Pukkelpop 20-22/8

As our campsite is just over five kilometres from the festival site, we decided to hire bikes for the duration of the festival. It was pretty reasonable in cost and took us a bit over half an hour to ride there each way, depending on how tired we were. We were a bit sore after the first day as neither of us has been on a bike for a while, the last time for me was in Darwin in March. Needless to say, we felt the bumps a little bit more than we would have liked. Bike parking was provided by the festival just down the road and secured on a ticket basis, there would have been over a thousand bikes in there at peak times so finding a spot to leave them was a bit of a challenge. Thursday had a fantastic line-up and we were pretty lucky this time around as there wasn’t a lot of clashes between time slots for things we wanted to see. Most other festivals we've had to chose between two good bands but here it was easy enough to walk from one stage to the next, it’s also quite a small site so not too much of a hassle to get about. Maximo Park kicked off procedings (for us anyway) on the main stage and they performed a pretty similar set to Benicassim but an enthusiastic one. Next up we saw Razorlight who seemed a little bit lost on the main stage, we were fairly far back but it didn’t seem like a lot of the crowd were paying attention, they sounded quite good though. La Roux was up next in a smaller tent known as The Club, when she was on at Glasto they’d just been hyped by the BBC so we couldn’t get anywhere near the tent. This time it was still pretty busy so we’ve not actually ‘seen’ her, just heard the set both times - this time the sound was better though so we enjoyed ‘Bulletproof’ and some other tracks a lot more. Between acts we had a bit of dinner and heard a bit of the Deftones who we are mostly familiar with through our friend Kirsty (Hi KP! - they were pretty good!). There was a secret act on the Marquee Stage next so we checked it out as there wasn’t anything else worth seeing at the same time. At Glastonbury the ‘secret’ acts are normally well known bands making a surprise appearance, here it was slightly different as Them Crooked Vultures are essentially a new band consisting of some people that have played together before. Dave Grohl and Josh Homme have performed together in Queens of the Stone Age, in Them Crooked Vultures they are joined by John Paul Jones, formerly of Led Zepplin and one other guy who might of looked familiar but I can’t place him. The main thing is that they played like they had been together a long time and like men possessed - their whole set was sensational and we thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. It was also realy good to see them enjoying themselves, they seemed to really enjoy the mostly local crowd and each other, Dave Grohl in particular grinning a lot. Time for some metal next with Opeth at a small stage known as The Shelter, it was quite an intimate space to see such a well known act but it was good to see them up close. Ten minute metal epics are childs play for Opeth and they too were having a good time. We heard a bit of Ladyhawke while we were sitting down waiting for Faith No More, she sounded pretty good but it was a bit lost in the crowd noise for us. Faith No More played a similar set to Roskilde but in quite a different fashion as Mike Patton was quite antagonistic towards the crowd, openly having a go at some audience members and also singing some of ‘Evidence’ in Portuguese. Which sounded pretty good by the way, I just don’t think everyone understood where he was coming from. It was a good performance though, just different. Last act of the night (for us) were My Bloody Valentine, a band I have been waiting almost 20 years to see. They reformed early last year (I think) and it didn’t look like we’d get the chance until I saw that they had been added to the Pukkelpop bill about six weeks ago. I am hesitant to try and put such an amazing experience into words so I’ll just say it was everything I could have hoped for... only louder - nothing else came close for volume for the rest of the festival, earplugs were essential! We eventually had to move back as we thought the sound might have been a bit too much for the bubba. Pure white noise. The ride home was a bit easier than our ride there and we had a bit of a sleep in on Friday before heading out in the afternoon to catch Eagles of Death Metal on the main stage. Another band that was having a good time, their set was great from start to finish, we sang along to ‘I Really Wanna be in LA’ knowing that we will be there in a few weeks. We saw the end of The Living End playing at The Shelter, they had a decent sized crowd and sounded good. We went to see Glasvegas next, in the Marquee, a much more intimate setting than at Benicassim and their performance benifitted a lot from it, they were fantastic. Big singalongs too, once again a huge one for ‘Daddy’s Gone’ - stirring stuff. The Ting Tings played the main stage next, getting a good reaction for ‘That’s Not My Name’ which was eagerly sung along to. Vampire Weekend (who all looked like they were 12) were at the Marquee next and they were really good, trying out a fair bit of new stuff in with the hits, they came across well to an enthusiastic audience. Snow Patrol played the main stage while went to find something to eat, we heard all their set but would have appeciated some older stuff in with the newer hits (I suspect I’m just being a snob there). The dark and mysterious Fever Ray had the Maquee stage covered in faint lamps so while they were playing only small parts of the stage were lit for short moments, they were all costumed too so combined with the atmospheric songs it was quite a show. I’m not sure if it was sitting right with a ‘festival crowd’ but we liked it. Vocals very much like the singer’s other band, The Knife. Placebo were on the main stage next, a set identical to Bilbao BBK so not much in the way of surprises, they played well but a little variation might have been nice. Last act for us was Blood Red Shoes at the Club, a small venue for this British band who we hadn’t heard anything of before, we were checking them out based on hype from NME. It was worth it as the two piece put on a great show in front of a loyal audience. Pretty tired by this stage so we went to collect our bikes as Kraftwerk started, we heard a little on the ride back but we’ve seen them before and didn’t expect any surprises. During the day on Saturday one of the bands mentioned that there were 60,000 people at the site, we were not sure of the official figure but it did seem like Saturday was the busiest day. The crowd seemed to be a bit older than some of the other festivals, still a mix with young campers but there was a whole heap of middled aged guys about the place getting drunk which is heartening for my future. We started proceedings with Dinosaur Jr on the Main Stage. We’ve not seen them for a number of years, certainly not while the key members have been back together so it was cool to see J Mascis rocking out playing ‘Out There’ and ‘Feel the Pain’ again in front of a stack of Marshall amps. We listened to Florence and the Machine after that (the tent being too busy to see) but it sounded good, even if it was suspiciously like Siouxsie and the Banshees in parts. We heard a bit of 50 Cent on the main stage, he had a large crowd but it was pretty unimpressive as far as we were concerned - but then he is just not our cup of Earl Grey. We went over to the Marquee to see Klaxons next, they had played a secret slot a Glasto but there was something else on at the same time. The singer looked a bit out of it but they put on a good show and the keyboard player had on a vintage Sonic Youth t-shirt the same as I have at home so that was cool. N*E*R*D were on the main stage after that, again not entirely what we’re into but it sounded quite good, I recognised more songs than I didn’t and they sounded a lot tighter than 50 Cent had earlier in the day. Second to last act of the day for us was Tortoise, once again listened to outside the tent as they’d drawn quite a crowd and it was too smokey inside. A good set, we only own the album ‘Standards’ though, so a lot of the material is unfamiliar but still good. Arctic Monkeys were finishing up on the main stage and early in the set they played an excellent version of ‘Red Right Hand’, very different to the original in that it was almost twice as fast but played really well. They put on a great show with songs from their new album as well as hits off the last two records, great stuff. We managed the final ride home easily, a bit less sore than the previous two days but a decent rest was definitely required.