Oxegen 2011 - FridayReview by Aidan Cuffe and Kev Meagher
Photos by Peter Neill
Forsome reason, we were anxious about reviewing Oxegen this year. With aline-up jam packed with pop acts like The Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce,the revere was that we would be the old fogeys at the game while the youngwhippersnappers performed musical hop scotch down the front.Sadly,after about a decade of festivals this was inevitable. So, embracingour new found seniority, we decide feck it, lets splurge on a B&B tostay in sooner than subject ourselves to the cold, hard ground likelast year. Yes, we are those people, and after day one, we regretnothing.
With ourselves checked-in to ouraccommodation, we made use of the excellent park and ride facility atGoffs to shuttle ourselves to the festival site. Compared to the fiascoof trying to park in the supposedly VIP car park last year, the park andride was a well organised operation, so often so we asked ourselves whywe had not been using it from the start.
After collecting our wristbands at thebox office we headed into the festival site, which more or less has thesame stage layout as last year. It appears the mantra of `If it ain`tbroke, don`t fix it` applies as the festival layout has been almost thesame for the past 3-4 years. One deviation from last year though is thesprucing up of the Dance Arena, which has had a makeover from Red Bull,rechristening it the `Electric Ballroom` and creating what is actually areally good venue, a nice
departure from the rather soulless arenaof the final few years.Other than that, the Bacardi B-Live tent hasbeen replaced by a Captain Morgans one and the Red Bull Academy stagehas disappeared, being replaced by a Red Bull branded seating area atthe Electric Ballroom.
We arrived to the festival quite late sowe were acutely aware we required to speed to see anything that was leftof the House of Pain set on the Vodafone stage. For our troubles wewere rewarded by catching `Jump Around` for which of form the crowdwent entirely nuts for, but we didn`t get enough of their set to givethem a proper review. If you found it on crowd reaction, then yeah theysmashed it, but `Jump Around` was ever passing to go down a storm.
Nextup was a travel to the primary point for one ring that many picked as a mustsee for the weekend, and god bless Weezer, these kids know how to puton a show, well 95% of a picture and a 5% mishap. The lads were in greatform with Rivers Cuomo exploring every edge of the stage, stating as hemoved out towards the butt of the stage, unsure if it was good "I ShallProceed Cautiously", then dragging stacked cameras up on stage, gettingdown to the pit barrier and run along giving the fans some close upvocals. We got served a set list which consisted of some of Weezer`sclassics, opening with Undone (The Sweater Song) and run through aset that included the likes of `Surf Wax America`, `My Name is Jonas`,`Island in the Sun` plus newer songs like `Pork & Beans` andfinishing with `Hash Pipe`. One highlight was the band channeling theirinner Wheatus for a blanket of `Teenage Dirtbag` for which the crowd wentmental. Near the end of the set they covered Radiohead`s `ParanoidAndroid`, and while they did an excellent job they seemed to lose thecrowd with it, and to be true with the back catalogue Weezer get wefelt a bit cheated to have to hear to another screen when the whole of`Pinkerton` went unplayed. One thing for certain though, one of the bestperformances of the day. Next up was one man who comes with a biglive reputation these days, Tinie Tempah, who following in thetradition of recent Oxegen visitors Jay-Z and Dizzie Rascal brought alive band rather than spit lyrics over some samples like a certainDetroit rapper last year. People swarmed to the Vodafone stage as theSouth-London rapper took to the stage. Tinie energy was contagious as hebounced around the stage, even if at times he was a bit overlycomplimentary of how amazing we Irish are. He was one of a good fewtoday to mistake Kildare for Dublin which was met with a little lightjeering. Knocking out the hits like `Pass Out` and `Written in theStars` and `Miami2Ibiza`, he had the gang in the handle of his hand andkept the crowd onside with some quality banter. While an excellent set,it wasn`t quite as fun as his peer Dizzee Rascal last year, but Tinieshowed that he can hold a push and control a stage, all he needs nowis to get Armand Van Helden on the phone.
We made the trump of the break betweenbands to peruse the dining options available at this years festival, anddespite numerous food stalls, it appears Oxegen has once again returnedto a chips and burger affair. After some searching we came a crossTasty China beside the Green Spheres tent, who offered a lovely chickensatay and rice for a really reasonable €7.50, which we enjoyed under coverfrom the drizzle at the first of Calvin Harris, but sadly we had a dateat the Vodafone Stage with The Strokes.
