1. MGMT
The Marquee was full of people anxious to see this hot new band and MGMT delivered a very good show. They played the songs from their debut album "Oracular Spectacular" and too bad that they didn't have more songs cos the atmosphere was electrifying. The concert was actually a build-up to their last 2 songs, by far the best on the album: "Time To Pretend" and "Kids". Needless to say that the audience exploded after the first beats of "Time to Pretend"! Funny fact: there was an interview with the singer from MGMT in the Belgian paper and he said his ideal festival would be in a jungle in Romania =))) thank you very much ;)
Stand-out songs: Kids, Time To Pretend
Rating: 5/5
2. The Hives
Next up was this band of crazy Swedes. Howlin' Pelle is a great frontman, his cockyness makes him a crowd master and he's absolutely insane. Where does this guy get so much energy?? For more than an hour he jumped, screamed, sang, ran, climbed, came down in the crowd, ran and jumped some more. Even if you had never heard a song by the Hives, it was impossible not to enjoy the show that Pelle and his crew of daft comrades was giving. I particularly liked the guitarist Niklas and the very hot Finnish drummer and the overall performance was a whole lot of fun, in spite of the crappy rain.
Stand-out songs: Hate To Say I Told You So, Tic Tick Boom (in the vid), Walk Idiot Walk
Rating: 5/5
3. Editors
*does little happy dance cos there's the full show on youtube*
One word: amazing! They were so fucking great, playing all my fav songs, such a strong show! Tom Smith has a very beautiful, deep voice and he really got us going, in spite of the continous downpour. The setlist was a combination of songs from their 2007 album "An End Has A Start" and their 2005 debut "The Back Room", but I think they sould have ended with "And End Has A Start", not play it in the first few songs.
Stand-out songs: An End Has A Start, Munich, Bullets
Rating: 5/5
4. Kings Of Leon
*does another happy dance, cos this is on youtube too!*
I was looking forward to seeing these guys because I loved their "Because of the Times" album and I heard they're great live. And they were, but they played too many songs from their older albums and I didn't know them, so couldn't enjoy them properly. Oh, and I want to kidnap Nathan, Caleb and Jared!!! And make Caleb and Jared grow their hair like they used to have it and then put them in my room and look at them whenever I want ;)) Back to their performance: they started up a bit stiff, but then they rocked with "On Call", "Charmer" and especially "Knocked Up" and the crowd really really loved them. Their flaw with me was the number of older songs, but that mostly my fault for not checking them out.
Stand-out songs: Charmer, On Call, Knocked Up (in the video; check out Caleb's little dance)
Rating: 4/5
5. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
I'll start with this: he's not my type. He might be a god for some people, but he doesn't do a thing for me, sorry. So I had to sit throughout his 90 minutes set, counting down the minutes to Sigur Ros and then the best band in the world, Radiohead. I only knew "Diamonds on the Inside" from VH1 so I got bored, happy that I had a good spot for the next shows.
Stand-out songs: sorry but can't name one
Rating: 3/5
6. Sigur Ros
It is rather unusual for a band whose songs are all in Icelandic (and some don't even have a title) to be so succesful, but Sigur Ros defied all the laws of common sense and have a big fanbase. Their show was beautiful, you couldn't really do much but stand and look (singing along was impossible, unless you knew Icelandic); they had nice costumes and the stage decorations were very nice and these, in addition to the sunset, the singer's voice and the weird way he played the guitar (like he played a violin), created an eerie atmosphere. During "Gobbledigook" (spelling?!) they had confetti released on the crowd and that was such a beautiful moment! They are a very special band who can create a fairytale atmosphere and handled the requirements of a main stage very well. A great build=up to Radiohead.
Stand-out songs: Hopippola, Gobbledigook (in the video), Svefn-g-englar (again, excuse my spelling)
7. Best band in the world a.k.a Radiohead
I can't believe I was front row for Radiohead (right in front of Ed!)!!!!! (in the photo: me and Duncan before the show)
People were already fainting like crazy (one every 2-3 minutes) a long time before they came on stage cos we were "packed like sardines in a crushed tin box" and everyone was pushing like mad, but we held on to our perfect places, very excited about what was going to happen. They showed up after 23.30 and started with "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", a song from their beloved "In Rainbows" album (well it's excellent, so they have a reason to be so proud of it) and then they got groovy with "The National Anthem" and a ton of other awesome songs. Holy crap they even played my precious "How To Disappear Completely"!!!!! They totally ignored "Pablo Honey", sang only "Just" from The Bends (some people said they should've played more from this album) and "You and Whose Army?" from Amnesiac, "Climbing Up The Walls", "Lucky" and "Paranoid Android" from their masterpiece "OK Computer", "There There", "The Gloaming" and "2+2=5" from "Hail To The Thief", "Idioteque", "Optimistic", "Everything In Its Right Place", "The National Anthem" and "How To Disappear Completely" from Kid A and the entire "In Rainbows" album apart from "House of Cards" and God they were fabulous. They had some incredible light effects and the big screens were divided into more pieces that showed each member from an interesting angle and a cool visual effect. With all the respect for Thom Yorke who is a fucking genius and whom I love a lot (and also for Colin Greenwood and Phil the drummer), my fav Radiohead members have to be the duo of guitarists Ed O'Brien *insert drool smiley here* and Jonny Greenwood *insert worship smiley here*. Jonny didn't only play guitar but was also in charge of the sound effects and that hair of his couldn't have been any better. He's too cool for this world. I also wanna kidnap him, Ed and Thom! (hmmm...if you add the boys from The National, the drummer and the keyboardist from Vampire Weekend, the 3 Kings of Leon guys I already mentioned and the drummer from the Hives that means that I gotta get a bigger basement cos they don't fit in mine :))) It sucks that I can't find any good videos of this concert (only good audio, but blurry image) cos it was so mindblowing! I'm glad they had such a long set and I forgot all about my hurting legs and the fact that I was wearing shorts and flip-flops in the middle of the night! They were worth it. I must see them again sometime soon. All hail the RH guys!
Stand-out songs: there is no such thing; the entire show was outstanding!
Rating: 5/5 *show of the day* "show of the festival* *show of my life*
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