Music Festivals Galore

Over the last week of term I saw more music than I have seen in years. It has been more than cool....

First was the Montreux Jazz Festival last Wednesday (July 12). Sterling, Thomas, Patrick, Danny, Adrienne and I went to go see Mogwai. We left right after dinner to catch a train to Montreux, and then roamed the festival grounds for a while, listening to a couple of bands playing outdoors and getting some dinner. MmmmCurry. We got our armbands at the entrance of Miles Davis Hall, and after I was done being entranced by the new sparkly dangle on my wrist, we headed to the auditorium. Venus opened, and I liked their music. The singer was very David Bowie-esque. After a brief break, giving the boys enough time to go buy some t-shirts, Mogwai went on. They are an electronic band, with very little going on vocally. I appreciated their sound, but being a lyrically minded gal, I preferred Venus. What I loved most was the very short man standing next to me who was obviously familiar with their entire discography, swaying, screaming, and throwing up his hands in a good old-fashioned devil horn thing on occasion. Very amusing. Deus played last, but we couldn't stick around to hear it, as we had to rush to catch the last train home. We finally made it back to Bellevue at about 1:00, and everyone went immediately to bed, as several of us knew we were going to have another long day...

The next morning (July 13) we woke up early(ish) and headed out the door to hitch down to the train station for the Gurtenfestival in Bern. BAD hitching day. We stood there what seemed like forever waiting for a ride, and finally a rather charismatic fellow picked up Adrienne, Patrick and Sterling. Not terribly long after, Danny and I got picked up, at this point slightly panicky as the train was leaving within 10 minutes. Of course, the road was closed for repair work, so we had to take a detour. Our ride was super sweet, and understanding the time crunch, raced us there as quickly as possible. Arriving at the train station, we saw the train waiting at the platform. We yelled for our group and jogged over, jumping on at the last second. We almost lost Sterling, who was trying to buy a ticket on the platform, but we threw our bodies in the way of the door to make sure he made it on. Why the boys didn't get their tickets while they were waiting? One of life's great mysteries. And a question that would puzzle Adrienne and I again in Lausanne as we missed our train. Boys. Love them, but not always the kings of foresight.

We finally made it to Bern by about noon, and decided to walk the town for a while before heading to the festival. Almost immediately, we came upon a tobacco shop and watched a girl rolling cigars for a while. It was actually quite interesting to watch her handle the tobacco leaves. That was also where we lost Sterling. Patrick, Danny, Adrienne and I continued on, assuming he had seen a cute girl and stopped to do his thang. We headed through town and by the river, ending up at the bear pit. Residing there were 3 gigantic bears with sharp teeth and razor claws, sitting back on their rumps and catching the food that all the tourists threw in. It was amusing and terribly sad. The water tanks for them were green and murky, and it is a tragedy to see creatures like that reduced to a sideshow attraction. But we nonetheless took pictures of ourselves grinnly stupidly with the poor beasts, and then headed back into town to get some groceries and go to the festival itself, praying that we would somehow find Sterling in all the chaos.

After buying about 20 kilos worth of fruit, cheese, bread, water and the like and shoveling it into my new giant (cute and on sale at H&M) bag, we boarded the tram - after some confusion - and arrived. We followed the signs and the people into another station, where we boarded a gondola-like thing and took a 7-ish minute trip up to the top of the mountain. Passing through security, we had our bags checked and were discovered to be carrying 'contraband', so we turned around and headed to a shaded area to join our fellow delinquents in quickly consuming our illegal barley and hops. Waste not, want not and all that. Contraband thus disposed of, we headed back in and to our delight immediately ran into Sterling. A huge field spread in front of the main stage, and we quickly surveyed the site and found a prime viewing location to claim. We spread our blankets, pulled out all of our picnic stuff and watched Kaizer's Orchestra trying to get the crowd excited, with not a lot of success. And then it started raining. No, pouring would be more accurate. We hurriedly threw all of the food back in the bag and mounded our stuff as best we could, covering it with blankets. Sterling dashed for shelter in the beer tent, but the rest of us thought that a little rain dance was in order. We ran to join the gathering crowd in front of the band, and suddenly the deepest desire of our charismatic Kaizer was realized; the crowd was finally energized and moving. We danced, jumped, screamed, and slid for the next hour, getting drenched and loving it. Danny and I took a brief break to get some of the free raingear they were handing out and used it cover our stuff, but decided that it was more fun to leave our bodies bared to the elements and rejoined our wet and wild friends. Soon after the concert ended, there was a break in the rain and we re-spread our stuff, hoping the sun would dry it a bit and finally eating our lunch. Which was delicious - we definitely know how to picnic like champs.

