06 September 2010 (Music Profile)

Words: John Balfe

Friday afternoon at Electric Picnic 2010, and despite midweek scaremongering from amateur meteorologists across Ireland, the rain has (so far) not even threatened to make an appearance. Quite the opposite actually, the sun is shining to such a degree that those who aren’t equipped with Factor 50 are slowly turning various shades of pink. Crowds of latecomers are still arriving, choking the walkways between campsites while lugging an assortment of supplies to see them through the weekend. And beer. Well, mostly beer. Inside the main arena itself festival workers are still performing various finishing touches on the stages before the fun really begins around 6pm. In anticipation of this, most of us campers are holding court at our tents, acquainting ourselves with our various temporary neighbours and obsessively applying layer upon layer of sun-cream and calling upon decades old boy scout training to aid tent assembly. It would appear that I'm not really outdoorsy in the slightest.

As for the music, Electric Picnic (for me at least) starts with a bang at 6pm when Janelle Monae takes to the main stage. Monae, who recently released her debut album The ArchAndroid is one of the breakout musical stars of 2010. P Diddy's protégé has earned rave reviews for her live performances this year and is sure to feature on a litany of 'Best of 2010' lists come the end of the year. And if her main stage appearance isn't enough, she will also be having a much more intimate performance on the Body & Soul stage at 10pm.

Johnny Flynn was very impressive at the Body & Soul Stage. The London-based troubadour played songs from his first two albums but, oddly not Kentucky Pill, the first single from his new album Been Listening. After Johnny, it was decided that we go check out his friend Laura Marling in the Crawdaddy Stage. However, as soon as I entered the tent it became clear that the sound was particularly poor. Marling's voice didn't carry over the hubbub of the crowd. At one point she even had to request that the crowd quieten down, which almost never works.

Modest Mouse on the main stage followed this and proved to be proved to be a much more successful venture. Isaac Brock and co. were in fine fettle and the crowd lapped up every minutes of their set. Janelle Monae's second performance of the day, at the Body & Soul Stage at 10pm, was jammed as expected. Monae's performance suggests that the substantial hype behind her is justified.

Finally, to close off the evening, there was the somewhat surreal appearance by Ellen DeGeneres' friends Crystal Swing at the Little Big Tent. The sheer amount of people at this (there was queues to get in outside the tent) shows just how powerful the power of a funny video on the Internet can be. Limerick's Rubberbandits took to the stage with them and announced, once Crystal Swing had departed after performing He Drinks Tequila, that Derek had been whisked away because of a bad acid experience. Oh well, at least we got to see The Hucklebuck.

 

On Saturday morning it was back to business as usual. After Stradbally had become somewhat tropical on Friday afternoon, the weather had descended to something that Irish festival goers are much more accustomed to - rain. In fact, it was the pitter-patter of the heavens opening that aroused me from my slumber at about 8am. And that's when the vuvuzelas started. Why, Electric Picnic? Why are you selling these hideous 'musical instruments'? Absolutely no good can come from them.

The day's music began with a bang at 1:30pm with And So I Watch You From Afar at the Crawdaddy Stage and the momentum throughout the day, gig after gig, never dropped. No matter how many superlatives you apply to the experience of attending a ASIWYFA gig, it really doesn't do justice to the actual experience of being there. The vigour and ferociousness of their live performances aren't easily captured by a written word or a still image - there's no substitute for being there. They turned their amps up to 11 from the opening bars of Clench Your Fists...Grit Teeth...GO! and didn't let up until they finished with If It Ain't Broke, Break It. And the surprising large crowd for such an early gig loved every minute.

A couple of hours later in the same tent, Electric Picnic veteran Richie Egan and his band of cohorts The Redneck Manifesto picked up where ASIWYFA left off. Egan lived up to his reputation as one of the nicest guys in Irish music and seemed genuinely appreciative to the crowd in attendance, remarking on how moving it was for him to see heads bobbing in time with the music. Aww...

After the Rednecks, and to complete a trifecta of Irish bands, Villagers were next on the Crawdaddy Stage. It's easy to see just how much these guys have been touring in the past year. Conor O'Brien seems at ease on stage, much more so than 18 or even 12 months ago. Good thing too, because his audiences have swollen considerably in that time. O'Brien remarked on stage about what an incredible year it has been - signing to Domino Records, putting the first album out, being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize - and this just makes you wonder what can happen in the next twelve months. There is no glass ceiling for this band.

