The greatest part was that Emm and Josh experienced their first case of festival temperature hell: going to sleep bundled up in all the clothes and blankets you own to stave off the shivering cold...only to wake up in a sauna of a tent, ripping off items of clothing in a fury as you grapple for the tent zipper so that you can suck in air and relieve yourself from the sweaty hades you´ve gotten yourself into.
It´s always very amusing watching from the outside as tent flaps hurridly open and heads pop out, mouths agape like fish sucking for air.
Band #9 - The Dodos - I cannot express just how great this band was. It was like seeing a baby giraffe walk for the first time: you´re pretty sure you´re never going to see such an endearingly grand performance from such a young creature. The Dodos are young and amazing. Rocking out with multiple percussion, disjointed lyrics, sweetly-sung vocals and acoustic guitars. Marry me.
Oh, and just to improve upon my point about how great their set was - the audience gave them multiple standing ovations. They just would not stop clapping. The band was taking apart their gear and for 10 minutes, the crowd was still there, clappign and cheering. They didn´t know what to do with themselves but smile shyly as the applause went on and on. In my 9 years of seeing bands, I have never, ever seen that happen. Especially not to the first band on stage.
Then we got some more kriek beer. Because by this point, we are all pretty obsessed with kriek beer. We kept taking turns to cart trayfuls back from the special beers tent while we were waiting for bands.
Band #10 - Caribou - I love Caribou. The first time I saw them, they were so-so (owing to a pretty crappy sound job at the venue). The next time, they were staggeringly good. This time even more so. I was in a Dyonisian trance; rapping my hands against the barrier, head nodding to-and-fro.
Oh, and I can never get over how one of the guitarists looks identical to a boy I used to have a thing with.
Band #11 - Los Campesinos! - Michael was pretty excited about this new favourite band of his. He´d seen them a few times before, so had I. My opinion was that it was pretty much the same as the other times. I mean yeah, they´re obviously fun and all but...y´know. They are no Dodos.
We were pretty much waiting at the Chateau stage the whole time because that´s where pretty much all of the bands we wanted to see that day were playing.
I made a mask out of a cardboard beer carrier and we took some photos with our new Dutch friends.
I am a creative genius.
Band #12 - Tunng - Emm was pretty excited about seeing Tunng again. We´s seen them just a few days before at Field Day. They were beautiful, of course, and this time we didn´t get rained on. I loved hearing Jenny Again, again. It´s definitely a new favourite.
We did some productive chilling out before braving the Chateau tent again.
Band #13 - Alphabeat - Nothing could have prepared us for this. The plan was to turn up half an hour before they played and watch their set to secure a good spot for Tokyo Police Club (who, incidentally, were my most-needed-to-see band of the festival). How could a plan go so terribly wrong? The tent was packed already when we got there. I´ve never seen so many fifteeen year-olds in my life. We were very quicky packed like sardines. It was like being magically transported back in time to an all-ages festival. They scared me. Teenagers scare me. I´m not ashamed to admit this. I find their youthful vigure and enthusiasm for life (and the magical natural energy they seem to posses without the aid of a good ol´ fashioned cup of coffee) unnerving. Alphabeat encapsulated all of this in their cloyingly energy-riffic power pop. Jesus.
Band #14 - Tokyo Police Club - Obviously these guys were going to be good for me. They thudered out song after song. A lot from the new album (which dissapointingly, I hadn´t heard much of before) but also a lot from the previous one. Oh, and they were so nice too! Doing that whole ´aw thanks you guys, we don´t deserve all this´ that we seem to lap up even though it´s been done on us a million times before. The highlight for me was their encore - ´Cheer It On´ - my rock-out song of the year. I bumped into Mark and his friend Tim before the set and it was unfortunate that the latter stood behind me because I pretty much head-banged the crap out of that song, and I was totally hitting him in the neck or lower face with my ponytail. Oh, the spendor of being young and alive.
The Sydney guys stopped by our tent before they had to catch the last shuttle bus, but the three of us were being totally un-fun and already in our pyjamas, and Michael had been passed out in his tent for quite some time already. So we decided to keep being un-fun and just go to sleep.
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