|
 The
stage has been pulled down, thousands of music fans are back home with
minor sunburn and the 2009 Haigh Music Festival is in the history books.
As the sun struggled to break through, blues rockers Elias T. Hoth
opened things up with a strong performance. Greeting the descending
masses with cuts from their recent album Let Sleepin’ Demons Lie,
the band brought an old-school twist to the festival with some
delightfully dirty rock.
Eighth Wave followed, joined at the front of the stage by an army
of loyal fans who were clearly delighted to see them and lapped up the
group’s powerful pop songs full of upbeat refrains masking
simple-yet-effective lyrics about love and heartbreak.
If Eighth Wave brought a sense of conventional pop music to the table,
Mr. Fist brought anything but.
Taking to the stage next with their leader adorned in a long brown dress
and a balaclava, the ‘Fist clan did their best to turn the festival on
its head with some seriously demented noise.
Doing exactly what you’d imagine it’s supposed to, their chaos-led
performance gained them a lot of attention, along with arguably the
biggest crowd of the day so far and it’s hard to argue that Mr. Fist
were certainly one of the most unique acts on the bill, if not quite our
cup of tea.
So we were more than happy when long time LINC favourites, This
Devastated Fan showed up.
Whenever we’ve talked about these guys in the past, we’ve found it hard
not to shower them in hyperbole. Yet the truth is TDF really don’t need
us to tell you how good they are; they can quite easily show you just by
walking on stage, plugging in and rocking the hell out.
We could tell you about how their sharp, gritty riffs sliced a hole in
the sky through which the sun was able to shine gloriously over Haigh,
or how the rhythms rumbled and the vocals exploded, but we won’t.
Instead we’ll just say this, TDF were as good as they always are.
From one band we’ve raved about endlessly to another, Before Autumn
Falls were next in line to do their thing for the Haigh crowd, and
they did it well.
Vocally flawless, with scintillating lead guitars screeching over
crunchy riffs backed by an enthralling dose of power, it’s always
enjoyable to see these guys perform and their set at Haigh was no
different.
As the rain threatened to spoil everything, The Klang kept
spirits high with some summery indie-pop that sounded better live than
we remember hearing on record.
That’s not to say we didn’t like what we heard when we last popped the
band’s demo in the LINC stereo –of course we did- but simply that when
its unleashed on the Haigh, The Klang’s affable, almost adorable tunes
are really brought to life.
What’s more, far from simply lifting the clouds with some agile guitars
and agreeable melodies, the four-piece really did their best to get the
summery atmosphere in full flow; hurling beach balls into the crowd and
being as lively and entertaining as possible.
 Prose
calmed things down a bit next with a set that was just as enjoyable
and exciting on its own merit but which, with hindsight, somehow seemed
to get lost between the beach-party atmosphere of The Klang’s set and
the exhilaration of Thebrokendoor’s show-stealing performance.
By their very nature, the drum ‘n’ bass improv’ collective’s set is made
up on the spot and proves to be a surprise highlight of the day, at
least for us.
A cornucopia of sounds slammed into each other and ripped their way
through Haigh with a buyout intensity as the crowd bounced and danced,
led by two sublime MCs whose names we now sadly can’t make out in our
notes (that’s what happens when we try to write stuff down whilst
dancing in the midst of an enthused and lively crowd; sorry guys!).
With the afternoon turning to early evening, Snakes Hate Fire led
us into the final stretch and wasted no time in establishing themselves
as firm crowd favourites.
Thebrokendoor may have been our highlight up to this point, but it
seemed that for the majority of Haigh Fest revellers, Grace Tither and
her group of animated pop-rock stars were the ones to watch.
Having already performed earlier in the day at the St. Helens music
festival may have given any lesser band an excuse to plead fatigue and
phone it in, but Snakes Hate Fire were not about to present their
legions of screaming fans with anything less than a phenomenal
performance.
Their enchanting, guitar-driven pop music was delivered by a band
clearly having the time of their lives and accepted with fevered
gratitude by the biggest crowd of the day.
Spinning things on their head after such well-polished, sugar-sweet pop
came The Adjusters, who ripped it up with some riveting
old-school punk rock ‘n’ roll.
Taking no prisoners and rollicking their way through a set full of sharp
bursts of raw, gutsy guitars, wild vocals and tumbling rhythms, the
young punks whipped up the crowd into some good old fashioned slamming
and made a serious challenge to Thebrokendoor’s title of our favourite
band of the day.
Whilst taking a brief respite backstage before The Adjusters went on,
our sneaky reporters overheard a rumour that The V.Cs were
nowhere to be found, despite following on directly from the
aforementioned punk outfit.
Thankfully, Wigan’s long-time favourites did turn up in the nick of time
and were greeted to a huge ovation when introduced as the penultimate
act of the evening.
They sounded different than we last remembered them, but that wasn’t
much to worry about; bands change and evolve all the time. What was
somewhat worrying however was that for at least their first two numbers,
The V.Cs looked for all the world like they were going through the
motions.
Yet before too long, the band’s spirits seemed to be lifted by their own
bold and catchy tunes and all was right with the world once more as The
V.Cs turned in an enjoyable performance.
Finally it all came down to Smudge.
Arguably the biggest band in the borough,
the boys wasted no time in proving why they deserved to headline this
year’s festival by tearing up the stage with boisterous songs every bit
as big as their unwavering popularity.
Having played all over the country in recent years, the borough’s
favourite pop-punk heroes have had plenty of opportunity to perfect
their electrifying stage show, and it certainly showed. Smudge were as
fantastic as they’ve ever been and provided as exciting a finale to the
festival as you could possibly hope for.
Until next year at least. Roll on Haigh 2010!
►
Return
to Haigh '09 main page
|
|
