Virgin Fest (more or less)

I suppose billing this as a review/commentary on the Virgin Festival as a whole is a bit mosleading, as through a combination of circumstance and intent I really only made it for three bands the first day. So as not to belabour things, a quick rundown of what I did catch:

Arctic Monkeys: If this is how they've been playing the whole time, it makes sense why they got as hot as they are. Straight-ahead, high-energy, good, fun rock.

Interpol: Is it them or is it me? Interpol has always been cleanly efficient in their performances, but now it just feels mechanical: enter stage, play note-perfect recreations of the songs as they sound on the albums, exit stage. But the crowd seemed to dig it, so take that for what you will. That having been said, hearing "Slow Hands" was pretty exciting.

Björk: You know those books listing various things a person should do before they die? Seeing Björk live should be in every one. With a set culled mainly from Post, Homogenic, and Volta, with the stars overhead and the open air, it was beyond words. Certain people have that ability to take a performance and make it something more, and that's exactly what she did.

In other news, a couple of native groups worth mentioning: Cities In Dust (okay, technically they're from Hamilton, but close enough, right?), who do the hyper, post-punk thing well enough to remind you why it was cool in the first place, and Slap [Unmodified], the project of one Thomas Sinclair, a nice bit of retro-inspired electronic work. To give you an idea of where he's coming from, the Slap Myspace page features a cover of Vangelis' end credits music from Blade Runner. Good work all around.