Rock Werchter 2008 - My Top 5

The 34th edition of the Belgian festival was my second experience of European festivals. It excelled in all categories including line-up, performances, crowd attitude and general atmosphere. It is probably the best festival I have ever been to, and here are my top five acts of the weekend along with a little blurb to explain why I have chosen them.

Artists appear in order of performance, not in order of preference.

The National - Pyramid Marquee - Thursday 3rd July, 7.00pm

The first real stand-out performance of the weekend, and the first time for me seeing a band that have become one of my very favourites over the past year.
Some sound issues at the start didn't seem to phase them as they played confidently through their hour-long set consisting solely of songs from their last two stand-out albums, 'Alligator' and 'Boxer'. The guitars sounded pitch perfect during more delicate songs such as 'Secret Meeting' and switched effortlessly to crunching riffs for songs such as 'Mistaken For Strangers'. The horn section, which was barely audible during the muddy sound of the first few songs made themselves vital during 'Fake Empire' especially during the uplifting outro. The violinist put on a great show switching between playing traditionally and plucking it like a guitar, often moving to centre stage to show off his talents.
Amid this torrent of talent was Matt Berninger, the vocalist who, for me, stole the show. Cupping the microphone as if cupping the face of a loved one to croon in his low baritone during some songs then screaming out his life until his throat must have been red raw on songs such as 'Abel' and the closing 'Mr. November'. A truly emotional, passionate and breath-taking performance.



My Morning Jacket - Pyramid Marquee - Friday 4th July, 4.45pm

Handed a mid-afternoon slot and charged with the task of livening up a crowd full of people who were eagerly anticipating Neil Young's headline slot that evening may seem like a daunting task, but not for My Morning Jacket.
Touted as the best live band in the world by all and sundry, including Neil Young himself they certainly showed us why this afternoon. Condensing their set which usually spans over two hours into a short one hour slot may seem like a waste to any hard-core MMJ fans, but for me as a newcomer it was the perfect dose. None of Jim James' ranged emotions were lost on me, from the delicate falsettos to head banging theatrics, I, along with the rest of the crowd lapped it all up.
The set spanned a mountain range of noises rising and falling from epic rock outs to dainty melodies.
Overall it was a great introduction to a band that I've been listening to a lot since I got home. I will certainly be going to see their full-length live extravaganza next time they grace our shores.



Sigur Rós - Main Stage - Saturday 5th July, 9.35pm

The Icelandic foursome recently released their fifth LP of melancholy rock which anyone with half an ear can tell is as beautiful as any other piece of art in the world.
Tonight they are joined on stage by a whole host of supporting musicians including an all female string quartet and a fully equipped brass section.
They draw from all of their back catalogue except for the debut album Von. As I have already mentioned they are more recognised for their slower and more downbeat songs, but tonight it's the more upbeat tracks that go down better, it is a festival after all! In particular 'Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur' and fan-favourite 'Hoppipolla' shimmer as they undulate through several minutes of glorious neo-pop. Recent single 'Gobbledigook' sees all of the supporting musicians take to the stage in order to bang drums rhythmically in time with lead-singer Bjirgisson's acoustic guitar and on top of it all, an explosion of confetti over the crowd for the finale of the song.
It is a triumph for any band that doesn't sing in English to become popular outside of their home country and tonight Sigur Rós bask in that glory. Even though it is brief it was still thoroughly enjoyable.




Radiohead - Main Stage - Sunday 6th July, 12.30am

Following Sigur Rós on stage were my favourite band in the world, the almighty Radiohead.
Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien have both admitted that this was probably their worst show of the European tour. Loose performances, forgotten lyrics, technical problems and just general tour-weariness were the cause, nevertheless I loved every minute of it.
Having seen them perform almost perfectly two nights in a row during daylight the week before it was nice to see them in the dark and take in the magnificent lighting rig in it's full glory. I also feel they were being hard on themselves, it was still an extremely enjoyable performance, and hearing the mistakes made this performance different from the others, which is quite nice when it's your fifth time of seeing them live!
Rolling out the festival-friendly "hits" such as 'Just' and 'Paranoid Android' was always going to be the case but they also played some fan favourites such as 'Climbing Up The Walls' and 'The Gloaming'.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoyed it, the festival seemed to be packed with people wearing newly-bought Radiohead t-shirts the next day!





The Raconteurs - Main Stage - Sunday 6th July, 6.15pm

Handed the early headlining slot "Jack White's other band" gave a master-class in performing live.
One of the tightest musical performances I have ever seen (something The White Stripes are widely noted as not doing), they exhibited all of the same positives as My Morning Jacket a couple of days earlier. The only slight hiccup coming when Benson addressed the crowd as "Brussels", but nobody seemed to mind.
Riffing through early tracks warming the crowd up delightfully before focusing the crowd's attention in the early evening sunshine for slower ballads such as 'Your Blue Veins'.
The vocals switched effortlessly between White and Benson who both exhibit similar vocal styles which works brilliantly when they combine during powerful moments of songs.
White, always the entertainer encouraged Belgium to "wake up" and sparked up one of the weekend's greatest moments of crowd participation for the ending of popular single 'Steady As She Goes'.
Overall it was another great performance by a band who had always been on my musical radar but I have never given the appropriate attention to. Thanks to this showcase I certainly have belatedly corrected this oversight.


The full list of bands that I saw this weekend, in order of appearance was:

Day 1:

Modern Skirts
Vampire Weekend
The National
Lenny Kravitz
R.E.M.

Day 2:

Slayer
Ben Folds
My Morning Jacket
The Verve
Neil Young
Digitalism

Day 3:

Galactic
MGMT
Editors
Kings of Leon
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Sigur Rós
Radiohead

Day 4:

John Butler Trio
Panic At The Disco
Mark Ronson
The Raconteurs
Kaiser Chiefs
Beck