Witnness Lineup

Catsmokinpot

i just wanted to get a few opinions on the witnness lineup. what do people think of this years lineup is it good, bad or ugly? i havent heard of alot of the bands so i cant judge

triv88

i think most of the bands are run of the mill, middle of the road and so on and so on,..where the **** are s club for instance?

neGev

PANTS !

dregin

Originally posted by Para||eL
PANTS !

word.

comet

Poor lineup when you see the way the bands line out.
Sunday: White Stripes, Manics and Flaming Lips are all on at the same time.
Saturday Damien Rice is support to Coldplay on Mainstage, what the hell is that? a guy with one album.
Sunday looks the best to me anyway.

the celtic tiger

damien rice is an incredible live performer, but i've only ever seen him in small venues like the olympia, bars and **** like that. it'll be intersting to see if he can hold the attention of such a big audience.

GuanYin

I've just come back from an incredible festival in Germany
(www.hurricane.de) and I think it would be around the same scale as witnness but had a 100 times better line up for the price (84 Euro including camping for 3 days).

When you compare that to witnness, its just funny. On that scale I think witnness this year is really bad. Poor line up and poor value for money.

However, I'll be going with a huge gang of mates all of whom have different musical tastes. It will no doubt cost me a small fortune, but I think the line up is good for a wander/drinking weekend where its just the craic and atmosphere you are there for and not a musical extravaganza.

If you want the music , go to germany or spain for one of their festivals (virtualfestival has a comprehensive listing) has details. When you take into account the cheaper tickets/beer/food and better line up, it won't cost much more.

p.pete

There is nothing really amazing in the lineup - not too many of this years must see bands (Radiohead would be my "must see" band of this year).

There is however enough things that I would like to see, without actually being pissed off and disapointed if I end up seeing something else instead. The average standard of band I think is quite high, so at any one time there would be a few things that I would be interested in. What I think it will mean is that not everyone will be trying to cram themselves into the one area to see the one band.

Not quite sure if I have explained my opinion really well, but lots of chilling and relaxing.

GuanYin

Yeah, thats pretty much what I meant about witnness....much wandering and not a huge rush to see anyone specifically.
I think we meant the same thing


Amazing what 18 hours travel does for your ability to be coherent.

conZ

Decent Acts during the weekend:

Saturday :
- Coldplay
- Damien Rice
- Supergrass
- Badly Drawn Boy
- Royksopp
- Gemma Hayes
- Ed Harcourt
- Pet Sounds competition winner
- Underworld with Darren Price
- The Streets
- Turin Brakes
- The Coral
- Mark Geary
- Relish
- Lemon Jelly
- Nightmares on Wax
- Death in Vegas
- Complete Stone Roses
- Maria Doyle Kennedy
- Turn
- Ok Go

Sunday:

- White Stripes
- Zwan
- The Frames
- The Cardigans
- The Walls
- Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club
- Manic Street Preachers
- Polyphonic Spree
- Saw Doctors
- The Music
- Paddy Casey
- Snow Patrol
- Bell X1
- Colm Quearney & Hallucinations

Thats where i hope to spend my weekend
Just waiting for this free ticket from the Guinness Rep

And Damien Rice rocks in concert., seen him in the Black Box in Galway last November. Amazing

p.pete

Sorry, think was writing my post when yours was added (3 minutes between posts:D )

GuanYin

Originally posted by p.pete
Sorry, think was writing my post when yours was added (3 minutes between posts:D )

No worries, but do it again and Ich will deine kinder essen.

p.pete

"Pet Sounds competition winner", you work in sales/marketing type job I'm thinking? I'd buy off you. Sarcasm aside (sorry about that) I agree that a lot of those bands are good and as my tastes are most likely different to yours - I could come up with another few that you wouldn't rate too highly - It's all good.

2 bad points
- Zwan aint playing
- Should lemon jelly be in the dance tent (in fact whole dance tent lineup seems a bit unconvetional to me)

3rd bad point is that coldplay are crap, but thats subjective:cool:

p.pete

Originally posted by sykeirl
No worries, but do it again and Ich will deine kinder essen.

