Yeah.

Published on Sun 16 Aug 2009

6 reasons that Sweden is great:

1-60-70% of the women there would win a "best looking individual in Britain" competition hands down, and it seems like some of them will even act as if they think I'm a real person 
2-the beer seems to give you much less of a hangover than it does here
3-the broadband is incredible
4-they have blackjack in the pubs
5-you appear to be able to sport a non-ironic moustache without fear of reprisals
6-there are lots of amusingly named sweets

I don't really have time to do Way Out West justice I don't think, but I'll give it a go. I got up nice and early on Friday morning, and took full advantage of the breakfast buffet at the hotel for the last time (though I didn't have the caviar - seriously, caviar for breakfast?) then Gary and I wandered over to the festival site for about midday, where we found Chris and went to the tent stage (there are 3 stages, two "main" ones and one smaller one in a tent for quieter stuff). Here are Chris and Gary sitting in the gorgeous sunshine we got on the first day. 

First band up were Vivan Girls, who somehow managed to be really charming, despite not being able to play their instruments, or sing, or write songs. They did manage to swap drummers at one stage without missing a beat (or losing the rhythm any more than either drummer lost the rhythm anyway) which was pretty cool. Also the singer was being all rock and roll and hitting her guitar with a tambourine. VERY VERY carefully. Really sweet.

Bon Iver were up second, confusingly, seeing as they're presumably much more popular than most of the rest of the acts who were on in the tent and, not confusingly, the place was absolutely rammed. I made the mistake of staying in the beer area (there are designated beer areas that you can't take alcohol outside of, intended to make people drink less, but having the effect of people watching less music) rather than going to the front when I had the chance and that, combined with it being early in the day meant that I didn't enjoy it as much as any of the other times I've seen them. They were still great though - Blood Bank and Wolves in particular.

Band of Horses were on one of the main stages next, and seem to have learnt to play live since I saw them at Koko last year. Absolutely brilliant - one of the highlights of the whole thing. I think the singer changing from wearing a trucker's hat to a cowboy hat might have been what did it. That, and having the sound so you can hear something other than a big booming bass. Saying all that, I missed the end to go and watch Florence and the Machine, which was ok... She has an amazing voice (and distractingly long legs) but it's all a bit stage school, and neither the band or the songs are great. Kate Bush has a lot to answer for, even if you forgive her for her records.

I wandered over to the main stage after about half an hour to watch the end of Robyn, who wasn't really great, but her set did feature both Dr Alban and the first recorded sighting of a keytar for over 15 years.

The real highlight of the day for me was Wilco. I've always thought the albums were ok but not brilliant, but live they have such a great sound, and Jeff Tweedy is a surprisingly funny guy. Their guitarist is pretty bloody annoying though - way too much widdling when everyone in the crowd (and probably the band) would be happier with an extra song in the set... Specifically "Kamera" but "I am trying to break your heart" was probably as good as it would have been.

You'd think these guys would have just bought tickets - it's not like the thing was sold out:

We listened to most of Anthony and the Johnsons from one of the beer areas, and it sounded pretty tedious to be honest. I popped out to catch a couple of songs, but didn't much like them, and I found his weirdness between them a bit upsetting. The orchestra he had backing him sounded nice though.

We remained in the beer area for Glasvegas, while a couple of heartstoppingly beautiful tour guides tried out their English on us (well, Chris), then saw the start of Arctic Monkeys (they played "I bet you look good on the dance floor" about halfway through, which was handy) before Chris and I went off to one of the club venues to try and get in to see Echo and The Bunnymen.

We got kind of ripped off by a taxi driver to get to the club, but it was worth it because while I was paying him a group of people near the front of the massive, massive queue forgot to move forward and Chris valiantly pushed in.

It was a long wait for the gig, but that was worth it too. Echo and the Bunnymen were playing their Ocean Rain album in its entirety with backing from what I think was an 8 piece subset of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra or something and it sounded incredible. Really incredible. I kept on telling Chris they just sounded like the Lightning Seeds but I didn't really mean it.

After they'd finished we hung around in the club for a bit, I lost some money at blackjack both due to my own inability to quit while I'm ahead, and subsidising the guy next to me who could only afford one go and immediately lost, while Chris forgot which room we'd been in and wandered around looking for me for half an hour. Then he went home and I acted as a non-threatening distraction tactic for a local girl trying to avoid the attentions of some pissed up English blokes on a stag do. I nearly accidentally wangled my way in to the after party by hanging around outside after it closed asking all and sundry where I actually was, but it's almost certainly for the best I didn't.

I made it to the site for about 3 the next day, feeling surprisingly ok, though the drizzle and McDonalds helped, just in time for Vampire Weekend, who were really good. The guy seems to have stopped pretending to be English in between songs, which can only be a good thing. They played some stuff from their forthcoming album, which sounded much like the old stuff, but the highlights were Oxford Comma and that one about getting out of Cape Cod. Both had me jumping up and down. Well, going on tiptoes and then getting off my tiptoes. The rain was getting heavier, and despite taking a mac to Sweden I'd not taken it to the festival site, so Gary and I went off to the beer area to shelter under the bar tent, and talk to some crazy Danes who'd somehow managed to get wasted already. One of them fell over on the way in. It was a beautiful sight - almost in slow motion - she tried to stop but her feet just carried on going. Chris turned up eventually and he and Gary went to town to watch the Arsenal game to get out of the rain, while I watched Nas and bought a hat to make up for the fact that my hoodie was soaked through, and that had the desired effect of making the rain stop. Nas was ace by the way - I always seem to really like it when hiphop guys have live bands.

I wasn't really keen on Amadou and Mariam - too bloody happy, and Basement Jaxx were ok in a ridiculous kind of way - the woman has a very impressive voice. We watched My Bloody Valentine from the beer area, though I kind of wish I'd got a bit closer to give them a proper go - it just sounded like a big mush from where we were. I do suspect that's what they were going for mind. I wanted to watch Lily Allen, because I'm a bit in love with her, but we only lasted three songs because it wasn't very good (I think the crappiness of her music is one of the things I love about her - her band are all about 50 - bit odd) and we went to watch Teddy Bears, a Swedish act, who, wait for it, are actually teddy bears:

Gary really liked them

I thought they were great too, but I went off just before the end to a club to try and see Jay Reatard but there was a huge line, and I ended up talking to these guys

(William and David - originally from Britain but now studying in Gothenburg and Oslo respectively - nice guys) in the queue for next door and going to Gothenburg's equivalent of the Kambar, which was a lot of fun. I ran into a Scottish hen night on the way home after they eventually chucked us out, and they were a good laugh too, but I think I just went on about Lily Allen. 

Today was a bit more of a struggle - Gary and I met Chris and Janne in the same Irish pub we'd met in on Thursday to drink a lot of coke and watch the Man U game. Janne wasn't feeling so great.

On the way there we spent a good 40 minutes watching an Aussie street entertainer who somehow managed to string doing two handstands and the spilts, and making a load of guys take their tops off into an hour long extravaganza. Fair play to her I guess. 

Absolutely brilliant weekend, though I do feel like I could do with another holiday to recover from it. Fortunately I'm going to Japan tomorrow! I don't feel very prepared...