David Emery Online25 x 5
30 August 2008
Last weekend saw the annual trek down the M4 to that ode to concrete that is Reading. The festival – as ever – was brilliant; the weather held out and the music was wonderful. I treat Reading a little different to most people, I think – there are just too many bands to pursue the “normal” festival experience (i.e. drinking copious amounts of bear, mainly). I have a schedule, and I stick to it.
It’s fun, honest.
To that end this year I saw a whopping 25 bands, which I think is pretty good going. Now, I’m not going to bore you with 25 full on reviews of all those bands – I don’t think you want to read that and I certainly don’t want to write it. Instead, I’m going to do 5 word reviews of each – I think you’ll get the idea a lot quicker that way.
So, here’s my Reading Festival 2008 in 125 words:
Pete And The Pirates
Practically perfect pop home coming.
Blood Red Shoes
Great noisy boy – girl indie.
These New Puritans
Sparkly dancy prog. Yes, prog.
Dizzee Rascal
Really got the crowd going.
Esser
Promising dance/indie. Must investigate.
Ida Maria
Better then I expected. Drunk.
Friendly Fires
Festival highlight. Dancers! Drummers! Confetti!
The Teenagers
Quite rubbish but good. Sleazy.
Queens of the Stone Age
Where has Josh’s hair gone?
Rage Against The Machine
Actually quite pedestrian. Over hyped.
British Sea Power
Perfect start to the day.
Santogold
Surprisingly good dancy indie electro.
Mystery Jets
Cracking stuff as expected. Also-featured-the-now-obligitary-we-are-scientists-guest-appearance.
We Are Scientists
I’m bored of them now.
Mystery Jets (Backstage performance for BBC Three)
Very quiet but very intimate.
Adam Green
Shambolic, rude and quite entertaining.
Cajun Dance Party
Not on their best form.
The Whip
Not amazing but not bad.
Holy Fuck
Pretty good, but not great.
Crystal Castles
Genuinely exciting. Shouty. Good stuff.
These Monsters
Instrumental unknowns. Ok not amazing.
The Bacchae
Worst band I saw. Dreadful.
Wiley
The crowd loved him. Rubbish.
The Kills
How cool are The Kills?
Metallica
Predictably slick. They had fireworks!
More photos can be seen here: Reading Festival 2008 on Flickr
Roll on next year…