Hurricane Festival 2009

Sunday 21/9> 20.05> Ladyhawke - Girl From Wairarapa, blasting it out in the Soundwave Tent











Friday 19/8> 10:28> Gumboots, raincoats, sloganed T-shirts, the latest updated program, already decided to ignore bad weather forecast, whole lot of cask wine, whole lot of junk food, tents, glittery make-up, contraceptives, and a bag of luck - Team New Zealand on its way to Hurricane Festival after getting on the train from Bremen to Scheessel 5 seconds before it departed.

Friday 19/8> 16:55> No lines at the ticketing, plenty of tent space, clean flushable toilets with virtually no que, showers, a butcher's caravan selling steak which you can grill yourself on public BBQs, Thai Cuisine, a supermarket - all signs of a civilised, organised, flash-packer kind of Festival. Awesome!

Jane and Jessie could not stop complimenting the German kids on their spotless behaviour thus far, as if I should take a kudos for this for represent the 'locals'. It is true, for a crowd averaged 19 years of age, dressed mostly in black T-shirts and tight jeans resembling a big incestuous West Auckland bogan family, these kids, while fairly raucous already shocking the ground with their ghettoblasters and consuming copious amounts of beer by the time we got there, are rather courteous, considerate, and rule abiding given the irrepressible party atmosphere. Here's a kid with some alcoholic ingenuity - caskwine shoulder bag - under the no-glass & plastic policy.

Friday 19/8> 16:00 onwards> Line-up I saw this evening
Glasvegas
Editors
Kings of Leon
Kraftwerk

I'm not much a good music reviewer, in fact, subsequent friends have labelled me a 'musical oaf' - so I will just describe the live music experience in an analogy of food and drink, a subject I am slightly more studied on.

Glasvegas (17.00 - 17.15) - is like having a fish'n'chips picnic in an empty and grey carpark drinking turps, interrupted by bad weather - grey, short-lived, and a bad aftertaste. Jane's favourite. Unfortunately, the security for the first day was a little tough and half our alcohol in inappropriate vessels had been confiscated, and then it started to rain, so by the time we got there, they'd finished playing. Apparently the setting up was rather slack and they only played 2 songs anyway. What the? (Enjoyability 1/5; Musicianship 2/5; Hotness 1/5 - cos we saw n'thin)

Editors (19.45 -20.45) A Long Island Ice Tea with triple shot vodka with lime juice replacing lemon - extra potent, strong performance, and unconventional. Best boppy punky rock since Joy Division, bit less attitude and more metrosexual, and a bit more spoilt. They worked the crowd without lifting a finger, I felt my body change temperature just standing there. The lead singer Tom Smith scrubs up quite well, and was almost like making love to the keyboard, we were all so totally drooling. (Enjoyability 3.5/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 5/5)

Kings of Leon (23:00 - 00.30) Red Bull concentrate on crushed ice - Energetic, perky, bit on the light side, but kicked me into space nevertheless. I couldn't stop dancing and even the Irish boys we had just befriended that 'hated KoL'. Given these kids had been overplayed and overrated the whole entire time I was in the UK, and that I am not that into garage bands, they are actually exceptionally good live. Always thought their music and voices sounded too manufactured recorded, but yeah, the live performance was unfaultable, loved it, totally fun. Very gracious too. (Enjoyability 3.5/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 2/5)

(Kings of Leon; Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds; Kraftwerk)

Kraftwerk (00.30 - 02.00) What else could they be but a classic martini with an olive stuffed with LSD - Pedigree, pure, slick, entrancing, legendary. The four of them old timers stood in front of their 'computers' as if they are really a team of 'robots' - amazing digital graphics and lighting and tranced halluscinates the entire stage, making you feel like you've just time travelled. The clean, wave like music swept the entire arena, as if we are really consumed by 'radioacitvity'. "Art is not the What, its the How" (- David Mitchell in Cloud Atlas) - and Kraftwerk's longitivity is in their ability to keep evolving at the forefront of human civilisation, even based on their original material from like 30 years ago - hats off!! (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 4/5; Hotness 3/5 - my old man cut off line just got totally extended)

I could have kept dreaming that I was sipping a classic martini in a little black cocktail dress in a spaceship, except all I had was cask wine and a few potent heffeweissens, so at some point during the show I actually passed out, wearing clunky old GDR made gumboots in a horse paddock.

