Saturday 01/07/06 Day 2 @ Eurokeennes Festival, Belfort, France

The French people here seemed happy to see England lose. France played later in the day. Allez les Blues (The mood, not the football team). Morrissey started his set with 'You'll never walk alone', five minutes after England lost with penalty misses from two Liverpool players. It was impossible to tell if Morrissey was taking the piss, genuinely unhappy with England's defeat, or somewhere between the two. He's certainly a master of passive aggression, as we were reminded tonight via 'Girlfriend in a Coma'... "I could strangle you, but I'd hate anything to happen to you". Morrissey provided a crowd-pleasing mix of old and new. The more recent 'You Have Killed Me' seemed even clearer in France, the land of orgasm as the little death. If not orgasmic, Morrissey looked happy on stage. Did no-one tell him of the foie gras being sold at the back of the field? What happened to Morrissey's "No meat at venues I play" policy? There's another stall here that smells like a slaughterhouse and has pictures of cows all over it.

Last year in the dark Chapiteau arena Spleen played with CocoRosie, being a human beat-boxer for them. It was a functional role in the shadows of the fabulous CocoRosie sisters. Spleens transformation this year was nothing short of Clark Kent to Superman proportions. Where CocoRosie were laid-back, it wouldn't have been a surprise if Spleen actually got laid on stage tonight. He tongued one member of the audience (just her mouth). To say Spleen was energetic is beyond an understatement. Maybe being on the beach stage this time had some effect on him. The band was overloaded with soul talent; the sideman did a cracking cover of Tom Jone..., sorry Prince's 'Kiss'. If you heard the purple one's recent 'Black Sweat' and cringed, you wouldn't go far wrong listening to Spleen. Tonight showed that he is the heir to glory-days Prince.

Depeche Mode played the main stage, but none of their
impact was lost at the back of the massive field. The keyboards sounded crystalline-perfect through big-hitters like 'Enjoy the Silence'. So the word-count is low here for Depeche Mode, but maybe that's how the band would have it..."Words are very... unneccessary".

The programme lists Animal Collective as 'Neo-pop psyche', which is a fine summary. Imagine the noise inside Brian Wilson head during his indoor sand-castles phase. The music is refreshing for a New York guitar band, who are often good, if one-dimensional. Stand up The Strokes, Interpol and Calla. Anyway, recent Animal Collective single 'Grass' sounded particularly gorgeous tonight. Hit up the Gigwise review of that song for some choice words on Animal Collective.
                    
"Does anyone like drum 'n' bass?" asked the MC for Coldcut. Sure, but the MC's words are usually quantity over quality, as they try to keep up with the high beats per minute of that genre. This MC is no exception, trotting out cliched junglist chatter, as badly dated as the pork-pie on one of the Coldcut duo's head. Was that MC really Mike Ladd, the lad(d) that masterminded the intelligent, ground-breaking Majesticons project? If so, that's disappointing, but Coldcut make up for it with their scatter-shot breakbeats and agreeable visuals.