Last weekend was the local festival here, Way out West. This year was kind of a year where most things were good, few things really stood out as exceptional. I managed to see about 20 acts, the few that stood out were
PJ Harvey - she's just feckin' great. It's class all the way through, but when she does Down By the Water and To Bring You My Love as the two last songs it takes it to the next level and it's 10 minutes goosebumps. The worst thing about this was what could have been - The Smile was supposed to play in the time slot before PJ which would mean we probably would have gotten This Mess We're In if they didn't cancel. Oh, what could have been.
Slowdive - one of my favorite bands, and they always deliver. Unfortunately they only got a 60 minute time slot which means that we missed a lot of songs that could have been played, but it was pretty magical. Same thing here, Alison and When the Sun Hits just takes it up a notch towards the end. Looking forward to the next time they play relatively nearby, I'll be there.
Funeral Folk - I guess it techincally it is Sara Parkman / Maria W Horn plays Funeral Folk or something like that. this was the biggest surprise of the weekend. Basically never heard a song before, it was after the regular festival closed with The National in a nearby church, and they basically floored me. The dark, doom or almost black metalish sound sounded incredible at the venue. Would see again at a similar venue over and over.
Other acts that I liked were Jessie Ware, James Blake, Blondshell, Hurray for the riff raff, Fabaiana Palladino and Big Thief. Nothing I watched in full was bad this year, but I saw a bit of Peggy Gou and I just don't get the reason for seeing that kind of music live. Very weird indeed.