The next gig was a decisive change in tone. Den Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip took to the Little Big Tent at 7.25pm for an enthralling fusion of spoken word and hip hop. Scroobius Pip's lyrics are cautionary tales, warnings almost, spat out with poise and venom, almost like if your conscience was really, really good at rhyming.

A couple of hours later a dilemma presented itself - LCD Soundsystem in the the Electric Arena or The Frames on the main stage? Both of these groups are rumoured to be hanging up their microphones in the near future, so this most likely would have been the last chance for seeing them. In the end I plumped for LCD Soundsystem, for the simple reason that the Electric Arena presented less of a walk. I didn't regret the decision. James Murphy and his band were originally intended to play in Dublin at the start of the summer but the Icelandic volcano, as Murphy put it, starting "throwing up" and laid waste to those plans but Murphy more than made up for this. Drunk Girls and Get Innocuous were two of the particular highlights. There was even a three song encore, a particular rarity for a festival.

Finally, to ease ourselves towards slumber, a short walk to the Body & Soul stage to see those electro-groovers Caribou. Their ambient, dreamy music blended perfectly with the night sky and the muliti-coloured silhouettes of trees to present a truly wonderful experience. It was the perfect setting and an ideal way to close off the Saturday night of Electric Picnic 2010.

 

        

Sunday morning; even the most experienced of festival goers are feeling are feeling the effects by now. You can out a brave face on it but it's really quite difficult to mask just how you look after waking up in a near-suffocation in a tent, gasping for fresh air. Not the most conducive environment for a hangover either.

As for Sunday's music, the first performance of note of the day was Fight Like Apes at 5.15pm at the Crawdaddy Stage, who gave a suitably crazy performance filled with malfunctioning equipment, strange dancing and even a Salt N Pepa cover.

Then, after a completely amazing meal from the Surf N' Turf food stand, it was on to check out Mumford & Sons. Now, I must admit to not being completely sold on this band and not a being a ticket-carrying member of the hype train that they have become over the course of the past 12 months. But, in the interest of being fair and balanced, I decided to give them a chance to change my mind but after seeing them live I really still can't understand what all the fuss is about. There's no denying that they're accomplished musicians but they sadly have a tendency to write the same song over and over. Their music seems to follow a certain pattern every time; it will start slow and then will get to an absurdly catchy chorus with sentimental, overwrought lyrics before finally emerging from all of that with some rousing banjo work. Some people love that, and that's fine, but it's just not for me.

Finally, it was time for one of the real treats of the festival - The National. The Ohioans are riding high from the widespread critical acclaim of their most recent album High Violet and the Electric Picnic crowd got the band in their absolute best form on Sunday night. Their set comprised of material which was mostly from their three most recent albums, including a wonderful rendition of underrated gem Conversation 16 from High Violet. But just as The National wrapped up their performance, the rain started coming down and coming down heavily laying waste to any plans of seeing Massive Attack on the main stage without risking pneumonia.

So there we have it, another Electric Picnic in the bag. Try as they might, no other festival in the country is able to capture the spirit of this place. Compared to other summer festivals Electric Picnic just seems to have a more economic use of space and that is one of the reasons which makes it such an enjoyable experience. A lot of festival that I have been to –not just in Ireland but in mainland Europe - are laid out with a very unimaginative design. You have your stage, a bar and a bank of toilets. Repeat as necessary depending on size. Electric Picnic gives you something different. Yes it has those things but also so much more. They realised many years ago that some of the best festival experiences don't necessarily happen when you're standing in front of a stage but they happen when you're walking to the stage and the arena is laid out with this in mind. There's always something to catch the eye, a performance of some sort (be it musical or literary) or, should the mood strike, a chapel to get married. We're not sure about the legality of this, but we're pretty sure it falls under the 'what happens at the Picnic, stays at the Picnic' motto.

Aside from the downpour at the end, this was a tremendous weekend of music and was without question the venue of some of the best festival performances in this country for years.

So long Picnic, see you next year. Don't go changin'.

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For more extensive coverage of Electric Picnic 2010, visit our dedicated Electric Picnic page and entertainment.ie's Twitter, where John, Alicia and Dara were tweeting all weekend long. For more photographs from Electric Picnic, visit Caught Out now.

Feel free to tell us about all your best and worst moments from the Picnic in the comments below.

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