The Complete and Utterly Inaccurate Latitude Report - Saturday
July 26, 2008
Saturday
Guilty Pleasures damages me somewhat, so my appetite for bands the next day is… diminished, shall we say. Not only that, but curtailed by a combination of huge crowds and no shows.
To start the ball rolling, I introduce my son and heir to Wild Beasts… who surprisingly do not annoy me as much as I was expecting. True, my son alternates between clouting me around the head and pulling my hair but he and I still enjoy it. The skiffle element has been replaced by an indie sensibility and Hayden has tempered his falsetto with Tom’s tenor. Before I can fully appreciate the difference, I am whisked away to wait outside the comedy tent for Bill Bailey’s set.
The tent is already heaving, one and a half hours before show time. They are twelve deep at the entrances. They are twenty deep at the tiny screens. Note to Latitude: If you are gonna put on a massive comedy star EITHER put them on the mainstage OR put up bigger screen in better places.
Swallowing the bitter disappointment, we return to the mainstage to see Ida Maria. Who has not turned up. This is not so good. Neither is the downpour during I Am Kloot. What is good is catching the hairy, cigarette smoking franco-discophile Sebastien Tellier playing the Uncut Tent. Opening with his Eurovision hit, which sounds like a funked-up Air, he exudes cool like the skies at that moment exude rain. It’s an ill wind, so they say.
After a moment or two of recovery, I come down from the tent to catch the end of Sky Larkin. Bubbly, sexy indie pop that is as easy on the ear as Katie Harkin is on the eye, but with seasoning of a Bjork/St Etienne style. A distraction, though for I am on the horns of a dilemma - the Mars Volta/Sigur Ros clash, the craziest line up decision until tomorrow’s Tindersticks/Grinderman clash. Ah well, in for a proggy, in for a pound.
The Mars Volta’s set is best summed up by the conversation overheard between two teenagers: “Yeah, they’ve got a one and three quarter hour set… should get in two songs then. Another sum up could be indulgent. For the first half hour song, deliciously indulgent, for the entire set horribly indulgent. Fair to say, Omar Rodríguez-López is one hell of a front man, his massive hair only matched by his massive ability to be everywhere on and off stage at once. Also fair to say that Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Thomas Pridgen are bloody virtuosos. playing weird 9/17 stuff or the like - impossible to dance to, but very impressive. Only problem is, all the false endings, repeated riffs and general wankery becomes too much. Their second song was very short and snappy though. By comparison, when taking a pee halfway through their set I catch a bit of Sigur Ros and am struck by the simplicity, the splendour, the sheer emotion of the set. That and the 30 choir members on stage. I am gutted. The main problem for me with the Mars Volta is that, with At The Drive In, they said everything they needed to say in incredible short bursts of virtuosic genius. The MV is unnecessarily flabby, and I bloody love prog. I’m listening to it as we speak.