One of the highlights of 2010 for me was seeing Belle and Sebastian play at Zurich Open Air in August. How many years had I waited for just such an opportunity? More than you can count on both hands, and perhaps a few toes, too. Suffice to say, having another opportunity to see them here in Zurich next week (13.04.11) when they play at X-Tra makes me a very, very happy camper.
Belle and Sebastian emerged from the Glaswegian indie scene in the mid-90s on influential label Jeepster (label mates included Snow Patrol, Looper and The Gentle Waves), and immediately struck a chord with middle-class indie kids everywhere with their gentle, memorable odes to cups of tea, herbaceous borders, British fauna and books. I still adore my early Belle and Sebastian EPs (collected in the 2005 Jeepster release, Push Barman To Open Old Wounds), and have given each and every one of their albums the extended, super high rotation treatment over the years. No-one does unbearably catchy and uplifting indie pop songs quite like Belle and Sebastian.
My only concession to the terrible, ubiquitous trend of Best-of lists will be the following summation of my best live gigs of 2010. And, in a huge feat of rebellion, I have chosen 6 of the best, rather than the usual 5, 10, 25 or 100 Best-of’s. Yes, I’m really walking on the wild side these days!
1. Sheila She Loves You, La Catrina – A tiny Mexican bar, packed to the rafters and with queues of people waiting outside. In amongst the skulls, tequila and Frida Kahlo‘s eyebrows, Sheila She Loves You rocked the place apart with a Jesus complex, lots of hair, and enough heart, soul and passion to sink a battleship. Pure, beautiful pop, tending towards the dark side at the end as they debuted some new material – a taste of things to come. There were tears. Missed the last train home, all around eventful evening.
2. Placebo – A tie between Annecy Arcadium and Zurich Openair Festival. The gorgeousity of Mr Molko and co. was only heightened by standing outside in the pouring rain for hours and hours at Annecy. Torrential rain continued to be a theme at Zurich Openair, where even the notoriously taciturn Molko was moved to comment on our survival (swimming?) skills. Their polished professionalism and forceful, potent dark glam rock made me see them 5 times during the Battle For The Sun tour. Nothing to do with The Molko’s pretty, of course…oh no.
3. The National, Royal Albert Hall – Matt Berninger’s voice could launch a thousand ships – it sends shivers up my spine everytime he opens his glorious mouth. It was the ultimate experience to see them in this most beautiful of venues. The show ended with a very drunk Berninger literally climbing the walls and stalls of the theatre.
4. Belle & Sebastian, Zurich Openair – The culmination of years of longing. Better, happier and much more fun than I ever imagined. Soap bubbles were involved.
5. The xx, Zurich Openair – Brooding guitar, bowel-shaking bass, spotlights and wreaths of atmospheric mist. The weight of Romy and Oliver’s measured, deliberate silences was deadly. The set was too short by far – I wanted it to go on all night. Alas, it was not to be.
6. Yeasayer + Hush Hush, Exil – I went to the gig a Yeasayer novice, and came away converted. I admit to getting a little fangirly over Anand Wilder, who was standing not more than a foot away. The sheer force of the band’s presence threatened to lift the lid off the tiny venue. Oh, and support act Hush Hush was unforgettable with his scenes of bloody cunnilingus.
So there you have it. It’s been a year of amazing gigs and experiences. Can’t wait til 2011 to do the whole shebang all over again.
It’s unreasonably early (for me at least) on a cold and muddy Sunday morning, and I’ve just waded through a few acres of mud to speak to young Swiss band Christopher Christopher after their great gig on the last day of the inaugural Zurich Openair festival. Matthias (guitar/vocals) and Olivier (guitar/vocals) are relaxing backstage, surreptitiously trying not to stare at Kate Nash at the next table. Hailing from nearby Baden, Christopher Christopher are a bright new spot on the Swiss music scene, as evidenced by their winning of the 2009 M4Music Demo Clinic. They’ve played the Montreux Jazz Festival and Open Air St Gallen this year, and supported Stereophonics at their recent Zurich gig with their sweet, fresh pop sounds. Things are definitely looking promising for a band who didn’t really plan to make music their career.
Out and about at the unbearably anti-social hour of 11 am on a Sunday morning, early enough to catch most of Friska Viljor’s jaunty set. Oh, what a happy bunch these Swedish rockers are! Smiles are infectious, you know, so the early birds that had gathered wore big, mostly hungover grins along with their mud-caked boots. Exuberant and merry, Daniel Johansson and Joakim Sveningsson sauntered good-naturedly along throughout their set of happy, country-and sea shanty- inspired rock.
Yeah, that mud….resembling the consistency of clay, with a heaping dose of stinky fertiliser -*phew*. But at least we weren’t floating anymore.
