After the relatively dry day yesterday where only spots of rain fell rather than the heavy showers and thunderstorms forecast, it’s not a surprise that we get some of those downpours today.
Thankfully, it does little to dampen the spirits of the thousands who are here to party and, judging by the number of Fontaines DC football shirts and t-shirts on display, a lot are here to see tonight’s headliner.
Before we get to them, though, there is a whole array of entertainment on across the various stages.
First up and in a similar vein to how She’s Green did yesterday for me, Bleech 9:3 blow the early cobwebs away with another blistering live performance. I saw them play at Brudenell Social Club in the last year as part of an all-dayer at the venue and going by the heaving, early crowd that stretches out beyond the inner confines of The Ballroom, I’m not the only one aware of how good they are live.
#The crowd get duly rewarded for their lunchtime effort with a strong set from the group.
It’s an indie sandwich up next as I use The Guest List as the filling between the more dance orientated Rose Gray and Clementine Douglas. First up is Rose Gray. It seems things are running slightly behind the advertised time, but when she does emerge it’s onto the big stage complete with a sofa, clothes rack and large mirror for company, but no band with her, instead performing to a backing track.
ROSE GRAY Photograph by @emilymarcovecchio
The thudding bass from her tracks has your chest shaking, as she powers through a mixture of slightly heavier dance pop numbers, wardrobe changes and an ever-altering backdrop of visuals. It’s entertaining enough stuff, she puts plenty of effort and thought into the performance and the crowd are definitely onside with her, never more so than when she covers ‘Music’ by Madonna and brings her own style to it.
ROSE GRAY Photograph by @emilymarcovecchio
Clementine Douglas pulls a big crowd into The Ballroom and it’s clear they know most of the words to every song. Not a big surprise as she has collaborated with some big-name artists such as Calvin Harris, Chase & Status and Sonny Fodera, so it’s very much phones in the air for most of her set as the youngsters lap it up.
I have to admit, I enjoy it myself (minus the phone in the air), she’s got a great voice and it’s easy to see why she is a go-to name for people. Showing my age but her vocals remind me of someone like Sabrina Johnson, who sang on a lot of different 90’s dance classics. Will definitely keep an ear out for more of her stuff.
Overpass is a bit of a strange one back in The Ballroom. They do what they do fairly well; indie anthems that people can sing along to and they sound pretty good live, but catch me out a little when the set ends ten minutes earlier than advertised.
In my experience, you usually have to drag bands off stage via sound engineers telling them their time is up, not them finishing earlier of their own accord. It’s also a bit unexpected that Geese are on at 5.20pm at The Gallery stage. They were very much the big hype last year and it’s packed by the time they come on. This is a crowd singing along to every word. I can’t get on with them on record (yes, I’m that one person who doesn’t like them that much). It’s better live, but that might be because you can’t hear Cameron Winters’ vocal over his many thousands strong choir. (Ed: Ouch, Kev!) It’s his voice I’ve never warmed to, a personal taste thing. Each to their own as everyone says.
It’s a short hop again to The Ballroom for the much-talked about Florence Road. It’s pretty nice, but middle of the road rock stuff from the ladies, although with the weather today it does seem appropriate that they play the track ‘Storm Warning‘. The new track they play is actually my favourite, so maybe better, more interesting stuff to come from them as they progress.
I quickly catch a little bit of Camille Blackburn as well as I’m passing The Canopy. It’s one of the smaller crowds I’ve seen but that doesn’t reflect the performance, or the talent. She says it’s her first time playing outside of America and hopefully the Los Angeles artist enjoyed her experience as I’d love to see her back in Leeds again. Her sound is of a wistful singer-songwriter and her vocals have a slight rasp. It’s soulful indie pop with lovely melodies and it sees a young couple waltzing slowly hand in hand in the crowd. That’s a review right there in itself, if you don’t just want to take my opinion.
While I love seeing bands on the smaller stages and shining a light on them, the final two acts on The Grid today are too big to miss. Charli XCX is someone I’ve had an interesting journey so far with and have come into her set as a growing fan of hers, but at the same time that’s tempered by me being slightly worried what she’ll be like live after watching the Glastonbury footage last year.
I can safely say I’m a full on convert now to the XCX cause after seeing this performance tonight though. It’s thankfully not powered by mainly backing track and auto-tune (although it is used, it’s used sparingly in this set) as her Worthy Farm show was. Instead, it’s in keeping with the theme and feel of her recent album ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ supported by her backing band. It’s rocky, dirty and utterly brilliant.
‘Rock Music’ opens things and sets the scene for what is to come, even ‘Apple’ has a harder guitar edge to it than on record but it’s Charli XCX who is the driving force. There may be a band and dance troupe onstage but you can’t take your eyes away from her performance; she’s absolutely magnetic. A spectacular artist when she’s firing on all cylinders like this, cavorting across the stage, owning every inch of it, including the extended runway.
It’s sexy and suggestive as most of the best pop music has been over the years. In many ways, she’s a disruptor, in a similar vein to Madonna in the 80’s and is someone that deserves her success. She challenges and reinvents herself and her music for us listeners and that’s always exciting in an artist.
Headliners on this stacked Saturday are Fontaines DC. While they showed early promise of being a star attraction, I did wonder if that was going to play out for them after albums two and three. However, ‘Romance’ reinvigorated them; in fact it did more than that – it pushed them through the ceiling into the group of bands selling out arenas and big outdoor shows and has ultimately given them the legitimacy to be the main attraction.
They open with a rousing ‘Boys In the Better Land‘ and are confident enough to play tracks like ‘Here’s The Thing’ ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ and ‘Jackie Down the Line’ early in the set, but that’s what happens when you have real depth to your back catalogue. The bangers keep on coming too, ‘Televised Mind‘ sounds spiky and electric, I’ll always have a soft spot for ‘Big’ and it’s great to see it in the set still and as punchy as always.
Despite all these positives and praise I’m giving them, it’s fair to say that it’s a struggle for them to hold the attention of some of the people that probably don’t know them that well. A fair few people can be seen leaving before the end of the set. That’s not their fault though and they have pulled a big crowd in their own right who are familiar with them and that means the vast majority who do stay with them to the end get to celebrate with a boisterous ‘Starburster’ to close off another great day of live music.
