Oh my god, I can't believe it! Kaiser Chiefs was really good!
I know... Told you that I'd write this like two days ago. You should know by now that I am not to be trusted with this blogging-mumbojumbo.
Anyhoo, let's commence(!) with:
Quart-Festival, Day 1: Tuesday.
As I woke up that morning, I was really starting to feel this whole festival-vibe. I couldn't wait to get down to the concert-area to see some frickin' concerts, man! On this day's program: Skambankt, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Jimmy Eat World and Green Day. As you can see by the line-up, my expectations for this day to be awesome was pretty high. Sky-high, even.
Let's cut to the cheese:
First up, SKAMBANKT!
Skambankt is a Norwegian band, their name meaning something like "beaten to a bloody pulp". I wasn't really expecting this concert to be all that. I'd only seen the video of one of their songs on tv a couple of times, and it just didn't do it for me. By the way, these guys play Rock n' Roll. Nothing indie-rock about them, but they do have a bit of that deathpunk-edge. Anyway, they got on stage and got a fairly good response. And then they started their music... with an AWESOME bassline. I was boppin' my head, when I beforehand had expected only to stand with my arms crossed and scowl at them followed by a muted response after they'd finished their songs. I'm glad though. They put on a great show, where the only song I really had something against was their single "KKK" that I talked about before. The drummer looked absolutely insane, and the bass-player dished out hooky basslines all over the place! Great opener to the festival.
I give it ! ! ! ! (4+).
The crowd was reluctant to leave their places, so there were always a high number of people in front of the stage at all times, including me and John. We pondered on going to get some food and water, but we stayed put. In the end we had been standing still for about 6-7 hours. Respect!
Now: The loveable Kaiser Chiefs.
I was kind of half looking forward to this concert, and half dreading they'd be awful. When I first heard some of their songs I just dismissed them as jumping the wave, and so on. And I really didn't find their songs especially good either. After while of reading some interviews with them, and re-listening to some of the songs I realized they weren't all that bad. Sure their album has a few songs that might seem a bit filler-like, but their songs that stand really shines. They entered the stage with big smiles on their faces and just started rocking out immediately with NaNaNaNA (which I predicted to be their opener... yeah I'm that cool). They were having a good time, maybe not the best showmen, but the singer definitely evened it out for the others on that part. The only bad thing about the show, was (and is) their lack of more reaaaaally good tunes. I hope like hell that they up the ante on their next album.
The rate will be: ! ! ! ! !- (5-).
The wait seemed to go longer for each band... Really feeling thirsty and hungry, but still not taking the chance to lose our places.
Then for one of the concerts I'd been looking forward to the most on this year's bill:
Bloc Party!
They started with Like Eating Glass, and it was really good. Unluckily some dude squeezed in front of me with his girlfriend so that the back of his head was all up in my face from time to time. And it looked like he didn't even enjoy the concert! That ticked me off a bit. Ah, well. I just relieved my anger by screaming my ass off in the back of his head when each song ended. Teached him a lesson! Anyway, the concert was really good. They didn't screw up the songs or anything, but it all lacked a certain something. The slow songs (Blue Light, This Modern Love and So Here We Are) turned out to be the highlights of the show. They seemed to be in a good mood and all, but they didn't really connect with the audience(me). And they also finished with Price Of Gas which I felt was a bit wrong. They should've saved Banquet or Helicopter to wrap up the show in my humble opinion. Regardless, they played an enjoyable show and my expectations might've been a bit high in the first place.
It'll be a clean: ! ! ! ! (4)
Nothing else to report in between shows. Just standing still, and the feet starting to hurt like hell.
Jimmy Eat World
I was kinda looking forward to this. I bought a Kerrang! magazine to read on the train-ride down to the festival, I must admit that they've really lost it over the years... absolutely shit, and they had reviews of both Green Day and JEW. JEW got 4 out of 5 K!'s, and it said that they played a nearly perfect set, and that JEW had grown to be a live-force to be reckoned with through all their years as a band. Obviously this made me look forward to the concert. I was just hoping that they'd play mostly from Bleed American(or their self-titled album if you will), so that I'd recognise most of it. The singer/guitarist came on alone on stage with some sort of intro-ish melody coming from the speakers. He started singing something I didn't recognise, but then the rest of the band came on stage and they faded right into the first single off their last album Pain. The vocalist had guitartrouble throughout the concert. An example: In Pain he just had to put his guitar away for the solo, and jump around like a madman and scream at the audience (" TAKES MY PAIN AWAY!!!111!") to make up for it. Luckily it worked. The guitartrouble made the concert slightly less enjoyable than it had the potential to be, but it was alright I Suppose.
Another clean: ! ! ! ! (4)
Then for the headliner:
Green Day
People were really trying to push their way forward on this one. For the first half hour of waiting I didn't stand still at all. People were forcing themselves into an area that was already fully packed. Not a good thing. To cut things short: Green Day came on and went right into American Idiot. The crowd went mental and sang along to every word, making it really hard to hear Billy Joe but the ambience was just fucking crazy. 1 minute into the song or something Billy stopped the others to ask if someone in the audience he thought was having trouble was OK. The person(s) responded and Billy urged us to take care of each other. A nice gesture although the critic from our national newspaper (Dagbladet) slagged the bands "niceness". The first four songs were American Idiot songs I think, and it got kinda boring. "Give us some old songs!" I thought. And they definitely didn't disappoint in that department (although I reaaaaally wanted them to play Stuart And The Ave). Welcome To Paradise was cool. She was frickin awesome!
And Hitchin' A Ride and Minority were the highlights of the show for me. As most of the critics pointed out Green Day put on more of a show than a concert, and in retrospect that kinda bothered me too. But right then and there, bouncing and singing my ass off, shouting "Heeeeee-yoooh", it was a great experience. And they'd been basically doing the same thing for each show on this tour so I didn't get any real surprises except for the drunken bunny chugging beer, and dancing to YMCA, so that was another negative side of the show. All in all it was great, and as I walked (sloooowly) out of the festival area, I thought to myself that that show couldn't possibly be topped. Boy was I wrong.
Right then and there I'd give it a 6-, and in retrospect I'd really just give it a clean 5.
Highlight of the day: Trè Cool getting up and standing next to his drumkit singing something in his mic. And when he turned to put down the mic and sit back down, I noticed that his ass was totally wet from sweat. About five girls around me noticed this as well, and they shouted "Ewww! Did you see his ass?!" in unison. Hahahaha
Stay in touch for Wednesday at the Quart-festival!
