The Shins vs. The Darkness in Oxegen Deathmatch - It's a tie!

The Darkness were moved into headline position at this year's Oxegen Festival to replace the ill Mr. Bowie. This put them head to head with the Shins who took the stage about 1/2 hour before on the New Band Stage in a tent just over 100 yards away from the Oxegen Main Stage.

Inside the tent, the Shins played a much re-arranged set from what they had been playing at other european festivals this summer (we'd caught them previously during a torential downpour at Roskilde in Denmark the preceding Saturday.) Lead singer James Mercer played some of the bands' most downtempo songs all in a row, saying "We're trying to get the quiet ones out of the way before the Darkness starts."

A few minutes later, the Darkness was heard revving up behind us and many of us made a mad dash towards the middle of the field. (Sean Hoffman was already stationed there, where he remained for the duration of the Darkness' set.)

The hits went off well, the 2 or 3 the Darkness have, but despite owning their debut album, Permission to Land, their other songs couldn't hold me live. And unfortunately, the naked fan who ran across the stage during their set had done so the night before at their performance at T in the Park in Scotland, and no such bonus was in store for us here. Between Darkness numbers I could hear the Shins back in the tent, and more than once I high-tailed it back to catch some of my favorites from Chutes Too Narrow.

The Shins finally quit just after 10 p.m., leaving the festival with the Darkness as the last remaining band playing. Of course, Oxegen closes the beer tents at 10 p.m. as well and the festival started to wear down.

We said farewell to my wonderful friends Pete and Laura and their entourage and headed for the busses, catching the final Darkness hit, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" on the way.

After a pleasant journey back to Dublin, we called it a night. Thus ended for me, my 3rd consecutive Oxegen/Witnness Festival, and my 4th straight year of rocking in Europe.

Irish Rain

We've been in Dublin since Friday, and today we finish up the final day of the Oxegen Festival, headlined by Muse and The Darkness this evening.

I'm in an internet cafe on the River Liffey as I write and sad piano music is playing, so forgive me if this entry seems a bit more reflective than usual.

This festival has been much like previous ones, too much like them in many ways. Perhaps after the third year in a row at this one I should break habit and head to T in the Park next year, or even take a break from them all together. As much as I like live music, there's an element of "canned fun" that starts to grate on you after a while.

Yesterday, in reverse order, we saw what I considered to be a rather fine Cure concert which clearly featured a lot of songs from the new album since I did not recognize them and own everything they've ever released for the most part. The oldies moved me the most, I'd saw, "The Primary", "A Forest" and such. They closed out with "Boys Don't Cry" and I took the liberty of being anonymous in a foreign country and bounced around like an idiot with the rest of the punters.

I checked out Vegas's the Killers who started at almost the same time as the Cure. They were one of the bands I definitely came to see. I like what I've heard from their debut album, and I have a copy of it waiting for me at home. The sound seemed a bit off where we were standing, however, and once we moved to find a better spot the strains of the Cure on the Main Stage drew me out of the tent and kept me there. I plan on giving the Killers another chance though. I could see, though not hear, the potential they have.

Jumping back to the beginning, the Scissor Sisters were the first Main Stage act we caught yesterday. Their Elton John influenced disco kept us standing happily in the rain for 40 minutes. It struck me that if Faux Jean had somehow managed to get over to Europe a couple of years ago they would be superstars by now. I'm convinced that what the Scissor Sisters are doing will soon be copied and recopied and like the Darkness is another sign that the 70's is coming back again.

We lay down on the pavement near the ticket stage for a bit and were awakened by more rain in our faces just in time to hear a decent set by the Rapture while sitting under umbrellas and getting our asses soaked. While Sean headed back to the tent with my friends for a spell, I caught a bit of PJ Harvey, Snow Patrol and Electric Six.

