Oxegen 2011 – Saturday review
Words by Aidan Cuffe and Kev Meagher
Photos by Peter Neill
What a day! Not only were we served up some of the finest performances by Irish acts this year but were treated to a set from probably the best rock band on the planet. But first things first, 2pm saw the much talked about debut performance of Amanda Bruckner and her band on the Vodafone Stage. While neither of us had made it down to the site in time for it, we gauged reaction from the media present and the general consensus is that slot would have been better filled by a number of deserving Irish acts rather than be a platform for a band to debut.
An example of this type of band followed after in the form of The Minutes. The Dublin lads are fresh from the release of their debut album and a slot at SXSW is the states and showed the Irish gig goers that the Irish music scene is as healthy and vibrant as ever by delivering a smashing set on the Vodafone Stage.
Hammering home this message were Sweet Jane, who brought a bit of swagger to the 2FM/Hot Press/Academy stage. The friends of the site impressed at Oxegen for the second year in a row despite a bit of an entanglement with a microphone cable.
To round off what was a golden day for Irish music at Oxegen, Two Door Cinema Club took to the Main Stage to one of the biggest crowds of the day, surpassing the standard they set at last years festival. Despite the addition of only one or two new songs to the set since, the crowd were still lapping up the Choice Music Prize winning ‘Tourist History’ in almost it’s entirety, and why not? Songs like ‘I Can Talk’ and ‘Undercover Martyn’ made for days like this.
Another band having a golden year, The Vaccines, played to semi-packed out Green Spheres Tent. The London band are one of the hottest acts out there thanks to the success of their debut album ‘What did you expect from the Vaccines?’. Fresh from playing a cracking set a Glastonbury, they lived up to the billing as one of the must see acts of the weekend with a spot on performance featuring album highlights ‘All in White’, ‘Post break up sex’ and ‘If you wanna’.
While The Vaccines represented London cool, we didn’t have to wait long for some northern soul with Sheffield Lads Arctic Monkeys. Alex Turner and company latest album may have veered off course slightly from their fantastic Debut and Sophmore efforts, but as a live proposition, they are still one of the best live acts on the circuit. That is, of course, when they are not dragged down by some of there weaker songs. While set saw outings for Arctic Monkey classics like ‘Look good on the dance floor’ ‘Mardy bum’, ‘Florescent Adolescent’ and ‘When the sun goes down’, momentum was constantly being lost with new songs like ‘Don’t sit down cause I’ve moved your chair’ and ‘Suck It and See’. It’s not that these are bad songs necessarily but really don’t fit in with their earlier stuff so overall the set was a mixed bag, even Miles Kane for joining them for ‘505’ didn’t make the set any more memorable.
Next up, The Foo Fighters. I won’t lie, I’ve been waiting the whole weekend for this. The Foo Fighters are back and it’s about time. Promoting their new album ‘Wasting Light’ was as good a reason to return to Punchestown for an airing of new and old.
As always a Foo Fighters set promises a lot and very rarely doesn’t deliver and tonight was no different as the Foo Fighters gave last night’s headliners a masterclass in how to be top billing a music festival. They rocked it from the word go starting with new songs ‘Burning Bridges’ and ‘Rope’ which are every bit the live songs they sound on the album before moving into some classics like ‘Pretender’, ‘My Hero’ and ‘Learn to Fly’.
A consummate live act there is no gimmicky visuals, mainly as they aren’t needed and with the crowd in fine fettle they belt through more classics including ‘Breakout’, ‘Road to Ruin’, ‘Stacked Actors’ and an explosive performance of ‘Monkey Wrench’ which makes us putty in their hands. We are treated us to a set which made it to the 2 hour mark with beautiful renditions of ‘Wheels’ and Dave Grohl solo version of ‘Times Like These’ that gave the crowd their chance to stretch they’re lungs. Mix this with tunes like by ‘Best Of You’ and ‘All My Life’ rocking the crowd and covers of ‘Young Man Blues’ and Queen’s ‘Tie You Mother Down’ before finishing on the eponymous ‘Everlong’ gave us an evening we’ll never forget.
Dave Grohl shows once again that not only is he the best front man of any current band, but he knows how to put on a show that everyone we passed on the way back to the park and ride was talking about. Sheer Class.
While Aidan remained at the main stage for the rest of the Foo Fighter set, I made my way to the 2FM/Hot Press/Academy tent to catch headliners Eels. Like Glasvegas the night before, E and his beard-adorning bunch had to compete with big draws on both The Main Stage and the Vodafone Stage, and E himself acknowledged this himself, thanking the crowd for coming to check them out and commented that the Eels unfortunately became the “Foo Fighter Fighters”. But the Eels were more than worthy of their spot as headliners, with a full band and brass section, E belted out hits such as ‘My beloved monster and me’, ‘Novocaine for the soul’ and ‘Fresh Feeling’, plus a great cover of Sly and the family stone’s ‘Hot fun in the summertime’, Eels proved that they can handle what is expected from a headliner at a festival, evoking memories of proper old style showbands. Their cracking rendition of ‘Souljacker’ being one of my festival highlights. Disappointingly though the band didn’t come back out for an encore, with a few tracks from ‘Beautiful freak’ not yet played, I can only home I catch them next time.
In addition to the great bands we caught yesterday, the whole site enjoyed beautiful, and more importantly, dry weather for the first time since Thursday, here is hoping for more of the same in terms of both bands and weather for Sunday.
www.oxegen.ie
