Indietracks Review
I’ve finally got my head round Indietracks enough to be able to have a stab at blogging it (or in fact blogging anything as you may have noticed).
I’m not sure the classic gig review format of ‘I-did-this-and-it-was-either-good-or-not-so-good-actually’ works when extrapolated out to a whole festival without it being either dull or lacking in detail so it’s just loads of lose snippets of what happened with links to all over the place.
> The weather was absolutely amazing all weekend. There was very rarely a cloud in the sky, and I think the outdoor stage benefited as a result as everyone sat round on the grass. The Church stage is in a little church with a tin roof, and that was roasting hot.
> MJ Hibbett’s ‘My Exciting Life In Rock’ was a great way to start the festival on Friday night. Heart warming comedy and truthful experiences about how a band progresses. Mark’s also been blogging his exciting life in rock on the Pop Art blog.
> Indietracks could very well be the International Pop Underground Convention or Bowlie Weekender of this generation of indiepop, with the added bonus that it’s a yearly event.
> Here’s the twitter round up for mentions of Indietracks.
> The tea tent! A great addition! I had a tea and read the paper in their on Sunday morning. Anyone could turn up and play it so it also saw some fantastic sets from Little My, a Darren Hanlon/Smittens/Lets Whisper hybrid and Darren Hayman.
> Liechtenstein played as a three piece and sounded marvellous. They have a new single out on Fraction Discs, which should be available in the next few weeks. The Liechtenstein bag became one of the festivals essential accessories for carrying merch in.
> Pictures tagged Indietracks 2008 on Flickr
> I had one of those classic d’oh moments, I stopped to speak to a chap who was wearing the exact same Misty’s t-shirt as me. I asked if he was looking forward to the KateGoes set and if he’d seen them before. Quite a few times, it turns out, as he was in fact Joe Thompson. I should have recognised him after all the times I’d seen KateGoes really, but in my defence he’s always dressed up as a something or other during sets. Yup, and there he was on the stage later dressed in his stone age garb. Well one of us had to change, and it wasn’t going to be me…
> Another man in a Misty’s t-shirt popped up to hand out balloons when KateGoes were playing too. So I spent much of their set pushing balloons round the sky. KateGoes just get better and better.
> The truck for the outdoor stage was positioned perfectly so that at about 2 o clock a nice cool shadow would appear right in front of it. We sat there to see Red Pony Clock and Liechtenstein.
> Speaking of the outdoor stage -
> Darren Hanlon commenting that there’s no greater sight than a load of firemen eating ice lollies by the Fire Engine. He played a great set which included Couch Surfing.
> Enthusiasm
> Winston Echo on the train. The set featured Mexican waves round the outside of the carriage.
> Post-popshow curry at the New Bengal in Alfreton on the Saturday night.
> Fanzines are making a comeback in the world of indiepop! I’m madly excited about this. It’s a whole blog post sometime later, but you could check out Caramel Distro if you want to get hold of some.
> Eating loads of Zoom lollies, available from the shop on site along with everything Thomas the Tank Engine related.
> The Indietracks I-spy book that some nice people made and handed out.
> There was only one of Comet Gain who played the Comet Gain set. Loads of theories about what happened, but two of Shrag filled in to do *something* Comet Gainy at least. They played four songs, one of which was the lovely You Can Hide Your Love Forever. It did prompt this ace picture of the merch
> Seeing Airport Girl play The Foolishness That We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness.
> Dancing to it.
> It’s amazing how people who I’ve spoken to went to see completely different bands to me throughout the whole weekend, and it still sounds like the best festival ever. I don’t think there was one band on which I wouldn’t have minded seeing.
> Felt badges!! I bought a gameboy!
> Feeling well guilty for missing The Voluntary Butler Scheme.
> Watching hundreds and hundreds of people coming out of The Church after The Bobby McGees and wondering how they all squeezed in.
> The DIY ethos
> I had a little dance to The Smittens, I’m so glad they made it over this summer and hope that come back to Europe soon. Colin Clary’s solo set on the train was really lovely too and I liked how several of the songs made reference to The Smittens or being in The Smittens.
> Most (if not all) of the festival staff were volunteers, and giving up their weekend so that a load of popkids could descend on the sight is such an amazing act of generosity. Thank you so much to anyone who worked the festival, and thank you to Stuart who organised it!
> Tipping loads of water over my head to keep me cool.
A-Z of bands seen - Airport Girl, Ballboy, Colin Clary, Comet Gain (a bit), Darren Hanlon, The Deirdres, The Foster Kids (a bit), KateGoes, Liechtenstein, Mexican Kids At Home, MJ Hibbett and the Validators, Mono Taxi (a bit), Red Pony Clock, The Retro Spankees, Slow Down Tallahassee, The Smittens, The Starlets, St Christopher (a bit), Town Bike (a bit), The Wave Pictures (a bit), The Wedding Present, Winston Echo, The Zebras (a bit)
Lastly there’s a good thread on the Anorak Forums where people are popping down their thoughts and photos and linking to on-line reviews - so if you want to see loads of people going “ahhh, how can I summarise so much ace” then that’s your best place to start. It includes a post on page 20 from Darren Hayman’s lovely dog which accompanied him all weekend (um I mean accompanied as in the following around sense, not in the backing musician sense).
