pumping from a DJ box in a treehouse until well into the wee hours of the morning.

It may have been cold and wet for most of the weekend, but Vantastival kicked the summer festival season off with a good sturdy bang, and left all of us who were there looking forward to the next one.

Vantastival Photo Gallery

Photos: Keith Currams