hotly tipped Little Boots brings successful Dot to Dot in Bristol to an end

The Dot to Dot festival returns to Bristol for the third year, this time for a one-day event in the city with most bands travelling up the country to Nottingham tomorrow for the sister festival.

Set across eight venues in Bristol, the furthest apart being a good 15 minute walk it is always going to be a challenge to get around the various venues to catch all of the bands on your checklist, but an additional problem with these type of city-festivals is the queues that are inevitable when a large number of fans want to see a popular act that is playing one of the smaller stages.

The first news of the day is that Official Secrets Act, have cancelled so our trip to the Fleece is abandoned and we make our way over to the O2 Academy where our afternoon kicks off well upstairs in the bar with Dog Is Dead. Their angular pop with Futureheads styled harmonies is a good way to start the proceedings, but there's only a small crowd that has left the beautiful weather outside to sample the somewhat damp ambience of the Academy.

A Quick trip downstairs takes us into the bigger O2 Academy 1 arena for the Google-unfriendly Apples. The lead singer bounces cheekily around to the almost unbearably 80's pop sound and they clearly have an ear for a catchy tune, but it all seems a little too recycled to be taken too seriously.

A short walk to the smaller The Cooler nightclub, a very strange place to be on a scorching Saturday afternoon, brings us to Reykjavik band Hjaltalín. Giving us a lesson in the pronunciation of his bands name (apparently Welsh people can say it well), and a walkthrough of the meaning of some of their Icelandic lyrics, lead singer Högni bares an uncanny resemblance to Kurt Cobain, but their music couldn't be further away from that of Nirvana! Seven musicians squeeze onto the stage including a violinist and a bassoon player, both adding a unique sound to what I could lazily label as an Icelandic Arcade Fire but with added passion and an incredible duo of singers with Högni being joined by the amazing Sigga.

A Short wait at The Cooler and the place fills up for Maps. Playing tracks from the 2007 Mercury Music nominated 'We Can Create' and the forthcoming 'Turning The Mind' James Chapman and his two sidekicks on their synths produce a great shoegazing noise but with the nature of the set-up of the band the on stage performance is somewhat of a disappointment.

We move over to The Louisiana, a cracking little venue, but find there is a one-in one-out queue system in place for Polly Scattergood, so we head back to the O2 Academy to see what is going on back there. Fortunately for us we only catch the last five minutes of Cage The Elephant. This was more than enough to realise that their only positive point is the exuberance of lead singer Matt Schultz throwing himself about the stage, musically, however, they are nothing to write home about.

The same could be said for what was clearly the worst band we see all day, The Mission District, playing back upstairs in the O2 Academy 2. Sounding like Busted playing My Chemical Romance songs this was obviously for the teenage girls amongst the crowd that seemed to love it. They lost me when after only two songs they did a pointless Lady GaGa cover, since they kept mentioning how cheesy they were I can only imagine that they were going for some kind of ironic vote. We immediately cut our losses and head back downstairs for what I was expecting to be the show of the day.


Coming on stage in his trademark red shoulder-padded outfit and glittering make up, Patrick Wolf, looked in a mood to entertain. Playing some new tracks from his new album 'The Bachelor' Wolf looks destined to be one of the real stars of 2009. New tracks, in particular 'Oblivion' and 'Hard Times', were simply stunning with Wolf swapping between guitar and viola to add an orchestral feel. The revelation of his new guitar being bought in Bristol that day received a cheers from the Academy crowd that was as big as anything that day, only the announcement of his "Top of the Pops moment" 'The Magic Position' could match it.

After a brief respite it was time for the much-lauded Ladyhawke. I was looking forward to this after the success of her debut album, and the songs, now all extremely familiar, did indeed come across to the audience well, but there was something missing. Ladyhawke, or Pip Brown, is stuck behind the keyboard or guitar too much for her to make a spectacle, and only this prevents Ladyhawke putting on a show to remember.

Quite frankly, by now, we had had enough of the Academy. It is easily the worst venue in Bristol and takes a good 10-15 minutes to empty when a show finishes so we make the tricky decision not to see Friendly Fires, and leave for a change of scenery. Friendly Fires were not the only band I wanted to see but were unable to for various reasons, Future of the Left, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Dan Black, The XX, Pulled Apart by Horses, Titus Andronicus, Alessi's Ark, and AC Newman, were all things I would have loved to catch, but unfortunately didn't.

It was now time to head back over to the Thekla, the hub of today's festival to catch the headliner Little Boots. After queuing for a good thirty minutes it was clear this was going to be busy. Getting inside with what was only twenty minutes before Little Boots was due to be on stage we were surprised to find New Zealand Drum 'n' Bass collective Shapeshifter, still going strong in the middle of their storming set. Not usually my cup of tea they definitely found how to get the crowd moving, although if the euphoria was completely unaided by drugs I couldn't be sure.

At almost 2am, over one hour after she was due to be on stage, the audio technicians finally worked out how to use a Macbook and Little Boots, came on stage to a chorus of boos. She pleaded her innocence, and to be fair I doubt very much that it was her own fault since the Thekla seemed already to be quite some time behind schedule, and got straight into her set, although after her first song some boos did continue. After singles 'New In Town', 'Meddle' and 'Stuck on Repeat' the crowd was well and truly won over by this years hotly tipped Victoria Hesketh, who although is diminutive on stage will be huge after the summer has gone.

Another successful Dot to Dot in Bristol came to an end, except for those still partying with Annie Mac back at the Academy, and I hope that it continues to return year after year, even if it does mean more headaches over which bands to miss.

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