For those who don't know - shame on you and your family - Sigur Rós is an Icelandic band who make hypnotic, strangely-ethereal music that pretty much defies genres. On CD it's beautiful, haunting and riveting; live it's the most breathtaking festival experience I've ever had.
There really is no way to describe what they do; they make soundtracks to dreams, wide and epic numbers that go right through you and leave you speechless. Standing there in the crowd, a thousand people in front of me and fifty thousand behind me, all clapping along, getting carried away by the music... I've been doing festivals for over a decade now and I've never experienced anything like it. Crappy cellphone videos can't do it justice, obviously, but just to give you an idea:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T_aYAORo6L4
Magical. If you can catch them playing near you, go see them, seriously.
As for the rest of the festival, some highlight:
Mika is possibly one of the greatest live acts you can see, provided you're in the mood for silly pop. It started raining halfway through his set; normally that kills an afternoon gig dead, but he just stripped, had everyone wave their umbrellas and kept going. Very fun concert.
The Kaiser Chiefs were amazing; Wilson must've given his manager half a dozen heart attacks, since he seems to enjoy climbing twenty feet up in the rafters without a harness. I loved how they engaged the audience and they have a very strong set list; you can't see them and not shout along with Ruby or I Predict A riot.
MGMT, DeVotchKa, Galactic and The Whigs were the surprises of the festival. I already knew the first two from CD, but they worked better live, even if they were playing around noon. MGMT is quickly becoming one of my favourite bands; Electric Feel always puts a smile on my face, and it's even better live in a small tent. I didn't have high hopes for DeVotchKa and The Whigs - except perhaps for The Enemy Guns, which is an amazing piece of music - but they were fun. I saw Galactic almost by accident; their first guest rapper - Boots Riley, or something - did a great job, the second guy was lame. Good instrumentals, though.
John Butler Trio were something I wandered into while waiting; I wish I had seen the whole thing. Poor guys had to play on the last day for a tired, hungover audience, but they pulled it off brilliantly. Simple, funky music, great atmosphere, and even if there were barely a few hundred people, they were all having a great time.
And as much as it surprised me, Jay-Z was one of the best concerts of the weekend. I was afraid he'd be just another wannabe gangster, but he came across as being genuinely interested in everyone having a good time and not just posing. Lost of singalongs, lots of hands-in-the-air games, but with a decent set list and a good sense of humour.
Vampire Weekend was lovely. They looked almost surprised that they got a whole tent singing along, and I look forward to seeing them again.
And then there were duds. REM is pretentious crap; Radiohead was even worse with their interminable encores that no-one asked for. And as much as I love Ben Folds, he only really pulled off Bitches Ain't Shit, the rest of his set didn't really work. The Kooks and Air Traffic aren't really my thing, so while they were technically good, I can't say I really enjoyed myself. And while Hot Chip was great as an experience, I didn't like getting elbowed in the ribs; but then again, I knew I was there with someone who's into the sort of jumpy-sweaty-dancefloor crap Hot Chip does, and at least Ready For The Floor kicked major amounts of ass.
There's probably a dozen more bands that I saw bits and pieces of, but that's not important: what matters now is that Sigur Rós is brilliant and you need to find a way to go see them right now.
*well, all except the girl
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know, the piper's calling you to join him