By 7:00 we re-covered our bags and headed back down to grab spots front and center to the stage for our main event - David Gray. If you haven't heard of him, go buy his stuff. Now. He's incredible. And live, he is even better. The whole band was in suits, save the drummer, an older bloke who wore white pants, a hot pink tropical shirt and a couple of gold chains. He was wonderfully offbeat and charismatic, and was by far the most entertaining person on stage to watch. He sang along with his eyes closed, and his whole face churned and contorted in the ecstasy of being on stage and the object of the adulation of the people. After the set was finished, we were inducted to the Swiss version of calling 'encore'. Everyone held out there arms in front of them, a little higher than zombie pose, and waggled their fingertips while intoning 'whooooooooooo' at a low rumble. DG got a good laugh as he reappeared on stage, first imitating the action and then prompting us for more. I felt like a dancing monkey, knowing that I would do anything that the man on stage requested. We were puppets in his hands.

After the encore, all of us save Patrick (who wanted a brief nap and offered to keep watch over our pile o'stuff) went to catch a few songs by We Are Scientists on the East Stage. I don't know if it was the acoustics or what, but I wasn't terribly impressed, although I do like their With Love And Squalor CD. We wove our way back through all the booths, trying on hats and looking at tons of jewelry and other random things in kiosks spread throughout. We made it back just in time to find Patrick and settle in for James Blunt. He gave a great show, and I loved the dancing monkey that lit up the stage behind him (particularly apropos given my musings earlier in the day). The boys did their best to ruin it for Ade and I, especially Sterling and Patrick, with their incessant comments about the cliche nature of his lyrics. And they are, of course, right. He's not exactly a Nick Cave, but he's nonetheless pleasing to the ear. We packed up well before it ended and went to claim a place in the pavilion for the last concert of the evening, Zero 7. Ade and I snuck out to catch James Blunt's encore on the hill without the interruption of our cynical brethren for a while and chatted, and then went back to join them as the show began.

Okay, Zero 7? Phenomenal. They had a ton of problems with the sound system, and were really never able to get that entirely worked out, but they somehow managed to pull off the show anyway, with no one leaving upset at the technical difficulties or feeling at all disappointed. The whole band had personality that drew you in. They all seemed to really be having fun, dancing and just enjoying their music. Sia, the lead singer, had unbelievable vocals - the song Throw It All Away made my skin tingle. They were that good. During the instrumental portions and while some of the other guys took center stage on vocals, she danced around, made drinks for her cohorts at a bar set up on stage, and just goofed off. One of the guys wore an Urkel-esque outfit with suspenders, a cap, and the whole deal and moved from instrument to instrument while doing some super fly 80's dance moves. Just a great show, and as tired as I was, it really re-energized me. Which was good, because even though it was 2:00, our night was just beginning....

We lightened our load as much as possible before we left, as the tram schedule indicated that we were pretty well out of luck at that time of night and we were anticipating a several hour walk back to the main train station. Happily, as we unloaded at the base, I noticed a shuttle bus on the corner. We sprinted to it and jumped on, grateful for the ride. Once we were dropped back off at the train station, we then faced the challenge of finding a place to sleep for the next few hours before we had to catch the 5:30 train back. So we walked in the direction of a park, finally settling on some benches in the middle of a street in the old town. Adrienne and Patrick both curled up as best they could and tried to get some shut eye while Sterling stood guard. Danny and I went for a walk and wove through a park by the river for a while, knowing that sleep on a bench was an unlikely option for each of us. We returned to Patrick yelling "Shut Up!" in various ways to random Italian passerby who weren't using their quiet voices. Sterling, Danny and I mocked him for a while as he attempted to go back to sleep, and then doubled over in renewed hysterics as 4:30 struck and like magic the street sweepers appeared from various doorways and alleys. They used old school straw brooms, which added to the image of them flying in like Harry Potter at the strike of the clock. One of them came to clean about 6 inches from Patrick's head, knocking off bottles and making a helluva racket. Needless to say, he unhappily awoke from his semi-slumber, and we decided that was as good a time as any to head to our platform. When we got there, about 30 minutes early, the train was already parked at the track, so we jumped on and grabbed some seats and attempted to rest our eyes. I rested a wee bit, but was too nervous about missing our change in Lausanne to really relax. We arrived back in Aigle at about 7:30 and jumped on the first bus up, arriving back at Bellevue just in time for breakfast at 8 and an incredibly full day for all of us. Happily, we all made it through, but barely.

