Review: Vip InMusic Festival 2007

(this has been written for a while, actually. Real update tomorrow, I think. Enjoy this in the time being)

I must admit, when I first saw the advertisement for the VIP InMusic Festival, I was a bit incredulous. Zagreb gets quite good shows once in a while, but we rarely get much serious star power from outside the region. This festival was either an exception to the norm or the end of that trend, depending on who you believe. While it wasn't quite the Croatian answer to Lowlands, it did draw a number of very important names in punk/indie, and ended up having quite an impressive lineup. The obvious highlights were advertised well in advance: Sonic Youth, The Stooges, the New York Dolls, !!!, Asian Dub Foundation and The Hold Steady. That alone would be a solid lineup, and the promise of several more outside bands and a host of locals made it sound like a great deal. I was not disappointed.

Day 1, I arrived fairly early, but not quite at the very beginning of the festival. As a result, I ended up hearing a significant chunk of The Bluejays' set as I walked around the lake to the actual venue. These Norwegians sounded pretty decent: fairly energetic indie rock with garage undertones, from what I could hear. By the time I actually got into the site, they had finished, and No S3ings (“No Strings”) had played most of their set. They finished up a last couple songs while I was there, which again sounded good from what I heard – upbeat Croatian punk rock, no more no less. Regardless, after them it was time for me to see my first full set of the night, which was Varaždin's Messerschmitt. They were yet another garage rock band, this time with heavy blues tonality, sounding like a combination of a slower New Bomb Turks and very early Rolling Stones (they even covered “2000 Light Years from Home” to drill that in). They put on an excellent and enjoyable set, though they pulled the gaffe of covering a band they were effectively opening for (playing the Stooges' “Down on the Street” isn't wise when you'll obviously be blown away by the Stooges themselves later), and served as just another reminder of Croatia's fun and thriving local music scene.

When Messerschmitt had burned themselves out, I went over to another stage to catch the tail end of The Beat Fleet's set. TBF drew a sizable crowd for how early they were on, which wasn't surprising considering they're one of the most beloved groups in contemporary Croatian music. Their hip-hop, which is far closer to singing than most western hip-hop and utilises mainly dub reggae beats, is really quite fun to listen to even for someone as nonplussed about hip-hop as me, and their set reflected that – not to mention the great dynamic between their crew of a fat guy, a skinny guy, and a guy with a hat. Since they had started just after Messerschmitt, I only heard about three songs, but I still enjoyed it. I then made my way over to where Superhiks were just starting, with no expectations. I ended up not being very impressed, as they really sounded like a Macedonian version of the Generic Third Wave Ska Band. The only interesting thing they did was a cover of “Ace of Spades” with the main riff played by the horn section, but that novelty aside I was rather bored, especially since I didn't have energy to dance. I ended up leaving and checking out Roisin Murphy, formerly of Moloko, who I'd honestly never heard of before. I wasn't impressed by her slightly world music-inflected dance music either, so I decided to instead pass the time till the next act at the DJ tent, which at the time was under the control of Ras Tweed and Bass Culture, spinning choice dub cuts. While their actual DJ work was relatively minimal, their choices of tracks made the soundsystem top notch, and I enjoyed my 45 minutes there greatly.

The time to move on came when Obojeni Program came on. Serbia's current second-best band (after the inimitable Darkwood Dub) played right at sunset, just as things began to get crowded. More than anyone else at the fest, they showed the prowess of Balkan music, playing a fantastic set while pulling of their own distinct style. Their basic sound, which combines simple, Ramones-style punk with post-punk flair from sources ranging from the Fall to Mission of Burma to Hüsker Dü and infuses it with a very Balkan sense of melody, comes off incredibly well in a live setting, and their stage energy is exceedingly impressive. They have a somewhat odd presentation – their frontman carried what was apparently a book of lyrics the entire time – but that serves only to heighten their stage presence. Their set drew a significant crowd, and they showed that Croatians and Serbs can share music with the best of them. Their set was easily the best of any band from the region all weekend.

