SOUTHSEA FEST: Liz Croly’s View

As I wander to The Wine Vaults to get myself and a few friends our tickets, I’m already aware that it’s going to be a long day, I thought I’d made a reasonably early effort by arriving at midday, the already intoxicated seemed to disagree. I’m queuing to receive my band and hear a familiar voice, as we get chatting I realise he’s just one of the many people trying to scam themselves a free wristband through friends of friends and multiple involvements in bands, then again if you can- why on earth not?

Having “ahoy matey” on my wrist I make it back to visit a friend at work in The Fat Fox where The Boy I Used To Be is already half way through their set. Previously I’d heard only good things about them and therefore stayed to listen, in a reasonably empty room it was a pretty good set and calm at that. The first drink of the day is underway and it was off to a pleasant start. After a few more drinks we head straight to LJR where we appear to walk in on what looks like a confusing set up for The Racketeers, here I found myself a bystander in a conversation between a friend and Keith from The Dawn Chorus, as they discuss the bands success in playing Bestival I begin to research when and where they’ll be playing and am intrigued to heard what this seemingly coy band has to offer.

A friends younger brother was playing Wine Vaults, having not heard them in a while I went to see The Unknown Soldiers and was surprised by the improvement the boys had made and continued to enjoy the youthful bands strong and obvious Doors influenced sound. Beau Curtis’s deep and dark vocals gave an interesting feel to the room and it was nice to see them playing again. Dragon Eye Morrison on the other hand have never been a great passion of mine and once again I thought I’d try and enjoy their set but it’s simply not for me, with their great popularity I completely understand that something about them must be attention grabbing and enjoyable but I’m yet to notice this. The Edge of the Wedge had a brilliant atmosphere during their performance however I failed to stay for the whole set purely because I felt that the first half had shown me all I needed- and this was that not matter how much I want to, I won’t understand the great attraction to Dragon Eye Morrison.

We then returned to LJR to see the previously mentioned Dawn Chorus who weren’t as coy as I formerly thought, this showed a whole new light on the guys. They played a great set with plenty of stage presence and you could see the band enjoyed playing as much as the audience enjoyed listening- as my first time of hearing them I was pleasantly surprised. Continuing, I went to see Le Plat De Jour put on a confusing yet brilliant set, with witty banter from the vocalist and multiple instrument swaps from her fellow band mate, the two offered a poetic and shy performance that fit The Magic Bean Café perfectly. The audience remained quiet throughout the majority of the set, despite the slight repetitiveness I thoroughly enjoyed the peculiar noises the pair produced. Now, I’m going to be completely honest, from this point on my memory escapes me… Small details come back to me every so often but apart from that I fail to remember some of the night- especially the band names.

I remember what bands looked like, and my opinion of them, however struggle to recall the name. Wine Vaults had a show with a desirable guitarist and their folk rock sound gave a great atmosphere. However Django Django were more than memorable, the mathrock set in The Loft threw me off, and despite my drunken state I was able to enjoy their show completely. With the energy presented to the audience the band enticed the viewers to enjoy their set entirely. I then went to The Wedgewood Rooms to see Little Fish and once again wasn’t let down, I had seen them recently at LJR for the first time and thought they were great and the second time was no different. The loud and carefree set got even the “trendiest” members of the audience to forget they weren’t trying to impress the population of Albert Road and actually enjoy themselves, which was perfect for the beginning of the end to Southsea Fest. I left having sobered up and completely satisfied with the day; mostly great people, mostly great music and an unbeatable atmosphere.