Electric Picnic 09 Review

Some real gems in the Irish Times photo slideshow here.

The perfect Electric Picnic 09 festival experience for me was Passion Pitt in the Little Big Tent. They absolutely tore the roof off, crowd and band went nuts for the whole set. Glorious.

In the body and soul arena.

Florence and the Machine's performance was explosive. And the crowd were very up for it.

Loved every minute of Jape's wonderful gig. Just love what this guy does full stop. New song Scorpio very fab and the one he started with that wasn't from Ritual. Anyone know what that was? The bit where he got the guy up to sing along with him was a really funny, heart warming moment.

Julie Feeney's performance was a wonderfully theatrical delivery of tunes from an exceptional album. And she looked fab. Quite besotted with her now.

Fleet Foxes reminded me again why i adore them so much.

Blitzen Trapper and the Acorn were lovely.

And David Kitt was in flying form subbing for Bat for Lashes.

Flaming Lips were brilliant, the lights, the balloons, the singer encased in a giant ball, the tunes...but i was too tired to get the full whack out of it.

Main gripes at festival organisers - Please bring back the tables at the back of the main stage to sit and chill out - made that whole area much nicer in previous years.

Please make sure the Heineken bar qs are properly divided - they were absolute mayhem near the main stage on Friday night, with lots of crushing and flying beer.

Please don't put all the big acts on on sunday evening!

It's still a wonderful festival tho.

Finally given all the muck, grime and hassle carrying stuff to the camping site, this 34 year old old fogie is seriously considering the B&B and taxi option for his next EP.

Electric Picnic 09 Recommendations

Some hard, tough, challenging choices had to be made. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Here's where and when i'll be at the Electric Picnic. Consider them recommended so.


Friday 4

22:30 Orbital - MS
20.45 MGMT – MS
19:45 Efterklang - CS
19.15 Zero 7 – MS
18:45 Lykke Li - CD
17:30 The Temper Trap CD/17:45 David Kitt
16:30 Peter Broderick - CD

Saturday 5

03.30 Tulla Ceili Band BS
02.15 Four Tet BS
00.30 2 Many DJs MS/Moderat LBT
23:45 Four Tet CS
22:15 Explosions in the Sky CS/22.30 Madness MS/22:45 Lamb BS
22:00 The Field LBT
20.30 Imelda May CS/20.15 Brian Wilson MS
19.00 Bat for Lashes EA
18.30 Lisa Hannigan MS/The Walkmen CS
17.15 Jape EA
16.00 Marina & the Diamonds CS
14:45 The XX EA/15.00 Low Anthem CS
14.00 Julie Feeney CS
13.30 Tunng MS
12:30 One Day International CS
11.50 Chequerboard Live BS

Sunday Sep 6

1.15 Beach House BS
22:15 Flaming Lips EA
21:00 Passion Pitt CS
20:30 Royksopp EA
18:45 Fleet Foxes EA
17:30 Florence & the Machine EA
16:15 Simian Mobile Disco EA (so I can get a decent spot for next four acts)
15:30 The Acorn CS
14:00 J Tillman BS
13:15 Villagers CS
12.30 Dublin Gospel Choir MS

Electric Picnic 2009: the Verdict

A shame to see the company behind Electric Picnic, Pod Concerts is going into liquidation. 'Taxman could pull plug on Electric Picnic promoter' says the Irish Indo but they quote a press release from POD concerts saying the Electric Picnic is now owned by EP Republic Ltd, which is 61pc owned by UK promoter Festival Republic so Pod's financial troubles won't lead to the plug being pulled on the festival. Em, I hope!

Jim Carroll says there's 14 more acts being announced this Thursday but so far this year's EP lineup is the weakest in years. It's short one or two more major league acts but also short on what used to be its strong suit - hot new, brilliant but not very well known acts. Oxegen has continued the trend of sweeping up some of the best new artists that previously would have been more likely to play EP, last year Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer playing Oxegen were a good example of this, this year Passion Pit spring to mind.

For major league acts EP 07 had Bjork, Beastie Boys, LCD Soundsytem, 08 had MBV, Sigur Ros and Wilco but 09 has the Flaming Lips alone in that sphere.

Having said all that, i am still really looking forward to EP - there is still a lot of quality acts due to play over the September 4-6 weekend in Stradbally.

Really lookin forward to seeing the Flaming Lips live for the first time and Fleet Foxes are one of the best bands in the world so those two should be the highlights.

I saw Royksopp do a great festival set at Witnness many years ago and their new album is strong - Lykke Li guests on that and she's also playing, her Youth Novels album last year was brilliant.

Amadou and Mariam should make for great pop festival fare, saw them at the Olympia and Amadou is one of the best guitarists ever.

Plus MGMT should be good.

Bat for Lashes' second album is superb and a step forward from her debut so she could be one of the highlights.

Jape, Lisa Hannigan and Bell XI are bankers for good gigs.

Julie Feeney's new album Pages is one of the albums of the year and i read good reports of her recent Crawdaddy gig.

Liking what i've seen of Imelda May, even if she is rockabilly.

Should be entertaining to see if Fionn Regan still thinks he's been reincarnated as Bob Dylan circa 1966 and Blonde on Blonde.

Marina & the Diamonds - don't have a proper album out yet but the stuff from her EP sounds great - (think Kate Bush meets Lykke Li meets Fiona Apple).

There's some strong techno/electronic acts on the bill with Orbital, Moderat, The Field and Four Tet playing.

Other acts i'm lookin forward to catching

The Walkmen - a fine American band that sound a bit like the Strokes and the National having a baby.

Tunng - an excellent folktronica/electronic folk (?!) act

Bell Orchestre - an instrumental 'post-rock' band who do strings for Arcade Fire, they're a bit like a Canadian Jimmy Cake

Efterklang - are more 'post-rock' - like Sigur Ros meets Arcade Fire meets something more experimental

Villagers sound like a promising young Irish band.

Low Anthem - are a good American Alt country act

Other stuff worth checking out - Roots Manuva, A DJ set from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, and on a nostalgia trip, 80s rockers - Echo and the Bunnymen, 80's pop Madness, 60s legend Brian Wilson, and Disco stars Chic.