Guilfest - Friday

Went to Guilfest the day after my table tennis/train fatality experience. For the first time I can recall I actually wanted to see the opening band on the main stage on the Friday, so I got down there pretty early (actually even earlier than planned because my Sky+ box died and the cricket wasn't on terrestrial/freeview) and got a good position from which to watch Nizlopi -- who were fucking awesome. I already had (and loved) the album but hadn't actually read anything about the band themselves, so it came as a proper shock to find out they were just 2 fellas, with all percussion actually provided by the double bass player either as beatbox or hitting his instrument. Fantastic stuff, I need to sort out getting my ticket to go see them in London early September although I can't do it just yet 'cos I'm not sure whether I'll be here or not.

Now I'm trying to remember who else I saw on Friday, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't take a lot of notice of anyone in particular until Hayseed Dixie headlined the second stage (no longer sponsored by Uncut for some reason) at the end of the night. I wandered for a bit to see what the setup was like, had a beer, and after a while everyone else I knew arrived: Edi, Monica, Anne, Mike Wood, Keen and his 2 brothers. The lager came thick and fast because we were all absolutely boiling, and a few of us stood around listening to but not watching the Lightning Seeds, a band who seem never to have released a song that wasn't an immediately recognisable hit.

Oh, wait. While checking my flickr photos I'm reminded that I did in fact go watch another band or two; in the RockSound cave I watched the tail end of Dead!Dead!Dead!, and all of Bring Me The Horizon, who were bloody fantastic. Actually 'fantastic' might be a little strong, because there was a few things I didn't like... frankly I think they need to be sat down with a decent producer. They've obviously got loads of good riffs but seemed too keen to use them. What I mean is they kept chopping and changing riffs and time signatures and making songs overcomplicated. A bit of simplification, keeping a few of the riffs they write on hold until they can fit it into a new song, wouldn't go amiss.

Hayseed Dixie were shit :-( for a variety of reasons really. For starters they were just too damn quiet: between songs we could easily hear Embrace from the main stage, and during songs we barely had to raise our voices to talk to one another. And it seemed to me like most of the crowd didn't really know most of the songs, especially (and ironically) the AC/DC numbers. But I was mightily amused by the lyrics to "The Bootlegger's Daughter":

I'm in love with the bootlegger's daughter
How could I go wrong?
The bootlegger's daughter
Puts corn in the water
And makes me liquor all night long

It works better when you say it out loud...

I missed the last train from London Road back to Surbiton, but that didn't matter; still possible to get back from Guildford. Unfortunately I kept checking the live departures on my phone and sped up a bit just to make an earlier train than planned which happened to be running a couple of minutes late. So I decided to get that, do a bit of creative re-routing, and ended up not getting home until some daft time, I dunno, 0200 or summat. Should have been 1230. Anyway I uploaded all my photos before going to bed 'n all, because despite the time and journey, I was doing nothing but going to Guilfest again the next day...