Who & what went down best with the crowds at OFF 2010.

Words & Pictures: Barry Cliffe

Day 1

I’m not a fan of The Horrors but they put on a fine spectacle on the main Bank stage and sounded crystal clear to boot, well done kids. Sounded much better than Black Heart Procession in the Trojka Offensywa stage, phew, they weren’t having a good night of it. On over to the Eksperymentaalna stage (bypassing Art Brut naturally) to catch Fennesz. Blissful layers of walls of layers of sound, the crowd entranced and mesmerised, just him and his guitar and whole loada effects, genius.

Floating out of there it was time for a quick beer and a delicious sausage, of course, and then on to Efterklang in Trojka Offensywa tent. Big smiles all round from these happy Danes whose prog-pop whipped the crowd into a frenzy of handclapping throughout, great stuff. Several Polish guests came out to sing or play accordion for them and clearly added to the occasion.

After this Blitzgigs Bazz needed a good sit down and a beer, all day in a train and then all this, and my legs ain’t what they used to be. The Fall sounded their usual messy mess from afar but I really couldn’t be bothered, sorry Mr.Smith.

Tindersticks next on main stage at midnight was a very accomplished performance by Stuart Staples and co, like the venerable conductor he guided the ‘Sticks through new material and favoured oldies with passion, precision and all pitch perfect, gracefully thanking the audience and definitely the best dressed band at OFF 2010. And they played City Sickness too, great.

A Place To Bury Strangers meanwhile, a friend informed, had tried to rip a whole in the Trojka tent roof with their guitar noise as only they know how, bless ‘em.

Refreshments taken on to the Eksperymentalna tent for Trans AM. Obviously out on my feet by now and a bit wet as it had rained a little but determined not to pass up this chance, I braved the steamy tent and was rewarded with the highlight of the weekend. Trans AM are simply great. They stunned me into awakeness, held me there for an hour, carried along on a wave of intense, pulsating, loud as the apocalypse drums, seething keyboards and I’ve forgotten exactly how the guitars sounded so obsessed I became with the drumming.

Day 2

Mouse on Mars got my saturday off to a brief start, they’ve turned into a festival techno act to the annoyance of some, the joy of others. Take’em or leave’em they do get the crowd dancing and this mostly Polish public loved to dance this weekend. I left and got some of Tuung doing their soundcheck and then caught their show too a while later. This impossible to pin down band do whatever they want and the closing songs guitar-solo came straight from solo guitar school…with pink-rimmed sunglasses on and facial gestures Angus Young would be proud of. Excellent. Any folkie image you have of Tuung get rid of it now.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw pulled the same handclapping tricks on the audience, this time towards the end they actually tricked the crowd into becoming the percussion for an entire song, it was brilliantly done, audience participation, lovely. The accordions of this Balkan/Eastern European influenced music was raucously received and it became a hoe-down in the Trojka Offensywa tent.

Mew turned it up and thrilled the kids with their fey indie rock, which we all love no matter how girly that guys voice gets.

Keeping things Scandavian The Radio Dept. those hermits of shoegaze-pop, gave a somewhat short but nonetheless flawless set getting the place rockin’. Shoegaze? Rockin? Yes, I did say that, and it did happen. And they dedicated their song Freddie And The Trojan Horse to the Swedish government, adding “fuck the right-wing Swedish government”. Amen to that. Now come to Berlin again!!!!!

Stumbling out out of the tent I come across Dinosaur Jr. on the main stage. J.Mascis has a wall of Marshall speakers piled four-high around him, it’s the end but I hear Just Like Heaven, their Cure-cover followed by Freakscene and I’m happy. And then bassist Lou Barlow says “Fuck Lufthansa” and everybody cheers!! Hurray. So he says it again and rants about lost equipment etc. I suppose one wall of speakers wasn’t enough for J.

After, Lali Puna put on their usual perfect live show, the crowd love it, we all go get drunk and miss Zs.

Day 3

First up for me is The Tallest Man on Earth who packs in the crowd to bursting point, wows with his Johnny Cash stage-show and makes several ladies in the audience audibly swoon, he’s a looker that’s for sure and he can sing and play too, his folkiness a real hit on this glorious sunny afternoon.

Next up, Dum Dum Girls were looking pretty good that night, Dee Dee, Jules, Bambi and Sandy hot as ever and the new material was going down a treat too. Blissed out fuzz-pop at its best…but I had to run, sadly.

Shearwater were a calling in their mysterious way. I’ve listened to these guys for a long time and couldn’t miss out on catching them here. Unfortunately it seems on this occasion however, that they seemed to be going through the motions, maybe it was the daylight, but Jonathan Meiburg seemed pissed off about something. So I went and sat to the side on the grass in the warm evening and dreamed of the Dum Dum Girls. Live and learn.

No Age tried to but simply couldn’t, those pedals they’d borrowed to Dinosaur Jr., as J.Mascis informed us the night before, probably came back burned out or maybe Mascis should have showed ‘em how to use them.

Damon and Naomi of Galaxie 500 fame gave a studied session in acoustic guitars and keyboards and were delighted with being in Poland for the first time. They even sold some merch right outside the tent after the show and talked to fans, sweet.

After that it was a blur of The Ravonettes on the main stage which was a bit flat to be honest, but big, brash and loud so good festival music…and then it was time for the main attraction The Flaming Lips.

Hooly dooly what a show. The balls are released as the kids on stage alongside the band dance, the confetti machines fire at will into the night sky, thousands of festival revellers go nuts. Wayne Coyne appears, climbs into the giant ball and is propelled by security dudes the size of small trucks into the front row and goes for a walk on your head. Brilliant. When he emerges from the ball back onstage it’s loudspeaker-phone time and video backdrop mania. The bear appears, the confetti like locusts, the balls like planets, the crowd delirious.

I’ll let the photos do the talking, it was the best concert experience I’ve ever had. It all ended after a long version of Do you realise? with Coyne preaching for peace in a world gone mad. Thanks Flaming Lips, see you soon.

…and that was that.

After three days of camping in Katowice I happily developed trench-syndrome, code for: experience was so pleasurable I wished it wouldn’t end. So, in the spirit of festival living, when I got home I pitched my tent in my kitchen and have been living in it since then. Ugh! I hear you all scream together. No, don’t worry everybody, I’ve built a makeshift tunnel from the tent to the bathroom so I’m surviving quite well. I’ve even been to work once or twice as well but my boss says the press pass on my wrist has to go, which is fair enough considering I work with heavy machinery and could lose a hand at any time. So, sniff, the tent is coming down.

Talking about the location, which might seem unusual when you first hear about it, Katowice has plenty to occupy you for afternoons of hangover management before you head back to the festival and start working on your next hangover. The site being only ten minutes to the centre of town with a special shuttle-service laid on for festival-goers, being able to wander around the city and do some exploring really added to the experience  where just getting drunk and vomiting on people’s tents all weekend probably wouldn’t have. The festival as a whole is well-organised and laid out and will definitely appeal to those of you out there looking for a more relaxed atmosphere in comparison to the chaos of typical larger festivals. On the whole there was never more than 10,000 people on site at any one time and that spread out between four stages. Next year I’m getting an even bigger tent and staying for longer, nuff said.

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