EOTD: Saturday night in retrospect

Student-written event reviews are often really bad for a number of reasons.

Among these are that the reviewer often has little cultural nous and less experience as any sort of art critic. That the review was only written because it was a condition for the reviewer getting a free ticket and because the author ends up too flying-drunk to have any real idea what the event was like at all.

These all apply to the author of this review. So I’m sorry if this ends up being terrible.

On Saturday night I showed up late to the long-awaited opening night of the Eye O’ the Dug music festival held in Venue 1 of the Union. After blagging my way in for free as part of The Stand’s ‘press-pack’ (read, bunch of Shysters) I was immediately treated with extremes of generosity and kindness that I am really not accustomed to.

This may have been because the Music is Love team are all complete saints, or it might have been because word got round that the ginger-kid with the silly shirt was writing one of the reviews. I wouldn’t like to speculate.

The MIL team always seem to have their interior design pretty much nailed to the floor and Saturday night was no exception. Venue 1 was almost unrecognisable,  bedecked as it was in purple-drapery and lit-up with a load of hanging lights. And the venue was completed with a PA system which literally shook the floor.

Outside, Puddledub Pork served up some pretty tasty local meat while inside the venue itself Dewars Whisky were on hand to dish-out free cocktails of ginger beer, lime, and their own blended malt. These were extremely pleasant. 

The student turnout, though by no means inconsequential, was small compared to the numbers of locals and others who made up the majority of the crowd. This made for a slightly different vibe in Venue 1 and also served as a reasonably prescient reminder to certain members of the student body that we do actually live in the real world and not some Neverland where it is somehow ok to drink-drive and decapitate pigeons and then argue that it’s a completely reasonable thing to do.

The music overall was very good, but there was, for me, a slight twinge of frustration because I felt that many of the acts were forever building towards something big but never quite fulfilling their potential. 

The DJ sets given by Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip were alright but were often a bit low key and tended to return the mood towards neutrality when they should really have been whipping up a massive fervour.    

Among a universally strong line-up particularly outstanding acts were François & the Atlas Mountains, Django Django and Errors. Errors were wheeled out for an encore and Kirsty House, a third year medic, said of François et al.; “They were awesome. Their boyish enthusiasm and synchronised dance moves were highly entertaining”.

To be honest I was too woozy with cider to give a decent account of the last hour of the night. I think there was still music of some sort being played.

I woke up this morning with a sore head. But it was definitly worth it. I had an excellent night and would like to give a deferential thumbs up to Rollo and all the people who pulled themselves together to bring all who attended an absolutely cracking night of music and good times. Thanks a lot guys.