Rock Werchter Day 4 (06.07.2008)

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