Saturday 20/9 02:25> I woke up on the wet grass at the back of the field, stars twinkling above. Kraftwerk had just finished and people were dispersing in all ways, torch beams shining everywhere, and I felt something funny on my chest - a teenage German boy's hand was up in my T-shirt fumbling about!!! I yelled at him and he quickly apologised in English saying that he was just checking to see if I was alive. WHAT EVERRRRRR! He went on and on about his other favourite band and all I was fuming about was that I had passed out and missed the second half of Kraftwerk. I don't know why I didn't just make a knuckle sandwich out of his little pimply face there and then, perhaps I was exercising my politeness as a foreign guest, but I suggested that we go into the Soundwave Tent instead. As soon as we got there I ran into the crowd as fast as I could and managed to finally loose him. Crazy insolent kids.

Saturday 20/9 03:15> I had lost all my friends, and fell over into a pile of mud and acquired a number of bruises and cuts on my right leg, but some how managed to get back to my tent ok, through a sea of pretty much identical tents and 'pavilions' from Aldi, only to be offered more beer by our neighbours, a small crowd gathered around a grill cooking that favourite bratwurst.

Saturday 20/9 10:30> Mmmm.

Saturday 20/9 16:00> Bands we saw today were
Ska-P
Fleet Foxes
Pixies
Faith No More
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

There was a small crowd around the bundgy jumping machine at the back of the field near merchandise, cheap jewllery etc stalls - an extra gimmick for making money for the festival organisers. Jane cruely offered me 50 Euros to go on the bungy and spray spew on the crowd. Trust a Glaswegian to come up with that.

Ska-P (16.30 - 17.30) Wendy's tropical Coconut Banana Fish Fritters dipped in Mango Salsa of lime juice, thai sweet chilly sauce, and coriander - an explosion of worldly flavours, easy going ska beats, sharp tones of anti-everything, creating a scene of fun fuck-you punky carnival. The band's onstage mad dancing is totally contagious, so I managed to bounce back from my killer hang over OK, till my head started to split from being shaken too much. The crowd was on fire, and they showed off their diversity by a great mixture of styles. Perfect Saturday afternoon music, ooooo la laaa. (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 2/5; Hotness 2/5)

Of all places I actually managed to bump into Astrid in the beer tent. We went to high school together (we were B+ grade competitors in our 'brainy class', you see), and we had lost touch, and it had been 12 years since I last saw her at our graduation. Its quite bizare, that after all this time, at the opposite side of the world, we should reunite, still recognising each other given the hazy circumstance.









(Me and some randoms at Fleet Foxes; Its not a festival till you bump into someone from School)

Fleet Foxes (19.15 - 20.15) - Wholesome Pulse and Vegetable Soup: first a thick flavoursome stock fused with onions, garlic and celery, then biting into the supple skin of barley and rye, the lentils and chickpeas flaking into powder on your tongue, and a warm gentle tug from the chest to the stomach - rich, down to earth, rustic, complex, fresh, homely, painfully passionate. Their sweetly bearded faces were just so peaceful and calm amongst the dancing raging crowd. The best thing about their music is the layer upon layer of harmonies, both voices and acoustics, and just how it keeps lifting itself to the next level and the next. The style is nostalgic yet refreshingly original especially in the delivery, inevatably dark and mysterious, and leaves you to wonder why is guitar still one of the most mesmerising, haunting, soothing instruments in the world? And yet - why are we still dancing like crazy?? (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 4/5)

Pixies (20.00 - 21.00) Eating Belgium style Pomme Frittes smothered in thick rich homemade garlic mayonnaise on your older cousin's back verandah overlooking a nice NZ beach - fast-food pop rock made stylish, comfort-raising, chilled, guilty-pleasures, summery yet still dark, and helplessly Gen-X. Every song was well executed and the impressive hits came one after another, but I have to say it lacked a little energy for such a legendary name. (Enjoyability 3.5/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 2/5)

Faith No More (23.00 - 00.30) Chewing beef jherky washed down with lots of lager two hours before one's wedding - hard core, 'manly', dressed up to take the piss, wee bit scary. Biggest draw card to this festival - these guys got back together this year and only performed live for the first time last week in London. Seriously most English speaking ppl I have met at this festival have come to see them specifically. The gentlemen looked damn fine in blue evening suits complete with corsages, Mike Patton's voices really is gorgeous - surprising since how much he screams, and they were just completely into it, and no other bands could reach that kind of rapport with the crowd - especially from the bottom of the moshpit! But have to say, metal ain't my thing, so its hard to feel completely convinced. (Enjoyability 3/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 2.5/5 - Mike Patton bit too greasy for my liking)

Nick Cave and the Black Seeds (00.30 - 02.00) Rare and exotic cheese and wine at a poetry recital with a group of vampires - sophisticated, strange, dark, moody, a literary and audio odyssey. Always wondered what he would be like live, - well - very very assured sets that was diverse, unscripted and candid yet not unprepared, both highs and lows delivered with a multitude of moods and emotions, like a little boat enduring four seasons in one day. Basically like what they say about him - beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute. (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 4/5; Hotness 2/5)

Sunday 21/6 11.00> The sun is finally upon us and the Aldi tent had become unbearably hot. After a reasonably early night and a good sleep-in, we managed to do normal things like going to the toilet, buying coffee, and eat breakfast.

