Interpol

Open’er Festival Review 2014

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Set in a military airfield base Open’er Festival is spread across 4 days hosting an array of international artists along with some renowned Polish bands. Uniquely set up, the festival has everything laid out on the edges of the site, leaving plenty of space to relax and explore. Taking full advantage of it’s airfield location, the festival showcases all sorts of entertainment from fashion shows to the silent disco in the elusive bunkers, and if bunkers don’t appeal to you then you can choose between the festivals five stages to listen to your favourite bands. 

The best thing about most European festivals is that they don’t start until later in the day, so if (like me) you’re a tourist from another land, you’ve got time to explore what the city has to offer. The free shuttle bus service runs every few minutes, so no long waits to get you to and from the site! The journey into Gdynia city centre takes around 15 minutes and once in town it’s a 10 minute walk to the beach from where you can explore the town or simply relax on the beach.

Arriving on site I was greeted by a number of food and drinks outlets along with an official merchandise outlet. Sponsored by Heineken the festival has plenty of beer on tap, but if Heineken isn’t your chosen tipple then there are other options including Desperados and Guinness, both on tap along with a wine stall. The downside is that you can’t drink alcohol near the stages. Restricted to the food and drinks court, you can sip on a pint whilst listening to your favourite band from a distance. It’s not all bad as it not only keeps the site clean but also invites you to spend time in other areas of the site.

The main stage, also known as the Open’er stage is where the headliners perform, and to kicks things off on day one was Interpol. Playing to an energetic audience they started things off with Say Hello To The Angels, followed by Evil, C’Mere and finishing their set with Slow Hands. And whilst Interpol were finishing up their set Metronomy were taking to the tent stage. Making my way to the tent I was greeted by I’m Aquarius, followed by Reservoir and The Upsetter. 

Next up on the Open’er stage were The Black Keys who played a stellar set of songs from all of their albums including their earlier hits Strange Times, The Next Girl, to their latest track Fever. And if that wasn’t enough they came back on stage for an encore and finished with Little Black Submarines and I Got Mine. Closing day one was Haim on the tent stage and Foster the People on Open’er. It wasn’t long into Haim’s set when members of the crowd began shouting out ‘Marry Me’ to which the band members responded with ‘yes, we’ll come to Poland to find our husbands’. Playing all the hits from their debut album they ended with The Wire and Let Me Go. And as the sun settled over the airfield Foster the People ended day one with an hour and a half performance including Best Friend, Coming of Age, Ask Yourself and the much loved summer track Pumped Up Kicks. 

Photo courtesy of Opener.pl

Day two saw the likes of MGMT, The Afghan Whigs, Jaguar Ma, Rudimental and headliners Pearl Jam take to the stages. Paying tribute to the late Bobby Womack The Afghan Whigs covered the classic Across 110th Street. 

Pearl Jam were by far the highlight of the night with a 23 strong song set list starting with Better Man followed by Even Flow, Jeremy and Alive. Pulling in the biggest crowd Eddie Vedder did not disappoint leaving the crowd hyped up and wanting more.

A tough headliner to follow, the penultimate day saw Jack White headline, but not before Foals played an impressive set which provoked an equally impressive mosh pit. Buzzing from their electric performance I headed straight to the Alter stage to check out newcomers Royal Blood. The duo, aided with just a drum kit and guitar sent the crowd into a frenzy, and if their show is anything to go by then these guys are the ones to watch out for. 

Playing songs from his new album Lazaretto, Jack White kicked off his set with High Ball Stepper, and for anyone wanting to hear some track from The White Stripes then you were in luck as he rocked out to Icky Thump along with Seven Nation Army. The night came to an end when Lykke Li entertained the crowd. Unfortunately her set was suddenly cut short, but not before playing hit single Gunshot and I Never Learn.

Photo courtesy of Opener.pl

The fourth and final day at Open’er did not disappoint. Saving the best headliner to last – Faith No More. But before they took to the stage The Horrors opened the main stage, pulling in the smallest crowd. Unimpressed with their set, revellers flocked to the Here and Now stage to check out Hip Hop artist Pusha T, who delivered a much more energetic performance to a small but content crowd.

Debuting two new songs on a white stage filled with flowers, Faith No More were victorious in their headline set, returning for an encore that included Failing To Pieces, Matador and We Care A Lot. And whilst the rockers had pulled in the largest crowd for the whole weekend Bastille entertained an equally modest crowd on the Here and Now Stage covering TLC’s No Scrubs and ending with Pompeii. 

