Went Saturday. The heat was brutal, 97, no shade or even slight breeze whatsoever. The festival was very disorganized. they ran out of promised free water right away. Loads of technical problems, the midde stage had horrible sound. Bummer about Echo & the Bunnymen dropping out but with the overlapping set times would have missed them anyway as they'd have been up against Bauhaus. Having to make hard decision about who not to see was a pain. First multi-stage festival, not a fan of the format.Got in when gates opened and made our way to the small stage right away...
The Meteors were up first, great set as usual, always a ton of fun and can make 30 minutes feel like an appropriate amount of time.
Christian Death were up next, for me along with Bauhaus the main draw. Huge fan going way back, I never miss 'em. Their set was a disaster. Started late, plagued by technical issues, guitar not working for the first half, bass cutting in and out. Once they finally got things dialed in they had to stop to get back on schedule. Valor was p!ssed! The decision to only play songs off the new album which had only been released 7 days prior was an odd one, not that it mattered in the end. For what it's worth, new album is pretty good, recommended.
45 Grave was up next, they had a perfectly paced set, Dinah Cancer always puts on a great set and they were just a ton of fun.
Went to the middle stage to catch a bit of London After Midnight. I was at their first show opening for Shadow Project back in the day, saw them a ton with the original band, they were never remotely as good once Sean Brennan's massive ego got the better of him and he started driving the original guys away, then trying to move in on the Nine Inch Nails sound a bit didn't help. Still, was nice hearing those songs again after a couple decades, who knew they were still kicking around?
Mid-afternoon had to grab a bite. Wow were those food lines horrendous. Didn't even bother looking at the merch, not waiting 2 hours in line when that means missing a ton of bands. Nope. Had vegan pizza (thanks Morrissey, pillock), was horrible, had no flavor whatsoever but was the only place with a short-ish line. Yeah...
Made our way to the big stage for Public Image Ltd., totally agree with SJP, they wore thin after a couple songs, very samey sounding, I love the first two albums but live, boring. They were just a placeholder and we left for...
The Damned. Shame The Captain is a ***** anti-vaxxer and wasn't there but always great to see Dave, and the band put on a great little set, like usual. Loads of fun, perfectly paces with their humor shining through. time to rush back to the big stage for...
The Church, shame we had to miss a bit of it hiking to the big stage. They aren't a band that works well in a 30 minute burst. They need more time, good but not great and Kilbey's heart didn't seem into it...
Next up were Devo, first time seeing them and they were wonderful. Given 50 minutes they were great, the films, the costume changes, tons and tons of fun, amazing energy, a perfect set, they would be hard to beat.
But then was Bauhaus who were definitely the stars of the evening. For an hour long set I likely would have chosen the exact same setlist. Perfect. Murphy was in extremely strong voice, band was tight, the sound was great, they owned the festival easily.
Made our way over to catch the end of Blondie. Yikes. Debbie was in terrible voice, what she chose to sing and not do the let the crowd sing it thing. Rapture was pretty cringe-inducing. Band was tight, Clem is inhuman, nice seeing Glen Matlock on bass.
By this point we were exhausted from the oppressive heat and being on our feet all day and decided to give Morrissey a pass, beat the crowd out. I'd seen Morrissey a bunch going back to The Smiths at Irvine Meadows so it was an easy decision.
Besides, was hungry and couldn't do another vegan meal, I'm a carnivore through and through.
