So I saw a bunch of bands at the Motel Mozaique festival this weekend, some awesome, others disappointing.
It started out on Friday with Phosphorescent, just a single guy with his guitar playing what could best be described as lo-fi slowcore folk. He simply said "we are Phosphorescent" before unloading a giant wall of looped guitars on his audience. After this intro he played his more usual fare of songs with beautiful lyrics and sparingly used guitar action.
Next up was Pivot, an Australian experimental-electronic-rock trio somewhat reminiscent of Battles. They're signed to Warp and are set to release their debut later this year. While they showed promise, most of the songs they played were a little rough around the edges. If they refine their sound a bit they could be awesome.
Everyone should know what Holy Fuck does by now, for they are much hyped, which was apparent by the size of the crowd. They were off to a rocky start, it just wasn't quite as tight as on the album. The crowd dissolved a bit after this, most people hadn't heard a single note before I'm sure. Oh well, more room for the people left to dance, and dance we did as the band kicked it into next gear. When they finally played Lovely Allen everyone was dancing like idiots, much fun was had by all.
Trentemøller was the last act of the night. The former DJ has a couple of friends on guitar and drums to accompany him nowadays. The set was a mix of techno and live instruments. While it was good, it didn't blow me away or anything.
The second day started of with the stunning Efterklang. This group of 8 Danes make post rock that takes after Sigur Ros and Mum yet with a lot of different elements. Throughout the show every member changed instruments at least once and pretty much all of them sang, creating one of the finest shows you'll ever hear. They captivated the audience from the get go, never once letting go. The frontman actually had to point out that "this is a festival and there's lots more music playing tonight" so they could get off the stage.
Goldfrap was up next. She mostly played songs from the new album with a few older ones thrown in for good measure. This was their first show of the tour so it was still a bit new for them. Which gave them the chance to try out some stuff as well, like a countryfied version of 'Ooh La La'.
At last it was time for M83. I was expecting a lot from these guys. They started with songs from the new album. Right away it just didn't click. They didn't seem to enjoy themselves, it all sounded a bit off and the audience wasn't really into it either. It got a bit better when they played 'Don't save us from the flames' but that was the only older song they played, it never recovered. They walked off stage after 45 minutes when they were supposed to play an hour. Everyone was expecting an encore, even the DJ's were silent for a couple of minutes, waiting for them to return, but nothing. I think they'd planned to play Couleurs as an encore, was a bit weird that they hadn't played it after all, but that they'd just decided to cut their losses and call it a day.