Last festival of note is the Paleo Festival in Nyon that I went to with Adrienne and Matt on July 19. The term had ended on Monday the 17th and we'd done our cleaning, and we'd bid adieu to all the boys (Thomas, Danny, Patrick and Sterling) on Tuesday, so we were the only ones left to partake of the extravaganza. Adrienne and I had been really wanting to go, but it was sold out, so that morning we jumped back online to catch their 'last chance' tickets that were going on sale the day of the show. Luckily we were able to get some, and Matt - a student here with me many moons ago who was back for a visit - decided to head out with us. Because it was so close (between Lausanne and Geneva) we decided to drive, and took off at around 2. We got to the fairground and were able to find parking quite easily, which was a great relief to me, and then headed in. We had some time before the music started, so we roamed the site to see what all there was. It was a really great set up, with 6 stages and several 'quartiers' spread throughout so that you could go to the Asian Quarter, Latin Quarter, etc. for all different kinds of food. Also tons of booth hawking the same goods that we'd seen at all the previous festivals. We walked through the World Village, which had a variety of Eastern European food and tried some yummy Transylvanian cinnamon bread while Matt and I practiced our puns. It's just too easy when you're eating bread off a skewer from Transyvania. I think we drove Adrienne to drink, so we all sat down and had a beer before heading back to the main stage to watch our first show, The Dandy Warhols. They were a lot of fun, and I appreciate their music, but it was strange seeing them play midday. I think I would have enjoyed it more in the evening. I don't know why that is, exactly, but I think it's true.

After they played, we walked around a bit more and then went and saw High Tone, a techno group, playing in a smaller tent and Adrienne and I danced it up for a while. We headed back to the main stage for Goldfrapp, which I was really excited about, and they did not disappoint. The whole band was dressed very 80's in black pants and hot pink t-shirts. The lead singer, Alison, wore a black pant suit with pink heart shaped sunglasses that were really fun. Despite a cold, her performance was spectacular, and the back-up dancers were very cool. They came out about every other song, each time with a new costume and choreography that really fit the music. I think the first outfit was my favorite - just black string bikinis and wolf head masks. They also dressed as silver latex clad martians and silver and white horses. Each costume completely covered their heads and faces, and I think there's a statement in their somewhere about bodies without minds and the exploitation of women everywhere, but I must admit I really enjoyed it. Both visually and vocally, it was terrific.

By that time, we were all getting hungry, so decided to run up the hill to grab some food before the main event. Adrienne and I got some massive portions of Thai curry that was delicious, and coupled it with some sangria from the Latin quarter. A strange combination, but it worked. By the time we finished eating, the main stage area was completely clogged with people. Knowing that I was completely excited to see Depeche Mode (who I last saw live in the late 80's), Matt began the process of stepping on and through people trying to pull Adrienne and I to a better position. While we really appreciated his efforts, ultimately we decided we were being tremendously obnoxious, so stopped weaving through and began the wait for the band. When they walked on stage, my heart skipped a tiny beat as I remembered their last show, and the way that their music, for better or worse, sort of defined my early adolescence. The show was really good, but dissapointing in some ways. First of all, our view of the stage was pretty terrible, and I was really annoyed with the words flashing artistically with the music on the screens when I really wanted to see, you know, the BAND. Finally they stopped with that nonsense and I got my first glimpse of David Gahan in all his glory. He looked much the same - black hair and heavy make-up - as I remembered, and was still wearing all black (pants and vest). I'm less familiar with their new music, but the older stuff was wonderful to hear live again. The only other annoying thing was that, because everyone knows and loves the old stuff, he rarely ever actually sang the choruses, instead throwing the mic out and letting the crowd do it for him. Nice, but I would have enjoyed hearing more of the familiar voice doing the familiar lyrics.

By the time they were finished at about midnight, I was exhausted and ready to make the drive home before I collapsed, so we only had time to listen to a couple of songs from Ziggy Marley before we trekked out to the car and got on the road. Another great day, more great shows, and I was ready to rest for about a week. And I (mostly) did.