Glastonbury via armchair 2023

CaseOfAce

mattdavis said:

After seeing gnr last night it’s even more stark how appalling the sound engineering for their Glastonbury gig was. Not sure if it was the tv or the stage mixing but it seemed to only bring out the shit elements - last night everything was so much more balanced (occasionally slash seemed too quiet) and it seemed to lessen the effect of Axl’s need to adapt his voice. 

Mind you I don’t think anyone’s voice at 61 is quite the same as it was in their 20s , particularly when you’ve hammered your vocal cords like he has. 

Agreed. At 61 I guess you've got to expect some wear and tear.

I've also never played a festival stage like that before. I can't imagine what it must be like to be at the complete mercy of the sound man on a huge stage like that with sheer volume, monitoring, sweat - not to mention being in the middle of a tour where you've had little sleep, constant travel - all that and the need to run around and entertain an audience. That's why you've got to forgive players not exactly being on point consistently with bending intonation and what have you.

ICBM

CaseOfAce said:

Blondie were strong - Deborah Harry in astonishingly good voice

Hmmm... for 77, maybe. But not really - I sadly thought she's finally past it now, even compared to seeing them a few months ago in Glasgow. Clem Burke was great, but he's a fair bit younger.

CaseOfAce said:

but man those guitars were loud - I guess that's what a Soldano sounds like at full pelt. And 3 S*ex Pistols were on stage at Glastonbury this year!

Not just too loud but a bit too 'rock' - although Andee Blacksugar was better. Tommy Kessler (with the Soldano, it's a 30W one I think) who changed guitars far too often (why? One left-handed guitar appeared to be enough for the entire gig...) in particular doesn't really fit the sound of the band, which I thought in Glasgow too.

And Glen Matlock's bass was pretty much inaudible...

digitalkettle

digitalkettle said:

Vintage65 said:

theatreanchor said:

Vintage65 said:

Did anybody catch the Editors?

Unfortunately. 

There were a lot of marmite acts at Glastonbury this year 

I love a bit of Editors…it’s on my catch-up list.

Caught-up: thought it was a great set!

digitalkettle

CaseOfAce said:

...Unfortunately Rick Astley and Blossoms had other ideas. I must have watched that Smiths set they did a fair few times on iPlayer by now. Boy With The Thorn in his Side followed immediately by Girlfriend in a Coma. Wow... yes they were using tracks at times - but it took me a few views to figure that out. It was done extremely well...

Good fun...but needed another month of rehearsals!

Vintage65

digitalkettle said:

CaseOfAce said:

...Unfortunately Rick Astley and Blossoms had other ideas. I must have watched that Smiths set they did a fair few times on iPlayer by now. Boy With The Thorn in his Side followed immediately by Girlfriend in a Coma. Wow... yes they were using tracks at times - but it took me a few views to figure that out. It was done extremely well...

Good fun...but needed another month of rehearsals!

That would have spoilt the karaoke feel of it 

monquixote

Vintage65 said:

monquixote said:

I like The War on Drugs albums but the set was boring and it might be that I listen to too much pop music but I don't get why bands feel they are allowed to look like they just rolled out of bed and make no attempt to entertain.

One of my favourite bands, but they need to try something different. Do you like former WOD member Kurt Vile's solo stuff?

I haven't listened to it.

I also find that 20 guitar changes and 50 pedals but everything just sounds like indie strumming really tedious.

Nova Twins blew my mind for creative fxs use. I had no idea how the bass player was getting some of the sounds and that's rare for me.

EricTheWeary

monquixote said:

Vintage65 said:

monquixote said:

I like The War on Drugs albums but the set was boring and it might be that I listen to too much pop music but I don't get why bands feel they are allowed to look like they just rolled out of bed and make no attempt to entertain.

One of my favourite bands, but they need to try something different. Do you like former WOD member Kurt Vile's solo stuff?

I haven't listened to it.

I also find that 20 guitar changes and 50 pedals but everything just sounds like indie strumming really tedious.

Nova Twins blew my mind for creative fxs use. I had no idea how the bass player was getting some of the sounds and that's rare for me.

Just watching a bit of the Nova Twins. I don’t know what I thought they would be like but whatever that was I was wrong! Maybe the band you’d create if you thought dubstep was played on guitars. 

The bassist is using a Source Audio Hot Hand at times, controlling rather than generating the sounds but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one used on a gig before. 

Wow! 

Vintage65

EricTheWeary said:

monquixote said:
Nova Twins blew my mind for creative fxs use. I had no idea how the bass player was getting some of the sounds and that's rare for me.

Just watching a bit of the Nova Twins. I don’t know what I thought they would be like but whatever that was I was wrong! Maybe the band you’d create if you thought dubstep was played on guitars. 

The bassist is using a Source Audio Hot Hand at times, controlling rather than generating the sounds but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one used on a gig before. 

Wow! 

