Saturday began with a fantastic performance from Come On, Live Long in the Grand Social. Their expansive rock was enough to fill the room left lamentably empty of punters. One of the highlights of the show was new track ‘Elephants and Time’ (which is free to download now from their Bandcamp page).
The Debutantes followed with a nice dose of sunny indie-pop. They reminded me or The Vaselines and their show was proving very entertaining until they proceeded to cover ‘Heard it Through the Grapevine’ (it was a good version, but it strange to do a cover in this sort of event) and end their set ten minutes early.
From there, it was over to The Button Factory for Ghost Estates. While they write decent songs, their music seems to be stuck in the past. Most of their set was distinctly brit-pop, with The Doves an obvious reference point. Half way through, however, they threw in samples into the mix. It certainly changed the direction of the music, I’m just not sure where to.
Next up was Cloud Castle Lake in Workman’s. Cloud Castle Lake make better music than anyone else playing this festival, in my opinion; many of their songs wouldn’t be out of place on the new Radiohead album. As a live prospect, however, they are hugely frustrating. When one track finishes, they have the crowd ready to eat out of their hands only to spend a veritable age preparing to start the next song. By this stage, the crowd has lost interest and they have to play over the chatter.
Moths are on to follow and, again, are a strange prospect. While the dub-step sounding tracks are rather good, the performance only requires standing in front of a laptop and occasionally twiddling a few knobs. If that’s your type of thing, I’m sure you’ll enjoy him. Unfortunately, it’s not mine.
Next up were band du jour Last Days of 1984. The Dublin duo have a sound which falls somewhere between Foals and Animal Collective. They put on a formidable performance; with the highlight of which was debut single ‘River’s Edge’. Their set was also notable for a strange old man who danced on his own right in front of the stage for half their show. He even asked them to ‘play some Thin Lizzy’ during one of breaks between songs.
When they finished, it was down to Mercantile for Turning Down Sex. The instrumental hardcore band sonically kicked the asses of all present and probably made an ear or two bleed. It was a hard-rocking way to end my festival.
Photos: Alan Moore/David Dooley