Oxegen 2011 – Review of Sunday
Words by Aidan Cuffe and Kev Meagher
Photos by Peter Neill
What a bumper day Sunday turned out to be! While I know many of you will have no pity for any misfortune we encountered during or B&B stay during Oxegen, it wasn’t all plain sailing this weekend. Firstly we were given a double room instead of a twin, which made for some awkward conversation explaining that we are not THAT close of friends, throw in the shower malfunctioning and the B&B losing our keys and you have a regular Fawlty Towers style adventure, but sure things are never straight forward at Goldenplec!
We arrived onsite Sunday in good time for the days festivities and caught a glimpse of the hoard of people with day passes who were queued up waiting for the Arena to open. Our sources tell us that day tickets for Sunday were completely sold out, and judging by the demographic of the queue it was the draw of The Saturdays, Ke$ha and Beyonce on the same bill that was the big draw.
First act up on the main stage was Limerick’s finest The Rubberbandits, who were kind enough to perform Sunday mass for the sinners of Oxegen, but of course being The Rubberbandits it was done Limerick City Style. We were treated to readings from the gospel according to Marty Whelan, alter boys who turned into topless backing dancers and the four horsemen of the acraicalypse. The duo treated the surprisingly large crowd to the likes of ‘Bag of Glue’ and ‘Up the Ra’ plus their hit singles ‘I want to fight your father’ and ‘Horse Outside’.
Next up was The Saturdays in the Green Spheres tent. What I liked most about the set was that The Saturdays did exactly what a pop act should do at a festival, they played with a full band and fully live vocals. With a packed tent in front of them, their job was made easier by the crowd going bonkers for every song. The highlight of their performance was their version Depeche Mode’s ‘I just can’t get enough’ and Una instigating a deafening crowd chant of ‘Ole Ole Ole’.
It can be difficult for a band to transition from tents to the open air stage. No doubt Fight Like Apes are one of the best live acts in Ireland at the moment. They put everything into their sets and normally get a fanatical response. But now minus their original bassist and drummer, it is up to MayKay and Pockets to keep things ticking over as they embarked on their biggest stage to date. First things first, they didn’t get a crowd deserving of the band. This didn’t help them especially when they were looking for vocal responses from the crowd and only getting it from small quarters.
It wasn’t that the people didn’t know the words, they just didn’t give Mary back what she was giving out. As always a high energy set with plenty of smashing of equipment, the donning of full lycra body suits and funny moments like when Pockets dropped the keys while attempting to hold it and had to finish the song on the ground and Maykay climbing on a good spirited security guards shoulders (numbered 2011, which Maykay points out is no coincidence surely). Do I think Fight Like Apes belong on the big stage? Yes most definitely. Was this the best outing they are likely to have there? No, but when they get the right crowd it will be special.
Over in the Green Spheres tent, Ocean Colour Scene enjoyed a great set in front of a packed tent. While they have done it many times before, the band showed no signs of complacency, playing festival favorites like ‘Profit in Peace’ and ‘Riverboat Song’ with as much gusto as ever. It really isn’t a festival without some OCS and as the band finished with ‘The day we caught the train’, it was clear that many people agreed.
The welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers were up next on the main stage, a band whom we had the pleasure of catching at Sinnots for Arthurs day, that however was a unique stripped back acoustic set. But this was full-force Manic’s performance and they did not disappoint. The band didn’t get the crowd they deserved in my opinion, but opened with ‘You Love Us’ and then they ripped through the back catalogue of monster hits like ‘It’s not War, Just The End Of Love’, ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ and as sun shone harder than it had the entire weekend, ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart.
A great rendition of ‘If You Tolerate This’ and ‘Faster’ and a finale of ‘A Design For Life’ rounded off a great set which didn’t seem to go down amazingly with the crowd in attendance who we’re sure were largely there for Beyonce, however, those who were Manic’s fans would have thoroughly enjoyed their set.
Meanwhile in the Green Spheres tent, OFWGKTA took to the stage in front of a surprisingly small but dedicated crowd. The much hyped collective, fronted by an injured Tyler, The Creator, tore through a heavy set of their brand of vicious hip-hop, and the crowd responded with mosh pits and crowd surfing. The security had to take to the crowd to try and subdue the moshing but were helpless to stop it. Even though the crowd were smaller than that of Glasvegas on Friday, it gave security the biggest headache of the weekend. OFWGKTA themselves were maniacs on stage, hyping the crowd up even more. The group were definitely different to anything else on the bill today.
Slash and his band took to the main stage with a big reputation, and while he is a supremely talented and legendary guitarist, I just never got into him at all. I gave the live show a viewing and I still am not closer to being a fan of his music. The vocalist Miles Kennedy is good in an unusual sense in that his vocals are quirky but do seem to suit Slash’s style, however it was not until ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ followed by ‘Paradise City’ that I found any common ground in the set. I like my rock and find it bizarre I can’t connect with any of his tunes, even live. I want to say he was good, because technically speaking, he was flawless, as always. There was no crowd interaction from him and if it wasn’t for Miles I probably wouldn’t have stayed as long as I did.
If we’re honest, today was all about one act, the bootylicious, afrolicious, Beyonce. The crowd at the main stage swelled in anticipation, and as the all female backing band came out, the screams started. They kicked straight into ‘Crazy in Love’ and the from the giant pyramid background rose Beyonce, to which the crowd went proper mental. It was then right into another hit ‘Single Ladies’. Moving into the new material of ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ and then ‘1+1’ with the crowd singing along word for word proving new or old her material is infectious. Beyonce looked completely overwhelmed by the response, and stood still as the crowd chanted her name.
The all-dancing, high energy performance continued with hits like ‘Naughty Girls’, ‘Baby Boy’ before a Next up was a Destiny’s Child megamix featuring ‘Bug a boo’, ‘Jumpin Jumpin’, ‘Say My Name’, ‘Survivor’ and ‘Bootylicious’ as she tried to squeeze the most into her one hour set. This meant for some songs you only got half or a partial song but it kept the crowd bouncing as bits of their favourite songs rang out.
Giving the all girl anthem ‘Who Run The World’ an emphatic airing before finishing on an emotional vocal for ‘Halo’ where she came down to the front barrier, shaking hands with all the fans and one lucky fan even got to sing along for a line before Beyonce retreated to the stage, and disappeared down the giant triangle to a standing ovation from the crowd. A shame really as nobody wanted her to go and she probably has another 10 hits up her sleeve.
Well that’s it from us for another Oxegen, sadly we had to slip out a couple of songs into Coldplay but after Beyonce we were happy we got our money’s worth from the weekend. With 24 bands covered in 3 days, these old fogeys needed a good sit down, but we’re looking forward to Oxegen 2012 already.
Oxegen.ie
