Oxegen Day 1

11 07 2009

It’s Saturday morning of Oxegen weekend, and we are about to leave for the second day of the festival in Punchestown. Last night was a ate one, due to some difficulties on our bus, and some rowdy shouting and fighting (masterfully handled by the COOLEST undercover guard in the world) so its late that I post my day one report.

Well, it stated well, little or no traffice ment our journey was a little under 80 mins to site, which is about what we had last year. Straight in and with the help of twitter got into the Dirty Epics. Alan, the drummer, has really tighened this dublin punk/pop outfit up a lot, and there was much more energy in the bigger Green Spheres room that the smaller tent of last eyar. SJ Wai was on form, chatting away between songs, but they might have prefered more vocal in the mix. The Cure, Weirdo and Pony all went down well.

From here we went out into the rain, to The Corona’s. Good set, with the big sons going down best, ome decent new stuff being tested out, and Hero’s or ghosts ending, first verse in Irish.

After Corona’s, Pam wanted to be up near the front for the evening, so we stuck around for James, who was a bit meh. Lily Allen was on next, and was n much better form that last years blue mermaid gig, seemed more relaxed, and got the ladies in the crowd going.

Home-comers The Script played a short set, and were it not for the constant crowd cheering may have struggled to fill a slot which already featured a few covers. The new album will be the test of this Dublin band, but the crowd at Oxegen loved the set they played, with cheering and chanting stopping the gig a number of times. The finale of Hero’s draped in a tricolour was a little much maybe, but you can’t fault enthusiasm.

Pam was more excited about Snow Patrol then ever, probarbly hasn’t been this excitable since the last Snow Patrol gig we went to. Lightbody et al started as they ent to go on, and toured through their catelogue, leaving out Chocolte dissappointed, but its good to see Hands Open a live staple now, and Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking was a great choice. The girls from the crowd for Set The Fire To the Third Bar was a nice idea, but probarbly cost the set a song, and added little after they had screamed their hello’s to Sarah Kate and Claire. Still, they won’t ever forget singing to the Oxegen crowd.

Blur started off alright, and prob will be well reviewed today, but to be honest, I missed out on them first time around, and didn’t feel compelled to see them this time. Girls and Boys was good though.

A combination of tiredness from the week in work, and being oldies now, as well as our theory that the best way to handle the three days is to take your leave when you can led us to the busses around 11.30. With our journey home being as eventful as it was, we got in close to two. Should have just stayed for Blur….

Song of the Day: Lily Allen – Fuck You

Quote of the day: The crowd is amazing – Various

General Impression – Good start to the weekend. Some people missed, Duke Special and FLC. Will do more wandering today, but made the right choices.





Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns

1 09 2008

Tracklisting released for A Hundred Million Suns:

If There’s a Rocket Tie Me To It
Crack The Shutters Open
Take Back The City
Lifeboats
The Golden Floor
Please Just Take These Photos From my Hands
Set Down Your Glass
The Planets Bend Between Us
Engines
Disaster Button
The Lightning Strike
(i)What if This Storm Ends?
(ii)Sunlight Through The Flags
(iii)Daybreak

Also, first single Take Back The City will be released in October, but you can hear it on Zane Lowe’s BBC show pod-thingy from tomorrow morning, and a little snippet is on the Snow Patrol website. Sounds very Hands Open-ey, with a dash of old school stuff I was hoping for. Very excited…..





Music Coming Soon…

20 08 2008

There appears to be  flurry of activity coming up in the music world. Some of my favourite bands and acts will be releasing new albums over the next few weeks, and I want to give you a run down of those that I think will be worth a listen.

Bloc Party (Myspace) will be dropping “Intimacy” this week, with new tracks like Trojan Horse already leaking. I am guessing that this is a rush job for some reason, but I quite like this new sound, as seen on Flux in the past. Whether all Bloc Party fans agree is another thing.

Jack L (Myspace) is set to release his new album, “Burn On” in early October. I heard some songs from it at the Vicar Street show last March, and they sound great. There is a song on there called Great Wall of China, and maybe we’ll get an album release of Stardust… Just read this is an album of Randy Newman covers, with an original album coming later in the year. Theres a sample of new single, “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” on his website, at www.jacklukeman.com. He is also playing two gigs on the 9th and 10th of October to herald the new album.

Snow Patrol (Myspace) are set to release “A Hundred Million Suns” in the very near future, having been recording for the last number of months. How will it sound? Who knows. I am hoping for some return to roots tracks that would not have been out of place on When This Is All Over, or Songs For Polar Bears.

Dirty Epics (Myspace) are keeping us waiting for “Straight In, No Kissin”, and I am still looking forward to it, even after an Oxegen set that I didn’t find totally riveting, there seemed to be something missing. Hopefully the chunky punk sound of Pony and The One will feature heavily.

Kings Of Leon (Myspace) will be flogging “Only By The Night” on September 23rd. Pre-released track Crawl sounds good.

And also worth a look, and in your local record shop/itunes now are the following:

The Script (Myspace) I know it ain’t cool or clever to suggest the number one album, but these guys make good music, not just disposable pop crap. Songs like Before The Worst, and The End are well written and considered, and I find them so catchy. And I knew about them when there were just playing support gigs to Newton Faulkner :)

Codes (Myspace) My favourite “doom rock” band. WTF is doom rock? I think Metro Dublin has been sniffing the glue. Anyways, get out and buy This Is Goodbye. Now.

Viva La Vida i quite good, and I have enjoyed We Started Nothing and Oracular Spectacular, but I am really looking forward to some new decent music at long last. Roll on he next few weeks.