The final day of the festival started over on the Greenroom stage with a short set from French rappers, Feini X Crew, followed by soul and funk singer, Charles Bradley, on the Main Stage. Bradley’s set was perfect for the start of a hot, lazy Sunday afternoon, with his soulful, dulcet tones washing over the drowsy audience and easing them into the last day’s proceedings. However this was not to last long. In a startling rush of sub bass, Austrian rapper, Left Boy, struck up on the Greenroom stage, drowning out the end of Bradley’s softer set. However Left Boy insistently awakened the audience with his mash-ups, including one harnessing the powerful draw of Gwen McCrae’s “All This Love That I’m Giving”, paving the way for a less restrained affair into Sunday evening, which started with Danish metal band, Volbeat.
From the very start Volbeat presided over a fantastically tight ship, mixing up their own tracks with snippets of tracks from Rammstein, Twisted Sister and Johnny Cash. Playing a tribute to Jeff Hanneman, the late guitarist of fellow metalists, Slayer, was also a nice touch that the audience seemed to appreciate. Overall their set was extremely tight and heralded a great response from the watching crowd.
Back on the Greenroom stage La Femme had begun their set. The band seemed to consist of a cast of thousands, scything their way through an electronic punk set, with singer and keyboard player, Clémence Quélennec, bouncing her way through every track like a lively puppy. Their sound was akin to Toyah, Devo and the 80s new wave era. They got a great response from the crowd, and whilst some of that would be due to them playing for a home crowd it certainly didn’t take away from the fact that they played a set of catchy tunes with some great synth hooks.
Crossing back to the Main Stage Belgian band, Puggy, began to play a set that was a kind of mix of Mika, Scouting for Girls and the Scissor Sisters. Having previously opened for bands such as Deep Purple and Smashing Pumpkins it was clear they were popular in France, and they commanded a very large crowd who all danced and sang along as the band sang in both French and English. Their vocal harmonies were very impressive and the response they got was fantastic. They were followed by French singer (model and actress), Lou Doillon, who impressed the crowd in front of the Greenroom stage with a selection of tracks including a cover of Ray Davies’ “I Go To Sleep” (later covered by The Pretenders). However, being on immediately before the Stereophonics meant that the crowd dwindled towards the end of her set as they flocked to the Main Stage, but the remaining festival goers gave her an enthusiastic response.
From the start, the Stereophonics had drawn in a large, attentive crowd. They played many of their most popular tracks including “Local Boy In The Photograph”, “Maybe Tomorrow” and “Dakota” as well as their latest track, “We Share The Same Sun”, but while their set was expertly executed and perfectly constructed the band appeared to be going through the motions, with long gaps between songs and hardly any attempt made to interact with the crowd. Other non-French bands throughout the weekend had at least made some effort to communicate in some way in French (Thirty Seconds To Mars, The Hives and Biffy Clyro being the ones who made the most effort) but the Stereophonics made no attempts at all, and actually didn’t communicate much in English either. Consequently the set felt slightly awkward and lacklustre, but despite this, and the fact that the sound from Kendrick Lamar’s set over on the Greenroom stage drowned out a good portion of the final ten minutes of the Stereophonics’s set, they still received a warm response.
Meanwhile Kendrick Lamar was whipping his small, but extremely dedicated, crowd into a frenzy with his rap infused hip hop. But it was his rendition of his recent hit, “Swimming Pools (Drank)” that got the biggest response with the crowd consistently throwing their right hands towards him as the rapper prowled back and forth across the stage.
What followed on the Main Stage was, for me, the best performance of the day. Trip hop outfit, Archive, completely outshone everything else on Sunday. The vocals (particularly Holly Martin’s) were spine tingling, and their set was well balanced with slower and faster tracks and interchanging vocals. The performance was the most captivating of the day, mixing soul-drilling bass with ethereal swirly vocals and guitar and synth licks. The crowd seemed to be as spellbound as I was, standing in awe at what unfurled onstage.
Over on the Greenroom stage, Wax Tailor and The Dusty Rainbow Experience, another trip hop artist, started promisingly with a funky set. I had high hopes following the fantastic set from Archive, but sadly Wax Tailor’s set quickly deteriorated, going a bit “Jungle Book”. The crowd seemed a bit restless and distracted, with many ignoring the stage to chat amongst themselves, and finally leaving the arena to see the final act of the festival over on the Main Stage, Indochine.
Indochine are clearly well loved in France, and the crowd they drew was the largest I’d seen at the festival except for Green Day on the first night. Playing a kind of mix of new wave and rock, like a very junior version of Muse and Queen in places, they received an overwhelming response from the crowd, who were clearly enthralled by the show which included the standard show gimmicks such as a ticker tape shower. For the French crowd, having Indochine to close the festival was obviously a stroke of genius, and they went down very well leaving the departing festival goers on the required high note as they left the arena.
Click below to see my reviews of each day, and my verdict of the festival as a whole.
Mainsquare Festival 2013: Intro
Mainsquare Festival 2013, Day 1
Featuring Candide, Twin Forks, Balthazar, Rival Sons, Haim, Biffy Clyro, Modestep, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Bloc Party, Green day, Enter Shikari, The Prodigy and Netsky
Mainsquare Festival 2013, Day 2
Featuring Mike & the Mechanics, Klink Clock, Local Natives, Kodaline, Saez, Of Monsters & Men, The Hives, Asaf Avidan, Sting, Alt-J, Sting, deuS, C2C and Madeon
Mainsquare Festival 2013: The Verdict
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