Review:
'HOLD STEADY, THE/ FLEET FOXES/ CASE, NEKO'
'Dorset, End of The Road Festival, 11-13 Sep 2009'
- Genre: 'Indie'
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Our Rating:
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Now in its fourth year The End of the Road Festival - which began life as a Green Man-inspired experiment in putting on a truly organic musical experience - has established itself as a unique event of character, authenticity and, above all, good music.
For the punter it's a rare and refreshing experience to set foot on a festival site free from advertising, overpriced/stodgy food and the kind of atmosphere that has made Glastobury so unattractive in the last decade.
The whole shebang is a credit to organisers Sofia and Simon. Beginning with an ethos about music and festivals (indeed, about life itself), they have distilled that ethos into three days of the glorious Larmer Tree Gardens - an idyll no more than a short drive from Salisbury and just down the road from Stonehenge.
And in the spirit of “if you book them, they will come,†both the audience and the bands arrive with empathy for the ethos and a proactive, participatory spirit that endures through the weekend. There are few boundaries here: musicians mingle with the hoi poloi and impromptu musicalities are an almost hourly occurrence. On Saturday night, I lounge in the forest at midnight with The Low Anthem who play ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ on an out-of-tune piano. A day later I stumble upon 89-year old T Model Ford who plays to around fifty white faces (regaling in detail, his story of killing a man and spending time on a chain gan) while the rest of the festival watch Steve Earle's tender tribute to Townes Van Zandt on the main stage.
The festival's inaugural performance this year is by brave Canadians Ohbijou - epochal indie rock fronted by the Sundays-esque vocal of Casey Mecija perhaps the tiniest member of any band playing this weekend. They draw a relatively huge crowd considering that very few people have actually arrived yet and put up their tents. Later in the day, Felice brother Simone's new project The Duke and The King graces the same stage, providing one of the first surprises of the weekend - think The E Street Band fronted by Cat Stevens with the showmanship of Jagger and you're half-way there.
Elsewhere on site, peacocks wander freely (as does Jarvis Cocker) around the place while the legendary Charlie Parr - almost a fixture here, along with The Brakes and Darren Hayman who have played every year - grizzles his way from beer tent to stage.
Scandinavia is well represented as usual - Loney Dear put in a sweaty show (noisier and more energetic than I've ever seen them) and over in the Big Top tent, Wildbirds and Peacedrums prove why they are one of the best live bands around and why they simply can't do themselves justice on record because of this.
Ultimately, this is a festival grounded in Americana and indie - and the crossover point between those generes. So it's Fleet Foxes who are the highlight for many. They manage an extended set that sags a little in the middle but fails to disappoint. They even have time for a Fleetwood Mac cover - reclaiming it firmly from The Corrs.
It's David Longstreth's Dirty Projectors - perhaps the biggest zeitgiest coup of the weekend - who are my personal highlight and play the most impressive, technically outstanding set of the festival, converting many who didn't really 'get' them on record. Beth Jeans Houghton, youngster of the burgeoning indie-folk scene – also represented this weekend by Mumford and Sons – gets some new fans too by saving the day when a much anticipated set (by me, at least) from The Horrors is cancelled due to ‘illness’
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Sunday sees Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley - who played a baffling DJ set the night before - taking on guitar duties for lost sixties legend Bob Lind (he of 'Elusive Butterfly' fame). Lind's a real surprise, charming those who have skipped the intensely sober guitar and gurning visage of The Tallest Man on Earth (also brilliant).
Sunday evening's penultimate main stager is Neko Case, who tosses off a high quality set, marred only by her pre-exit cry of 'Thank you Salisbury Festival' earning her a few eye-rolls and a place in the book of Spinal Tapesque vocal slips.
Her mistake is soon forgotten when the The Hold Steady appear - at which point, the entire throng of fortysomething men down at the front begin singing in unison and punching the air. Everyone is smiling like there's no tomorrow while Craig Finn - looking like an IT Manager on ketamine - gives the most energetic performance of the weekend. Never standing still for one moment, Finn makes the entire crowd believe this is the greatest gig The Hold Steady have ever played. He could be right.
The honours of being the last "official" performance of the weekend go to Brooklyn duo She Keeps Bees, who mesh their PJ Harvey/Howlin Wolf hybrid brilliantly to the expecting mood of the crowd, who pack The Local Tent to the brim. It's damn hot in here and singer/guitarist Jessica Larribee is visibly buoyed by the applause and gratitude in the room. Songs from mini-album ‘Nests’ - well worth getting hold of - are mined for the guts of their set and there's even an encore of sorts before everyone files out to see yet more 'secret' performances from Hold Steady keyboard player Franz Nicolay and The Brakes in the tent next door..
It's a joyful weekend for yours truly, topped off by a chance encounter with members of Richmond Fontaine at Stonehenge on Monday morning. Later in the week, I also catch a post-gig Simone Felice in Highbury, who mutters to me that this was the 'greatest festival we every played' before complimenting my jacket. Damn right on both counts! Roll on September 2010!
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author: Paul Bridgwater (photos by the author)
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THE HOLD STEADY
FLEET FOXES
NEKO CASE
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