‘END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL’ – BLANDFORD FORUM, DORSET 1-4.9.22
End Of The Road Festival Day Three: Saturday 3rd September
If you have missed Days One and Two in our Part One report, then click HERE.
Saturday at the ‘End Of The Road Festival’ is Pixies Day!!! However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, as there is much to enjoy before the legendary Pixies take the stage tonight, not least Sniffany & The Nits, who are the first band on at The Big Top. The London-based four-piece consist of Sister Sniffany (no, I’m not convinced that’s what her parents called her either) on vocals, Owen Williams on drums, Max “Wozza” Warren on bass, and Matt Green on guitar.
At the outset Sniffany asks us to “listen nicely”. As they’ve taken the stage at midday it seems a bit early for the Riot Act to be read, but who knows what kind of passions they usually arouse. She tells us that they “specialise in two minute songs”, and this seems to be a pretty accurate self-appraisal, they are indeed fast and punky. Sniffany herself is very theatrical and charismatic. Her voice is quite shrill, but that adds to her theatricality. At one point she asks if anybody “has anything to say”, and somebody in the audience shouts out “you’re awful!!!”. Sniffany retorts “that’s not very nice”, and she’s right, it isn’t. It’s also not true.
Not everything runs smoothly though. There are a couple of false starts, and at one point they start playing two different songs simultaneously. Sniffany asks us to “find it charming, and not unprofessional”. However, when everything is working well, it works very well indeed. They make a great start to the day. Their debut album is coming out shortly, and they play The Prince Albert in Brighton on 14th November – Tickets HERE.
For something completely different, we head over to the Garden Stage for singer/songwriter Margo Cilker, who is from Oregon in the USA. Margo specialises in Americana rather than country music, and has some pleasingly gritty lyrics. She thinks ‘The End Of The Road’ is a dark name for a festival. Margo’s debut album ‘Pohorylle’ was released last year, and much of today’s set is from it, notably ‘Kevin Johnson’, which details the life of a God-fearing Oregonian from childhood to death. Markedly, it also details the contrast between the expectations that parents had for their children in times gone by. Somewhat chillingly, girls were expected to “accept their lot in life”. Blimey.
Margo has assembled an impressive band. Lead guitarist Max Crawford is fluid but unfussy; bassist Tom Bailey uses a bow on the slower songs, whilst drummer Don Gilleckie uses brushes on the quieter material. Margo smiles throughout, even on the darker songs. For example, ‘Crazy Or Died’ is about how most of the people she has looked up to have either gone crazy or died. It’s a “twisted hymn” about the need for community. Margo is well travelled (she lived in the Basque country for two years), and her travels have fed the lyrics of her story-songs. She’s an artist who is well worth investigating.
Next we make our way to the Tipi stage for Lutalo, known to his parents as Lutalo Jones. Lutalo is a singer/songwriter who grew up in Minnesota in the USA, but is now based in Vermont. His half-spoken vocals betray hints of Lou Reed. He has an interesting guitar style: finger-picking mixed with lead. Occasionally he finger-picks whilst using distortion. Lutalo describes his music as folk music mixed with electronica. Some of his material is quite delicate, some less so. His lyrics are quite thought-provoking, and he is a prodigious guitar talent. Lutalo recently released an EP called ‘Once Now Then Again’, and plays ‘For Now’ from it. He seems to be quite a modest man. He shouldn’t be. This is great stuff. Lutalo has plenty to crow about.
Lutano on Facebook
At short notice, Emma-Jane Thackeray has had to pull out of the festival, and is replaced on the Garden Stage by The Wave Pictures. The band comprise David Tattersall on vocals and guitar, Freddie Rozycki on bass, and Jonny Helm on drums, although for today Jonny is replaced by Dominic Brider, doubtless due to the short notice. I last saw The Wave Pictures at London’s ICA in 2009, and I must confess, have somewhat lost track of them since then. They have a wildly extensive back catalogue. Including early self-released records they have (count ’em!) nineteen albums!!!
As with many bands, humour is never very far away with The Wave Pictures. Their lyrics are very witty, “I Love You Like A Madman” being a prime example. Freddie Rozycki is introduced as “the best bass player in the world”. He plays a most impressive solo to back up this claim. He also plays with Jeffrey Lewis so his chops are clearly much appreciated. At one point they play a song that drummer Dom doesn’t know, David Tattersall announcing “Dom has never played this song in his whole life – let’s see how he does!!!” As it happens he acquits himself pretty well. Their set ends with ‘French Cricket’, the hookline being “I want to play French cricket with you”. Well, we all need to have an ambition. I must confess I’m delighted to have renewed my acquaintance with The Wave Pictures, and I look forward to seeing them again. They play The Brunswick in Hove on 26th October (Tickets HERE), and Guildford Boileroom on the 31st.
We head back to the main stage for Los Bitchos. This is a band that I’ve been meaning to check out for some time. They comprise Serra Petale on guitar, Augustina Ruiz on synths, Josefine Jonsson on bass, and Nic Crawshaw on drums. They are also joined live by an additional guitarist, but details of his identity are somewhat elusive!
Los Bitchos deal in mostly instrumental Latin infused rock. Any vocals are mostly four voices in unison, although there are occasional vocals on the backing track. However, Serra Petale does handle the odd lead vocal. She seems to be the leader of the band. They appear to have a lot of fun. They have a song about Lindsay Lopez called ‘Lisa Goes To Hollywood’.
