Pukkelpop 2008 Hasselt-Kiewit (BE), August 14/15/16, 2008
Sooo the time finally came for another edition of Pukkelpop. Anouk had just come back from her trip around the world, but she was already in the mood for some good festival time. So off we went!
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday (the 13th) I first took the bus to Antwerp. Isabelle lives there and Anouk already went there on Tuesday, so I met up with Anouk there. Isabelle had to work until 3 PM so we had some time to kill. First we went shopping, to the camping store for a plastic sheet-thingie to put under our tent and I bought a new sleeping bag. It has stripes on the inside! Yay!
Then we got hungry and visited Isabelle at work (she works at a sandwich bar), had lunch there. Two guys sitting next to us left a bag with shoes behind when they left, eventually they came back and it turned out he had forgotten his umbrella as well. The other one said: "If his head wasn't attached, he'd forget it as well!". Lol. Isabelle finished her shift early and after some last minute-packing, we took the train to Hasselt.
Once we arrived, we took the shuttle bus to the festival. Which was really nice, because they dropped us off right at the entrance, so no long walk with lots of heavy bags this time! (Last year Anneke and I got off the train at a station that is nearer by but you have to walk from there.) We had a wait for over an hour in the rain until the part of the campsite where we wanted to put our tent FINALLY opened. Once it was finally done, our tent was up quite quickly and it didn't rain any more for the rest of the weekend! Perfect!
We treated ourselves to the first portion of Belgian fries of the weekend (many more to follow...) and hung out at the tent a bit. Later that night we went to the first night at the Boiler (one of the stages at the festival), sort of a pre-party.
Festival drink of the year: demi-Tony (cocktail with half the ingredients, actually it's just gin and apple juice)
all the same but slightly different!
Some djs played electro-dancey music with the occasional rock track, quite nice to get into the festival mode. We went further into the tent and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by 14 tot 17-year olds, and we felt OLD. A guy was crowdsurfing in a laundry basket, which was fun. A girl next to us suddenly fell to the floor and had an epileptic fit, which wasn't fun. After a few hours we went back to the camping and went to sleep.
THURSDAY
The official beginning of the festival! The first actualy group we saw was De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig. They're Dutch so it was kind of false start, but only in the figurative way, because they actually were quite cool. Good atmosphere, the 'band' seemed to enjoy theirselves and the dance hall wasn't just filled with Dutch people who couldn't get a ticket for Lowlands. Turns out: Belgians love De Jeugd as well! They deserve it.
After their show we walked to the chateau but we were stopped by a camera team. We told them we really needed to use the toilet, hoping they'd be gone once we'd be back... but they weren't. They turned out to work for the Belgian public network, for the news. The reporter specifically picked me so I was like "Erm, alright". Then he asked me some questions, mainly about how we chose to see which bands with such an extended programme. So that night, I was on the Belgian national news for a short while! Obviously I haven't seen it but my parents and some other people have. I have searched the entire Belgian news-website but I can't find the item anywhere, damnit.
So after my fifteen seconds of fame we still had a little bit of time left to see Kid Harpoon. He justed started playing Late for the Devil, so I was happy since it's probably my favourite song of his. It sounded quite rough and edgy with the band, sounded good! It wasn't very crowded though, but for a first performance in Belgium (I think?) it probably wasn't bad.
After that we ate something and sat down next to the Marquee where The Cribs were playing. I went inside for a while. I don't exactly followed what happened with Johnny Marr, is he officially a band member now? Wasn't he in Modest Mouse? Anyway he wasn't there, just the three Jarmen in the same set up as last year: same band, same stage, same clothes almost... Except it was a lot more crowded and the people were far more enthousiastic, they really deserve it! It probably also had to do with the time - they played quite early last year.
(obligatory indie inside crowd at the side)
We went "boilering" again, Uffie & Feadz were supposed to be up but something had changed in the programme. I think DJ Mehdi was 'playing' when we arrived, and later Feadz was there, too. No Uffie to be seen or heard, though. We left after a while.
Dirty Pretty Things were playing at the Marquee when we sat down again. It was striking that most of the songs they played were off their first album! I still haven't heard their second one and I knew almost all the songs, no complaining from my side though. Carl looked good in his checkered shirt (by the time I got to taking a picture he had already taken it off), Didz got rid of his ridiculous moustache, yeah, nice.
More sitting down, laying in the sun, eating, drinking... when I got attacked by the press once again! Seriously now I know what drove Britney this crazy. This time it was a woman, a journalist of Het Nieuwsblad, which is a Belgian national news paper. Kind of like De Telegraaf of Belgium, so I've heard. She asked my some questions about my sunglasses and I had my picture taken.
It appeared in Saturday's paper. Fortunately there weren't any quotes in the article, just the picture. I was talking rubbish, I mean: what's there to say about sunglasses?
The entire article can be found here, or read it online over here, but then you won't have my smiling face coming with it for free!