It was extremely difficult to figure out what time the bands were actually playing yesterday and where. You almost had to steer by sense of smell. Badges with schedules on them sold out before the music even started for the most part. Though they were only ten euro, I couldn't buy one for 15, and someone even wanted 50 to part with theirs. Screw that. Today I came to the internet cafe with the explicit intention of printing the timeline off the oxegen website, but that is unfortunately down.

Off to more confusion. Then home tomorrow.

London Sun, Music (including the fabulous The Early Year) then Rain

On Tuesday the Early Year rocked our socks at the Barfly in North London

We arrived in London Monday after an uneventful EasyJet flight from Copenhagen. Sean was impressed by the amount of space in the seats, almost like first class. EasyJet is normally pretty good on the service, and cheap on the fares if you book far enough ahead.

Our hotel is cosy and we have our own balcony to sit on and drink Stella Artois and watch the people go by below in Bayswater. This is my 7th trip to London, so nothing too exciting for me to see. The weather was brilliant Monday and Tuesday, sunny and 75 or so, and we took advantage of that by taking a bus tour.

Monday night we went to the Carling Academy to meet up with Anna Lee and Andrew Zincke. Andrew's site, the Smoking Beagle is currently out of commission whilst one of his paws heals from a bizarre accident involving a broken wine bottle, but his tips on the music are still top notch. We caught S. Rock Levinson, whom I'd seen on his recommendation last year, and I found them in even better form than a year ago. They have a new single out. S. Rock was the band I enjoyed most out of the 4-5 band bill, though they all had merit.

Tuesday night, we took in a bit of the Tate Modern and then Sean made a few friends at the Anchor Inn who had been to the Glastonbury Festival (same weekend we were at Roskilde.) They gave us a tip on good music at the Barfly so that's where we went Tuesday, despite the fact that my ears felt like they needed a rest. I was glad I went though since I saw the best band I'd seen since Graham Coxon at Roskilde. The top billed band at the Barfly, a cool club with great acoustics in Chalk Farm, North London, was called The Early Year. Their sound was less derivative than many of the other bands we've seen in bars here, many sounding like a mix of the Clash, The Buzzcocks and Joy Division, not that there's anything wrong with that. The Early Year have their own sound, their vocalist distinct in the way that Guy Garvey of Elbow also is. They combined samples, guitar, keyboards and a top notch rhythm section that really got me going. One song with a repeated refrain of "I wanna hold you" made me drift off for a while and miss my sweetie. The lead singer Jim Scully kind of reminded me of Dan Lichty of Shadow Box and I envisioned a dream bill at the Barfly which had Shadow Box open, Friends Like These in the Middle, and the Early Year headlining. We'll have to see what we can do about setting up a "band swap" so we can put together bills like that. Sean and I both bought copies of the Early Year's new 7 inch vinyl and had them signed by the band.

Today has been a shopping and business day. I mailed home some shoes and a bunch of crap and it cost me nearly $100 for a 9 lb box. Christ. But freed up of some stuff I was free to buy more.

Sean is out running around in the rain somewhere and we will rendevous at the hotel shortly to figure out the plan for the evening. In the morning, we're off to Wales to visit a friend of mine before heading to the final festival, the Oxegen festival in Dublin on Friday.

Roskilde is Mudkilde - Iggy Rocks, Morrisey falls a bit flat

I forgot to mention it had rained a bit Thursday and Friday here, and also it has been unseasonably cool. Friday at the Festival was a bit damp, but nothing like Saturday. Veritable downpours on the way to the festival and after we arrived turned parts of the festival grounds into swampland. I'm not one to complain about a bit of mud, but really, it is so bad we have decided to opt out today and let our shoes dry. But here's a recap of yesterday.

We did some laundry in the afternoon, and I got a haircut. It started to rain around 2 p.m. and a search for rubber boots that we thought might come in handy proved fruitless. Apparently Copenhagen is nearly sold out due to the demands placed on it by 75,000 festival mudhoppers.

