This festival, taking place in Caledonian Lane, was brought to my attention by Wei, and a motley assortment ended up coming along - apart from Wei herself, there was Irene, a friend of Wei's named James, and Keith...arriving later were Amy and current partner, and Felicity from AAR was also floating around.
I was excited about Architecture In Helsinki, who were first up, having thought that they were utterly fabulous when I caught them supporting Belle & Sebastian last year. Unfortunately, however, the acoustics of the lane really didn't suit their music, even though I was nice and close - so it was just a wee bit disappointing.
Next up were Gersey, whose recorded stuff - especially Hope Springs - I've been really into over the last couple of years, so I was again excited about seeing them. They did turn out to be good, rocking out a bit and picking the perfect set-closer, "The Beautiful Look City Today", although I got the sense that anything longer than 45 minutes would have started getting just a little bit repetitive (some of the subtleties of their delicate variations, build-ups and eventual crescendoes are lost in the live setting).
I didn't really catch much of Clare Bowditch's set, but it seemed pleasant enough, although the songs didn't come through in the way that they did in the more intimate setting of the Rob Roy, where I first saw her; after her was Ground Components, who I was also keen to see, and they put in a really good performance - anthemic and hard rocking, and both tight and engagingly ragged...I was impressed. For their first three (or four?) songs, the band were fronted by an mc named Macromantics, and she was good, too, working the crowd well and really building some energy.
I missed Art of Fighting, and wasn't especially inspired by Eskimo Joe (though they seem to have matured into a pretty solid pop-rock band, and there was certainly a lot of love for them in the crowd), but the best was left till last, as the Dears, about whom I've heard so much in recent times, put in the best set of the festival. I didn't actually have very high expectations, and really hung around because of a sense that I should give them a go rather than out of any real desire to see the band, bit they turned out to be fantastically loud, surprisingly noisy, powerfully guitar-driven rock band with a real grasp of rhythm, dynamics and melody and a talent for putting them together in compelling songs (not to mention a kick-ass live show). Will definitely need to check out that new record of theirs.
And that (since I was by now pretty tired, and so left before the Avalanches set, which I'll no doubt live to regret) was that.
