Rock Werchter (2)

The second day started under the rain. That, plus the fact that Enter Shikari are an annoyingly noisy band, pushed me towards the tent.

And there I made the best discovery of the festival: Oi Va Voi. They play a very peculiar mix of gypsy, african, jewish and south american music with a definite indie twist. Very cool!
The contrast was therefore striking with the band that followed them, Joan as Police Woman. Who are supposed to be currently very hype, but are actually a complete fraud. The songs are absolutely average, and the singer's voice is not particularly good.
So even with the rain I left to see the end of Kings Of Leon's gig. It was OK but not amazing; The singer's good looks made me quite suspicious of his artistic integrity... Although Eddie Vedder joined the band for the last song, so only for that it was worth standing in the rain!

Kaiser Chiefs followed on the main stage, and as much as I don't like their music, I must acknowledge that they are damn good on stage. Typically the kind of band I wouldn't go see in London, but that I do enjoy at festivals.
It was then Bloc Party's turn, and they even managed to bring the sun! Granted, the guitarist and bassist aren't the most active people on a stage, but Kele Okereke is amazingly charismatic, and the drummer's "computer geek" looks is definitely interresting. I am so looking forward to the Alexandra Palace gig!

I then managed to catch the last song of Lily Allen's set, and in all fairness it wasn't bad at all. The fact that a guy from the crowd managed to climb on stage and play with his didgeridoo was really hilarious!
After that, QOTSA were as usual, nice gig but musically not so good I think. Since I had seen them at Hyde Park a few weeks before, I wasn't that interested...
As for the Arctic Monkeys, well that was a massive disappointment! Their kind of dance rock is not my cup of tea, but I always assumed that just like Franz Ferdinand they would be awesome live! Well, they are NOT! It really looks like they are doing an office job, playing their 9 to 5! Really strange...

And finally, Pearl Jam, definitely the best gig of the festival! Fantastic setlist with many of my favorites like Smile and Do the Evolution, loads of oldies from 10 and Vs, and they even managed not to bore us too much with politics (which they apparently tend to do a lot!). Vedder might be in his 40's, he is still as bouncy as ever!
I hope the bootleg of that gig gets released, as they used to do for previous tours...