Leeds Festival 2009

The following is a patchy account of how I spent the weekend based on what my strained brain could dredge out of the memory banks.

Thursday's bonus band were Blood Red Shoes. I only found out they were playing about two days before the festival; I adore their debut album Box of Secrets and they didn't dissapoint live. The sound was dodgy to say the least during the first song though.

I went to see The Computers at midday Friday, but they really weren't my thing - no melody. I switched to the mainstage, and Mariachi El Bronx made a quirky, relaxed start to the day but nothing special. Kate Tempest's ten minute monologue was turgid (much like this blog) but nonetheless displayed the "lyrical maturity" promised in the programme. I just wish she'd delivered it without acting out borderline hysteria. The Petebox was incredible, an expert entertainer. It's a good job they closed the tent to adjust the poles after his set as whoever followed him would surely have been ignored at best. The Eagles of Death Metal did little to impress me, but maybe that's because I was napping during the set. Enter Shikari displayed moments of brilliance and utter dross in equal measure. The Courteeners sounded pretty good. The Maccabees followed by White Lies was one of the weekend's high points, both bands were brilliant. The McAbbey with Fries is a tasty meal, much better consumed in the dark of a tent than they were in the open air at Glastonbury. White Lies are one of my current favourites, and I was especially impressed by the frontman's black and silver Nike trainers. Call me shallow; I am. I then made like an egg and scrambled because it was Glasvegas on next; why people were walking IN to the tent I have no idea. Arctic Monkeys played what was in my opinion a good mixture of a set, but with gaps between songs that seriously need cutting and some bad stage banter from Turner, he seemed a bit lost up there.

Saturday was my most difficult day, I was suffering from festival eyes, sleep deprivation and, during Radiohead's set, the dreaded festival stomach. Tim Minchin's intelligently written comedy songs provided a perfect pick-me-up followed by Frontiers; my biggest criticism of their set was that the treble of frontman Alex Noble's guitar was too penetrating but that is of course a mix problem not a flaw in the performance. All I remember after that is seeing a hypnotist and his dog instead of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I'd seen them at Glasto so it was no big deal missing them. I caught their last couple of songs. Bloc Party were a band I had completely average expectations of; I quite like their music, have never bought anything of theirs, and have never seen them live, so it [my fan-ness] was all to play for. They won me over with an absolutely stunning set mixing rocky riffs, dance beats, heartfelt singing, and a bit of good banter (take note Turner) and were in no way overshadowed by what was to come. Still, Radiohead were mindblowingly good. A mix of well known crowd pleasers and more experimental stuff was a perfectly balanced setlist, their sound quality and mix was flawless, they can reproduce the seemingly improvised noises and gurgles from their albums impeccably while still sounding fresh AND their light show and visuals are stunning. Utter brilliance.

On Sunday I witnessed Deftones laying down some good riff-based tracks, although the baggy shorts and seriously OTT bass was a bit much by daylight. Florence and the Machine absolutely packed the Radio 1 tent, an effect that was then magnified when it started to rain and people annoyingly started trying to shove their way inside. I thought she was extremely good, a bit feminine for my mood at the time, but a grand show nonetheless. The drummer got rained on thanks to a leak in the tent and had to put his kagool on - he must've been sweating under that! I then shifted over to the Lock-up Stage to see Alexisonfire. They were good and Dallas Green can really hold those notes in the choruses. I saw the end of what I gather was (by all accounts) a helluva set from the Kaiser Chiefs. They looked to be really giving it some (in a pop way obviously.) Kings of Leon seem to be going through some emotional turmoil at the moment. On the footage from Reading I was disgusted to hear some of the things they were saying to the crowd. At Leeds we were in their good books, and got a rollercoaster of a set, covering the old and the new. I got quite choked up during Cold Desert. FINALLY...

Future Of The Left in the small hours of Monday morning. I can not sing their praises highly enough. They are a fantastic rock band, who can really pull it off on stage. I bought a copy of their latest album Travels With Myself And Another shortly after the festival and have listened to it at least once a day since.

All things considered, the line up was worth the ticket price and I had a lot of good experiences. That said, it is not even half the event Glastonbury is as far as the festival itself is concerned.