I feel sorry for Royal Blood getting outfoxed by the Nova Twins 

rsvmark

Vintage65 said:

EricTheWeary said:

monquixote said:
Nova Twins blew my mind for creative fxs use. I had no idea how the bass player was getting some of the sounds and that's rare for me.

Just watching a bit of the Nova Twins. I don’t know what I thought they would be like but whatever that was I was wrong! Maybe the band you’d create if you thought dubstep was played on guitars. 

The bassist is using a Source Audio Hot Hand at times, controlling rather than generating the sounds but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one used on a gig before. 

Wow! 

I feel sorry for Royal Blood getting outfoxed by the Nova Twins 

I agree. I thought they took it to another creative level entirely . Perhaps a touch of pedalboard envy but for me they were one of the highlight performances this year

Vintage65

I haven't heard any mention of Maisie Peters yet. I was quite impressed with her set, and I can see her breaking America when she tours there later this year. It's not really my  kind of thing, but I can see a market for it and it's currently the UK No.1 album.

distressed

EricTheWeary said:

The War on Drugs are just so dreary, reminded me of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who I also find dreary.

They've always been more like Chris Rea type sad dad middle-of-the-road rock band to me.

Reverend

distressed said:

EricTheWeary said:

The War on Drugs are just so dreary, reminded me of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who I also find dreary.

They've always been more like Chris Rea type sad dad middle-of-the-road rock band to me.

They weren't as exciting as that on iplayer

digitalkettle

Reverend said:

distressed said:

EricTheWeary said:

The War on Drugs are just so dreary, reminded me of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who I also find dreary.

They've always been more like Chris Rea type sad dad middle-of-the-road rock band to me.

They weren't as exciting as that on iplayer

Just finished watching...worked for me: full screen, pushed through my studio monitors...epic

LPManic

Saw TWOD in Madrid at a small 2000 club a few weeks ago.

He has 100 pedals and doesn't need the half of them. I didn't see him doing much stomping. I do think there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in their performances. The dynamics of Red Eyes, Under the Pressure, and Ocean in Between the Waves were absolutely fantastic though.

darthed1981

digitalkettle said:

Reverend said:

distressed said:

EricTheWeary said:

The War on Drugs are just so dreary, reminded me of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who I also find dreary.

They've always been more like Chris Rea type sad dad middle-of-the-road rock band to me.

They weren't as exciting as that on iplayer

Just finished watching...worked for me: full screen, pushed through my studio monitors...epic

So in summary, some people like War on Drugs, some don't..

I've never made my mind up... I could go either way  

digitalkettle

darthed1981 said:

digitalkettle said:

Reverend said:

distressed said:

EricTheWeary said:

The War on Drugs are just so dreary, reminded me of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen who I also find dreary.

They've always been more like Chris Rea type sad dad middle-of-the-road rock band to me.

They weren't as exciting as that on iplayer

Just finished watching...worked for me: full screen, pushed through my studio monitors...epic

So in summary, some people like War on Drugs, some don't..

I've never made my mind up... I could go either way  

All this talk of getting old. It's getting me down, my love...

rsvmark

Just watching QOTSA and I will humbly revise my initial review. They were superb. Plus a nice selection of guitars and gear

EricTheWeary

Catching up with The Chicks. They are great but the mix isn't the best at times. Watching a guitar solo and not hearing it for example, some of those lush harmonies getting lost. Maybe fair enough that it's broadcast this way but a shame no one is tidying it up for the iPlayer. 

Philly_Q

I watched quite a lot of Glastonbury over the weekend - some whole sets, some "oh no that's quite enough of that..."

Has anyone mentioned Måneskin?  We need more rock bands like them.  They're young, they look fantastic, they can play, and they unashamedly fucking rock.  I think perhaps being Italian helps them pull it off... if they were British or American their act might almost seem like parody.

I'm not sure any of their songs are even slightly memorable, or distinguishable from each other, but I was hearing most of them for the first time.  As a live act I thought they were great.

Blueingreen

monquixote said:

Vintage65 said:

monquixote said:

Just been watching Caroline Polachek 

What an incredible singer and a great performer. It's weird she isn't more famous.

The album is number 2 on the Metacritic album of the year list, so congratulations on your good taste and willingness to step out of your comfort zone 

 https://www.metacritic.com/browse/albums/score/metascore/year/filtered

I've been listening to her for years.

She is beloved of critics but she was very far down the bill which is what I was referring to.

I'm always being surprised by how wrong my assumptions about artists' drawing power are when I see the pecking order at festivals.  I think it's easy to assume column inches and end of year album rankings are a reflection of public profile, but very often they really aren't.

I think that's a good thing, it's much healthier for artists to get well known through word of mouth than by conforming to the latest music journo orthodoxies.

Weyes Blood was one such revelation this year, her last couple of albums have been lauded to the skies but her set at Glastonbury seemed a surprisingly low key and I thought slightly bloodless affair.