Pukkelpop 2014

[TheNewUnion]

We'll probably go to the Boiler Party for a bit, most likely to coincide with the opening thing at 10.30pm, and then back into town. Will give you a shout at some point.

Sounds like a plan. Was there from opening last year and also a couple of years back. Not pretty by the time the 10:30 opening rolled around so might be sensible and head in later this year.

[Semprini]

Got a text from Trufflehound earlier and he said he came past the site just minutes after the tent came down. Said it was very localised, which was backed up by another friend who lives 10 miles down the road in Genk. She said they just had some rain and no storm or strong winds.

Pleased to report though that Trufflehound also said that he was in the Holiday Inn Express, beer in hand and the sun was shining!

Right, best go and pack.

[TheNewUnion]

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.hbvl.be/cnt/dmf20140812_01214850/bekijk-de-ravage-vanuit-de-lucht&usg=ALkJrhiJpdp5TSzLCWmbn0kgVXI21Nqv-g

Looks like it's just fallen over a bit....

[Snorefest]

Canvas severely torn though, that's a problem. I'm no scientist but I imagine there's a lot of downward pressure achieved through the canvas and the way it gets bolted to cement blocks in the ground. But yeah I'm kinda hopeful now!

[Semprini]

Just waiting on taxi to take me to the airport - the big day is finally here!!

Been great as always sharing the build up with everyone on here and I look forward to seeing a few of you over the weekend.

Have an amazing PKP everyone, I know I will!

[DDave]

http://www.festivalblog.be/festivals/club-tent-herstelt

New tent is...up!

Very nice it is too.

[TheNewUnion]

Good news! Looking forward to The Club lineup more than ever.

[TheNewUnion]

Portishead just won Pukkelpop 2014!

[DDave]

Portishead just won Pukkelpop 2014!

Thought they sounded very industrial from what I heard. Dusky, Tensnake and Super Discount were amazing last night.

[TheNewUnion]

So, that's Pukkelpop done for another year. Some great performances this year, feel like I picked well with only Outkast and Deafheavan disappointing me. Loved Portishead, Die Antwoord, St Vincent, Atomic Bomb, The War on Drugs. Need to go back over the timetable and refresh my memory on everything I saw.

Edited August 18, 2014 by TheNewUnion

[Snorefest]

Okay I'm back in the land of the living. Just gonna list a few highlights here from the top of my head. If anyone wants to add their 'reviews' I always like reading 'em!

Btw, did anyone go to the Trashure Island area? We had a blast eating insect burgers and using bicycles to blend our own smoothies.

St. Lucia -- This was an awesome start, great band, pretty radiofriendly, wouldn't be surprised to see them go the Imagine Dragons route of mainstream success.

Say Lou Lou -- Good, but anyone know what happened here? They finished like 30 minutes before scheduled end time, did they start early? Only played 1 hit song too, really odd. They were good but would've liked a longer show.

Janelle Monáe -- One of my highlights, criminally underattended though. (If you didn't go, I'm judging you! )But damn was this a good show, very polished and despite the very low attendance they gave 110%, very impressive. Where was Big Boi though?

Also Dr. Lektroluv subbed very well for Brodinski, and Atomic Bomb! was fantastic, which I wouldn't have checked out without you guys recommending it so thanks for that!

Actress -- this was fantastic, pretty much a perfect set. Soundscapes for 20 min before introducing the first pulse sound and only at the very end something resembling a beat. Very carefully constructed.

Kelis -- dug this a LOT. Her range is impressive, so many hits but in the updated jazzy versions, great.

Submotion Orchestra -- such a smooth show, managed to make dubstep beats feel classy.

Darkside -- really nice, but would it kill them to sustain a beat for 10 seconds? Could've been the dance act of the festival, but so much stop-start kinda killed the momentum.

Portishead -- for some reason I couldn't quite get into it, but sheesh was this great or what?! Perfect renditions of their songs. Even if they never make that 4th album, Portishead could just play this setlist indefinitely and feel like the definitive version of themselves.

