Truck Bands

[satyrica]

I got through the long queue to get in and set up by about 5.30 on Thursday, so was in the arena in time to kick of the festival with The Gulps in the This Feeling tent, who set the tone for the mostly-male, guitar-band fare that was going to fill the weekend. You paid extra to arrive on the Thursday and I mostly did it on the basis of Indoor Pets who were then playing on the Market Stage. Afterwards, I headed out to greet my companions for the weekend and, when they'd all set up, we went back in to see the last two bands at This Feeling: the all-female Scottish band The Van Ts, followed by Saint Agnes, who had chunky riffs, sinister lyrics and a female vocalist.


Most people were arriving Friday so the bands didn't get going that early but when they did I started with Lacuna Common on the Market Stage, who didn't make a massive impression; Beach Riot at This Feeling were punchier, although with some random falsetto thrown into the vocals. Idles had been moved onto the main Truck Stage due to demand and the sweaty melee that ensued felt a bit like the day (if not the festival) was peaking early. I rushed back over to the Market Stage to see poppier Northerners Marsicans and stayed there to watch Heavy Lungs, the band fronted by the very same Danny Nedelko that Idles have titled a song after; his own music could mostly be characterised as 'shouty'.

Veterans & Virgins was the smallest and most diverse stage and I saw a bit of a local artist called Khloe singing to a backing track there, before heading back over to This Feeling for The Estevans, who I keep seeing described as "channeling noughties indie", which is probably why I like them. I observed the ubiquitous Lewis Capaldi on the Truck Stage for a bit but my attention soon wandered, unlike with old favourites Yonaka in the Nest, who gave another full-on performance.

I watched Nothing but Thieves, with their big sound and swoopy vocals, for a bit on the Truck Stage but followed my friends over to the Market to watch half of the Public Service Broadcasting set: I've been wanting to catch them for years so it was good to finally see their video & audio samples played over live ambient music. We left to catch Sugar Thief's woozy guitars and synths in the This Feeling tent, then I watched the last half hour of Wolf Alice's headline set on the Truck Stage from right at the back of the crowd; it was pleasant enough but didn't really draw me in. I stuck around after the bands were done in the Tap Room where they had advertised an indie disco and had a dance by myself until they started playing Three Lions on My Shirt.


Saturday started earlier with Basement Club, young rockers who were pretty danceable, then we watched some of The Mysterines, a taut female-fronted trio with chunky riffs, at the Market Stage. The Oxford Symphony Orchestra had drawn a large crowd as they opened up the Truck Stage, I watched about half of their set of orchestral versions of pop songs and classical favourites either side of Sad Boys Club in the This Feeling tent: throwing in a cover of Torn suited their fey aesthetic.

I was more or less camping out in the This Feeling tent and next up were King Nun, referring mysteriously to a new phase and that they were playing some songs for the last time, but they were a highlight of the day with a really responsive crowd. Then came Dead Naked Hippies, a rocky, female-fronted trio, after which I left for a while and caught a brief snatch of Fur on the Truck Stage, who had a 60s sound and unfortunately put me in mind of Trevor & Simon from the Saturday morning TV of my youth, then The Murder Capital at the Market, Irish lads with attitude, very much cut from the same cloth as Fontaines DC.

We abandoned a MORish Scottish band on the Truck Stage called Vistas pretty quickly, saw a bit of the folky, female-fronted Reasons to Live at Veterans & Virgins, then returned to This Feeling for Latenight Honeymoon and (after the easy-going Ten Tonnes on the Truck Stage), Lacuna Bloome who had more oomph going on than the last time I'd seen them.

I watched Johnny Marr on the Truck Stage, he peppered his set with Smiths songs but the rest was enjoyably dancey too, then the silver-lining of Shame cancelling was getting to see Red Rum Club again, headlining the This Feeling tent; I am still not tired of their energy and pizzazz. Foals were headlining the Truck Stage and I saw the end of their set: they are local lads and were both bleepier and better than I was expecting. We wandered over from there to the Veterans & Virgins tent and saw some of Bennett Wilson Poole, who definitely counted in the former of those categories and included the brothers who had founded the festival as members. They were certainly musically accomplished and played songs that seemed to range between country and prog.


First up on Sunday were The Clause, who I had caught recently in London, at the Nest, then False Advertising, a local, female-majority, rocky trio, in the same place. Noticeably less people seemed to have made it into the arena for most of Sunday and punky locals The Dolly Mops deserved a bigger crowd than they had at the Truck Stage. I saw Average Sex, who were tight and endearing, for the first time in years at This Feeling, then was back at the Nest for fraternal duo Cassels; the vocals were slightly drowned out at times (which was a shame, as their lyrics are excellent) but they always stand out as providing something a bit different.

Truck's site is on a functioning farm and their Rocking Chair stage is in the barn, temporarily cleared out for the event. I settled in there to watch the rest of the Lounge Kittens; it's been a while since I first came across them and they've moved on from giving their lounge treatment just to rock classics, but I did enjoy their 80s-cartoon theme-song medley. We caught the last ten minutes of Welsh lads Young Garbo at This Feeling, then headed back to the Nest to see Martha for the first time (having previously seen the other band some of them belong to, ONSIND): they wear their DIY credentials on their sleeve, with three of the four members sharing the vocals, and were a rip-roaring highlight.

The most eccentric act of the festival was hands down Thomas Truax, an inventor-cum-musician performing at the Veterans & Virgins stage on a range of fantastical instruments with names like the Hornicator and the Stringaling; at one point he appeared to be playing his guitar with the moving blades of a hand-held fan and when his horn-wheel-percussion machine stopped working tried a bit of emergency mid-set soldering. We left to watch Island at the Nest, whose dreamy guitars were the perfect Sunday afternoon vibe, then milled in the general vicinity of You Me at Six playing rawk on the Truck Stage.

My last big push were Strange Bones in the This Feeling tent: the sound wasn't great but the energy was and they remain fun to fling yourself about to. I watched some of Two Door Cinema Club headlining the Truck Stage and recognised a couple of songs but generally found them pretty dull. Last of all we went back into the Rocking Chair to see Massaoke (having only heard them at Glastonbury, the tent was so full) who conducted the crowd in singalongs; we lasted about 20 minutes before Joey couldn't take the sheer cheesiness any more and, after, a last circuit of the site, headed back to our tents.