We caught a bit of Kings of Leon before heading to the Shins show. The Shins told the crowd they were from New Mexico and that that was "a long ass way from here." I was thinking I would be able to say how nice it was to see the Shins in something less than a shoulder to shoulder First Avenue, but it started to rain again about 5 songs into their set and things got ugly. Rain poured off the edge of the tent where we were standing and it was like taking a shower. Then some idiot young people started pushing, literally, trying to shove their friends deeper into the crowd. Real smart thing to do less than 200 yards from where 9 Germans lost their lives from the exact same thing just a few years ago. Before we left though, we were treated to a really nice slow version of "New Slang."

Iggy and the Stooges were on the main (Orange) stage and put on a forbidable show. In Sean Hoffman's words, "They've still got it." Iggy's pants slid down to reveal his 57 year old butt crack at times, but he is still the king of cool. A highlight for me was my favorite Stooges song 1969. They played I Wanna Be Your Dog twice, once during the set, and once during the encore. It poured during the middle of the set and we shared our umbrella, but this did nothing to dampen the show.

We managed to stay late enough to catch a bit of Morrissey. He started at midnight, but I knew we'd kick ourselves if we missed him. Problem was it was again very crowded at the Arena stage, though not so bad as at NERD the day before. Morrissey's show featured a cool 15 foor tall light show bearing his name, but his set proved self-indulgent and featured so many slow ballads I felt like I was in England. The crowd started to trickle out a bit to head to Fatboy Slim on the Orange Stage. Morrissey played a few Smiths songs including "There is a Light...". We could not wait to get to my new favorite, "America is Not The World" and we headed out around 1 a.m. taking the bus back to Copenhagen.

Roskilde Nude Race today - Martin Dosh and N*E*R*D (with backing band Spymob) play Roskilde

The Roskilde Festival's traditional nude race is today. Unfortunately, though I thought Sean would be a formidable contestest, we are not going to make it out in time for the event. Read about it here. I saw footage of last year's on tv, complete with full frontal and quite casual nudity. Last year's nude race, however, was all male and not too exciting.

We had our first day out at the festival yesterday. It was a real dissapointment and a bit of a problem that Bowie had been dropped from the roster. We caught nearly the entirely of a full set by former Blur member Graham Coxen at the Odeon Stage. I will definitely be buying his album. Best show I've seen so far on this trip.

Slipknot, Bowie's "replacement" put on a decent show to a crowd of probably 40,000 on the main stage. I admire their intelligence and stage presence, but the music does not do a lot for me. It was, however, one of the loudest things I've heard in a while. Apparently Slipknot (so strange to think they are from in and around Des Moines Iowa)had to play two shows yesterday, one in Denmark and one in Germany, but their energy was outstanding. They seemed as thrilled to be here as the fans did to receive them.

Around 6 o'clock we headed over to the Arena Stage where I'd seen Massive Attack last year to see N*E*R*D. As you may know, N*E*R*D's backing band is none other than local Minneapolis musicians Spymob. Unfortunately we were unable to locate Brent or any of the guys before or after the show to say hey. Part of the reason was that N*E*R*D is phenomenally popular here and nearly 5,000 people had crowded into and around the tent which probably safely accomodates around 2,000. We were near the edge of the tent before they started, and by 5 minutes into the show the crowd had swelled around and behind us to scarely safe levels. (Crowd Safety people had even come on before the show to remind people not to push.) When N*E*R*D's lead singer said, "Okay, everyone, on the count of 5 it's time to JUMP," we knew that meant it was really time to get out of that crowd. It took almost 10 minutes to get to the back of it and boy was I glad to get out.

Our evening treat was seeing the Pixies again. A much larger crowd than at the Hurricane Festival, and the Pixies rose to the occasion. Best show of the 3 times I've seen them this year. Except for once when Kim Deal said "Danke Viel" the show was without commentary from the band. The beauty of this show was that it was sunset at about 10:30 at night, and that's my favorite time in Denmark. The sun starts to set and it just sets and sets and sets in a kind of near permanent twilight.