Vieleict du mocht das du wirt mein kinder essen gesagt (damn I'm becoming incoherent again).

Anyway, a weekend spent telling German people that you're going to eat their babies can't be bad. What will be the equivalent for Witness? Just doesn't seem the same.

comet

Why aren't Blur playing Witnness?
Blur would be a nice replacement for Zwan.
BTW LemonJelly are sh*te live, i've seen them and 2 guys hidding behind decks isn't entertainment for me.
The Frames? getting boring now, whos hasn't seen them live at this stage

p.pete

Originally posted by comet
Why aren't Blur playing Witnness?

Totally agree, they should cancel their concert in Minneapolis that weekend.

Originally posted by comet
Blur would be a nice replacement for Zwan.

Damn straight. Think they would be nearly the best band on the lineup if they were to come.

Originally posted by comet
BTW LemonJelly are sh*te live, i've seen them and 2 guys hidding behind decks isn't entertainment for me.

Didn't realise that - you might have guessed from my earlier post questioning them being in the dance tent.

Originally posted by comet
The Frames? getting boring now, whos hasn't seen them live at this stage

Me:D

comet

Minneapolis that weekend.....ahhh!! in ignorance at least there was hope, now all hoipe is gone. P.Pete enjoy the Frames, worth seeing if you haven't seen them before.

p.pete

Cheers for that, not sure I'll be in a mad rush to see them though - I'm sure they'll be playing at a small venue in Dublin again. I'll see what else is on - if there was a similarly good international artist at the same time I'd go for that as it would be harder to catch them at a later date.

comet

Yeah thats my position on it too. Festivals should be about seeing bads you don't normally get the chance to see. Not a collection of middle of the range local acts who you could see in small venues anywhere anytime.

Glowingmind

Just on the lemon jelly thing, first off their live show isn't just two guys behind decks, it's two guys running around a stage like nutters playing a load of different instruments and generally making people smile like loons. That's what they did for their recent ambassador show anyways.
And they should absolutly be on the dance stage, if you can't dance to what they do live then you're a corpse and should piss off back to your coffin.

p.pete

I didn't know much about Lemon Jelly - so cheers for the info, sounds good. Anything like Basement Jaxx? (probably more ignorance I'm my part - that's just what entered my head from your description)

Unknown

The Witnness festival this year is extremely lacking, especially for David Gray to headline and Damien Rice to be second to Coldplay. Thats bad.

On the lineup, the majority of bands have played in Ireland over the last year or so and have already supported their lastest album. I feel there are too many returning bands (although I welcome the Flaming Lips and the Polyphonic Spree) and not enough "new" as opposed to many of the other European festivals. Thats why bands like The White Stripes and Zwan are/were popular.

Festivals should be about seeing bands you don't normally get the chance to see. Not a collection of middle of the range local acts who you could see in small venues anywhere anytime.

Exactly. And there is a large abundance of Irish bands at Witnness.

Yet, the Cafe/On Stage is much improved over last year, with a couple of promising new bands. The Mars Volta, Kings of Leon, The Ravonettes. I'll be there.

Looking at the Witnness lineup makes me think how well and how needed Reading Ireland will be. We need a rock festival. Slane and Witnness just don’t cut it.

Glowingmind

Originally posted by p.pete
I didn't know much about Lemon Jelly - so cheers for the info, sounds good. Anything like Basement Jaxx? (probably more ignorance I'm my part - that's just what entered my head from your description)

They're not really like basement jaxx in terms of their live show or their sound, there's some moments where they're not far off(particularly 'page one' and 'nice weather for ducks'), but lemon jelly tend to be a little more subdued overall.

wiensta

nightmares on wax..mogwai..lemon jelly...royksopp..polyphonic spree..redneck manifesto

The lineup rocks, for me anyway

comet

Times for the different performances are now on the Witnness.com site. Anyone know what time the show ends at? On Sunday night David Gray comes on stage at 21:30 and on an opposite stage Flaming Lips are on at 22:45. Gray must be going to play at least a 2 hour set at that rate if not more?