Preview: 2000trees Festival

2000trees Festival in 2009. Photo courtesy of Tortipede.

The usually sleepy Upcote Farm in Gloucestershire will be the home, for the fifth time, of 2000trees Festival this weekend. Dedicated to providing a platform to new and underground British music, other main draws are the cheap tickets, green agenda, and the fact that it is in possession of the ’2nd Best Toilets at a UK Festival’. I shit you not.

There are four stages to choose from, all featuring acts for your aural amusement; the Main Stage – with the likes of Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip, Los Campesinos!, Three Trapped Tigers, and Islet, The Cave – with ASIWYFA, Talons and Vessels, The Leaf Lounge – with Tellison, Tall Ships and Stagecoach, and finally, The Greenhouse – featuring DJ Primer, Esse B and Midnight Mile. I’ve only cherry-picked a couple of examples, but here is the full line up.

There is also a handful of extra-musical activities going on too; a fancy dress competition under the theme Cowboys! vs Robots! vs Ninjas!, the opportunity to watch sheep dog trials, a nature walk, and a massive bonfire.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, not only because it’s an awesome festival that deserves more awareness, but also, I’M GOING! Reviews and festival tales to follow…

Live Music – Effort, Tall Ships, Three Trapped Tigers – Buffalo Bar, 19/3/11

Shiny new record label, Pink Mist, which combines indie labels Big Scary Monsters, Blood and Biscuits and Holy Roar Records is responsible for this latest exciting UK tour.

First on in Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar is Effort, a newly hatched arrangement consisting of BBC Wales’ DJ Jen Long and James Frost of The Automatic. Informing the crowd it was only their fifth gig ever, I was pleasantly surprised that, while still fairly raw, their catchy indie rock brand was a pleasure to listen to.

From Jen’s point of view, it’s a brave move for anyone to step out from being the critic to the critiqued, but Effort seems to have the potential to do so very successfully.

Tall Ships. Photo courtesy of Jay Springett

Next on were Falmouth trio, Tall Ships (who have appeared on this blog many a time.) Rick, Matt and Jamie lean towards the art-rock side of things, with an emphasis on instrumentals and subverting the usual song formula.

As well as playing crowd favourites like Plate Tectonics and Books, they also mixed it up a bit by playing Ode to Ancestors off of the last EP, There is Nothing But Chemistry Here. Or, they tried at least. A succession of technical difficulties meant that some of the songs couldn’t be finished.

The guys dealt with it  as professionally and quickly as possible, but did still leave the audience waiting around for a while. There wasn’t any bad feeling, I think everyone just felt sorry for them as they were so good when the instruments were working! A finale of their newest single, Hit the Floor, which cranks it up a notch on the energy scale, definitely finished the shaky set with a high.

Three Trapped Tigers. Photo courtesy of Vince Kmeron

Finally, Three Trapped Tigers took to the stage. Promoting their new record Route One or Die, released on Blood and Biscuits Records, the guys gave a consuming performance that veered between sounds of dance, dubstep, post rock and a little bit of hardcore.

Such a mixture sounds like it shouldn’t work, especially not within the same record, but it combines together to make something new and unpredictable. It’s refreshing to see a band who are trying to consistently come up with something different, rather than just something that will sell. Each track takes you on a journey of cleverly executed peaks and troughs in tension, through flavours of different genres, and all with an unfathomable ability to get inside your head to the point where you’re no longer really aware of what is going on around you.

An innovative and compulsive performance to finish on, and a tour well worth seeing if you’re after something a bit different.