Bands we saw today were:
Gogol Bordello
Lily Allen
Ladyhawke
Fettes Brot
Die Arzte

Gogol Bordello (15.20 - 16.15) A nice plate of very spicy gourmet gulage eaten while sitting at the front of a home made space rocket, being lit from behind. Part folk jazz, part gypsy punk, eccentric mad circus music, and very possibly a lot of drugs. If you're born in the 80s and still not sick of Pirates and dressing up like WWF boxers to parties yet, then you would love these guys. The eccentric flavours, the uncatchably fast beats and the crazy costumes all send you into a spin, and a huge range of folk musical traditions from Irish to Eastern European to Japanese all roll into one, teamed with Hawaiian backup singers/dancers, and a cameo from a WWF boxer. Crazy, maddening, mindblowing, absolutely wicked. (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 3.5/5; Hotness 3/5)

Lily Allen (16.45 - 17.45) Five or six scoops of different marshmallow flavoured icecreams served with a banana split drenched in cheap chocolate coating - very sweet, but so sweet and sugar laden that its bad, and gives you a very bad sugar high and only to discover that the vendor had spat in it because you were rude to him. She really is quite an adorable little girl, she plays that naughty but sweet thing so well, and her tunes are chirpy and sultry at the same time, and make me feel like I want to be back at high school again. Can there really be 'too much personality?" Hope she puts more substantial stuff out soon. (Enjoyability 3.5/5; Musicianship 2.5/5; Hotness 4/5)

(Ladyhawke)

Ladyhawke (17.45 - 20.30) Guava Daiquiri at a prancy night club somewhere in early 80s London. Well first of all the fact that someone from Wairarapa could be whipping out chops within this fantastic line up at a major foreign music festival is something of a world wonder - hats off to Pip. Though admittedly I'm just not that into her. Despite the craziest kiwi accent ever to be heard north of the equator, her voice is actually very average, though most of the songs were well written and mixed enough, but have to say I didn't feel like it was original enough, too fleeting, and it was not the best live act I've seen. (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 4/5; Hotness 2/5)

Fettes Brot (17.45 - 21.00) Pizza. Hot, cheeky, satisfying, and FAT! Goodam good pizza. I just love hip hop and rap in other languages. The sound bites sound like their own completely different instruments, rather than 'words' as such, the rhythm of other people's tongues just has an intriguing effect on me. Probably not like ground breaking in terms of originality I guess, but they are just natural born performers that really just arouse every fun hair in your body. These guys are so cute and sweet, very light hearted, colourful and up beat, so happy and just down to earth, and so goddam adorably German. Love them - my new favourite Deutch band defo! (Enjoyability 4/5; Musicianship 4/5; Hotness 3.5/5)

Die Arzte (21.30 - 23.30) Eating currywurst after currywurst sitting on the curb outside Friedrickstr Station in Berlin. Rough, edgy, homegrown, devoted fan base, even though it tastes like crap to the foreigners. I must say these guys were not as impressive as I thought they were going to be, but they have certainly brought the atmosphere of the party to the utmost boiling point. Here in the deep North of Germany, nothing like hard rock will please these black jeans and doc boots clad kids more - and they all go home happy! And so shall we! (Enjoyability 2/5; Musicianship 4/5; Hotness 2/5)








(Fettes Brot; Die Arzte)

Monday 22/6 08.30> Our adrenalin pumped weekend faded into pink dawn. Trust the weather to get better for the entire week just as we've finished suffering a wet patchy weekend. The camp ground looked like a deserted battlefield as a whole bunch of kids had already left by 10pm to get the last train, and abandoned cheap tents, undrunken alcohol, and mountains of litter. Against the chants of 'Arbeiten scheisser, Arbeiten scheisser,' we pack and roll and check our bruises before we joined the lines to get our rubbish deposit and bottle pfands (part of the green policy here - works really well). It really was the funnest weekend I have had for a long time, and thinking about the work ahead waiting for me in Berlin, I couldn't stop wishing that this Disney 'Its a Small World After All' ride had just been a little bit longer. But thinking of the pig knuckles waiting for us at the beer garden in Bremen, there was nothing stopping us from breaking into song on the double decker train.