Indietracks 2011

Another year, another Indietracks. This year's festival was probably my favourite one so far. Not only did I get to play in a packed church, I also saw some of my favourite bands play amazing sets.

On Friday we arrived just in time for Suburban Kids With Biblical Names.

It was the first time I'd seen them play with a full band and they were amazing. I couldn't have hoped for a better start to the festival. We all sang along, danced and drank ourselves silly. Then we kept dancing to a Sacred To Dance DJ set in the shed.

It was a great start to the weekend.


On Saturday it was time to panic a little about our set. I had been worrying about being the first band on for quite some time. I shouldn't have. The church was packed by the time we soundchecked and people were standing outside peeking through the windows. It was an amazing feeling.

The show went well…we didn't even mess up that much. Well, The Monkey and My Princess kind of imploded in a heap of "Aaah I can't hear the drums and have no idea where in the song we are". But, that's all part of the Moustache experience.


After the show, it was time to plug Album Of Death to the merch-hungry crowd. It all went surprisingly well. In between stints at the merch tent I managed to catch a bit of Dignan Porch in the church and they were absolutely ace.

I really need to check them out further.

In the evening, it was finally time to relax and just enjoy the festival. Then the generator at the main stage blew up. This could have been a disaster, but instead it meant The Hidden Cameras could perform a truly special totally unplugged mini-set.

I've never seen such a large crowd stay so quiet in order to hear the music. AMAZING!

The band played a "normal" set later on in the shed, but the earlier one is the one I'll always remember.

Then...

DANCING!

DANCING!!

DANCING!!!

DANCING!!!

DANCING!!!

The rest of the night was spent with the lovely Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, first freestyle rapping to a very confused taxi driver about his "awesome style", then drinking beer and eating Monster Munch until the wee hours. A lovely end to a great day.

Sunday came and surprisingly I didn't even feel sick. Travelodge is clearly the way to go. Anguish Sandwich in the church were absolutely brilliant.


They are one of my favorite UK bands at the moment and you should definitely grab their name-your-price download EP on bandcamp. Get it HERE.

Whilst doing another stint in the merch tent I caught MJ Hibbett doing a short set in the merch tent to a completely captivated audience.



It's such a lovely place to just walk around, so many friends and happy faces everywhere. You'll never know who you'll bump into...

An Allo darlin' smiling...

...a Monster Bobby singing...

...a Ballboy sitting...

...or a naughty Tigercat smoking...

Happy Days!

Also on the Sunday afternoon, some of the Fika artists played a few songs each at the Fika Tea Party.

Horowitz

Red Shoe Diaries

Moustache of Insanity

Lisa Bouvier

Evening time and a triple-bill of awesome headliners. Jeffrey Lewis was absolutely brilliant in the shed.

Few people can turn that stage into something utterly awesome, but he managed. Herman Dune joined the band on stage for a few songs, which only added to the magic.

The second Jeff and Co finished it was time to run to the main stage for Withered Hand.


The band looked a bit nervous at first, but in the end it only added to the intensity of the performance.

Time for a little break until Herman Dune hit the main stage. It's quite a responsibility, closing the festival and personally I think they chose a rather strange way to do it.

Instead of playing a set of hits mixed with new stuff it was pretty much exclusively new material. Two songs from the previous two albums and a Sonic Youth cover. That was it. No 'Not On Top', no 'I Wish I Could See You Soon'. In the end the cover of 'Dirty Boots' was the highlight of the set, with Jeffrey Lewis' band returning the favour from earlier and joining the band on stage.

We had a final couple of beers, a final dance in the shed, before saying our goodbyes and making the emotional final train journey back.

A massive thank you to Team Indietracks and all the volunteers for making it happen and reach new levels of awesomeness year after year!

We'll be back in 2012. I'm already counting the days. Assuming that it starts on 27th July there are only 358 days to go! yay!