There are unavoidable and quite relevant comparisons with Santana. This is not purely because this is Latin-influenced music, but because the band’s musicianship warrants the comparison. As well as musicianship though, there is also plenty of adrenaline and enthusiasm. Serra Petale and bassist Josefine Jonsson both take turns on twin snare drums and tom-toms. The rhythms this band produces are irresistible. If you don’t end up dancing to this music get yourself to A&E immediately, because you may be dead.
It’s not all Latin music though. One tune, ‘Tropico’, has an almost reggae feel. This is absolutely exhilarating stuff. There is enough here to satisfy the musos in the audience, and also enough to satisfy those who just want to dance. Towards the end of their set they hand around a bottle of tequila, and then play a very fast version of the song ‘Tequila’, which synth player Augustina sings. They look like they’re having a ball, and if a band has fun, their audience usually has fun too. And we are. I wish that you’d been here. If you weren’t, Los Bitchos play London Heaven on 2nd December. Their album Let The Festivities Begin! was released in February.
Yo-yo like, we head back to the Garden Stage (I’ve long since done my 10,000 steps today) to see Kevin Morby, who was born in Lubbock, Texas, the birthplace of Buddy Holly. Morby has been recommended to me by multiple people, but yet I actually know very little about him. As far as I know he’s a singer/songwriter, who’s also a member of US bands Woods and The Babies. He has released seven solo albums, the most recent being ‘This Is A Photograph’, released in May this year.
From where I’m standing I can see backstage, and catch the band having a very serious looking group hug. I’m not sure if this is a good sign. I hope Morby isn’t going to come out and start spouting off about Gaaaad. Before I have time to ponder this further, the band comes out and starts playing. Morby follows them wearing a gold-coloured tasselled leather jacket. It is immediately very clear that he is the star of the show. It’s also very clear that he must have balls of armour-plate to wear a jacket like that.
The very first track is the title track of his latest album, the aforementioned ‘This Is A Photograph’. Indeed, the first four songs are from that album, and very fine they are too. I must confess, what I wasn’t expecting from Kevin Morby was American classic rock, but that’s what we have here. Morby and his band remind me of Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in the late 1970s, and also the very early E Street Band. The band rock like hell. Guitarist Cyrus Chambers in particular unleashes some incandescent solos. When this band cook, they REALLY cook!!!
I get the feeling that given a longer set, this could have been quite a gig, but Morby has only been given roughly an hour. It has to be said that there is nothing particularly new being done here, but that kind of misses the point. There are some top notch songs. Also, the material is quite varied. The band has a sax player, but unlike some he doesn’t insist on parping over everything. He plays the flute too. The final song, ‘Harlem River’, the title track of Morby’s debut solo album from 2013, starts like an ending, and when it does end, the ending is epic. This is the kind of set that earns an artist new fans, and I’m one. So, where in Kevin Morby’s back catalogue do I start?
After a break for some food (hey – music writers don’t subsist on Jack Daniels anymore) we head back to the main stage for the main event: it’s Pixies time!!! I must confess that I haven’t seen the Pixies since bassist Kim Deal left. Indeed, I actively doubted whether the Pixies could exist without Kim Deal! So tonight the band has a lot to prove to me. Deal’s original replacement Kim Shattuck sadly passed away in 2019. Current bassist Paz Lenchantin joined the band in 2014.
Certainly nobody can argue with the opening quartet of ‘Gouge Away’,’ Wave Of Mutilation’, ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ and ‘Debaser’, all from 1989’s ‘Doolittle’, arguably the greatest Pixies album. Bassist Paz is clearly living the dream whilst single-handedly exorcising Kim Deal’s ghost. The first post-Kim Deal song, ‘St. Nazaire’, from 2019’s ‘Beneath The Eyrie’ is abandoned after one verse. The band fall back on more crowd-friendly choices from ‘Surfer Rosa’, the ‘Come On Pilgrim’ EP, and ‘Doolittle’. Indeed, ten of ‘Doolittle’s fifteen songs get played tonight. One could almost be fooled into thinking that the Pixies are playing a crowd-pleasing festival headline set. To a large extent they are.
There are plenty of classics essayed tonight. However, midway through the set we get ‘Human Crime’, which is a non-album single released this year. Then we get four songs from the yet-to-be-released ‘Doggerel’ album, due out on 30th September. There is more than one way of looking at this. Personally I view the playing of new thus far unreleased songs as being adventurous and exciting. Who doesn’t want to hear new songs from a band they’re a fan of? On the other hand, if you’re a casual fan, or a curious festival goer, you may wish the band to concentrate on material you know. Whatever your view, the songs sound like Pixies songs, and the lyrics that I can pick out seem to have the expected ‘Old Testament’ flavour that we expect from the Pixies. However, for some of the audience this section of the set clearly represents something of a trough.
There’s also a degree of head-scratching in some quarters when they play tonight’s only song from 2016’s ‘Head Carrier: All The Saints’. However, for the set’s home stretch they concentrate once again on classics from the 1988-1990 period, closing with their oft-played cover of Neil Young’s ‘Winterlong’. There is no encore, but that’s not unusual. In my opinion, this has been a masterful set. The band have largely provided the audience with what they wanted. There certainly has been no lack of classics, and we’ve also been given a taste of the band’s latest work. Top marks from me that’s for sure. I did hear someone complaining that Black Francis hadn’t addressed the crowd once. Well, he’s never been the chattiest of guys….
And that’s almost it for Saturday, apart from Los Bitchos’ surprise show at the Tipi stage. This is much looser than their earlier show, without sacrificing any of their musical quality. They’re absolutely having a laugh. Even their additional guitarist lightens up. It’s a superb end to the night.
You can read our Part Three report on Day Four HERE.
