Pukkelpop

Posted by jill on August 22, 2009

In what seems to be an annual thing, for the third year in a row, summer meant a visit to a music festival abroad. Although Pukkelpop seemed to be one of the festivals on the circuit that most bands play every summer there was a great balance between bands that I really wanted to see and things that I might see, meaning that there were only a few clashes (a general problem at festivals) and only a few times when there was nothing I wanted to see at any of the 3 stages which would have bands at any time.

Since the days of camping are now far behind me, we were staying in a town 20mins drive away, and with the headliners generally finishing at around 1-2am we didn’t catch the full sets of any of the 3 headline acts. However what we saw of Kraftwerk’s Friday set was great, but also proved that their live sets have not changed very much in the last few years.

What was amusing was that although I had travelled to Belgium, most of the acts I watched (and also enjoyed most) were bands from North America, such as Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Deerhunter, Tortoise and NERD. Of the European acts, the highlights were Fight Like Apes and Patrick Wolf.

2007 was the Capitol Hill Block Party, 2008 was Slottsfjell and 2009 was Pukkelpop. What will 2010 bring?

Grizzly Bear @ Koko

Posted by jill on August 18, 2009

If you look at my last.fm stats, there is one band who is easily my most played band. Unlike most bands who now rush out a new album every year, Grizzly Bear take their time to create songs that are extremely well thought out and beautifully arranged.

Amazingly Veckatimest comes off even better live than on record. While sometimes the album seems to plod along, the live energy drive the songs through. And being a band that takes risks with pushing their arrangements, they even attempted to perform the more ambitious tracks from the album, such as ‘I live with you’. While it didn’t quite work when there was just the four band members performing, it worked as a tempting preview of what the show at the Barbican (with orchestra) may bring.