Benicassim Sunday Review
For the final day of music we headed down slightly earlier in order to catch more of the action. The first band of the evening we saw was Wales 3-piece The Joy Formidable. Despite being around since 2007, they were quite new to me! They won’t be much longer, I’ve just downloaded ‘The Big Roar’ their newest album. Seriously if you haven’t heard them, youtube ‘Whirring’ such a beautiful song and amazing live!
The Maravillas stage was our next stop for Noah and The Whale. Sure I song-a-long to LIFE GOES ON… but I wont lie, they were rubbish! Similar to Mumford and Sons they are essentially a folk band with pop tunes. But unlike Mumford they don’t have the hits or the enthusiasm to get the crowd going. Lead Singer ‘Charlie Fink’ just doesn’t have enough about him in my book. It was quite a bland set, and I was happy enough to spend most of it checking out some Spanish senoritas through the safety of my sunglasses (smooth).
Following this we headed for another act that I was slightly sceptical about. Professor Green was on at The Other stage. Prior to his entrance, he had a quality DJ that was ‘spinning’ yes that is the right terminology loads of decent hits! Pro Green then came on, and unlike Noah and the Whale he was all ENERGY, this translated well with the crowd. And as a white middle class youth I must say his set was sick (Not meaning nauseous but sick as in how the cool kids say it – sick maaan’)! Hits such as ‘Just be good to Green’ and ‘I need you tonight’ were quality. He also impressed with a cover of The Pixies ‘Where is my Mind’. Well done Pro Green, you’ve converted me – just don’t tell anyone!
We disappointly then missed Portishead, by who by all means delivered a great set as they always do. This was due to my mate insisting, we go collect the girls (and by girls I mean a group of young girls they’ve been trying to crack onto all week and failing, miserably). However, we were then immensely positioned for the band that was seeing the Sunday out Canadian Indie Rock Supergroup Arcade Fire.
They kicked off on the main stage at 1.15am with Husband and Wife combo on great form. Opening with Ready to Start it was clear this was going to be awesome! The crowd went crazy for hits such as ‘Crown of Love’ ‘We Used to Wait’ and ‘Lies’. Ending with ‘Sprawl II’ Vince Power found justification in allowing them to close the Sunday. Epic Set.
Even better, this gave us time to head back to the Fiberfib.com Stage and catch UK’s biggest rap star Tine Tempah! Judging by this performance here, it can’t be long until Tine will be mentioned in the same breath as legendary US rap Star Jay-Z. Tine delivered a stellar performance with great showmanship and crowd-participation. Playing all his hits from ‘Discovery’ Highlights including ‘Wonderman’ ‘Invisible’ and ‘Frisky’. My personal favourite was ‘Miami to Ibiza’ were he got everyone in the crowd to crouch and jump at the point of action. However, there was no denying ‘Pass Out’ was greeted with the most cheers. The crowd went CRAZY!
Benicassim 2011 – what a festival! 100% going again in 2012! If you’ve never been go! I can’t empathise how good it is!
