Decomposing Trees

I always find that the V Festival has a more relaxed atmosphere than the Big Day Out. I guess it's the different crowd and the fact that there's more wide open space.

While it tends to have less variety (though compensated by hour long sets), the lineups so far have been enough to get me to go back.

I got into the festival relatively early and did see part of Hot Hot Heat and Cut Copy's set but wasn't paying that much attention. The first act I saw properly was Modest Mouse.


For some reason I can't really get into Modest Mouse. They were quite tight and did a fairly good performance but it didn't do anything for me. I had the same problem after seeing Bloc Party at Splendour a few years ago.


My main annoyance about the day was the overlap between the Jesus and Mary Chain and Air, the two acts that I wanted to see the most

I ended up staying for all of Jesus and Mary Chain's set and while I expected a bit more distortion from them, they did not disappoint.

Pretty much it was all the classic Jesus and Mary Chain songs starting with 'You Trip Me Up' and playing others such as 'Head On', 'Happy When It Rains', 'Sidewalking', 'Blues from a Gun' and 'Some Candy Talking.'

They didn't finish with 'Just Like Honey' like I thought they would but instead with 'Reverence.' Either way it was a satisfying set.



I ended up running over to the other side of the festival, arriving 15 minutes into Air's set. It was a rather chilled out and relaxed atmosphere, grey clouds overhanging drizzling lightly upon the audience.

They mostly played from Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie and finished their set with 'La Femme d'Argent'. Other tracks I recall them playing were:

'Remember'
'Kelly Watch The Stars'
'Sexy Boy'
'Run'

I missed them playing 'Cherry Blossom Girl' and 'Venus' which I was later told they played during their set.

I was planning to catch the last 10 minutes of CSS after Air but they finished fairly early. I ended up just hanging around and hearing Duran Duran play 'Hungry Like The Wolf' as there was a bit of a lull before I headed over to see the Smashing Pumpkins.


I was a bit hesitant about the Smashing Pumpkins. I was really only interested in their old material and unsure about how many old songs they would play. They proven my doubts wrong when they opened with 'Today'.

'Tonight Tonight' was their third song and to be honest, I would've gone home happy if they finished right after it. It was followed by some self-indulgent guitar playing and songs off Zeitgeist which seemed to bore much of the crowd. The contrast between their new and old songs, emphasised how melodic much of their older material was and how bland many of their newer songs seem.

There were a few more older tracks, Billy Corgan doing an acoustic performance of '1979' which he dedicated to everyone and playing 'Butterfly With Bullet Wings'.

They came on for one encore, playing cover of a song by The Church before finishing with 'Cherub Rock'

Despite it running at a loss, it looks like V Festival will still be around for awhile. I can only wonder what old band that I want to see will be brought out next year.