I had never been to Castlepalooza before. It always fell on the same weekend as the electronic-focused Mantua festival which I always had a brilliant, if slightly debauched time at. So what did I think? Some good, some bad. Here goes..
- There were some proper musical highlights – David Kitt’s main stage closing set on Saturday (‘Into the Breeze’ is an Irish classic or deserves to be by this stage), The Ambience Affair, The Holy Roman Army (swelled to five people onstage at points), Channel One, a superb as always R.S.A.G. in a jammed tent and DJ Tu-Ki who closed out the festival in the tent with tunes from Major Lazer and the Justice remix of MGMT’s ‘Electric Feel’.
- By far the best band I saw all weekend were Le Galaxie. Holy Jesus! To be honest, I was very disappointed with their recent Transworld EP. It felt poorly recorded and not wholly pleasant to listen to but live, these guys were incendiary. Beset by sound problems at the start, it slowly turned into a properly banging festival set (a far cry from the supposedly disastrous Indiependence set the band alluded to – any ideas what happened?). The tunes were big, all-encompassing live electro with guitars that pumped some vitality into proceedings. It was clear from the band’s onstage demeanour that they were loving it so when bassist David asked everyone to point at the guy waving the glowstick sword, everyone obliged. The band’s lyrics and samples are a bit cheesy at times but it mattered little when they gave out a sign into the crowd with “TUNE” written on it or when the bassist swapped his instrument for wavey glowstick guy’s glowstick. Brilliant. Now the negatives..
- Largely, the lineup was pretty stagnant. Too many generic sounds on both stages in general. I seemed to spend a lot of time waiting around for music to happen. After getting up at 9am on Sunday thanks to my body clock, I had to wait until 2pm for live music and 5pm for a band I really wanted to see so there was a lot of waiting around. This wasn’t helped by a couple of unfortunately disappointing sets from bands I was looking forward to like 202s and Patrick Kelleher.
- Charleville Castle is a lovely setting for a festival but I felt the whole event lacked space. The entire back of the castle was occupied by the campsite which was nice yet the rest of the festival was quite small and occupied by food stalls, shops and a main stage.
- Alcohol: So most people were aware you couldn’t bring alcohol on site (not that it stopped many) but the prices advertised on the website were reasonable enough. However, when we got there they were charging €5 for a can (not €3 as advertised) and €80 for a slab of beer (not €60). Draught was €5 (not €4.50). You can call this nitpicking if you like but it all adds up and you shouldn’t expect your customers to be happy with things like this when you’ve been advertising cheaper prices the week before. I was told by someone else that cigarettes cost €10 at one stand as well.
- No water onsite for a period on Sunday wasn’t exactly a highlight for people to wake up to. It was rectified shortly after to the pleasure of many a foul gob.
- Generally – great security, friendly staff and a good atmosphere from the 2000 or so punters. Perhaps much more “arts” as it is supposedly a “music and arts festival”. If they diversified the lineup a bit (At one stage I was dying for some techno or some form of repetitive beats) and had some extra space, it would make for a better festival. If it really does want to be a mini- Electric Picnic, it’ll need these things next year.
Photos by Sara Devine.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Just posted this over on Jim Carroll’s blog
I’d imagine that a big part of Le Galaxie’s problem with Indiependence was the stage they were on – the ‘Red Bull Village’ was in reality the side of a truck with some trendy Red Bull gazebos put in front of it. It was a bit removed from the rest of the festival and the ground didn’t hold up well around it with the week’s rain – it was a effort to get there for what was, in fairness, the smallest of the three stages.
To add, I never saw much crowds at it to be honest.
That’s a pity. They were actually brilliant at Castlepalooza. Can’t win em all!
Those photos are savage. Kudos to Ms. Devine!
Thanks =) *blushes*
I second that! =D
Ive been at the festival for the last 3 years. It just seems to get worse every year. The line up was pretty rubbish. I would never pay €89 or whatever they were charging to go to that. They never seem to put anything back into the festival. The castle also looks as run down as ever. Nothing in the line of dressing up the grounds. It seems like they just get people there and then charge stupid prices for drink and food and forget about them. The whole no water thing on Sunday was a joke.
Arts? Eh, where was all that?
The area for artists to load in at the back of the tent was basically a bog track. They should have warned bands to bring tractors to get their equipment in. The sound was rubbish in the tent for most of Saturday and Sunday. A friend of mine played and was asked to use the sponsored equipment on stage. Half way through their set the amp stopped working. Classic.
Maybe next year get some good acts, heck even one good act. What have Noise Control done lately apart from that TV show. Headline act? Ya wha?
Rant over.
Le Galaxie are probably the best in their field worldwide at the moment.Those dreaded ‘on the side of a truck’ gigs are usualy a sound nightmare for any band ..especialy when the suspension goes on the truck as this Saint Motel example clearly shows..http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54716072 . (another equaly wild band from the other side of the pond). Killians videos with LeGalaxie are pretty wild and amazing too.
Much Kudos indeed!!
Did you see Project jenny project jan? If so were they any good?
Yeh not really my thing.
Good Review Nialler 9. I Went to Indie-pendence on Saturday and Castlepalooza on Sunday… Didnt see Le Galaxie at Indie-pendence cos they were clashing with Fight Like Apes. I can understand why they werent happy.. The Red BullStage was a shambles but the other 2 stages were very impressive.