I took a look at the other stage once Obojeni were done to see what I thought of the recently-reformed Happy Mondays, and I was less than impressed. I wasn't familiar with their old output, so there was no sense of nostalgia for me, and they just sounded like a tired 80s pop band who hadn't quite realised they weren't relevant. I left quite quickly. There was a break at this point with no sets, leading into the headliners – and some of the worst organisation I've seen. The New York Dolls were scheduled to go on at 9:45, but didn't come on till 10. David Johansen looked and sounded more like Joey Ramone than ever, but Sonic Youth were put on a mere 20 minutes later for no fathomable reason other than “headliners should be on around 10.” Having seen both before, the novelty factor of the admittedly fossilised Dolls wore off quickly, and after hearing “Looking For A Kiss” and “We're All In Love” I went to get a good spot for one of my favourite bands of all time. I stand by my choice, but I feel like a very large number of people would have liked to see full sets from both acts, and I'd say that scheduling fiasco was an esxtremely bad move, which cheated both the audience and the band. Regardless, I got a fantastic spot for SY – third row in, dead centre – and anticipated an unbelievable set.

I got even more than I'd hoped for, amazingly. Even having seen Sonic Youth before and expecting even more this time, my expectations were blown away. There were a lot of factors involved, but really the key feature was that it was simply a better set. SY seemed more “on” this time, between their sound being better, their improvisation more impressive, and having better stage antics (the highlight of which was their behaviour toward the giant beach balls thrown into the crowd by event staff [how cliché!] at the end of their first song: Thurston Moore had us pass them to him, then he and Lee Ranaldo batted them back and forth with their guitars until they popped. It sounds silly in words, but it was amazing in practice.). What's more – and probably most importantly – their setlist was better this time. Since it's been over a year since Rather Ripped came out, they've cut back on the songs from it, leaving only the best tracks and making room for crowd-pleasers from throughout their career. They played songs from nearly all their crucial releases, with the main exceptions being EVOL and Washing Machine. Highlights included inevitable opener “Teenage Riot”, “'Cross The Breeze”, “Schizophrenia”, main-set closer “Pink Steam”, “Kool Thing” (disappointingly without anyone playing the part of Chuck D), and final encore “Shaking Hell”, pleasantly introduced as a ballad. The large number of well-known songs they played fed into the other big aspect of what made the show so damned good: the crowd. Croatian crowds are always great, especially compared with ones in Holland, but this one was particularly great. Not only was there more applause than I've ever heard from the number of people assembled (probably about 1500), not only were people singing along to every single song, but people were just astonishingly excited, like they really appreciated the privilege of seeing Sonic Youth at their best. And they certainly were at their best. I would personally rank that as the single best performance I've ever had the privilege of seeing.

After that stunning spectacle, it was all but impossible to be interested in any more music, but I gave it a shot anyway. Sadly, while I appreciated Banco De Gaia's spacey electronica, I didn't have the energy for it, and all it did for me was make me want a joint. I ended up leaving for the night soon after SY finished, listening to Valetudo as I walked and liking their roma-blues style. All in all, even if the highlights really amounted to Messerschmitt and Obojeni Program opening for Sonic Youth, day 1 was a great success.

I arrived slightly later on day 2 than on the previous one, but I saw just as much really. Day 2, generally speaking, had more known names than day 1 – besides the Stooges, !!!, Asian Dub Foundation, Gilles Peterson, and the Hold Steady were all playing, as well as a number of major local bands. I arrived at the start of one of those locals' sets: Dubrovnik's own Majke started their set of good old rock 'n' roll just as I reached the stage. Majke truly sound anachronistic, with their heavy, bluesy rock sounding like it came straight out of 1972. The fact that their frontman was trying his best to look like Axl Rose did nothing to dull that perception, but fortunately their music is good enough not to be a problem. Needless to say, Zagreb loves them, and their set went over well. They were, by default, the best local band I saw all day – but that's because all the rest I made it to were internationals.

