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Latitude Highlights

• 26th Jul 2010

Among Latitude’s blend of art, comedy, theatre and music there were a few definite things that shone through. On the musical side of things, while being let down by The XX on Saturday, Sunday morning brought around the brilliance of small time band The Antlers, playing the same arena, at only 2 in the afternoon. Their set invoked little crowd reaction, but as far as band capability, musicianship, performance and outright music go, they were streaks ahead from alot of the others. With 3 albums and 2 EP’s under their belts they aren’t a new band, but their latest record ‘Hospice’ proved to be one of the best of 2009, playing hits from mainly the latter, they started off my Sunday perfectly.

A second band that really impressed me were Girls, headlining the Sunrise Arena on the Friday. Their neatly titled record ‘Album’ is truly a source of remembrance. Their influencers speak outright in their music, both tinges of Elvis Costello and Mr. Presley are very poignant. Crowd favourite ‘Lust For Life’ sent the crowd crazy, shrouding the band in a blessed singalong. Their rhythmic charms floated around the sunrise arena, the perfect venue. Small and intimate and set in the middle of the woods, but still large enough to bring a good crowd and supply good sound. A real Latitude moment.

Jonsi was a huge highlight of the whole weekend, though we missed half the set, the half we did see was utterly unbelievable, my ears being massaged with the best 20 minutes of live noise ever. Playing material majoritively from recent solo album ‘Go Do’, the Icelandic singer let his backing band really take a centre role in the performance, letting them guide him through each track effortlessly. All of the lovingly charmed tracks came together well, to evoke a stunned crowd.

Darwin Deez would have to be my last surprise highlight of this year’s latitude, though quite new to the scene, they commanded their audience at the Sunrise Arena with absolute confidence. Combining both their songs and synchronised dance moves, the band quickly had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Introducing all to the likes of their ‘Springdance’ and tracks such as ‘The City’ and ‘Bad Day’. Everyone seemed to walk out content at the performance, and ready for a great finale to Latitude 2010. I know mine certainly went off with a bang..