Joan As Police Woman had started playing in the meantime. She was really nice, relaxed and beautiful songs coming straight from the heart. She's a bit crazy though, "whooo"-ing after every song. But you could really tell she's been on a stage for years and that she feels really comfortable.
We saw a bit of Tricky at the dance hall, where we found out where all the 25+ aged people of the festival had gone. Back to the boiler room for a while where we saw Ed & Kim and SebastiAn. Then back into the dance hall for...
... Hot Chip! They were cool as ever, but this time the show was just brilliant. Way better then Werchter, where everything seemed a bit... messy? I dunno. It was tight as hell now, nice audience as well.
Róisín Murphy was the first act we saw at the main stage that day. If the word 'cool' wasn't invented for Hot Chip, then it definitely should've been for her. She changed her outfit after every song, along with hats and other accessoiries. She even played a Moloko song (Forever More).
The Killers were still relatively unknown when they played Pukkelpop four years ago in 2004 when I was there too... Not that I had seen them back then. But now they had the honour of headlining the Thursday.
They played a decent show, nothing spectacular but still very good! It always surprises me how many popular songs/hits they have... They had already played for an hour when they came back for the encore and played another three 'killer' (sorry) songs.
Oh and Brandon Flowers played bass during the first song! And he got rid of his moustache too! I was quite used to it actually, he looks like a teenager again now. Pity.
FRIDAY
First band we saw on Friday: Das Pop. Familiar faces in the Belgian music scene. They've been quite busy re-inventing theirselves which has lead to a number of very cool singles (Tired, Foor For Love, Underground), it's about time they release that bloody new album! Their show at Pukkelpop was fun, perfect for a sunny early afternoon.
And yes, those are dungarees the guitarist is wearing.
Back to our regular chill out zone: next to the Marquee. Friday was the day Metallica was playing and it was so much more crowded throughout the day. Blugh.
Girls in Hawaii was another band that played in 2004 but we did see them back then, which was a very pleasant surprise! They did another great show this time.
I went inside The Shelter (one of the tents, formerly The Skate Stage) for about a minute to check out A Wilhelm Scream. My sisters (who were both also there) are huge fans so I told them that if I wasn't seeing anything else. I'd check them out. And so I did.
Back to the main stage for Arsenal. Not the football team, but another Belgian band made for sunshine. I thought I didn't really know them, but I recognized some songs I've heard on the radio.
Oh and there was a very cute kid watching in the security/VIP area:
Some more eating, drinking, toilet visiting and a quick glance inside the Chateau followed. Los Campesinos! were playing, but it was too hot and crowded inside to stay. Too bad.
We already heard the first song of the Cold War Kids so we quickly hurried over to the main stage.
I was looking forward to their show, their new song is quite exciting and I had never seen them before. In a way it was a bit disappointing, the crowd wasn't really reacting and, I don't know... just a feeling I guess. It was still very good though. Can't wait for the new album.
Videoooo: Something Is Not Right With Me (that new song)
We joined the sixteen year olds standing way in front of the stage at the Marquee for Tim Vanhamel. Isabelle is totally obsessed with him, but these kids took it a little more seriously. Last year we saw him walking around at the festival as a visiter, this year he earned a spot at the stage.
I'd already seen him from a far distance at Werchter, but I wasn't really impressed. This show was better though. Still not groundbreaking, though. He had a really young guitarist (he looked about 17) who was staring into the audience quite nervously, sweet!
Another Boiler moment: Diplo and Erol Alkan. I can't really remember Diplo, alright I guess? But during Erol Alkan it really started to get crowded and hot! You know these t-shirts that say "E.R.O.L. keeps kids dancing"? Well, they're true!
The rest of the night stayed danceable, with Miss Kittin & The Hacker and Boys Noize.
During Boys Noize, I left on my own to see Tokyo Police Club at the Chateau. I just walked in and two minutes later they started playing, perfect. They were -once again- very energetic and just fun! I still haven't figured out the lyrics though, I should really look them up sometime. I probably look like an idiot whilst singing along!
They did an encore when I managed to walk up to the fourth row and something shocking happenend: everyone standing in front of me was at least 10-15 cm smaller than me! Nice, of course, in this situation, but still quite a strange experience.
I was supposed to meet up with Anouk and Isabelle afterwards, but TPC had finished a bit early and they were a bit late, so I walked around a bit and actually saw Metallica's last song. Hell yeah! Metallica loves you!
Anouk and Isabelle showed up eventually and we saw The Gutter Twins at the Marquee. They played a bunch of covers and at this moment they played something so familiar, I just couldn't figure out what it was, it was so annoying! Isabelle recognized it too and finally found out it was Down The Line by José González. Beautiful. And Mark Lanegan's voice is just one of the best things on this planet.