When we got back to our hotel we freshened up a bit then hit the town again. By the time we left the bars at 3:30 the sun was already coming up. I am glad I brought a sleep mask along with me to keep the sun out of my eyes as two hours of darkness is not quite enough for a good night's rest.

Today, right now, Martin Dosh (Fog, Dosh) from Minneapolis whom I have previously seen at the 7th Street Entry is playing at Roskilde on a small stage. I wished we could have gotten out there to see him as he is our other connection other than N*E*R*D. We could have worked it in if we'd known he was here, but we didn't until we saw him on the schedule yesterday. I need to get myself on that guy's newsletter so that doesn't happen again. Would have been an awesome review for howwastheshow.

Time to head back out shortly to catch Mr. Morrisey, whom I am very much looking forward to seeing. Saw him in Milwaukee in 1987, but that seems like a very long time ago.

More Coincidences - We arrive in Copenhagen

Sean asked me to remember something I said the other day, and to the best of my knowledge it was something to the effect of "The thing about coincidences is, if they don't happen, you don't remember them!" I am gifted with the ability to spout forth profundities of that sort when drinking.

Which brings me to another story. After 3 days in Berlin, we apparently felt confident enough getting around that we were mistaken for a local by a gentlemen emerging from a u-bahn stop. He asked in German where a certain street was, I answered in German and we tried to help him since he was clearly lost. He apologized for his poor German, saying he was French. We said we were Americans, which lead to him saying he was living in America actually. And where? St. Paul, Minnesota of all places, where he teaches French at the U.

Anyway, after a pleasant train and ferry ride we are now in Copenhagen. Sean's napping at the Hotel, resting up perhaps because we're not in Germany anymore and he has to learn a new language again. Actually, everyone speaks English well in Denmark anyway, so all we have to do is remember how to speak that language and we will be fine.

It's rainy tonight so we will head out to the festival tomorrow morning.

Bowie pinches nerve, cancels festival appearances

The funny thing about a plan is, well, you know the scoop. We figured we'd have 3 chances to see David Bowie, so we ditched the first. Now, as you may have read, Mr. Bowie has pinched a nerve in his shoulder and has been advised to cancel his remaining festival appearances. Read about it here. Bummer. Slipknot is not a consolation prize in this case.

At Oxegen at least, the replacement headliner is a bit more of a fair replacement: The Darkness!

Today is our final day in Berlin. Last night we were bold and tried some traditional German food. I actually ate something called Pig Knuckle, and I must say it was about the most disgusting thing I've ever swallowed in my life. Mr. Sean Hoffman ate some kind of raw herring, country style and for him it was about the worst meal he ever had. Our "authentic" German dining experience was made even worse by a noisy graduation party from Mexico of all places.

Sean apparently has an uncanny sense of direction and managed to steer us back to our u-bahn stop almost by sense of smell. At least in Berlin, I have begun to defer to him for navigating the streets. Although the subway (u-bahn) and I get along famously.

Tomorrow we're off to Copenhagen, by train. It will take ten hours and we will pass briefly back through Hamburg. Of course, the last bit will be over water by boat. Should be fun.

Overall, Hamburg was actually more fun. Comparatively, I'd say Hamburg feels like a Milwaukee or even a Minneapolis to Berlin's Chicago or New York. Our bus and boat tours of the city allowed us to see most of the sites from the outside (Brandenburg Gate, miscellaneous bits of the remaining parts of the Berlin wall and such) but we never really went into many places. The shopping, however, has been extremely tempting. I've already bought two pairs of shoes and several shirts. I found a gift for our friend Heath Henjum of the Olympic Hopefuls et al, a 1976 Olympic Games t-shirt, so if you read this Heath, you have a present coming upon our arrival home.