First off, we saw a local band called 'The Heartbreaks', they're doing great considering they've already been played on radio 1 by Huw Stephens and are now playing gigs in lots of London venues. They were quite good actually, very indie. I'm not majorly into indie though as I feel a lot of indie music is a bit lackluster.
Next, we saw 'The Cheek', formally called 'Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds', they were great, and the lead singer is gorgeous now that he's thinner. I was a bit gutted that they didn't play any of their old stuff though but it was nice to see them. There was a great atmosphere in there. It was like a school assembly hall, there was nothing in the room apart from a stage and a polished wooden floor. Everyone was sitting down too until the band came on and they stood up promptly, and politely.
We then headed off to see 'The Answering Machine' because they are one of my friend's favourite bands and I've heard that Chapel Club, who were the other band on at that time aren't very good live (?), I like their music though. The Answering Machine were pretty good though anyway.
I then went to see one of my favourite bands ever, Blood Red Shoes. Check out the time that I interviewed, Steven, from the band here.
Blood Red Shoes were on fire and the crowd reaction was amazing. It made me feel so proud to have watched them grow and to see how people now appreciate them so much. Manchester Academy 2 (about the same size as Birmingham Academy 1) is the biggest venue I've ever seen them play at and it was brilliant. They pulled in a good crowd that were singing and bouncing along to every lyric.
Next up, in Academy 3 were The Chapman Family. I'd never seen them play live before, in fact, I hadn't heard much from them since their single 'Kids.' That said, they were brilliant live, Kingsley Chapman, the lead singer, was throwing himself all over the stage in a Gothic, tormented kind of way. At one point he even 'attempted' to strangle himself with the microphone lead. The rest of their music is sounding great too, I shall have to invest in some of it.
We then went off to see Liars, in the 'Club Academy' AKA, the sweaty basement of the Academy. This ended up being one of my favourite gigs of the day. There's nothing quite like the release you get from dancing around to dirty rock music is there? It was headbanging and moshing a go-go, liberating stuff. Liars intense build ups and break downs worked well on stage, you could sense everyone in the crowd waiting for the heavy break down to arrive to throw themselves around to. A truly excellent set to say the least.
We then headed off to see Wild Beasts in Academy 2, after a few, quick, refreshing splashes of water and a dismissal from Katy Klaw from Peggy Sue. Though she cannot really be blamed for this, she was probably petrified! She seemed pretty scared of me as I shouted her name at her after whispering to my friend when she came to the sink next to us "ahh, that's Katy from Peggy Sue" and of course splashing water over myself before that saying "ahhh, oh my God, that was so good! That was amazing, ahh!"
Anyway, back to Wild Beasts! Yes, they were great! A lot better than I though they'd be, the crowd liked them and I didn't even realise how many Wild Beasts songs I knew, I didn't even know that I liked them so much but they surprised me, they were fantastic!
We then decided not to go to Beach House or Egyptian Hip Hop but to wait and get a good place for Mystery Jets and drink Red Stripe. It was well worth it. There was such a brilliant atmosphere at the front, everyone was singing along and jumping in unison. The band seemed pretty pleased with this response, there was a great love for Mystery Jets in that room. They split their set well between stand out songs from their album 'Twenty One' and songs from the new album, which, by the way, are sounding great! I cannot wait for the album release in July now!
From Mystery Jets we ran straight to see Los Campesinos! as their set had already started (but only just). I'd like to think that me and Emily made a dramatic entrance as we jumped down the stairs and through the crowd whilst bellowing the lyrics to Death to Los Campesinos! as they played it on stage. We went to join the 'real' Los Campesinos! fans, a large crowd of people who were jumping and singing along to every word as passionately as the band themselves. The onlookers that didn't know who Los Campesinos! were just looked permanently confused. Their set was superb, love and energy gushing through my veins excitedly. Seeing the band live also made me come to terms with exactly how beautifully written their lyrics are. Their set ended with 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' and Gareth in the crowd, surrounded by happy and devoted fans patting him on the back.
This is the crowd, I could seem to get a picture of Gareth himself! I'm such a bad photographer!
From Los Campesinos! I ran all the way down to Deaf Institute to try and catch some of Yuck, but only managed to catch one song as LC! had run over their allotted time in Club Academy so I was really late. The one song I saw was beautiful though, as was the venue itself. It reminded me of a chapel on the inside with its dome structure but with vintage looking wallpaper with birds printed on it and toilets that looked like they'd come straight from a Mexican bar scene in an old film. It was probably my favourite venue that I've ever visited, even if I was only their for 10-15 minutes! From there we went to a take-away entitled 'Babylon' and I ate vinegar saturated chips smothered in tomato ketchup and then went to see Zane Lowe DJ in a tiny club called 'Factory (FAC251)' which was pretty fun, however, everyone else looked spotless, like they'd not been at a festival all day, whilst we looked sweaty and casually dressed. Zane Lowe is certainly a skilled DJ, I i wish I wasn't such a technophobe and could mix like he can. That said, he played too much drum and bass and dubstep. Don't get me wrong, I love drum and base and dubstep, but that's literally all he played! I like to dance to a good mix of music. It was amazing being that close to Zane Lowe though and he really knew how to work the crowd! He did play an Oasis mix though, which, of course, I disliked. I don't understand how people can like the music that comes from such a rude and ugly man, Liam Gallagher.
I would definitely recommend Dot-to-Dot Festival, it was well worth the £28 that I paid for a ticket and judging by this year and previous years, they always seem to manage to get the line-up spot on!
Katie x
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