And for those that could pull themselves away from Bastille and head to the tent were greeted with an extra long set from Warpaint. Rounding off this years Open’er festival was Phoenix who played an electric set including hits Lasso and Rome.

I left Open’er feeling very content that I’d witnessed some of the most amazing acts, consumed enough Heineken to last a life time. This festival is all about quality music and it shows, here’s hoping thats next years line up will be just as good!

Open’er Festival add Darkside, Haim, Interpol and more

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Addtions from the american continent for this years Open'er Festival include Interpol, Haim & Darkside.
 
Interpol

Fortunately, 2014 sees the return of this New York postpunk trio, creators of possibly the albums of the early 2000’s  – the highly acclaimed Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics. Powerful and affecting, their masterful command of pace, atmosphere, and reverb-drenched guitar mark them out as very special indeed. No-one does fragile aggression and melancholy quite as dramatically and their upcoming fifth album will cement Interpol’s status as one of the millennium’s best bands.

Haim
Hailing from the San Fernando Valley, HAIM consists of three sisters, like Tchekov's play. Music is truly a family affair for the band: the sisters, Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim, grew up playing classic rock songs with their parents in a family band, aptly called "Rockinhaim." Then the girls decided to strike out on their own and began writing their own material. In their music, critics often hear echoes of Fleetwood Mac and 90s all-female bands like En Vogue and TLC. Their debut full-length Days Are Gone charted at #1 in the UK, earning the record gold status. In 2013, the band performed at Glastonbury Festival and many more, also earning the title of BBC Sound of 2013.
 
Darkside
DARKSIDE is the collaborative duo of guitarist Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolas Jaar.  They summon a hybrid of electronic music and psychedelic rock with the kind of artistic depth and breadth for which the term “progressive” was coined. In the autumn of 2013 they unveiled their debut full length, Psychic, via Jaar’s own Other People label. DARKSIDE aren't dancefloor producers taking a stab at rock music; nor are they a rock band paying homage to their new favorite techno 12­inches. They're deep listeners and creators of both who see little need for distinction between their favorite sounds.

Leeds Festival 2011 Review by Gary Rampling

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I made my way down there on Thursday in time for Friday’s music and the atmosphere was buzzing with many festival-goers joking around and talking with a real sense of excitement about the forthcoming bands there. I entered, squeezed my tent into the crowded yellow camp and left to have a look around the festival.

I was surprised at the huge open space called ‘the village’ that occupied a few acres. It had food stalls covering its perimeter with most people relaxing and enjoying the prospect of having a special weekend. There were even a few football goals set up where people were playing a couple of 5-a-side games of football which seemed quite unusual for a festival. When the night came there were a couple of stages open and places to go that were outside of the main arena. The Relentless stage in the village proved a hit with its thumping dance music played to massive crowds till the early hours of the morning, with this stage open and it being popular every night of the bank holiday weekend. It perhaps showed that dance music perhaps should not be entirely in the background at Leeds Festival.
 
FRIDAY
I woke up the next day and made my way towards the main arena. The main arena was really well laid out with people having to make their way down a slight slope to get to the main stage. Though, it was about a five minute walk to the main arena the distance was not a bother but was welcomed as it made the whole arena seem less cluttered then some other festivals.
 
The first band on the main stage was We Are the Ocean, and with the amount of rain that was pouring down on the crowd, it did seem like we were indeed – the ocean. The rain didn't hold this band back as they put on a spirited set, and bar a couple of technical hiccups, played with plenty of energy to wake the early birds up.
 
Next over to the NME/Radio 1 tent came Best Coast who tried to add a bit of sunshine to the day with their summery lo-fi songs. Keen to stay out of the apocalyptic downfall of rain that just would not quit, I headed towards the deliciously named Ham Sandwich in the BBC Introducing tent whose light cute instrumentation suited the lead singer’s gentle voice; they seem like a band who will gather a strong following in the coming years, they’re even suitable for vegetarians. 
 
