Time flies when you're having fun and that statement was very accurate to describe my feeling on Sunday morning. It was already the last festival day and it was going to be more laidback than the previous one. We agreed to go spend our last food and drink tickets before The Raconteurs show so that we could start our "assault" for front row spots. The weather was again nice, with periods of sun and clouds but no rain, just like on Friday, so we set out to find the Oxfam cow and get photos with her. I also bought an Oxfam button with the image of the cow.
We ignored The Kooks (dude! Luke Pritchard looks like a rat! What do girls see in him?!) and then took a seat to watch the Raconteurs.
1. The Raconteurs
First of all, I don't dig Jack White's current haircut. Ugh. He looks like his hairdresser wanted to humiliate him. His hair aside, he was pretty good along with Brendan and the rest of the gang. Despite his mike sucking big time and Brendan screwing it up with "Hello, Brussels!" much to the shock of the crowd, they entertained their fans with songs from both their old album and their new one. I'm not a fan of them, but I did enjoy the good ol' "Steady As She Goes".
Stand-out songs: Steady As She Goes, Blue Veins Rating: 3/5
2. Kaiser Chiefs
The Kaisers are a band that can really, really get the crowd going. Ricky distinguishes himself from other frontmen of British guitar indie bands with a huge amount of energy and plenty of on-stage charisma. He made us all jump and clap and sing along to "Ruby", "I Predict A Riot", "Everything Is Average Nowadays", "Na Na Na Na Naaa" and "Oh My God", delivering an awesome show! He is as much of a livewire as Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of the Hives (though much less cockier) crowdsurfing and climbing on the structures around the screens. You don't have to be a fan of them to enjoy their show, it's 100% fun.
Stand-out songs: Ruby (in the video), Oh My God, I Predict A Riot, Na Na Na Na Naaa Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*
3. Beck I never bothered to listen to Beck, therefore I only knew "Loser", "Devil's Haircut" and "E-Pro", but Beck really surprised me with a solid show. Very good instruments (the guitarist was particulalrly impressive) and good vocals = surpsisingly good show. It's not like I'll start getting his discography but he didn't more like Ben Harper did on Saturday.
Stand-out songs: Loser (in the video), Devil's Haircut, E-Pro Rating: 4/5
4. dEUS
This year's edition of this wonderful festival was to be ended by Belgium's finest band, dEUS. The group, led by Tom Barman, came on stage much to the delight of the crowd and started talking Flemish (bah! thank you very much!). They played a lot of songs from their latest album "Vanishing Point", inluding my personal favorite "The Architect". The sound was a bit too loud and my ears started hurting so I put the one earplug I had left and enjoyed this lovely band as they sang older songs like "Sun Ra" or the very beautiful "Nothing Really Ends". On "Popular Culture" they were accompanied by a choir of kids (obviously excited by this occasion), who came back on stage to dance and jump on the festival-ending song, "Suds&Soda". That, apart from being my favorite dEUS song, was the track I had imagined to be the last song of Werchter and so it was! The violin riff, the shouting, the easy-to-remember chorus, the guitars, the enthralled crowd made it the perfect ending for this fabulous festival Rock Werchter 2008!!!!!!
Stand-out songs: Nothing Really Ends, For The Roses, Suds and Soda (in the video) Rating: 5/5
Saturday was probably the best day of my life. Although 10 hours of standing up doesn't really sound like a cool thing, the bands I got to see were fantastic. Despite waking up because of the heat and rays of sun, the weather soon changed and the clouds came back to power. We had a big meal (and I threw away my The Clash shoes and got a pair of flipflops =))) and then headed to the Pyramid Marquee for the first show of the day:
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*
After a brilliant first day, the second day was a more relaxed one, since there wasn't anyone we were interested in until around 7 o'clock. So we wandered around on the street leading to the festival ground, shopping for buttons, shirts, earrings and anything else we wanted. After a while we got hungry and headed to the food area of the site and then relaxed on the grass (Friday was a very beautiful day, with lots of sunshine), watching Slayer from afar. They're good for their genre, but I'm not a metal fan so the comfort of the grass & sun was perfect for me. The next artists were supposed to be Babyshambles, but of course Pete Doherty had to be his mug-self and not come, so Air Traffic played again. Having missed them on the previous day, I was glad I had another chance. They were good but I wasn't really in the crowd to gauge the gig temperature so I won't judge it. Next up was Jay-Z, who really isn't my cup of tea. What's so fascinating to hear Rihanna or Beyonce from the CD and this guy just saying "Yeah! Yeah! Uh! Come on! Hands in the air! Yeah!" is beyond my comprehension.
