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Haldern Pop 2008 Friday¶
589 words on Haldern
Our second day at Haldern this year began with missing out on some bands due to important other things that needed to be done. Like hanging out with our various great campground neighbours, going shopping or eating some cake in the village. Somehow we managed to miss The Kilians that way whom I was vaguely interested in hearing as I heard people say they’re good.
White Lies
Hence the day began musically with White Lies. After seeing the slightly better Foals the night before I had to think about them as a less cheesy version of The Bravery as well.
Jack Peñate
Jack Peñate played nice music as well afterwards. And had a bit of rain to go with it. The incredibly well-prepared audience took that without much fuss and converted themselves into a water-proofed crowd within moments.
And of course a band shouldn’t come on stage without a plastic wrapped metallophone these days. Interesting T-Shirt as well (Young Folks?):
Joan as Policewoman
Joan as Policewoman wore a crazy whig along with a pailletted dress and shiny golden boots. The music was all right with too much posing for my taste. And, yes, an ordinary keyboard does look much better and interesting when it’s hidden behind glittery black fabric.
Cool bassist as well.
We skipped Kula Shaker (I keep thinking they might be good for a cover version of Instant Karma for some reason) for some food and sitting instead.
The Guillemots
We had semi-seen The Guillemots in 2006 already and they played a nice gig. They may have over-stressed the PA or something though. At least it stopped to work towards the end of their set. Amusingly they didn’t seem to notice and just continued playing. I wonder what they thought when people started cheering in the middle of a song when the sound came back.
Next on the main stage was Kate Nash. I had never heard about her before, but she was the only ‘act’ on the line-up known by my colleague. ‘From the radio’. Hence we just skipped that and went to the Spiegelzelt.
Gisbert zu Knyphausen
The silly name Gisbert zu Knyphausen turned out to be a band which sounded a bit like latecomers to the Hamburger Schule.
Lykke Li
I had never heard about Lykke Li before but she was recommended to me several times. And it’s hard to tell how good her music is. In part she nicely fills the niche of the small blonde girlie (don’t let my photos fool you) TV presenter and the negative associations that come with it. And some of her songs started on a low note. But when she stepped out of that and went closer to insanity, things seemed quite brilliant. A Vampire Weekend cover and that encore she played (what exactly was that?) didn’t hurt either. Interesting!
Editors
The Editors ended the day for us. Their music is solid but I keep finding it a bit dull. [Fan-friggin-tastic cover art, though!] It might have been a better choice to remain in the Spiegelzelt to see Loney Dear for whom the queue was too long when we got there…
After that we went back to the camp ground. My feet were aching at the time. Without doubt a consequence of running around in rubber boots for the better part of the day. The boots did a great job in making the occasional rain-fall a non-problem, though.
More on Haldern Pop 2008: Thursday, Saturday, Sum Up. All Haldern Pop posts.
