Celebrating the release of their new album, Adore Life, they had decided to play an 8am gig in the legendary 100 Club. With a lesser band, it’s something that could have gone horribly wrong. But powered by strong coffee the band and the audience were clearly up for this unique event. Jehn suggesting at one point that she’d ‘write a note for our bosses’.

Playing a balanced set of new material with some of the crowd pleasing favourites. I mentioned this before, but this band are the most complete band I’ve seen in a long time. The rhythm unit is probably unrivalled at the moment and the interesting drumming patterns with thundering bass are a major driving force on the excellent new album standing out on Sad Person, Surrender and T.I.W.Y.G. But it was actually Adore for me that shows how far the band has moved. Using a similar repeating phrase similar to the one they used so effectively on ‘Fuckers’. This is the light to ‘Fuckers’ darkness. Much slower than most of their songs but giving each member the a chance to excel.

For me, the Savages are the simply the best band at the moment. Simply awesome.

The only problem with such an excellent gig, so early in the morning. The rest of the day is a let down.

Overall, I thought it was pretty decent value, the weather was good and it wasn’t overcrowded. So I was pleasantly surprised by the festival. So what was the music like?

I started the day with another performance by Ex Hex. As always, it was good simple rock and roll, played well.

Next up were the Allah-las. Never seen them before. They were pleasant enough but just didn’t grab me. They were a little unfair though. They played into the setup time for Viet Cong, despite receiving the signal to wind up. So black mark against them.

The Field Day site has a number of stages. Two big stages and then a few small stages. One of the small stages was sponsored by Jaegermeister and featured Tough Love.

I like this band. They’ve got some really good songs. But they both come across as really nice people and their good stuff, is really good.

Tuff Love

Tuff Love

Another band that won me over simply because they appeared to be nice people, were Spring King. I think I saw them at the Great Escape and wasn’t impressed. They were playing quiet a big stand and the music all seemed to be pretty run of the mill – and it is. But on a small stage, they interacted with the crowd with a nice line of self-deprecating humour they put in a really frantic performance that wasn’t short changing anyone.

Spring King

Spring King

Spring King

The Field Day site is pretty compact. So it’s easy to wander around between stages so I wandered between stages on the way to catch the end of Matthew E. White. Nothing, including Matthew, particularly interested me.

??

Matthew E. White

As I was bouncing between stages, I ended up back at the Jaegermeister venue. A band called Whilk and Misky were setting up. I took one look at them and decided that I wasn’t going to like them. Too hipster for me. They also had a bunch of arseholes hanging around them. Clearly friends, all drunk and full of themselves, in the ‘we’re friends of the band’ type way you regularly see. (Friends of bands can be the worst audience. They’ve seen the band before, so think it’s fine to mess around or talk and shout through the set – this group were this type of friend). I really was going to move on. They just looked like a band I’d dislike. But then the singer started playing and singing. He’s got a pretty decent voice. It’s got a nice bluesy tone to it. They mix the guitar with the keyboards adding some interesting rhythms. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t like everything they did. I preferred the songs with which felt more bluesy. But they were watchable.

As I was only really here for the Savages. I decided it was time to get my place at the front for their gig. This ‘unfortunately’ meant watching the Hookworms. 🙂 However, the tent appeared remarkably quiet to say the Hookworms were playing. It was only now that I realised that the Hookworms had cancelled due to illness. Their replacements, the Ducktails were unfortunately one of those bands that are really bad, not because they’ve written bad music, but because they’ve written music of absolutely no interest. Music that’s just bland. Their performances, didn’t help either. They didn’t seem to be anymore interested by their own music than we were. I really couldn’t wait for the music to be over because at least the Shacklewell’s DJs had been playing decent music.

Thankfully, the Savages woke me from my slumber. As you would now expect for a band that have spent the last two years building a reputation around their live performances, they were fantastic. Coming armed with new songs, and their now formidable stage presence. They blasted their way through a great 1 hour set. The 10 minutes long Fuckers is now really becoming one of the highlights of their set. Their new material was heavier and at least on first listen, feels less textured than some of their best material. But it probably just needs some bedding down. Fuckers felt like that the first time they played it and now it’s one of their strongest songs. So it bodes well for the new album.