Dissapointments were Other Lives, XXYYXX who barely played any of his own stuff, Truckfighters were somewhat underwhelming in the voice department, Snoop Dogg felt very 'easy' and QOTSA didn't quite grab me so we left early for Portishead. Unfortunately missed: St. Vincent, Kavinsky, FKA Twigs.

Special mention must go to Calvin Harris, where I unfortunately ended up. We had a lot of fun dancing to the bloated EDM stuff, but the weirdest 'dj set' I've ever seen. Intro for 30 seconds, drop a beat for 20, another intro, another beat... Just stop-start-stop-start for over an hour?!?! So bad, the drops work, but soooo bad.

Lastly, this year's "Regina Spektor Award for Most Rotten Luck" goes to Arthur Beatrice. First John Wizards ended like 15-20 minutes late, leaving them barely any time to set up let alone soundcheck. Result was half the show was just them pointing at the sound guy to raise mic levels, tuning their guitars, 2 songs before the end they replaced the kickdrum and everything attached to it in the middle of a song... And YET this was probably my performance of the fest; they battled valiantly, always found a way around the technical issues and delivered stunning renditions of their prize songs in the meantime. Very impressed; a lot of bands would've gotten out ASAP but they made do and final song "Grand Union" cut very deep. Saw quite some misty eyes. A++

[TheNewUnion]

I'll do a proper attempt at a review later in the week, just need to try and determine everyone I saw - there were loads. About 12 on day one and less on days 2 and 3. Wide variety from Die Antwoord to First Aid Kit, Sub Focus to Atomic Bomb, Tinie Tempah to Slowdive and all stops in between really. There really is a lot of variety if you even mildly scratch the surface.

[Snorefest]

Yeah we went into the festival area pretty early every day so averaged about 8 to 12 acts a day. And that's just full shows, not even counting the ones where we saw just 2 songs or something like that... I just cherrypicked the stuff that really stood out and didn't want to make a huuuuuuge post since it was already getting long.

[Muppetmark]

How were qotsa?

[Semprini]

I'll post my usual longwinded and rambling review in the next few days but here's a link to the website that streamed all the sets:

http://www.skynet.be/nl/festivals/pukkelpop-2014/concert-videos

They are mostly still available to watch, plus lots of interviews and other stuff.

[SoLoCo]

I'll post my usual longwinded and rambling review in the next few days but here's a link to the website that streamed all the sets:

http://www.skynet.be/nl/festivals/pukkelpop-2014/concert-videos

They are mostly still available to watch, plus lots of interviews and other stuff.

This is brilliant! Thanks for the share. Can relive Atomic Bomb all over again!

On a relative note, I had a brilliant time at PKP. What a festival! Will hopefully be returning in the future.

[TheNewUnion]

Quick Q. can someone translate this from Humo.be into English please? Google translate just turns it mad, mostly

Beth Gibbons heeft een keelgat als het hellend vlak van Ronquières, en ze slikt daarmee aldoor ‘s werelds sociaal onrecht, persoonlijke frustraties, confrontaties met naar voetschurft ruikende lul-de-behangers, en andere issues naar binnen – waarna ze al dat vuil walgend en bedekt onder het gal weer uitspuwt in de micro. Het resultaat is – een mens zou het niet zeggen – pure pracht. Dat is Portishead.

[Dietediet]

Quick Q. can someone translate this from Humo.be into English please? Google translate just turns it mad, mostly

Beth Gibbons heeft een keelgat als het hellend vlak van Ronquières, en ze slikt daarmee aldoor ‘s werelds sociaal onrecht, persoonlijke frustraties, confrontaties met naar voetschurft ruikende lul-de-behangers, en andere issues naar binnen – waarna ze al dat vuil walgend en bedekt onder het gal weer uitspuwt in de micro. Het resultaat is – een mens zou het niet zeggen – pure pracht. Dat is Portishead.

Keep in mind that Humo is not your typical magazine, but here we go:

Beth Gibbons has got a throat like the Ronquières inclinced plane, with which she swallows the world's social injustice, personal frustrations, confrontations with of feet-rabiës smelling assholes, and other problems - after which she disgustedly spits out the in bile covered dirt straight in the mic. The result is - you wouldn't assume - pure beauty. That is Portishead.