1. The Verve
I never thought I'd actually see The Verve. If you told me, an avid Verve and Richard Ashcroft fan about 3-4 years ago, that I were to be front row and sing along to "Bittersweet Symphony" with 70,000 other people, I'd call you daft. So when the organizers announced that they were booked to play Werchter, my heart skipped a beat. For old times sake, I'm pleased that I saw them and heard their hits live, but the overall show was worthy of just 4 stars mostly because they played some new songs and some songs from their first albums, which are not as known as the great "Urban Hymns" . Richie was cool, like he always is, but lacked something...I think after such a long break, the guys don't really click together anymore.
Stand-out songs: Lucky Man, The Drugs Don't Work, obviously Bittersweet Symphony (in the vid) Rating: 4/5
Inbetween the two gigs, the cameraman decided to have some fun with the crowd and filmed various people so they could see each other on the big screen. Needless to say, that made way for tens of gestures, a lot of them rather exhibitionist, and it gave us all a good laugh. Best part: he missed Neil Young's entrance on the stage because he was too caught in filming the crowd =))! Priceless!
2. Neil Young
I'd heard his songs before but I can't say I knew too much of his music before. However, his legend status made me prefer him over the very addictive band Hot Chip so there I was, front row for this living hero of rock. He was great! Dressed in a paint-stained suit, he rocked Werchter with his powerful setlist, proving that he's still able to play like when he was much younger. I loved how his hair was bouncing =))) too funny. And I don't regret missing Hot Chip, cos they're still young, Neil's old and who knows when (or if) I'll have the chance to see him again.
Stand-out songs: All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover; in the video), Heart of Gold, Hey Hey My My Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*
3. Moby
My legs were not listening to me anymore: they wanted back to the tent and in an horizontal position. The exhaustion and the big crowd at the Marquee made us sit down for a while and watch Digitalism from outside and then went over for Moby. I was, again, expecting him to play a lot from the new album, but he played a lot of old songs. "Lift Me Up", "Porcelain", "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?", "We Are All Made of Stars" sounded great, Moby is a much better live act than I expected. But again, we left early, in order to avoid the mass of people going back to the campings.
After months of anticipation, the big day had finally come: July 2nd. I was finally leaving Romania to go to Belgium for the Rock Werchter festival. We left Cluj half an hour later than expected and had a rather slow trip to Budapest, where we also had a 2-hour delay for our flight to Brussels, so I have to admit I was getting impatient. The moment we landed in the Belgian capital however, I knew there was nothing that could stop me from attending the festival. After going to bed around 2 am, I woke up five hours later, more excited than ever, hopped on the subway and then the train to Leuven, where I met up with my Dutch friends, Duncan and Liselot. We queued up for the buses that would take us to the camping sites and after a 20 minute ride, we were theeeeeeere!!! We tried the A3 camping but then heard that it's already almost full, so we moved to A4. A nice, chilled camping, not too crowded either, with lots of interesting tents, some of them looking like mini-apartments: 2 places for sleeping and a "living/dining room"! We set up our tents (well...more like Liselot set up the tents, Duncan hammered the hooks, and I....well I *ahem*), had something to eat and the headed for the festival ground, which was a 15-minute walk away. Despite wanting to see Air Traffic, I wanted good spots for Vampire Weekend and The National, so I joined my friends in the Pyramid Marquee for a set of gigs.
1. Modern Skirts
I had only heard "Pasadena" before seeing them so I didn't really know their music, but they didn't really convince me to check them out more. Regular American guitar band, don't see anything special about them. The songs are ok, they are good musicians but they lack something to make them stand out. The crowd was not too numerous either and few people knew their songs, + they had the difficult task of opening the festival.