Swiss band Christopher Christopher were startlingly young, fresh and poppy, so clean cut and neat after Friska Viljor’s grungy (in a good way) vibe. I have to admit that as much as I enjoyed Friska Viljor, I was ready for an indie pop injection after a rock-heavy programme (I have filled in many gaps in my knowledge of Swedish rockers). They were welcomed to the stage like the proverbial prodigal sons, and played with aplomb to an (almost – they hail from Baden) home crowd. Beatles comparisons aside – could be the melodies, or the haircuts – I think the boys have a bright future ahead of them with their sweetly naive songs of young love, narcissism, and Nimbin. I had the chance to sit down with Olivier and Matthias for a chat after their set – stay tuned for that later.
MORE Swedish rock from Johnossi (can there have been any bands left to play in Sweden the weekend of the 27-29th August?), and then Swedish folk/pop from the gorgeous JJ. I missed most of JJ’s set but I loved her sweet and ethereal songs – will have to catch her again sometime.
Jonsi fans in feathers, applique and tassles populated the Main Stage area. The ex-Sigur Ros singer proceeded to enchant all present with his ear-defying falsetto and fragile melodies. I’ve got no idea what he was singing about but he was amazing. Bassist úlfur Hannson played with a cast on his hand after severing a ligament after their recent Helsinki show (ouch), and Jonsi’s boyfriend Alex Somers played guitar, keyboards and other assorted sound effects. Towards the end he went off stage and shyly came back wearing a huge feathered head-dress, to huge applause. There was a lot of freaky bird imagery and themes happening on that stage.
Finally, the stage was prepped for Belle and Sebastian. Dear readers, by then I was fading fast and dreaming of somewhere, anywhere warm, dry, mudless and silent. I just don’t have the stamina anymore (if I ever had it). Needless to say, once Stuart Murdoch and company appeared I forgot all my woes and focused on the event in front of me. I’ve been waiting for years to see Belle and Sebastian and I was going to enjoy every second of it, godammit!
And so I did. Sometime in the last few years Stuart Murdoch has gotten buff. I mean, like muscles bulging buff. He used to be so fey and skinny, but now he is the picture of rude health. And he’s got a rather wicked sense of humour, as evinced by his comments regarding the VIPs standing high and dry in the VIP tent just over yonder: ‘…look at those fuckers over in the VIP tent – come over here and get dirty with the rest of us!‘.
He also took a moment to invite some audience members on stage for a spot of dancing, wherein a bunch of fame-hungry fans leapt and wrestled their way to the front in an effort to have their 15 seconds of fame. They invaded the stage were brought out on stage for ‘The boy with the arab strap‘ (ah, that song, so many memories) to dance fleetingly (but crazily) with Stuart (he had to go and play piano) and each other. At one point one of the girls took out a bottle of fluorescent pink nailpolish (as you do) and painted Stuart’s nails – I can say for certain it’s the only time I’ve ever seen an on-stage manicure. At the end they all hugged Stuart and bounced off, starstruck, while Stuart was left to ponder the effects on the Swiss mountain air on the girls: ‘Those girls are so strong, they could rip a man’s arm off…must be all that mountain air...’.
All too soon it was over, but I felt ridiculously happy. Their happy twee indie pop, their good humour, the sun shining, bubbles being blown by the audience in the afternoon sunshine, on-stage manicures, grown men reduced to the skinny undergraduates of yesteryear – it was great. They didn’t play anywhere near all the songs on my dream wishlist (you can see the setlist here), but it didn’t really matter. They have such an amazing back catalogue that they could play all day and never play all my favourites.
I couldn’t bear to see anything else after Belle and Sebastian. I had planned to see Kitty, Daisy and Lewis but B&S ran late and once they finished I didn’t want to sully my memory of that perfect gig with anything else. It was really the best way to end the festival. So I gathered up my gear, and squelched back to the tram, then my car, then home. I drove home, tired, dirty and with ears ringing, but with a huge, huge grin on my face.
Now to wait for next year….let’s see what the brave souls over at Zurich OpenAir come up with next. The inaugural year is going to be a hard one to beat, that’s for sure.
If you weren’t standing next to me in the front row, take a look at what you missed out on:
‘I’m a cuckoo’ - Stuart gets all about the stage, does some fancy footwork, and a cute little Beatle-esque side wiggle:
‘Sleep the clock around’:
New song ‘I’m not living in the real world’ from the upcoming album (Belle and Sebastian Write About Love), plus extra yodelling:
Video highlights of the festival from via Seb76zrh:
I arrived prepared for battle with the elements, with heavy-duty wet weather gear, gumboots and 4 layers of clothes. The skies stretched cold, grey and dreary overhead as I picked my way carefully through the mud and flotation devices masquerading as walkways scattered around the festival site.
Now that I have fully recovered from the last weekend’s mudfest, I can now view it through the rose-coloured lenses of nostalgia – ‘Awww, remember that time we stood in the pouring rain and mud for 10 hours without proper rain gear and almost got trampled to death by hordes of teenage boys and I ruined my favourite pair of boots?’. Yeah, we can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible…but only the weather. The music was great.