Now to a band on the main stage of which I am a huge fan: Interpol. They played a brilliantly atmospheric set list that evenly covered their four albums. It was hard to take my fan goggles off for these guys, though perhaps the crowd wasn’t too up for them. It was a treat for fans nonetheless. It was now Elbow’s turn. The rain had finally completely stopped by now, but for me an eight hour drenching of rain was preferable to the drenching of a suspiciously warm cup of liquid that was hurled towards my section during Elbow’s set. Elbow’s Guy Garvey tried to warm the crowd up in a more endearing manner by trying to get us all to move, being particularly insistent on us all keeping our hands up in the air for long periods (perhaps he should have called the band ‘Hands’ not Elbow)
 
MuseNext was Muse whose live reputation is out of this world. They opened with an eerie voice (from Tom Wait’s ‘What’s he Building?’) talking whilst there were flashes of large shadows of the band, contained in a curtain. Finally the curtain raised and much to the crowds anticipation they launched into 'New Born,' the first track from Muse's second album 'Origin of Symmetry' which they had previously claimed they would play the whole way through. And they did.
 
Due to the massive guitar riffs on the album and Muse's amazing ability to put on a show, the whole thing was incredible. Particular highlights included 'Micro Cuts' where Matt Bellamy showed off astonishingly high pitched vocals for dramatically long periods before the song came crashing to its epic guitar crunching close.
 
It wasn't just Matt who was thoroughly impressive musically, Chris and Dominic were too, and they particularly got to demonstrate this during a drum and bass jam for a few minutes while Matt went off stage. The sheer power of them during this jam left me thinking that these two could do a whole live set as a duo and still produce a better show than most bands (though I'm not suggesting they should lose Matt)
 
Muse’s set was littered with all sorts of cool things;lasers, flames the size of the stage, fireworks, interesting videos, lights and of course plenty of gigantic eyeballs filled with confetti that were thrown into the crowd. No band should ever perform without some form of gigantic eyeball being thrown around somewhere. Muse really did throw everything at this headline slot, bar the kitchen sink, and to be honest an on-stage kitchen sink wouldn’t have been all that spectacular. At the very end – after Muse had come on and played nine of their greatest hits – a fireworks display came bursting out from the top of the stage and as this came to a close I was left with my heart racing and with a sense of awe. Fantastic!
 
SATURDAY

The next day started off sunny while I made my way to see Miles Kane's set of high trousers, kicks and Indie licks. He had a cool swagger about him that made it hard to take your eyes off of him, even during his weaker songs. The next highlight of the day was Deftones. I've heard a lot about these guys but never seen them live before and they absolutely blew me away. I'm sure that, based on that set, they would have gained fans from the few people there who weren’t familiar with them before.

 
After having left the main stage for a bit to purchase an expensive Yorkshire pudding the size of a paddling pool, and still with the Deftones wonderfully gripping set in the back of my mind, it was now time for 30 Seconds to Mars. Similarly to Deftones I could not believe how great they were. Jared Leto spoke to the crowd in between songs and gave the whole set an intimate feel, almost as if he was addressing everyone personally in a crowd that had thousands; it was something really special. Towards the end they made the performance even more special for dozens of crowd members at the front when Jared invited them onstage for 'Kings and Queens,' and credit to the on-stagers; they all went mad.
 
Next up were Jared Leto's "good friends" and headliners My Chemical Romance. They came out in their album themed attire putting on a triumphant display. No sign of the trouble they had at Leeds twin festival Reading in their 2006 performance, where they got bottled by many angry Slayer Fans (who were stupidly placed next to them on the bill that year). They stormed through many songs off their latest album ('Danger Days') and put on an all round good show.
 
My Chemical Romance
 
SUNDAY

On the final day Leeds Festival we were treated to not one but two festival headliners. Just as Pulp had stepped aside for The Strokes to go on stage last at Reading on the Saturday, The Strokes returned the favour and Pulp went on last at Leeds on the Sunday. Pulp played a strong set and won over many of the youths of the festival who may have only heard a couple of their songs, as when queried on the best performance of the weekend; Pulp was a popular choice. It also seemed to make more sense to have Pulp last over The Strokes, as Jarvis Cocker and co. seemed genuinely excited to be there; dancing around the stage in his unique style, whereas The Strokes were somewhat static and let their anthems and cool approach do the talking (or singing). Earlier highlights in the day included the sing-alongs to Madness' 'Our House' and opener 'One Step Beyond', though the lesser known tracks did not go down as well with the crowd; it was worth it for the well-known ones.

Pulp

All in all the festival was a major success and although the amount of rain did make it an extremely Welly-squelching affair, it was clear that behind all those festival goers mud covered faces there were big white smiles..

Photos courtesy of Hall or Nothing