The first of those internationals, and perhaps the band that exceeded my expectations the most over the course of the two days, was The Hold Steady. Even though I love the Replacements and so on, The Hold Steady's work has never done all that much for me on record. Fortunately their live show was leagues more exciting. First of all, the sound: their records really don't capture the strength of the guitars, in particular, that's so central to the band. Songs like “Massive Nights” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” sounded a lot more powerful live, rather than the oddly muted tone I get out of the record. Plus, watching them play was hoot. But most significant was their audience interaction. All the slightly-cheesy “whoahs” and handclap moments on record turn into massive audience-participation events live, and the crowd loved it. Craig Finn put it very nicely at the end of the set: we're all the Hold Steady. Speaking of Finn, he was the most endearing frontman I've ever witnessed. More than anyone else I've encountered, he gives the impression of being a regular guy, “full of joy” as he puts it, who could just as well be in the audience as on stage. It's partly the incredibly friendly banter, partially the overexcitedness manifesting itself in arm-flailing and word-mouthing, and mainly just a real charisma. The rest of the band help that too, tossing beer bottles around, drinking shots of Jim Beam together, and generally showing camaraderie. And of them, Franz Nicolay came the closest to upstaging Finn, with his brilliant moustache, deadpan humor, and harmonica antics. The fact that he was dressed as if he were playing with his other band (the inimitable World/Inferno Friendship Society) didn't hurt. All in all, the Hold Steady's set was exceedingly solid, and above all exceeded my expectations. It was a major highlight.

The next act was one that's something of a fixture in the Zagreb show circuit, but a welcome one: Asian Dub Foundation are probably the most enjoyable hip-hop show I've seen. Part of the appeal is their excellent blend of live and sampled music – it comes off as super-energetic, but yet not hugely overdependent on the DJ; their enormous drummer with even more enormous drum is particularly entertaining. Their racial makeup is another major part of their style, in that they they represent a wide gamut of immigrants to England: Indian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, Chinese and so on. This plays into their lyrical themes, of course – they tend to rap about social inequality, racial unity, political hegemony, and general solidarity. Of course, their music sort of speaks for itself: they have an irresistible energy that makes even someone as lukewarm on hip-hop as I am jump up and dance. Of course, this raises the question of whether all the Croatians dancing to ADF actually cared about their message, but at a certain point one has to just stop analysing and dance.

The headlining acts of day 2 had the same unfortunate scheduling as day 1: !!! started at 9:45. I came over to see them, and found what little I saw to be fun, but when it came down to it, I left after a song so I wouldn't be stranded in the back for the clear biggest name of the fest: The Stooges. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive after having heard the incredibly weak new album, not wanting one of my favourite classic bands to ruin their legacy. Fortunately, what happened was about as far from that as it could get. Basically as soon as Iggy, Watt and the Ashetons ran onto the stage, I knew I'd be in for a hell of a time. And when Iggy yelled “we are the FUCKING Stooges!” before launching right into “Loose”, I knew I was right. Iggy, for all his apparent boredom on The Weirdness, was as wild as I imagined. Almost immediately, he was writhing on top of the amps, throwing himself across the stage, yelling his lungs out, and of course dropping his pants. As the group blasted through 80% of the songs on Stooges and Fun House, they showed that they were hardly overshadowed – Mike Watt's bass and Ron Asheton's guitar were incredibly powerful, and Scott Asheton's drums were simply crushing. The crowd was, too: the front was a seething mass of people shoving, moshing, and crowdsurfing. It was a bit painful and a bit distracting, but it still made the experience all the more intense. The set list was damned good, too: although the lack of Raw Power tracks was a bit of a (understandable, with the different lineup and so on) downer, they played all the great tracks from their first two albums, and only two songs (“My Idea of Fun”, “Electric Chair”) from the new album, along with a solo Iggy track (“Skull Ring”). Basically, the Stooges were an incredible experience due to the “I can't believe I'm seeing them!” aspect, but also because they put on a hell of a show. Say what you will about The Weirdness, Iggy and company can still rip it up.

I was pretty beat up after they finished, but I still went to the night stage to see Kultur Shock. They're a pretty interesting band: two Bosnians, two Americans, a Bulgarian, and a Japanese, all based in Seattle. The best comparison musically would definitely be Gogol Bordello: energetic punk rooted in Balkan melodies. However, their music is a lot less goofy than Gogol, with more robust guitar parts and better vocals. They put on a hugely energetic show, but I couldn't stay very long, what with hardly being able to stand and all. Regardless, they were a fun closer to a great festival.

All in all the fest was a huge success. The big foreign names put on great shows, the locals gave them a run for their money, and a whole lot of people showed up. Other than the incredibly foolish organisation choice of overlapping headliners, the fest was a massively good experience. Hopefully this will entrench the VIP inMusic festival as an event, and next year will be as good or better, though that would be quite a feat.