Well it had to find really didn`t it,this is Oxegen after all, if it didn`t get at least one good pourpeople would be questioning did they actually get the full Oxegenexperience. The Strokes took to the stage looking their usual ice coolas the rain began to stream down. While they may not be considered themain stage force they were in 2004, They certainly gave the festivalbookers some food to view with a giant set with a mix of oldclassics like `New York City Cops`, `Hard to Explain` and `Juicebox`with their latest single `Under the Track of Darkness`, which judging bythe crowd`s reaction has the voltage to be a set-list staple for manyyears. It was an accomplished performance from Casablancas and company,who finished with old favorite `Take it or leave`. It seems rumours ofThe Strokes demise have been greatly exaggerated.
We wandered at this place not knowingour next goal and we decided to let fortune take us to our nextband as we had time to kill before Black Eyed Peas and Glasvegas. Weentered the 2FM/Hotpress Academy stage and were hardened to a set by Noahand the Whale which had hardly begun. A surprisingly large crowd for themwere in good part in a set filled with chart hits like `5 years time`,`Shape of my heart`, `Tonight`s The Form of Nights`, and even thoughour feet were mad at this point we had a small bit of a dance. Theband closed out with `L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N` and standard a rousingovation and deservedly so, there sound is a lot more robust live than weimagined it would be and they really impressed. Definitely surpriseperformance of the day.
Main Stage, Friday, Headliners. Whilecatching Muse rip it up on the primary stage last year we occasionallydropped envious glances towards the light-show and party atmospherecoming from the Black Eyed Peas 2010 Vodafone Stage headline set. Sothis year we made a conscious decision to spend over to see the show withhigh expectations, and we get to say we were pretty let down.
Theset started off well, running through their dance-pop hits such as`Don`t stop the company` but the whole thing took a turn for the worsewhen will.i.am broke into a rap about how safe it is to be "Rockin inDublin", which unlike Tinie Tempah`s semi-forgivable mistake, was awhole song that highlighted the bands inability to see a map. Oneparticular highlight that followed was will.i.am saying he was glad tobe back in The O2, and so making an on the spot rap about Oxegen tomake up for it. Fergie treated us to a solo version of `Big Girls Don`tCry` before vacating the stage. Kev took that chance to depart tocheck out Swedish House Mafia and Glasvegas for you lovely Goldenplecreaders. What happened next was impossible tomake up for. A pointless 30 min DJ set from Will.i.am which saw him spintracks like U2`s beautiful day, Nirvana`s teen spirit and anotherairing of `Jump Around` which took us to around 20 past 12. For a bandwith more hit singles than most it is soft for the crew to feel cheatedby BEP.
After that the screens to the left andright went off and a song played with a picture in the background forabout 5 minutes, after 2 or 3 minutes people started to conceive it wasover and began to leave. Half the crew left before the BEP decided tocome back, the crowd bewildered as to whether they were done or not.They came back as fog desended upon Punchestown and ran through more ofthe hits such as `Boom Boom Pow` `The Time (dirty bit)` and `I Got aFeeling` with a big light show in toe but unfortunately while it was agood high energy close, the mass of wrongs for me left me with asour feeling from the show. I came for a company and left disappointed. Itshould be celebrated that the Black Eyed Peas have announced an indefinitehiatus today so I don`t know if it was something we said on Twitter ornot but at this point it might be for the best.
Oneof the most curious things about today`s lineup was the decision tohave the Swedish House Mafia above The Strokes on the Vodafone stage,but judgment by their performance on Friday night the Swedish lads musthave took it upon themselves to dissipate any question of why they were pickedas headliners, because my god, they put on a blaze of a show, to theextent that people were dragged from Black Eyed Peas, Leftfeild playedto a largely empty Green Spheres camp and the tent for Glasvegas was onlyhalf full. In the finest Oxegen tradition of acts like The ChemicalBrothers, Daft Punk and Faithless, they proved that a dance act are morethan capable of headlining a fete in spectaular fashion. It offended me to give but I have beendying to see Glasvegas for a piece now. With a 11.55pm start time, theywere already at a disadvantage against the other headliners but allcredit to the band that did not force their operation as the Glasgownatives really wowed with a master and commanding performance.While Jame Allen`s voice may be an acquired taste, there is no doubtingthe bands talent and this was reflected in the increasing numbers insidethe tent. The band benefited from Black Eyed Peas faux finish and thesize of the crowd doubled for the last few songs. The set itselffeatured the better of the bands two albums and finished with the anthemic`Daddys Gone`.
After re-grouping after the headliners,we made our way through the fog painlessly back to our B&B via thepark and drive to balance our weary bones before doing it all againtomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment