Robyn Writes

2000trees 2014: The Definitive TwoBeatsOff Overview

This year, I decided to put a big middle finger up to Reading and Download. I said sayonara to Sonisphere and a big ol’ screw you to Glastonbury. No, this year, I decided to do something a bit smaller and a bit more local. I decided to do something where I didn’t need to camp, where I could just hang about and check out some stuff I’d never heard of before, and where I didn’t need to pay in excess of £200 for the privilege.

This year, I had a bloody nice time at 2000trees.

There were a lot of highlights, so I’m going to give everything nice headings and make it easier for you to dig out the good bits. There were a lot of great bands over the weekend, some gourmet food choices and plenty of glorious sunshine to keep us all going. Beautiful.

The one band you should have seen were…

The Blackout were on absolute top form this weekend. Those lads from Merthyr know how to party, as Sean Smith demonstrated early on by storming into the crown and starting a circle pit around himself. If you’re just a fan of witty stage banter, then The Blackout have you covered – during ‘We Are The Dynamite’, Sean Smith gave a bunch of uncool non-participants the choice of ‘have fun like everyone else or fuck off!’ And there were plenty of other golden moments too. But all in all, The Blackout have a great selection of big rock stompers, all of which came out to play at 2000trees and simply made the festival for me. Great stuff.

The five new bands you’ll love are…

Slaves – this two-piece punk band from Royal Tunbridge Wells are rowdy, abrasive, witty and disgustingly noisy. Entertaining to watch, unbelievable to listen to. Definitely your new favourite band and my top discovery of the weekend.
facebook.com/slaves

DZ Deathrays – it’s all about guitars and drums this year and nothing else. DZ Deathrays played a blinding set of scuzzy garage-punk thrashers to finish off the weekend. If you like it loud and proud with extremely catchy riffs, these guys are for you.
facebook.com/dzdeathrays

Youth Man – these Birmingham punks are equally terrifying and mesmerising. A bit doomy in places, a bit frenetic in others, they’re completely captivating. The music’s stupidly smart, and the live show is bloody mental. We reviewed them a while ago and loved them.
facebook.com/youthmanband

I, The Lion – if you like big Biffy Clyro-esque sounds but with more guitar smashing and lyrics that make even less sense, you’ll love I, The Lion. These Cheltenham locals opened up the Saturday and set the bar incredibly high for everyone else to follow.
facebook.com/ithelionuk

Jamie Lenman – can you count Jamie Lenman as a new band? I will anyway. You may not have heard him as a solo project rather than as the former front man of the now-defunct UK titans Reuben. This year, he did a proper hardcore set based on the ‘Muscle’ side of his incredible album Muscle Memory (see our best of 2013 for more) and drew one of the biggest crowds of the festival.
facebook.com/jamielenman

Okay, the other bands you should have seen were…

Gnarwolves, Johnny Foreigner, The Bronx, Blood Red Shoes, Arcane Roots, Tall Ships and The Computers were all pretty good as well. However, special mention goes to Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, who blasted out an amazing set of beats and bars. A massive rave went down on Thursday night, and it was great to finally catch DLS VS SP live!

The one band you’re going to miss are…

The last Kill Chaos set ever happened at 2000trees. Gutting. At least we’ll still have the records, right? PromisesPromises only just came out after all! I only discovered them last year on Jamie Lenman’s first solo tour and I am sad to see them disappear already. Here’s to seeing what happens next…

The most surreal festival moment was…

Seeing Dave McPherson off’ve InMe stroll out onto Jamie Lenman’s set to do a bit of screaming, without actually knowing the words, was a little bit bizarre. I know he was playing this weekend, but InMe were never really a shouty band at all. Kind of weird but mostly wonderful.

The best food stall was…

Props to Wide Awake Café for their delicious iced lattes and veggie burritos! Check them out at a festival near you.

The coolest item of merch was…

Uh, 2000trees sunglasses for a fiver? Yes mate.

Festival Dickhead of the Year Award goes to…

There was a guy who sat down under a tree and pulled out The Diary Of Anne Frank to sit and peruse on Friday afternoon. What a knob.

So, will we be doing 2000trees again? The answer is a great big resounding yes. What a good festival.

Live: The Computers – The Rainbow Birmingham, 23/5/13

They say that every generation thinks it’s invented Rock and Roll. Me, I think it just keeps coming round again, a little bit better each time. The Computers are something fairly special. Their 2011’s “This is the Computers” kinda set the standard for skinny-legged 100-mile an hour rocky punk. “Music is Dead” was one of the ace-est tracks I heard that year by a long stretch. Some have suggested that their new one – Love Triangles, Hate Squares – is a departure. More mainstream sound, easy listening and Amazon-friendly than their previous output. This is not a review of that album. This is a review of their performance at the venue at the far end of the artsy drag in Birmingham’s Digbeth (The Rainbow). But this does all kind of come into it.

Afraid to say I totally missed the support act – the Dead Formats. Hands up. However, saw them a few years back in Leamington and they’re a really good neo-proto-punk/pub rock outfit – Kinks riffs, but look utterly shitnails hard (I think they’re from Canvey Island or Southend or somewhere similar) and have a certain bearing. So I’m sure (and have been told) they did a decent turn. Not going to argue with that. The new stuff sounds great, too. Sorry chaps. Complicated story to do with the M40.

And so. The Computers. 5 skinny boys from Devon in matching shiny suits. Think Rocket From the Crypt, but fresher faced and somehow undeniably English-looking. And very dapper they all looked, too. I think the Rainbow’s gig space was made for them. The way the lighting gantry and the communion rail thing they have by the stage are set up is ideal for the lounging and writhing their pocket rocket front man goes in for. He spent half the set literally hanging off the gantry, writhing, and a decent part of the rest in amongst the audience. (He’s a mean little mosher too. All elbows and a hard, sweaty head).

Musically tight, they hammered out all of the strongest tracks on their new album and some of the older, punkier stuff (including Music is Deeeeadddddd!!!). I don’t know whether it was just the quality of the mixing but the sound was (genuinely) crisp and note-perfect. And all led along nicely by the saucily grinding little monkey man in the suit with the guitar – and one of the best screams in music right now.

And this is where the rock and roll comes in. Yes, they are still a band properly steeped in punk – raucous and individualistic – but there was a hell of a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard in their performance. The ever-jiggling right legs, the unashamed balladeering of say, Mr Saturday Night switching to full throttle piano-key driven rock’n’rollers like “Disco Sucks”… every generation rediscovers something great that the ones before left behind and puts a new spin on it. Looks like these guys found theirs in Sun Records – live at least. There’s a load of other retro hooks in the album – from Motown to 70’s garage. Check it out.

I was also entertained by the capering antics of the Kerrang DJ Matt Stocks and his crew (he’s a cute little fellow, too. And looks about 14). Good to see a man involved in these things professionally so obviously going off to his music.

So – in sum – their new album is a bit soft in parts, and possibly too soft for some, but they’ve lost none of their poke live.