Roskilde has started this year slow, with only music till midnight, and plenty of time left to recover for the next days. Two big names shone in Thursday’s schedule: LCD Soundsystem and Gorillaz. The first will stop in Helsinki at Flow Festival in Helsinki, and Gorillaz just came fresh from their concert at Glastonbury. In both of them, the stars did the heavy lifting; Damon Albarn welcoming all the guests that joined him in performing a concert that will not be remembered for long. New album songs did did not translate well to a festival stage and nor The Clash backing band nor the string group behind Damon Albarn could uplift the mood of the audience. People only moved when the classics ’Feel Good Inc’ and ’Clint Eastwood’ ended the concert.
James Murphy, on the other hand delivered to a smaller crowd with no problem, thanks in part to the work of DJ Tim Sweeney which heated the stage before LCD Soundsystem played. He transported us to a NY club with his great selection of songs that got the people dancing even if it was only 7pm.
On Friday, things got more varied and extensive. Florence + The Machine played her soul-pop songs to the people who fit in the stage that left . The stages seemed to shrink as they were to full capacity everytime and plenty of people had to content with the sunshine outside the tents. The day followed by a Cuban band that BBC’s DJ Gilles Peterson and skillful pianist Roberto Fonseca had assembled from the streets of La Habana. From how the party on stage developed we got a glimpse on how life in Cuba could be. People coming and leaving, singing to the national dish, arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), and plenty of emotions coming out from the lead singer.
However, what made the night was the attitude and the music from Staff Benda Bilili coming from Congo and as there are no word to express it I will leave the video for you to enjoy. I need to run and check Vampire Weekend in 15 min!