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Way Out West — Day One

  • Published in Live

Way Out West kicks off in blazing sunshine. Walking through Slottskogen, we’re surrounded by a sea of Fjällräven backpacks and fashionable monochrome. For three days a year, Way Out West takes over the heart of Slottskogen, the huge park at the heart of Gothenburg. This year, the festival is celebrating its tenth year: music-wise, there are five stages to choose from where you can see popular headliners and the bands who, in a year or two, will be headlining the bigger stages on their own. Just ask Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses and Warpaint, who played at Way Out West just before making it big.

But Way Out West isn’t just about music. The focus is much more wide-ranging. Keen to support the environmental movement, the festival has been 100% vegetarian since 2012 and it went dairy-free last year. As well as checking out music, you can head along to talks about environmental and societal issues throughout the festival— an example of this being, Karolina Skog from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, who is giving a talk at the Höjden stage. This being Musos’ Guide, we’re going to stick with the music. Tonight’s headliner is Morrissey. But before night falls, there’s plenty of music that we want to check out.

 We start things off by going to see Vasas Flora och Fauna at the Höjden stage. It’s at the bottom of a gentle slope and lined with trees, making it a natural amphitheatre, and it’s a great place to grab a spot on the grass and enjoy the music. Vasas Flora och Fauna are a trio of Swedish-speaking Finns, whose gentle indie pop is utterly charming. After that, it’s time to catch Jason Isbell on the Azalea stage, one of the festival’s two main stages. He plays a fantastic set that’s tight and full of soul. Our mate, who’s a huge fan, spends the entire set in a swoon. The track '24 Frames' is better live than on the Grammy award-winning Something More Than Free, Isbell’s most recent album. Other tracks that really fly are 'Stockholm­­­­­' and 'Cover Me Up'.

London band Daughter have been gaining lots of traction recently and we’re keen see what they’re like live. We head over to the Linné tent to find out and aren’t disappointed. It’s atmospheric stuff and tracks 'New Ways' and 'Youth' go down really well with the crowd. I’ve got a real soft spot for the Saturdays=Youth album by M83, so we amble over to the festival’s main stage, Flamingo, to catch their set. It’s just the kind of music to get the crowd moving and they crack through a decent set that includes 'Midnight City', 'Outro' and, happily for me, 'Couleurs'. After that, it’s time for a shot of Scotland in the form of Chvrches. They draw a big, appreciative crowd and blast through a cracking set that includes 'Bury It' and 'Never Ending Circles'. Lauren Mayberry banters away with the crowd, stopping at one point to tie the laces on her platform shoes. It’s a sign of their success that even the typically reserved (“No, discerning”, says my Swedish co-writer) Swedes are dancing away by the end.

The Last Shadow Puppets are one of the highlights of the day and they play an absolutely delicious set. Alex Turner and Miles Kane are on top form with Alex posturing his way across the stage in a shocking pair of maroon trousers while Miles flounces about in black and white silk. The set is high camp, knowing and utterly glorious with Alex channelling a stage presence that’s somewhere between Grinderman and Neil Diamond as he croons that he’d “like to play something from my last LP”. They blast their way through a great set, the best of which are 'Standing Next to Me', 'Age of the Understatement', 'Everything You’ve Come to Expect' and 'Bad Habits'.

There’s a sticky moment just after 8pm when The Libertines set gets cancelled at the last minute but the Way Out West app quickly notifies us that they’re taking over ANOHNI’s set tomorrow night. ANOHNI is down with the flu, which is a huge disappointment but I’m keen to see The Libertines live, even if it’s a day late, as it’s been twelve years both since they last played in Sweden and since I last saw them live.

Finally, in the headline slot, it’s time for Morrissey. It’s good to see that he’s as provocative and combative as ever and the crowd devours his set. He’s winningly self-aware as he chats to the crowd between songs, a particular cracker coming after he applauds the festival’s vegetarian ethos when he says “No death for sale, no pain for sale, no torture for sale… except for me”.  The set blasts through his best tracks, even 'Ouija Board' gets an airing, and standouts are “The World Is Full of Crashing Bores' (accompanied by a picture of Kate and Prince William looking particularly vapid with the slogan “United Kingdumb”), 'English Blood, Irish Heart' and 'The Last of the Gang to Die'. The crowd clap and cheer long after he leaves the stage with a bow before dispersing into the night. 

 

 

 

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The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come To Expect

  • Published in Albums

 

From the very first notes of 'Aviation', the title of the album makes perfect sense. It's like the eight years between The Age Of Understatement of Everything You've Come To Expect had just been erased at a snap or a magic word, bringing us directly back to 2008.

Continuing the reunion with the delicate 'Align Miracle' and on a more languid title named 'Dracula Teeth' (which seems pulled straight from the Seventies), the album does not lie about its content. This is also the main quality and the limit established by the draft Alex Turner and Miles Kane, in their thirties now continue to propose a music they have never really known much less experienced, being both born in 1986.

One might find it all a bit pompous and useless if our two lads were not also the singer of Arctic Monkeys and singer of The Rascals, two British bands (especially the first, Miles Kane is now solo) having quite awakened the British rock sound at the end of the last decade.

However, if the lover of rare melodies and sophisticated harmonies (not counting those sick arrangements) will find his account, this new album has been once again produced as a piece of jewelry, it must still recognize (after several careful listens) that barely find the state of grace of its predecessor, turning somewhat round we offer securities without disappoint, fail completely to take away our enthusiasm. The whole remains a sidereal class, but it's not as catchy and exciting as in the past.

Fault? It's silly, almost inevitable as it is a question of the age of the performers. Our two young gifted 22 years have given way to beautiful young men now playing the big shots on press photos, vainly trying to appear older than they are. To say that this is more by their attitude than their age they failed (the term is a little strong) to make this sequel a Sixties cathedral, it is a shortcut that I will venture not to take; especially given the crass mediocrity of the current competition. Even at 50% capacity, The Last Shadow Puppets remain well above the fray.

Syndicated from Disques, Films, Comics, Mangas et Bubble Gum.

Everything You've Come To Expect is available from amazon & iTunes.

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