FALLS FESTIVAL – DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS

By the time San Cisco took to the stage, memories of the traffic and my glaring petrol light were a distant blur. As the sun peeked through the crowd swelled. A highlight was ‘Fred Astaire‘ which had everybody with their hands high, clapping hard. Forget having one person on your shoulders, everywhere we looked there were attempts at not one but two mates piled high. Lead singer Jordi pointed some out and unfortunately for them they toppled back at just the right time. We don’t know if they made it. ‘Awkward‘ is still as clever as it was when we first heard it and was clearly the song most were hanging out for. The crowd belted it out, revelling in its descriptions of dating and stalking. We’ve all done it, am I right guys?

You would think that it was a bad thing the sun hid from Lisa Mitchell as she relaxed into her set but it was pretty perfect. Everyone raised their faces to the light showers as she highlighted tracks from Wonder and new release ‘Bless This Mess‘. ‘Oh Hark!‘ and ‘Neopolitan Dreams‘ were my favourites, though one kid got confused and threw a dollar coin during the latter. Needless to say she didn’t appreciate the toss. It was clear the crowd adored her and she finished off her set with ‘Spiritus‘.

The highlight of my day was Bombay Bicycle Club. Their frenetic energy on stage, their mix of songs taken from all three albums as well as new tune ‘Carry Me‘ from their forthcoming release all went off. ‘Always Like This‘, ‘Shuffle‘ and ‘Ivy & Gold‘ were so much fun. They rocked out, clearly loving the packed out stage and despite the gigantic umbrella blocking half my view and the frisbee flying through the mosh a good time was had by all.

***Stef***

The Hives demonstrated the wonders of Swedish efficiency in an awe inspiring display of showmanship. Crowd interaction was the number of the day, as a continuous barrage of crowd surfing, sing alongs, mass sit downs and playful banter filled out their massive catalogue of hits and tracks from recent album Lex Hives. New and old material was lapped up by an audience taken through the experience that is a gloriously self indulgent Hives live show. From the moment The Hives made their dramatic entrance in full three piece victorian suites, to the end of a 20 minute finale, climaxing in classic ‘Tick Tick Boom‘, it’s clear the ageing three time Falls veterans have lost none of their ability to rock.

Django Django flexed their musical talents as they seamlessly brought the sounds from their recent self titled LP to the festival stage. A diverse and rich album, it’s always interesting to see how such sounds translate to a large scale live show. Yet from the get go it was clear that Django Django had it to down to a fine art, working like a well oiled machine as they moved from instrument to instrument in a frantic set list. From this confidence in their live show, it was clear that they haven’t been afraid to play and develop crowd favourites like ‘Default‘ and ‘WOR‘, working them into strung out, buildings numbers, perfect for a festival audience.

Miami Horror finished the night’s aural pleasures with a DJ set from the main stage. The boys presented the already hyped crowd with a well balanced mix of house and disco sounds with a few remixes of their best known tunes thrown in. Every one was a winner.

WORDS BY Tom Pitney

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