Lunar Festival 2018 review (part 2)

Saturday

Hookworms

Another Brummie Psychedelic rock trio opened the stage on Saturday, this time the much darker krautrock inspired Matters (6), who are clearly one of the most promising bands of the Birmingham scene. As are The Mothers Earth Experiment (7.2) who celebrated their return to the lunar stage with free tote bags and flyers for everyone. Yet accomplished as they psych-jazz rock/environmental protest music is it's not really for me. I wondered off to catch the live Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast. Featuring Geoff Lloyd and a surprisingly funny Ed Milliband. Who spent the majority of his talk with a flower crown on his head that someone threw at him. I listened politely as their guest talked at length about her plans to improve public services, and laughed as the comic Bethany Black livened things up wuith her own reasons to be cheerful. As the heavens opened and gave way to torrential rain Hookworms (8) valiantly played on through the rain. I caught the bits where the downpour wasn't too bad and they were so good that it was almost getting soaked to watch them play. An hour or so of wondering through vintage stands to keep dry I caught some of the set from the access to music student Lucy Shaw whose sweet acoustic songs made for some distraction from the drizzle. Once the rain finally cleared it was for the mediocre grunge trio Particle Kid (6) and the funky yet also kinda underwhelming dance act Crazy P (6). The grey skies seemed to suit Blackash (8.4) perfectly. The mysterious Midlands act who somehow mix stoner rock and techno together. They looked and sounded fantastic and are a whole lot more fun live than their doomy first single 'Black Witch' led me to believe. the 10 minute epic of Black Sabbath style riffing came with it's own black witch dance troupe, and later cheerleaders for the songs finale. Blackash wre easily one of the best acts of the festival.

Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp (8.8) may have been suffering with a bit of a cold, and overall not as fantastic  as some previous Lunar head-liners but she still put on a solid show of industrial tinged electro-pop with tonnes of dry ice and a retina blasting light show. Mostly sticking to the best tracks off 'Silver eye' and savings hits 'ooh la la' and strict machine for the end. Goldfrapp's Lunar set was the sound of an artist finally comfortable in her own skin. Her idle chatting to audience members may have seemed a bit add odds with the image of her shadow dancing around the dry ice but it didn't matter too much. I was a little disappointed by the lack of early material but it's chard to see where any of it would have fit in.

Next I was off to the Comedy Carousel where a predictably surreal Paul Foot spent most of his set taking the piss out of the patrons talking over him at the bar and then analysing his jokes to annoy them further. while the other two comedians were brilliant my highlight of the comedy and actually the festival itself was the brilliant Bethany Black who in contrast to her earlier appearance was rude, sweary and at times absolutely filthy, discussing drugs, porn, relationships and lesbian sex.

Sunday

Dorcha + Damo suzuki

Kicking things off was Dorcha (8). A young Birmingham quintet who continue to defy explanation. Their experimental gothic sound seems to stem from no obvious influences other than their willingness to jam and create new sounds. This made them unlikely kindred spirits with Damo Suzuki. At first glance a rather ordinary Japanese man, but known to many for his demonic improvised singing as part of the iconic krautrockers CAN. Dorcha may be a very different band to can but with their improvised jamming they created the perfect backdrop for Damo's bizzare vocal style, switching instruments whenever they felt like it and recreating the unsettling, uneasiness that characterised CAN's output, without in anyway imitating it. I spent the rest of the day hoping that the rain would go awawy and packing all my stuff but the sky eventually cleared for Songhoy Blues (9.2), Who were every bit as fantastic as I hoped they would be. Not typically 'world' so much as just a shit hot, funky rock 'n roll band who know how to start a party. This is partly down to Aliou Touré being a fantastic front-man, who could liven up any event with his mad eyed dancing and Garba Toure's   effortless, constant stream of guitar licks. Not only do Songhoy Blues put a lot of western bands to shame, they make it look easy.

Songhoy Blues

After 40 years in the game it's worth thinking about how strange The Stranglers (8.4) still are. Still probably the only band who can unite the punks and the hippies. The Stranglers are full of contradictions, far more complex musically than your average punk band yet far too rough to be considered new wave. Despite having been at it for so long they seem far to popular to be simply considered a nostalgia act, especially when their music seems as gloriously out of place in 2018 as it did in 1977. Singer Baz Warne said they were glad about the rain and to see us all huddled together rather than playing another show to people standing around in the sunshine. Baz was happy to banter with the crowd, many of which seemed to have come out just for them. The Stranglers did a great of finishing Lunar playing plenty of hits, 'Golden Brown', 'Always The Sun', 'Peaches', 'All day and all of the night', and finishing off with a fantastic 'No More Heroes'. Easily one of the best ever punk rock songs and a stellar finish for Lunar 2018.