SATURDAY
Saturday started off heavily with Late Of The Pier. Despite the early morning, erm, afternoon (2 PM), they played so loud and crushing, with a bass that would drill your breakfast out of our stomach if you weren't careful enough. Awesome, but couldn't been even more brilliant late at night.
That day, the paper with 'my article' came out.
As usual, we hung around near the Marquee again, seeing The National. They're such a great band, beautiful songs, great musicians. A bit too dark for a day as sunny as this, maybe. And again: a bit too early during the day.
We moved to the main stage to hang out, eat another bunch of fries and I spent about half an hour in line at the cash machine, hearing Plain White T's while doing so. Whoopie.
Back to the Marquee, we decided to go and sit in the tent instead of next to it. Anti-Flag had just finished, sweaty punkers were still coming out of the tent... and we sat down. Somewhere in the middle. But soon enough we were surrounded by already-standing-up-excited-during-the-soundcheck-people. Yes, MGMT were up next.
Poseuring
So, after a while we decided to give in and stand up as well. They started playing eventually and they were alright. I don't really know what to think of this current hype around them... True, they're kind of unique at the moment, Kids is probably my favourite song of the year so far, but come on, they're not that great. They even managed to play Kids with a backing track (why ??), it turned into sort of a soundmixshow. Too bad.
The Manic Street Preachers were still playing when we came back to the main stage, I've always liked them and the last two song sounded quite good. When they finished, we managed to get some good places in the first part of the barriers. Bloc Party were up next.
They opened with Mercury, their new single which is great but it didn't really work live. Too bad. They also had another bassplayer (not that it's his fault or anything), Gordon stayed at home because he became a father (awww). Kele and his band seemed to be in a good mood, actually they always are when I see them. Their show wasn't the best I've seen them, surely enjoyable though. They only played for an hour and with the amount of good songs they have, that's just too short. But still, always a pleasure to see Bloc Party.
Off to the Marquee again to see Jamie Lidell. I saw my cousin there, he told he was going to see him for the tenth time now. But then again, my cousin is really old ;) Jamie's show was quite a challenge, but a good one. Not in the last place because of the two, over 2m tall, hot guys standing in front of us. They were even Belgian (a Belgian that tall is very rare and can seldom be seen in the wild!). God still exists. Anyway, the show was fun but easy on the stomach. After two songs or something Jamie started to freak out on his electronica for about 10-15 minutes, beatboxing, sampling himself, singing over it again... But in the end everything came together again.
He did an awesome a cappella version of Multiply and the crowd response was really good.
Sigur Rós had almost finished their set at the main stage in the meantime. Too bad, I would've liked to see them again after their brilliant show at Werchter. The show (or at least the last 10 minutes of it) was quite the same, except for the big difference that it was still light at Werchter, with the sun slowly setting... which made the entire scenery look even prettier. Now everything just soaked up the colours of the lights. The music was still very beautiful, of course.
More goose bumps (I was gonna write chicken pocks but that's something else) were to be found over at Elbow. These men (and two women) played some more beautiful music. Unfortunately I was a bit tired and the music made me sleepy.
This sleepiness was soon over when we heard the last tones of Soulwax coming from the main stage. They were L.O.U.D. and we were very faw away. By the time we got near, they were finished and it was time for the traditional closing of the festival. Two acrobats were pulled up by large lifting machines (I can't think of the proper name for them now), and they made pretty movements in the air, surrounded by fireworks. Nice. We went back to the boiler/dance hall area and sat down for a while to enjoy the last festival buzz, but it got a bit too cold so we headed off for the last night in our tent.
And in the end it's all thrown away, rejected newspaper :)
IN SHORT
* When we were summing up our 'highlights' of the festival, we couldn't really think of something. Sure, there were great bands and some weren't as good, but overall everything was good. No real surprises. Were the bands average or were we simply unable to be impressed? It was my 10th festival (of three or more days) and after a while, does it just become normal? The entire festival was good but it wasn't as much fun as it to be! Was it the music or was it us? Who knows!
* With over 200 bands and dj's it is unevitable, but there's just tooooo much to be seen! For example, I missed: Kaizers Orchestra, Midnight Juggernauts, Santogold, SoKo, Menomena, British Sea Power, White Lies, Henry Rollins, Headphone, Iron & Wine, Le Le, The Subs, Holy Fuck, Pete and the Pirates (too early which is probably our bad), The Dodos, Sons and Daughters, The Dowithastripethoughit, Caribou, Foals, Does If Offend You Yeah?, Tunng, The Futureheads (!), The Breeders, Blood Red Shoes, Lykke Li (same as Pete/Pirates), The Whip, The Bloody Beetroots, Black Kids, Crookers, Fuck Buttons, Girl Talk, Yeasayer, Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Hercules and Love Affair, Black Mountain, Simian Mobile Disco, We Are Scientists and Crystal Castles! Pff that might be even more than the number of bands we actually did see. Better preparation and maybe a pair of running shoes for next year, then!
