söndag 1 Jul 2007, 13:49
Deciding to go home to Borlänge for the Peace & Love festival or stay in Stockholm for Accelerator The Big One wasn't entirely easy, but I figured that even if there were a lot of good bands playing in Borlänge, most of them were Swedish and I'll get more opportunities to see them. You never know when The Gossip or Interpol decides to visit Sweden again.
As far as my expectations were concerned, the festival was heavily front loaded. Almost every band I was really interested in played on the Friday. It ended up being a good thing - I stayed home until it stopped raining and didn't feel bad at all that I missed Frida Hyvönen (for much the same reasons I didn't go to Peace & Love, see above). Got there in time to see Gruff Rhys interesting electronic folk indie. Not sure if I share the prediction that his music will take over the world, but it was alright. I skipped the last song to head over to scene 2 for The Long Blondes, just in time to strike up a conversation with the sound technician when Gruff's final song came to its crescendo. He turned his decibel meter towards the other stage and measured up 105 dB, 150 meters away! That's just ridiculous. Apparently you don't need to play heavy metal to play loud…
The highlights, as far as I'm concerned:
Maps - fantastic on the small stage. Live it sounds so different from the studio recordings, much rawer. Awesome percussions, fantastic energy on stage.
The Gossip - Beth Ditto is an outstanding stage personality. The Gossip deserved a better slot in the schedule.
CSS - some bands get on stage and strike poses for 60 minutes. CSS come on stage and have a party. Between CSS and Bonde do Role, I'm starting to think we Europeans and Americans need to take a page or two out of the Brazilian playbook. And an L7 cover in Pretend We're Dead!
Electrelane - Don't know what to say. I felt like I was run over, and I liked it. A lot.
The Long Blondes - Stylish, tight perfomance, good contact with the crowd. I had never heard them before, but enjoyed the perfomance a lot.
Jamie T - I was about to give him a miss as it partially coincided with Maps, but I'm glad I swung by the tent scene, because it was so different and so much better than what I had expected (don't ask what I expected…). Billy Bragg cover!
José González - Not really a fan, but the cover of Massive Attack's Teardrops was great.
Overall, a jolly good time was had, even if there were a few concerts I would have enjoyed more if I had been in a different state of mind, particularly Interpol (too tired) and Modest Mouse (dunno what was wrong, but this time, they just didn't do anything for me. Maybe I'm not such a fan after all).