As always, they put in 100%. Jenny was her usual self, talking to the crowd throughout the set but in a way that only she does. Where you know if you say something wrong, you might get a well directed DM aimed at a delicate body part. The rest of the band played to their usual high standard. The rhythm section (one of the strongest around) underpinning the Gemma’s swirling guitar sound. They really are a band where every cog fits. They even use the lighting really effectively to enhance their sound with stark lighting, with very little colour, just strong white lights with the odd yellow highlighter and smoke. A great festival set.

After the Savages storming set. It was time to head off. There was only Ride still playing and after the Savages, they seemed even more bland that at Primavera. But can’t complain. Not a bad day.

Joining him was a large number of musicians such Romy Madley Croft (The XX), Hannah Thurlow (2:54), Gemma Thompson (Savages), Romeo Stodart (Magic Numbers), Lindsey Troy (Deap Vally), Jeff Wootton, Seye (Damon Albarn band) and Simon Tong (The Verve and The Good, The Bad and the Queen).

The piece itself was ‘pleasant’. Interesting to watch because of the number of string instruments, but not the greatest piece of classical music. But still a pleasant evening.

Next up was Taigen Kawabe, the lead singer from Bo Ningen performing a ‘Japanese Sound Poem’. It just sounded like a wall of noise to me and unfortunately despite my love for Bo Ningen, I didn’t feel this experiment worked.

Unfortunately, despite there being a relatively early doors the gig ran late. So it was about 2230 when A Dead Forest Index came on. I hate when this happens. With the Waiting Room in the arse end of nowhere, I was reliant on buses to get me back to civilisation and not knowing the buses around that area you have to leave yourself enough time. So I only managed to catch 25 minutes of their set. Sometimes bands seem to get into their head that the only people at their gigs are Londoners so if there’s no curfew, it doesn’t matter if the support acts run over, they’ll just play later. I hate missing the end of sets I’m enjoying because of poor timing.

Rant aside, Dead Forest were again excellent. The sparseness of their music I find somehow intense. As the singer layers repeat loops of his androgynous vocals on top of each other building up layers of intensity, the excellent drumming gives the music the forward motion needed to drive the music towards an inevitable climax, you’re drawn in to the music.

I know at the Savages gig many of the crowd were left cold. But I find the vocals almost siren-like. They somehow get under my skin and are a times etherial and mournful and at other times, there’s a cold creepiness about them. But they never quiet seem normal.

Highlight of the evening was when the lads were joined by Gemma from the Savages to added layers swirling guitars to their already intense sound.

The video was recorded at the Forum gig I attended last year. I noted at the time how fleshed out ‘Fuckers’ had become. I have to admit the camera people annoyed me a little. But when they produced a video like this, all’s forgiven.

Before the gig I was concerned that the larger venue would undermine their intensity. I usually prefer to see bands in small venues. But I was so wrong. Instead the large space simply increased their power. Jehnny owned the stage in a way I didn’t expect her to. Gemma’s guitar’s were stunning and Fay and Ayse’s thumbing bass and drums kept everything motoring. Also some of their material, such as Fuckers had been significantly fleshed out since I last saw them. They even converted me to the ‘weak’ song on their debut album, Marshall Dear with Jenny on the piano.

Off course, nothing is left to chance. Everything from the stunning stark lighting, to their black and white dress, is designed to intensify their performances. The large space just seems to give them more ideas. It’s clear they’re control freaks when it comes to how they are perceived, but when you have a clear artistic vision of where you want your band to be and the talent to get there, that’s not a bad thing and last night was proof to me that this band have everything. If I had any doubts that big was better. Last night proved me wrong.

My only disappointment was that ‘Flying to Berlin’ was left off the set list. I suspect this was simply due to timings as there were a few delays for technical issues. But I think I can live with that.

Support from A Dead Forest Index