Just when the Field Day organisers thought they had it all sussed (i.e. more booze, more bands, more bogs), along comes the Great British Summertime to unleash its wettest day in weeks. Luckily, like all good Brits we’re indebted with the Blitz mentality; what else can we do but soldier on?
NOAH AND THE WHALE are on criminally early, but their recent success in the UK charts has geared them up well for playing festivals; ‘5 Years Time’ is like a little drop of syrup in your earl grey tea. Braving the outdoors in plastic ponchos may not be the height of fashion, yet this matters not for WILD BEASTS, whose ear opening set brings the kind of relief the sun dares not to.
Equal with wooing powers is LAURA MARLING, whose transfixing tones on ‘My Manic and I’ keep her devotees rooted to the spot.
Like a flash of attractive insanity, THE MAE SHI take over the NME tent with a set of amateurish, electronic revelry, which is punctauted with shouts of “We do this all the time!” while they lean into the crowd with their LED lit microphones.
Filling a Mystery Jets-shaped gap in the bill is no mean feat, but LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION steps up admirably, opening with a cheeky ‘Alas, Agnes’. He’s the current scene’s most chameleon-like artist, and his anti-folk is something to be cherished. So too for OF MONTREAL whose bobbly guitars segue cultishly into synthesised drums.
Like some kind of anti-Santa dishing out the gifts, TIM HARRINGTON ditches the pre-show pleasantries, and unleashes Les Savy Fav style monster hooks on Victoria Park. Parading the stage in a variety of hats (and pants) this is a showman like no other. When ‘Patty Lee’ and ‘The Year Before The Year 2000’ bring out the most crowd movement seen all day, he’s not one for comprimsing.
With BENGA stirring up the Bugged Out Tent with all the musical impact of some ipod earphones, their dub-step magic is lost beneath the Pythagorean guitars drifting over from the main stage.
If FOALS were any more professional in their setlist we’d all be dining off this stuff for years to come. As it is intoxication sits warmly with familiarity, as ‘Cassius’ and ‘Two Steps Twice’ finally see the rain hold off. Regardless, Field Day closes in a shower of applause - which even Michael Fish could’ve predicted.
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