Stand-out songs: uhm....none really Rating: 2/5
2. Vampire Weekend
Standing through an hour of Modern Skirts had its advantage: I was front row for Vampire Weekend! The guys were lovely! They played their entire debut album and a few other songs like "I Stand Corrected" and even a new song, during which Ezra (the singer)did this cute Michael Jackson dance. The Marquee tent was packed so the atmosphere was great and Ezra&co. lived up to the hype surrounding them. Of course the highlights were "Mansard Roof", "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and the show ended on a high note with the energetic "Walcott". Kudos to the boys and can't wait for a new album!
Stand-out songs:A-Punk, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Mansard Roof (in the video) Rating: 5/5
In the 30 minute break between Vampire Weekend and The National, the organizers turned on the music and at some point there was "Creep" by Radiohead and the whole crowd (around 6,000 people) started singing along: this might give you an idea of what was about to happen at the Radiohead concert on Saturday!
3. The National And here come the 2nd best band of the festival (for me) I have been listening to The National for a year now and I knew they had beautiful songs but never in a million years did I imagine that they're soooo fantastic live! My god, I never wanted them to end, I wanted them to keep playing on and on until they ran out of songs! They are excellent musicians, and the violin guy was, for me,the coolest guy title on Thursday! Their setlist contained older songs like "Abel", "Baby We'll Be Fine", "Secret Meeting", "Mr. November" (a fucking unbelievable end-of-gig song) and from their 2007 album "Boxer": "Start a War", "Fake Empire", "Squalor Victoria", "Racing Like A Pro", "Mistaken for Strangers", "Ada" , "Slow Show" and my personal favorite "Apartment Story". Simply amazing, a mindblowing experience. I HAVE to see them live again and if you have the chance of catching one of their concerts, make sure you go!
Stand-out songs: Start A War (in the video), Fake Empire, Mr. November, Ada Rating: 5/5 *show of the day*
Well, after around 4 hours in the Marquee it was time to get out for a drink and a bite. Of course, my best friend a.k.a the Rain had to show up and it poured for almost an hour. Luckily, we had our rain ponchos but the shoes had to deal with the Floresti-like mud.
4. Lenny Kravitz We got something for our stomachs as I told you so we got to the main stage for Lenny Kravitz exactly when he was starting. So our spots were quite far from the stage but thanks to the screen we could still see Lenny and his band of cool musicians )his bassist was smokin' cool!). He played many of his big hits "American Woman", "Fly Away", "Mama Said", "It Ain't Over Till It's Over", "I'll Be Waiting" and during "Let Love Rule" he got down into the crowd and shook hands with the people (and not only 3 or 4 from the first row, but he really spent like 5 minutes in the middle of the fans) and even danced with a girl! Just after he left, I was about to say that it's weird for him to not sing "Are You Gonna Go My Way" and guess what, in a few minutes he was back for a booming encore performance of that song. Awesoooome! Great live act!
Stand-out songs: Fly Away, Let Love Rule, Are You Gonna Go My Way (in the video) Rating: 5/5
5. R.E.M. One of the biggest bands in the world, REM came here with a new album in the stores so I was expecting them to play mostly songs from it. But I was totally wrong: they played their biggest hits and a few from the new album! Ducan and I manage to crawl in the crowd after Lenny ended and got a spot right in front of Mike Mills. The crowd was delighted to hear "What's The Frequency Kenneth", "Drive", "Electrolite", "Bad Day" and the other tracks (and I was particularly delighted to hear "Imitation of Life"). After a short break they came back for an encore which contained a bunch of songs including "Man on the Moon" and obviously "Losing My Religion", which was the highlight. A very good performance by a legendary band!
Stand-out songs: Losing My Religion, Man on the Moon Rating: 5/5
6. The Chemical Brothers I had been looking forward to the Chem Bros but I have to admit that they let me down. The mix between the songs was way too long and they special effects they used were the same ones they used last year. The only highlight was for me "Hey Boy Hey Girl" and even that lasted too little. Willing to avoid the exodus from the festival grounds to the campings we left earlier, putting an end to what was an incredible first day with four 5 star concerts and 2 mediocre ones which won't be remembered ;)
...as Maximo Park say in their song. The day has finally arrived: I'm leaving to Belgium! Tomorrow at this time I'm setting up my tent! *explodes with excitement*
I can't wait to see Radiohead, Kings of Leon, Editors and all the other bands and I promise to write a thorough review of the event when I get back!
