OK, so much for rocking out at 4 and being anti-corporate, as we ended up leaving the office round 7:15, which means we pretty much went just for the two main acts of the day, Queens Of The Stone Age and The White Stripes. To be honest that really was our objective for the event. Since Modest Mouse had cancelled their appearance I wasn't too interested in the other supporting acts, at least not enough to leave early from work. When we got to the all-the-way-on-the-other-end-of-hyde-park entrance (so much for working 5 minutes away) QOTSA had started shredding and we came across some sort of large tent stage where Air was playing. While I like Air on CD, I'd come with the intention of listening to some rawk, so the chilled-out sounds of Versailles's favorite electro tunesmiths weren't exactly cutting it. After about 2 very mellow minutes I told my friends, who were very content to stay there, I'd see them later and made my way to the main stage area. QOTSA had been playing for a while apparently, and were in fine form. Frontman Josh Homme was in pure rock mode, playing up to the crowd and unleashing his short but brutally efficient guitar solos while his bandmates did their part to prove rock is still alive and well in 2007. Particularily thrilling was the final song, Song For The Dead, with a monstrous drum intro that had me forget where I was for a moment. That song was a top 5 concert moment for me, no doubt. In all I probably caught 15 mins of their set, but they were so good I did not feel the least bit frustrated. I then wandered around for a bit, with a definite non-highlight being the 02 "VIP" area whose main interest was that the toilets weren't portable. I did cross paths with Noel Gallagher, and a lone papparazo, while I was traipsing on my own, so that's always something I guess. Having rejoined with my compadres, who apparently quite enjoyed the Air gig led me to try to describe the intensity of the performance I had just witnessed but I didn't manage to elicit their interest. We were in a hurry to catch the White Stripes thus didn't spend too much time talking about it, so the following day I mentioned it again to my friend at work, thinking he'd be more apt to realize the error it was for a rock fan to have gone for lazy electro instead of pure rock, but the conversation went something like this:
Me: "dude, you totally missed out"
him: "nah, Air were incredible"
me: "but, like, that last song was a.ma.zing, on some pure rock hardcore stuff"
him: "dude, Air played 'Sexy Boy' last, that was amazing"
me: " 'Sexy Boy' ?!??"
Needless to say this was not one of the prettiest arguments, lucky for us it was not had at a bar or things might've gotten messy (well not really, I'm just trying to sound tough). Anyway sensing the impending start to the White Stripes set we tried to get as close as we could to the stage, but the crowd was so packed it got hard very fast. We then ended up disseminated through the crowd as "some of us" (ahem) could not handle the cramped quarters and 'preferred to watch things from the back'. I ended up near the middle and overall enjoyed a solid yet unspectacular performance from Detroit's favorite combo. Part of my enjoyment did come from the stellar form the crowd was in. Lots of singing, dancing, and all-around good moods made for a festive time in the audience. Okay, and there was a fair share of drugs involved apparently, but this was a rock festival.
After the performance we stayed a short to soak in the decidedly upbeat atmosphere, suprisingly-affordable pints in hand. Upon exiting the premises we then decided to head to our usual corner pub near work, where we bumped into more than a few of the regulars. So in a way the evening ended like any Thursday evening, with the bartenders urging us to finish our drinks so they could close up, and I taking my normal bus home. Not much originality there, but after a few hours of eardrum shattering, familiarity was just what the proverbial doctor ordered. McDonald's maybe not so much, but we'll just pretend that it was the only place open at King's Cross.
Bonus footage: it's like you were there too!
Me: "dude, you totally missed out"
him: "nah, Air were incredible"
me: "but, like, that last song was a.ma.zing, on some pure rock hardcore stuff"
him: "dude, Air played 'Sexy Boy' last, that was amazing"
me: " 'Sexy Boy' ?!??"
Needless to say this was not one of the prettiest arguments, lucky for us it was not had at a bar or things might've gotten messy (well not really, I'm just trying to sound tough). Anyway sensing the impending start to the White Stripes set we tried to get as close as we could to the stage, but the crowd was so packed it got hard very fast. We then ended up disseminated through the crowd as "some of us" (ahem) could not handle the cramped quarters and 'preferred to watch things from the back'. I ended up near the middle and overall enjoyed a solid yet unspectacular performance from Detroit's favorite combo. Part of my enjoyment did come from the stellar form the crowd was in. Lots of singing, dancing, and all-around good moods made for a festive time in the audience. Okay, and there was a fair share of drugs involved apparently, but this was a rock festival.
After the performance we stayed a short to soak in the decidedly upbeat atmosphere, suprisingly-affordable pints in hand. Upon exiting the premises we then decided to head to our usual corner pub near work, where we bumped into more than a few of the regulars. So in a way the evening ended like any Thursday evening, with the bartenders urging us to finish our drinks so they could close up, and I taking my normal bus home. Not much originality there, but after a few hours of eardrum shattering, familiarity was just what the proverbial doctor ordered. McDonald's maybe not so much, but we'll just pretend that it was the only place open at King's Cross.
Bonus footage: it's like you were there too!
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