Rigsy - Reliving Past Glories
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I've been lucky enough (well I did save up and pay for tickets and transport, so 'lucky' doesn't seem fair) to see some classic festival sets - Radiohead at Glastonbury 1997, Kraftwerk at Benicassim 2004, Daft Punk at Coachella 2006....all remembered fondly for different reasons. But the best set I've watched in a field took place in Ireland. Thankfully.
The second Electric Picnic was awesome pretty much from kick off to hometime - but The Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystem and Mercury Rev were all totally overshadowed by what happened at The Electric Arena at around 7pm on day one.
The album 'Funeral' was only a few months old, yet it felt like the entire festival had turned up to watch Arcade Fire. Thankfully I was early - myself and my equally impatient friend Maria dragging each other down to the front. You know a crowd are up for it when they celebrate every strum and bass drum like kick like it's the last one they'll ever hear - during the soundcheck.
By the time they got to 'Wake Up' it had become faintly ludicrous - like one of those OTT videos you see of nutty American preachers electrifying an entire congregation. People were floppy from punching the air, exhausted from grabbing anyone in a ten meter radius, dehydrated after sweating and probably blubbing their way through a now legendary hour long set. Hindsight and the smugness that comes with knowing you were there do lead to exageration of course, but I'm actually toning down what I remember it being like. It really was a bit special, - the band themselves would talk about it loads and you can only imagine how many crazy shows they did that particular summer.
So yeah - seems they couldn't resist coming back. I'll be down the front two hours early.
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