Frequency Festival 2008 – Day 2 and 3
First Chikinki came on and impressed me with their blend of synthesizes and guitars. They turned out to be another one of the bands who I have to check out later. Louis XIV did not receive as warm a welcome as the rest of the line-up, but they still had the swagger which you would expect from their sexual innuendo stuffed lyrics. Dirty Pretty Things were up next, and fortunately I had got a place on the barrier, to get a good peek at Carl Barat and co.. They played a good set, starting out with their slower second more britpoppy album and making their way to their faster début. Their energy was quite inspiring and there were a couple of die hard fans singing along. They ended with a fantastic Bang Bang You’re Dead, not perhaps my favourite, but certainly their most popular. Anthony managed to pretty much nail the trumpet solo, and most of the crowd had joined in screaming “Bang Bang, You’re Dead!” by the last chorus. 
The next band I saw was The Hives, who were even better than the last time I saw them, with more tricks, even more energy and being better at persuading the crowd to dance. They didn’t need to though, the crowd was already pumped up and even in the middle of the crowd, everyone went crazy and a mosh pit started, for their first song.
On the last day, The Subways came on and put on a good show, not good enough to make me buy a CD, though. It seemed they were trying a little too hard to get the crowd involved. Kaizers Orchestra took me by surprise with a kooky mix of gypsy punk and psychedelic orchestral music. They completely took the piss of Babyshambles, shouting how unprofessional they were. They had cancelled earlier, to the dismay of myself and a thousand other Pete fanatics. This meant Kaizers got to play longer, something which the singer could not get over. Dropkick Murphys seemed like a similar version of the Flogging Molly, just a bit harder, and dare I say, less Irish. They are from Boston, but they still managed to spark some interest. Justice had the best light show I have ever seen. It was truly awe-inspiring and ignited my interest in Justice. The music was good as well, most of the tracks sounded very different from the album, convincing me yet again, that they are two very talented guys. We Are Your Friends was masterfully played, with the voice being pulled in and out again and the crowd filling in the gaps. Finally The Killers, rounded up the festival. 
I’m not really into Killers, and they seemed really bland. They could have just played their tracks from the album in the background and mimed. Even the best wasn’t good. The crowd still seemed to enjoy it, everyone screamed Mr. Brightside and All These Things I’ve Done, the latter being my personal favourite.
Comparing this to last year’s Rock Im Park, Frequency was definitely better, with too many bands which could have been the best of the festival.
Thanks Florian for the Hives picture and Frischi for the Killers.
Frequency 2008 – Day 1
Blood Red Shoes played the first set with great enthusiasm and managed to get some of the crowd going, something very difficult for the first band. It was interesting to see that the drummer did his own sound check, which was quite amusing. They ended with a brilliant I Wish I Was Someone Better. Then came on The Wombats, obviously one of the highlights, because suddenly the wave breaker was full. As they played their opener, Kill The Director, the crowd went crazy. Everyone stopped for a sing-along for “Little Miss Pipedream”; and the crowd sung considerably well, the festival was taking place in Austria. Madness ensued as The Wombats played their last song Let’s Dance To Joy Division.
We Are Scientists failed to impress me, even The Great Escape didn’t sound that great. The crowd had died down when We Are Scientists played, so I might not have been the only one. However, there was a great moment, for me anyway, when Dev Hynes came on and played After Hours with them. 
After, I dashed to go see Lightspeed Champion, it didn’t matter, he was delayed because Black Kids were canceled. When he did go on, Lightspeed Champion started off with a shaky Tell Me What It’s Worth and throughout the show their were sound issues, none of the backup singer’s mics seemed to work. Dev then played some new songs, and was joined my Keith Murray from We Are Scientists. Dev did a beautiful solo version of Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk with most of the crowd joining in. The ending song, his famous Star Wars/Midnight Surprise 20 minute epic track, was brilliant and it was really great to seem him from the front. Sadly, there was a very small crowd, but they were a dedicated one, with definitely the biggest amount of singing coming from the crowd than any other artist. I briefly managed to shake his hand before being bombarded with people trying to get his autograph. I then caught the end of Jose Gonzales, which didn’t manage to get me any more exited for him as an artist. From a distance I saw some Flogging Molly, which has definitely got me interested in them.
The Teenagers saw a packed crowd in the UK weekender tent. The singer had a good stage presence and was witty, but unfortunately the sound quality was far too loud and sounded really awful, making me migrate outside until Homecoming, easily their best song. The singer tried to pull off getting some of the crowd to sing some of the parts, and took five girls onto the stage. Starting the song off rather badly, everyone sung in for the chorus, but it was obvious that the girls didn’t know the words and the song was pretty much ruined. I wasn’t expecting lots from The Teenagers, but all together they were very disappointing. 
Lastly I saw Travis and then R.E.M from far away. Travis looked to be doing well and it sounded good, but R.E.M sounded rather dull. However, my friend swear that is was brilliant. The day started off well but seemed to get less interesting with the bigger bands, but it was still a fantastic start to the Frequency Festival.
Best Albums Of 2008 – So Far
Here are the my favorite (so they must obviously be the best) albums of the year so far:
5) Flight Of The Conchords by Flight Of The Conchords – With fresh ears this might be number one, but most of the songs on the album I had already heard exact same versions of, from the TV show. And it doesn’t really capture their brilliance when they are live.
4) Oracular Spectacular by MGMT – Personally, I did not believe the whole album was fantastic (unlike most), but there were some really amazing tracks. Not perfect but good.
3) Antidotes by Foals – Foals have grown on me a little more since last time I wrote about them, however I still believe that the album was not “the best thing ever”. However, it is still a very well-rounded one and is still pretty enjoyable.
2) Falling Of The Lavender Bridge by Lightspeed Champion – Simply Beautiful, it is just a really likable album with a style that seems lost now days.
1) Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend – Brilliant, if you haven’t purchased this record, go out and get it now.
I tried to take in about 20 albums for this small list, so I did try to cover a spectrum of different albums that have come out in the last 6 months or so.
Think I’m wrong? Add your comment!
Toe
Toe are a beautiful instrumental band, who simply create stunning music, which is such a pleasure to listen to. Their music is complicated and the band members are all extremely good at their instruments. This is one of the few bands which I really have to just lie back and only concentrate on the music to hear how truly wonderful it is. Toe are post-rock but I like to think of them as math-rock. Ditching hard guitars, Toe have an unbelievably clean sound, which is very refreshing to hear. The two guitarists and bass, have very different and complicated parts, but they still fit together incredibly well. The drummer is also quite astoninshing, with unending amounts of energy, he plays at extremely fast tempos most of the time. I haven’t listened to most of their back catologue yet (they have four albums), but of all the songs I have heard, they seem to have no weakness’. I cannot wait to pick one of their albums up.
Only Ones Who Know – White Lies
This song was one of the only ones which I hate from the Arctic Monkeys, who are one of my favourite bands. While browsing Last.fm I stumbled across a band called “White Lies” and saw “Only Ones Who Know” as one of the free downloads. And what a fantastic surprise I received. Without all the annoying echo from the original and a female singer, this cover is exceptional. The singer has a beautiful voice and, not to knock Alex, just seems to fit the song so much better. The slow strum of the chords and violins are swapped for a much more beautiful, happier and faster guitar strums. This track has definitely sparked interested in me for White Lies.
I’m sorry for the wait, I couldn’t find much time to blog over the recent weeks, but I will try and keep it up more regularly now.
