Culch.ie

The Bite Size Oxegen Review

Monday, July 13th, 2009

THE EYE-BROW RAISERS

The surprisingly good new acts

THE BRILLIANT THINGS/MESSIAH J & THE EXPERT

Quality live acts, instantly attractive.

PAOLO NUTINI

Despite the disturbing vanity, he was very good live. Threw in ‘Ride On’ & Christy Moore nod.

LITTLE BOOTS

Overcame mike trouble to woo the crowd.

The first newbie pop act to pull off a big outdoor stage

KATY PERRY

Who would’a thought? With props, comedy, hit songs & a Queen cover, she owned the O2 stage. No mean feat.

 

The old-timers who still have it

SQUEEZE

Could’ve done with a later slot to get more of the older crowd but still good

THE SPECIALS

Nothing like a good ska band to get the crowd going. I don’t know if they realised that at least half the crowd were hoping that they’d start with Ghost town and repeat it for the set in imitation of the Fr Ted classic.

JAMES

Held out for ‘Sit down’ and it was worth it

THE NOT BRILLIANT

The plastic mould pop band

THE SCRIPT

Surprising number of hit songs, danceable but a bit plastic.

 

The plastic mould rock bands

THE KILLERS/RAZORLIGHT/KINGS OF LEON

There’s something Stepford wives about the new generation rock band.  One thing to be said is that Brandon made an effort to ditch the Killers’ universal reputation as worst-live-band-ever by small-talking the crowd; worked for the fans.

 

The tried too hard

WALLIS BIRD

Gave it welly on stage but didn’t filter out into the crowd for me.

The ‘Amy Winehouse’ car-crash attraction

LADY GAGA

She can sing, play piano and change costume, but the latter meant she only got a handful of songs out in the time given, including an acoustic and original version of Poker Face.

 

The quality act cursed by the Gods

ELBOW

Couldn’t be heard through the Saturday evening storm

 

THE THUMBS UP

The knew they were gonna be good and they were

FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS

Smooth. Infinity.

DUKE SPECIAL

We miss the eclectic percussion but still.

TING TINGS

Bigger stage than last year but held it well

REPUBLIC OF LOOSE

A disturbingly groomed Mick Pyro didn’t take away from the Loose’s performance

PET SHOP BOYS

More of a show than gig with novelty dancers and lip-syncing but their music is such quality it was still brilliant

 

The knew they were gonna be brilliant and they were

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Could teach those Stepford rock bands a thing or 20. Great use of lighting, focusing on new album tracks to give them a lift over their more familiar rock anthems. Mr. Bradford knows how to work a guitar.

 

The knew they were gonna be the performance of the weekend and they were

BLUR

All hail. Hit after hit, after hit. Quality live songs in End of Century, Parklife, Song 2 and Universal, which was dedicated to Joe Dolan.  Is there anything they can’t do?

 

THE FESTIVAL

Fair is fair – despite the Slane/ACDC traffic fiascos, a great job was done with traffic control at Oxegen, even late Sunday night.

The weather – all you can do is blame our ancestors for moving to a country that’s not fit for human habitation.

tagged under: festival.Music.Oxegen.Oxegen 2009.Oxygen.Review