The combination of the bitter cold and my inability to find a comfortable position meant I hardly slept on Friday night. Still, I woke up feeling surprisingly energised. It was the big day of Rocking the Daisies with all of the big internationals on the bill: Skunk Anansie, Boys Noize, The Hives and Alt-J. If I’d been feeling unconvinced of my enjoyment of the festival on Friday, Saturday would lay those feelings to rest – the headliners smashed my expectations and blew my mind.
We took a slow morning, swinging by the main stage to watch the Nomadic Orchestra, who are always loads of fun. Motheo Moleko put in a surprise guest appearance and the band drew an impressive crowd for the early morning timeslot.
I’d spent the vast majority of Friday near the main stage so welcomed the chance to check out some of the fest’s many other stages. Chilling at the Hemporium stage we were rewarded by a lovely set from Paige Mac.
She was as cute and charming as her songs, the highlight being her final number – a cover of the internet classic Aint nobody got time for that.
Last year’s Nu World Beat Barn was now the Nu World Beat Burrow, and themed like a mine. We popped in really briefly just once, while Khoitrans were playing, before heading back to the Hemporium stage where Left City was wrapping up his set with some complicated audience participation…
I caught the intro of Woodstock Mafia’s set before dashing back to the Hemporium stage for Flint, Meet Spark. I’d seen them once at &Union and thought they were super cute so was keen to see them again.
The small tent was packed pretty full and with a significant amount of musicians watching – proof I think that the Pretoria duo are well-worth checking out.
Hog Hoggidy Hog had the late afternoon slot back at the main stage. I’d expected there to be a bit of a moshpit, but if there was one, I left before I saw it…
Desmond & the Tutus are always a laugh – firm favourites of mine, they always make me smile.
Spoek Mathambo took the sunset spot. I was waiting to check out his outfit (they’re always interesting) but his intro took longer than I thought it would, so I didn’t hang around that long after he came out – it was getting dark and cold again and the dinner queues were already pretty long…
I was late to listen to Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave – the band had been getting rave reviews all over the place but for some reason it took me till early this year to listen to the album. Once I did, it was on firm repeat for a good long while.
Unfortunately I think a lot of the subtle nuances and layers of their music were lost in the open-air festival context. Still, I enjoyed their performance because I’m a big fan of their music, and am happy about the fact that an exciting and current band like them came to play here.
Swedish garage rockers The Hives take me back to the early 2000s. I have Main Offender and Hate to say I told you so on VHS somewhere, as well as a few random MP3s that I’ve always liked, but beyond that I’ve never been a huge fan.
The show began before the band even stepped on stage: the task of setting up the instruments was fulfilled by a team of ninjas, who also hung around during the main performance to make sure everything kept running smoothly, they were super cool.
First on stage was drummer Chris Dangerous, the others followed one by one and immediately the floodgates opened and The Hives exploded into action.
Frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist was mesmerising and hilarious – barely standing still for a few seconds at a time while singing, he made regular trips out to the crowd where he was pawed by the enthralled masses, each time replenishing and seemingly multiplying the energy he’d spent.
From the hilarious mythology the band have concocted for themselves (that they’re over 3000 years old and the greatest band of all time) to the fact that they got the crowd to sit down in the cold mud, to the mini question and answer session before 1000 Answers (where Pelle hushed the crowd to listen to 3 questions: ‘Can you play tick tick boom?’ “we most certainly can, and we will!” “Can we also come on stage?” “Start a band and in 20 years maybe you can come on stage” and “when are you coming back?” “As soon as humanly possible!”), their banter and audience antics were as entertaining as their music.
They were so fantastically confident and egocentric that watching them was totally all-engrossing. I couldn’t think of anything else and have never been so absorbed by a live performance.
Only they could have pulled off what might have been a 20 minute band introduction, ( I just remember Chris Dangerous’ intro including something about “half man, half animal, half Finnish, half Swedish, and a whole lot of machine” and thinking that was pretty accurate given his insane drumming skills) making it so enthralling I forgot they were in the middle of a song. Tight as hell, they never missed a beat, diving effortlessly back into the end of Tick Tick Boom.
“If you weren’t already a Hives fan, then you are now” you said it, Pelle.
Honestly, the best live performance I’ve seen, from any band, ever.
After The Hives’ completely mind-blowing performance I was wondering how Skunk Anansie would fare. The crowd had thinned significantly as the night wore on; it was packed to bursting for Alt-J, less so for The Hives and significantly quieter before the headliners.
I remember Skunk Anansie from back in the day and have always thought Skin was really cool (I used to love this song she did with The Prodigy‘s Maxim) but again, I was a casual fan, and thus was unprepared for the epicness of their performance.
A very different energy and vibe from The Hives’ but as with the Swedes, their professionalism and years of experience really showed. Skin was amazing. Strong, powerful, energetic and pitch perfect, but she also seemed incredibly nice – from the emotion-filled ballads to her endearing banter with the crowd (“last time we were here was 16 years ago…that’s probably older than some of you!”).
Watching her from the pit I saw she was really cool to the photographers too – if she was close to one she’d give them a good shot, really nice considering she’s conceivably seen millions of cameras in her life.
She also spent a lot of time with the crowd – physically greeting them and even giving one lucky girl a kiss on the cheek. But the kicker was the encore. “Do you want more?” she inquired, “I don’t know…it’s pretty cold…someone might need to hand me a jumper!” Amazing, rock goddess and adorable Brit all in one.
“If I come out there will you look after me?” The crowd mumbled their ascent. “You liiiie! You say that but you probably won’t listen to anything I say…alright, I’m coming, but you have to do exactly what I tell you, understand?” She then proceeded to tell the crowd to get down. Having done so earlier at Howlin’ Pelle’s request, everyone was a bit confused and reluctant but finally obliged.
Skin then left the stage and walked down the middle of the seated crowd. It was awesome. Then we all got up again for the chorus, then back down for the verse. She’d made it to the middle of the crowd, all the while singing. Two choruses in a row and then the cameras lost her, everyone did. I saw a silver bullet streak past me at the back of the crowd, then her voice said, “here I am!”
She was up on the sound box, facing the backline of the crowd who were now rushing towards her. At her request we all raised our arms and made a line back to the stage – she then rolled over the sea of people on her back and side till she was back at the front. It was totally astounding.
I took the long way back to the tent, joining the mass exodus to the Red Bull stage where Boys Noize was playing. I stayed long enough to appreciate the lasers and intricate lighting, but that night, my dreams were still buzzing with guitar riffs and the images of rock veterans.
Rocking the Daisies have raised the bar incredibly high – next year’s fest can’t come quick enough.
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Rocking the Daisies | Skunk Anansie | The Hives | Alt-J | Boys Noize
Spoek Mathambo | Desmond & the Tutus | Hog Hoggidy Hog | Flint, Meet Spark
Woodstock Mafia | Paige Mac | The Nomadic Orchestra