The Ronquières inclined plane is the biggest one in Belgium, it's their way of saying she has a great vocal range...

[TheNewUnion]

So not a million miles away from the Google translate version then!

What's the deal with Humo, their stuff always looks a bit odd!

[Trufflehound]

(This is a bit long. Apologies for rambling on.)

A little late with my thoughts as I’ve been upgrading my computer, but here goes. Another vintage year with good company as ever.

A lowlight came on the Tuesday before, cycling down to Hasselt. We got caught in the storm that destroyed the Club. We were about 500 metres north of the site when the rain got so heavy we had to stop and take shelter. When it stopped we shrugged it off as ‘just another summer storm’, but two minutes later we passed the site and saw the tent had come down. It was pretty surreal, giving me flashbacks of 2011, and it was even stranger cycling past all the residents who’d come out of their homes opposite and were just staring at it open-mouthed, disbelieving. As we got nearer Hasselt about three fire engines, three ambulances and three police cars came hurtling past us, lights flashing. I was in stunned shock for a few hours after that until we learned no one was hurt and it was the standard emergency response that had been triggered.

Hats off to the PKP team and the tent company for getting a replacement up and running in less than 24 hours. If it hadn’t been on the news, no one would have suspected anything.

A serious thought though. We are told the Club Stage exceeded all European safety standards, but it still came down in what was not in my opinion a particularly freak event (and I was out in it, so I know), just a fairly fruity summer storm. We are also told by most experts to expect more frequent and intense storms like that in the years to come. So shouldn’t festival tent designers and builders all over the world, not just in Belgium, be thinking of making stronger tents to withstand the future, not the past?

Anyhow, to the music. We saw about 45 bands total, but these stuck out for various reasons:

Expected highlights for me:

Gogol Bordello – always give a good show. This time was no different.

Frank Turner (finally, after cancellations in 2011 and 2013). Raucous and upbeat. Excellent stuff. Michael John ‘Fat Mike’ Burkett, lead singer of NOFX, came on stage to join in on one song. He came down into the front of the crowd near us for the rest of the show, and I nearly spilled his pint on his way back out again. Probably a good job I didn’t, looking at him…

Atomic Bomb! – great party vibe, and a shame the organisers pulled the plug when they overran. Enjoyed Luke Jenner’s gay cowboy routine, thought Young Fathers looked a bit surly and disinterested when they came on at the end, and Alexis Turner was great, even if he looked a bit miserable throughout (he was also looking miserable at breakfast in the HI Exp next morning, so maybe that’s just how he is).

Thurston Moore – seems to have got his mojo back, and the new band with Steve Shelley on drums and Debbie from MBV on bass (and the other guy, whoever he was) were great.

The War on Drugs – probably my favourite album of the year, played brilliantly.

Maybeshewill - another of my current favourites, with lots of crashing guitars to wake everyone up on the final morning. I’ll be seeing them again in Tilburg in October.

Unexpected highlights:

Perfect Pussy and their furious 25 minutes of industrial punk turned up to 11 with incomprehensible lyrics yelled by a demure young waif in a white fairy tutu. We reckoned they’d clear the tent inside 5 minutes, but fair play, an impressive number of people stuck it out. I really liked them.

The Bohicas – who sounded like early Bloc Party. Great way to start day 2.

Lucius – another pleasant surprise, kind of what you would get if you put Alison Krauss (when singing ‘Down to the River to Pray’ from Oh Brother Where art Thou), Kate and Cindy from The B-52’s, and The Ting Tings into a blender and pressed go.

Omar Souleyman – got every single person in a full Castello dancing, and even wears his sunglasses in bed at night (allegedly). What more do you want?

The Amazing Snakeheads – not really a surprise I guess, as they model their sound on The Birthday Party, who are my all-time favourite band. And the bassist looked and moved like BP bassist Tracey Pew. (As an aside, we were wondering what a nice quiet night out it would be if ‘shouty-sweary’ him from The Amazing Snakeheads went out on a date with ‘shouty-incoherent’ her from Perfect Pussy. Would they be able to understand what each other was saying, because you can be sure no one else would…?)

