More Music Midtown

Yesterday would be our second and last day at this years Music Midtown festival. And a busy day we had planned too…

Starting with Bloc Party, I bought their CD a month or so ago but never really got round to listening to it properly, so this set was quite an eye opener for me. Admitedly it wasn’t as good as Interpol or The White Stripes from the night before, but they rocked pretty hard, despite the start of the rainfall during their set. I definately need to listen to the CD more now…

After a pause for food was Keane, and to be brutally honest, they were pretty average at best, a lot of their songs have a similar sound, and when they played a new one, it could well have been “Somewhere Only We Know” with different words. Really, the piano, drums and vocal setup limits their options of what they can do. The rain was coming down like a tropical storm by now and showed no signs of relenting, which didn’t help matters… At least from where I was standing.

Then we moved onto the main reasons for going in the first place… And the rain let up just as The Killers came on stage, which was nice as far as timing goes…

They kicked off with “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” and immediately lifted the damp crowd, a damn huge crowd mostly here in preperation for The Pixies, and they kept it up even as the rain threatened to begin again. They played most of “Hot Fuss” as well as a few other songs, including a new one, which was pretty cool, especially as everyone was singing along with all the songs.

My one complaint, if it could be called one, is that they had the stage not lit very well, so a lot of my pictures didn’t come out as I would have liked, but that’s a completely moot point. It was an awesome show and prepared me for the awesomeness that was about to unfold before my eyes…

Now, if you’re ever lucky enough to see The Pixies play live, don’t be expecting a show in a wider sense of the word… They just come on, play the songs and then they’re gone… There is very little crowd interaction from the band, except sometimes Kim Deal says “thanks” after a song. But damn, the songs rock, I almost shouted myself hoarse during some of the them. Another great show, probably the best of the weekend (in my opinion, which counts the most on this site) and they completely lived up the the hype I’ve been building in my mind for the last, oh I dunno, 5 to 10 years, they played almost every song I wanted to hear (what, no Velouria?) and it was an extremely worthwhile experience, even the douwnpour of rain wouldn’t ruin it for me…

A great weekend, and a lot of great bands, only Keane were slightly disappointing as the rest were excellent. Shame about the weather though, but you cant have everything…