Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival (day 2)

Taming the Jaberwocky (“Jaberwocky” meaning “Hangover in this case), and easing us out of our tents the next morning is the smooth voiced Christine Bovil performing songs by the incredible French singer Edith Piaf. After being comforted by her Cheshire Cat tones and motherly smile, The Well Green are lined up next providing Monkee-like harmonies and catchy 60’s pop tunes, further soothing brain cells down from the next cosmos and back from too much of the previous night’s space funk.

Last night was only the warm up for crazy space music however, with Fur Hood and The Cosmic Dead playing next in the Yurt stage. Battling through sound problems, Fur Hood play a difficult set mostly drowned out by an abrasive and too loud synth put through a guitar amp, which actually hurt the ears. A shame, as they have some decent songs.
The Cosmic Dead don’t have this problem luckily, and build up an exciting proggy landscape, full of drones, solos and trance inducing bass. A constant ocean of sound floods in from the synth, lapping and roaring perfectly, whilst the guitarist, bassist and drummer continually build up to an exciting climax of solos and grooves…
Cosmic Dead

Hyped them up, beards and hair flail about, and the solos and drum smashes climax into a perfect sci-fi space battle sound track.

After this, the more peaceful and previously mentioned Remember Remember take to the main stage. With a massive band of seven musicians (and no sound complaints) they follow a similar build up-climax-breakdown pattern of The Cosmic Dead, but their melodies and arpeggios are softer, more intricate and have a delicate nature that call to mind forest walks and Scottish coastlines.
Remember Remember
Tokamak have no similar attributes to this though, as they smash apart the Army Tent stage with their punky experimentation. Firing missiles of funk, noise and shouted vocals in an energised and raw set, they are a great example of the diversity of acts and bold booking strategy the organisers went for; one of the things that makes the festival so exciting and fresh.
Tokamak
Like Tokamak, Bert Miller and Animal Folk have a certain energised and raw performance to them too. Well, when ranting about vegetarianism on ‘Don’t Eat Your Friends’ anyway! The comedy folk collective, fronted by the expressive Bert Miller (who tells us he got into music because he was a rubbish actor) play out a magnificently entertaining set of folk songs with hippie values that range from sounding like Tom Waits on happy pills to ballads about their favourite animals (quite often including accurately sang trumpet noises, which only add to the comedy value). They finish a packed out tent of smiling faces, making way for the nights two main headliners, BMX Bandits and The Vaselines.

The first of the Scottish underground legends are BMX Bandits. Singer and founding member Duglas T Stewart seems delighted to be on stage and happily delivers some romantic 80s indie love songs with the rest of the band jangling along nicely. It’s nice to see a band enjoying themselves on stage so much, and although most people don’t know the songs, they do get a warm crowd reaction.

Slipping on to stage next are The Vaselines; also Scottish alt-rock legends. Loved and even covered by Nirvana, they have a strong history and established fan base. Despite forming in 1986, the band still have a charged stage presence and a certain rock’n’roll sexual energy and romance to their songs, that when set against the giant red visuals drive the audience to a near moshing excitement. Showing no signs of drying up, The Vaselines set is a consistent drive of great rock and a band perfect for the festival, especially because of their Scottish heritage.

DJ and producer Rudi Zygadio finishes off an excellent day for most, playing huge beats and abrasive synth lines. Plenty of stuff to dance exhaustingly too, making sure tent slumber is easier and we’re ready for another jam packed day in Wonderland….

onto day 3…

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.