Togfest 2009: Part I
Jun.26.09
Togfest Time! I’m going to straight-out admit it right now, Togfest was one of my absolute highlights last year, good bands, good weather, good camping, good post-festival jam. It’s a bit different this year though, on one hand you have the expectations of last year, and the lineup only features a couple of local bands which isn’t a bad thing in itself, with acts appearing from Leeds, Kent and neighbouring Northampton, giving us a glimpse outside the local scene. Before long the tent is pitched, camera ready and gates open for us to check what Togfest 2009 has to offer.
Walking into the actual festival once it’s open, the first place to head to is the marquee while the courtyard stage is being set up. The first band on is a name that the organisers tried to get last year to no avail, but this time around Christina Tomlin and her crew are here to open up the proceedings with a collective sound of smooth, funky grooves despite the “killer” heat that’s even making it’s way into the tent. It’s a formula that just can’t fail really, sailing vocals with big riffs, feedback inducing solos and punchy basslines are nothing new but will always go down well if done right, though Chrystina takes up an acoustic for a more laid back number too. Looks like Togfest is off to a good start, with more to follow around the corner in the courtyard.
Setting up on the “main” stage are a young band called Tin Soldiers, from Kent, and looking at my newly bought program shows that they have a whole host of modern influences. It’s no real surprise, then, that their intro is a bit melodramatic, slightly post rock and with a touch of “Foo Fighters”, fair to say then that it gets a fair few people up front. The rest of the set is a bit more punky and straight forward though, with numbers like “Twenty Four-Seven” and “Pull The Trigger” being a bit more forceful, and maybe a bit more simple. But it wasn’t too bad even though the intro did throw me off a bit, but at the end of the day they played well and went down quite cool with the younger crowd, with two and a half years of gigging experience you can’t ask for much more.
I also had an uncle who was helping out at the festival and mentioned an act called Poppy Seed setting up back in the marquee. It’s quite a chilled out affair with some reggae beats cropping up through the set, though it extends far beyond the genre and the roots, it’s more subtle with hints of chill-out, jazz and Poppy’s own vocals and lyrics are also quite poetic, with the lady herself being on the London poetry scene for the past ten years. You could even say that this is where the two mediums of poetry and song meet up where it’s not uncommon to find profound analogies in songs like “He Touches” that compares romance to playing a guitar and “Business Sense” at the other end of the scale, that delivers a swift verbal kick to the arms industry.
The evening is now coming on a bit, but it’s time to get to the main stage in the courtyard to see a familiar face. The monikers have varied a tiny bit over time, but the name for tonight is Cyba-X, a one-man drumming machine. You know how Chewbacca is always hitting the controls of the Millenium Falcon? Imagine that but with a bloke with drumsticks instead, the drumkit is nothing short of extraordinary with synths, drumpads and all manner of controls being at the ready to create a diverse array of sounds from metal to trance to drum n’ bass, yet you can feel that Cyba-X is capable of delivering a lot more than he did in this half hour, but as it is drumming has still been taken to a new dimension…
By now the sun is pretty much making it’s way down and it’s a good time to chill out. Most people are doing so back at the Marquee Stage where a pshychadelia inspired band named Hoopy Frood are playing. Everyone is sat down as layers of bongo beats and pulsating melodies weave their way around the vocals of vocalist Michelle. You could call it an enticing mix of trance, prog-rock and electronica, but you would have to check them out for yourself to get to grips with their sound for real, it’s quite a treat, especially live in the moodily-lit confines of the marquee. On a side not, I have much love for their guitarists custom rainbow coloured guitar (you’ll see it in the gallery below). In short I walked in expecting hippies and I walked out after seeing and hearing a multitude of soundscapes.
To cap off the Friday is one of the most colourful bands I’ve seen. A host of musicians dressed up in bold, slick fifties attire and the same can be said for their music. It isn’t exactly rock n’ roll, but the guys don’t call themselves anything short of a jazzy jump-jive band complete with double-bass and a horn section, a bit of swing here and a bit of a guitar solo there to keep the heavier-minded folks happy. Still, opinions are pretty divided with these guys, sax solos, swinging basslines, a bit of scat and a frontman who knows how to really showboat the show are either going to float your boat or sink it, but for myself I found it easy to get into the groove, it’s something different, something bright, something perfect for ending the night. After all, as they say “if you’ve got it, flaunt it!”.
After the gig has wound down and we make our way off-site, it hit me that the camping wasn’t quite the same as last year, this time there wasn’t really anyone around who I knew so it was mainly spending some time on my own before getting some shut-eye on the air bed, bringing that along helped amazingly and I was out like a light, ready to take on the even longer day tomorrow after an obligatory greased up bacon buttie. Roll on Saturday.
Craig \m/
The official Togfest website
Hoopy Frood on Myspace
Cyba-X on Myspace
Poppy Seed on Myspace
Tin Soldiers on Myspace
Chrystina Tomlin on Myspace
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