One act you failed to mention were The Chapters.. I seen them at Castlepalooza but missed them at Indie-Pendence. I thought they Kick started the Sunday at Castlepalooza, Did you get to see them?
I really liked their album but never really liked them live.. They seemed up for it and really showed what good Musicians they are.. Alot of people are mentioning bands like La Galaxie and Channel One who use mostly samples and Keyboards but The Chapters have this genuine Musical Raw Quality.. Almostl ike Bruce Springsteen or something… Anyway, i was quite taken by them… .thoughts?
Richie, the Chapters music does not appeal to me in the slightest so I didn’t mention them. I heard them. It’s not my thing at all. They do the MOR Springsteen rock thing very well but that’s not for me regardless of whether they are good musicians or not.
Project Jenny, Project Jan were excellent.
i really enjoyed Castlepalooza myself… really nice atmosphere down there. They do need to very the line-up though. Thought the only act’s that were different to everything else were the Scribble Sound System & RSAG…both of whom were really good.
Niall9, the first time i heard of The Chapters was off one of your Playlists:
http://www.nialler9.com/2009/05/25/twitter-mixtape-a-song-for-summer/
So weirdly enough i got into them through you eventhough you dont like them.. I guess their not everyone’s cup of Tea cos they arent an Electro band.. and lets face it Electro is in.. but you cant deny that their song Videotapes is pretty damn catchy..
Well there ya go! Of course, I didn’t pick those entries.
It’s nothing to do with electro being in or out or whatnot, look around the blog and you’ll see that from my point of view.
Cool…. I liek what you write.. More so than Johnnie Craig and Jim Carrol… You aint up your arse!! Do you think people care about what you guys say? Jsut a random question… but.. when you write do you think “right i want people to like what i write!… also do you think Irish Journo’s should review Irish bands in a fair way? There seems to be somewhat of a debate recently … I work for a Japanese Record label…yes a Japanese label…. And its my job to do a bit of research online and on print on bands i am AnR ing in their country…
With this, there seems to be a slight begrudgery of certain Irish bands.. Some might be commercial and it seems that certain Journo’s slate these acts… but push acts who are more arty…
I came to Castlepalooza and Indie- Pendence to look at a few acts we are currently interested in signing.. its strange… the talent here is alot better than say London but it seems as though Irish Journos spend their time and effort absolutely slating their own!
Thanks Richie! High praise indeed.
People do care but ultimately make up their own mind. Having a blog means people can judge things straight away so my own opinion is instantly reflected upon.
Irish journalists should treat Irish bands the same as any other. There should be no special treatment. I don’t mention things on my blog I personally dislike too often but if I was doing a review of the band for State.ie I would be as fair as I possibly can.
Critics tend to push artists that are more arty or in simpler terms – more creative. These artists are pushing music into new areas – expanding on what has gone before rather than copying it.
It’s more exciting to hear something done differently than to hear yet another indie-rock band peddling uninspired melodies and formulaic songs. That’s just fact for my tastes.
Richie,
Which Japanese label are you A&Ring for?. You’re right about the Irish press when it comes to slating our own too..I think it’s a media based disease that originated in English newspapers whenever their football manager was mentioned and it slowly seeped into the country via Irish Liverpool and ManUnited fans working in the press!
Like you I believe that the Irish Independant Music scene is currently the very best in the world but the nation has become so used to the usual MTV brainwasing of the big labels that unless it’s on MTV or every radio station people either take it for granted or think it’s not ‘a real band’…It looks like shallowitus has also infected the nation too.
Were you not at the Bonus Party gig?
I think people know my feelings on the Bonus Party by this stage so not much point in telling people repeatedly how good they are.
I was just wondering what their Performance from Castlepalooza was like? I doubt Jim Carroll or any of those other Whoo Ha’s will review It !
There’s a review of the Bonus Party at castleplaooza at Cluas
http://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Gig_Reviews/tabid/96/EntryId/1130/Castlepalooza-2009-Day-1-live-in-Charleville-Castle-Tullamore.aspx
I’ve been to Castlepalooza nearly every year. First year was amazing just for the novelty of it all and there being more staff and bands than punters, line up was pretty good didn’t know many of the bands but discovered a few gems (neosupervital, prison love, spring break and kormac)!
but over the last 3 years it’s gotten bigger and bigger and they haven’t improved any of the facilities and the line up has pretty much stayed, as mentioned before ‘stagnant’.
I haven’t seen any improvement of the castle at all over the last 4 years (every year I manage to sneak in and have a wander around) even though they say the proceeds go back into renovations. I decided to volunteer this year because of a lack of cash so I missed out on all the waiting around for bands to start which was filled in previous years with boozing in the campsite.
Last year They had no porterloos and all the toilets in the castle were blocked, total disaster. But even with that the organizers haven’t bothered dealing with any of these problems. The car park was a disaster too, just a muddy farmers field 2 miles from the castle, we ended up towing 12 cars that were stuck in the muck.
In terms of art they always have the ballroom in the castle to fill so they shove a few pictures on the wall and get someone to knit for 10 hours a day and call it the arts part of the festival.
On a lighter note highlights: David Kitt, RSAG, Glam Rock Cops and Super extra bonus party (minus heathers) were all very good students but sadly not many new discoveries.
For some reason I thought it was going to be a mini limp oxegyn type festival since there was loads of indie rock “The” bands but it wasnt. Fun fun fun indeed and for me Not Squares were tops.