Chrome Brulée – didn’t know what to expect, but got 7 people in hoodies and robot masks with red LED lights for eyes playing old synth music that sounded like Kraftwerk, with a curious tinge of the Alan Parsons Project thanks to the funky bass…

Slowdive – were also much better than expected. Their old shoegaze routine sounded more interesting live than it does on record.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - old skool rock out of 1971. Half Hawkwind/Black Sabbath; half Status Quo playing ‘Roll Over, Lay Down’, with occasional ‘Thin Lizzy style’ twin guitar solos. Oddly pleasing.

Also enjoyed Forest Swords and Temples (even if the singer/guitarist was trying to be Marc Bolan and the bassist looked like he’d just auditioned for a Sweet tribute act).

Best diving into the crowd moment: St Vincent, with her Eddie Van Halen-style guitar solo finale. Unfortunately for her, although the rest of the show was stunning to watch, I thought all the choreographed moves (what was all that synchronised shuffling about?) distracted a bit from the music.

Best ‘get unsuspecting member of the crowd on stage’ moment: Dave Hause – on spotting a young Belgian guy in the audience playing an inflatable guitar, he says “You want to come up here and play a duet?” So Belgian guy does, and to give him his due, managed not to be totally phased, even when Mr Hause hands him his real electric guitar and says: “F**k it. You play this. I’m going in there with them,” then dives into the crowd, leaving the kid on stage.

Best rock ‘n’ roll banter: the singer of Marmozets, with her insightful line: “We’re gonna play some more songs now, because… er… that what us bands do.” Yeah, you tell ‘em girl.

Worst make up: The singer of Swedish band INVSN who spent the whole show throwing Zoolander ‘Blue Steel’ shapes with a big smear of what looked like black shoe polish right across his face. (Note for him: the old face paint routine looked shit on Michael Stipe as well)

Disappointment: (well not really – she was good, but I was hoping for great) Anna Calvi. I like her music, but somehow she didn’t wow me. Maybe we should have gone to see Portishead instead, who only lost out on a coin toss…

Either way, we’re already looking forward to 2015.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Trufflehound

[Trufflehound]

St. Lucia -- This was an awesome start, great band, pretty radiofriendly, wouldn't be surprised to see them go the Imagine Dragons route of mainstream success.

Janelle Monáe -- One of my highlights, criminally underattended though. (If you didn't go, I'm judging you! )But damn was this a good show, very polished and despite the very low attendance they gave 110%, very impressive. Where was Big Boi though?

Enjoyed St Lucia and I liked the energy and enthusiasm, but the songs were just too forgettably mainstream for my ears. A bit like Imagine Dragons last year.

We had planned to see Janelle Monae as I was impressed by seeing her Glastonbury show on TV a couple of years back, but her voice was too shrill and set the wife's ears on edge, so we had to give her the swerve on those grounds.

[TheNewUnion]

Best rock ‘n’ roll banter: the singer of Marmozets, with her insightful line: “We’re gonna play some more songs now, because… er… that what us bands do.” Yeah, you tell ‘em girl.

She also rambled for a bit, looked confused then said "can you even understand what I'm saying"

I thought they were great, fun way to start the day.

[Trufflehound]

She also rambled for a bit, looked confused then said "can you even understand what I'm saying"

I thought they were great, fun way to start the day.

Yeah, I liked that bit too, and her surprised "Oh, awesome" when people indicated they could understand...

Also when she introduced the band. "Over there: that's my brother. Up there: that's my brother. And those two over there are brothers..."

Edited August 21, 2014 by Trufflehound

[Snorefest]

Hahaha yeah Marmozets were kinda delightful, cool chick too and the entire band just went mental towards the end. Also agreed that Chrome Brulée were very interesting, though I counted 8 dudes!

[Trufflehound]

Hahaha yeah Marmozets were kinda delightful, cool chick too and the entire band just went mental towards the end. Also agreed that Chrome Brulée were very interesting, though I counted 8 dudes!

It was 8 if you count the guitarist who came on for the last song...!