Dot To Dot Festival 2008: Bristol

Bristol 24-25 May

United Kingdom | 29 May 2008

Dot To Dot has rightly or wrongly gathered a reputation as a festival full of Nathan Barleys since it began in Nottingham in 2005. This year the festival added another day on to its calendar in both Nottingham and Bristol and further cemented the Nathan Barley reputation by staging an event in Hoxton - home of the Shoreditch Twat.
 
Saturday is far from ship shape and Bristol fashion as we hardly see anything. The day begins with the usual wait around for wristbands followed by a drink on the Thekla. The Thekla is a docked boat, with a sweaty and sea swilled interior that has been spruced up after DHP took over as captain around a year ago. The refurb has also made the deck a smoking area, so this is where we stand whilst we tried to borrow a £5 programme to plot our course through the city. Once we find our bearings we can hear the first band OneThousandHertz drilling through the ship's hull with a double kicker drum pedal. After deciding the first band we might want to see is Woodpigeon (largely because of the name) we feel a bit Sonar'd up with the sunshine and the water and decide to go for some tapas.

A selection of Delhi nibbles and a bottle of wine later we wander over to the Lousiana. The Louie is another notorious Bristol venue, not just for the number of superb bands that have been caught on the way up in its small upstairs room but also because it has tonnes of character. The outside is decked out with a richly crafted cast iron balcony, almost as if the whole building lifted from the French Quarter in New Orleans, but there is no chance of seeing the end of Joe Dangerous's set as, despite his nom de plume, strict Health And Safety measures deem upstairs to be full to capacity. Instead we hang out under the balcony appreciating the last of the afternoon sun and another pint. After realising there isn’t a chance we’ll catch Woodpigeon either, we decide to cut our losses and navigate towards the Academy to see Example.

Everything at the Academy is running a bit slow and the venue isn't a particularly pleasant place to hang about in, especially in the daytime. Those of you who have a Carling Academy in your city will know its trademark sticky floors, expensive booze served in plastic cups and moody door staff. Nevertheless, it serves a purpose at Dot To Dot by being by easily the largest venue. Though it must be a particularly difficult venue to fill, as Example finds when he finally hits the stage. Those of us assembled in the two-tiered main room are appreciative. Example is a sharp and confident performer who delivers his comedy-laden lyrics with absolute clarity. In fact, we enjoy Example so much he singles us out: "Those two know how to party. Look at them - seasoned professionals!"

Once again we head to another venue and use the Dot To Dot bus that revellers can catch between the points. The rest of the afternoon becomes a blur of booze stops and bands we've just missed, so we decide to concentrate our efforts on one point: Spritualized at Trinity.

Spritualized are the perfect band for this venue: an old church converted into an arts centre. Tonight the band's electric mainline returns after a few years showcased as an acoustic show and a period of hospitalization for Jason Pierce. There is a hushed silence as Pierce delicately picks through some new tracks from 'Songs In A & E' before rocking out to a few old ones with a few gospel singers lifting him out of the dirge. The whole affair should probably be a transcendent moment, but unfortunately our drunken minds pull us to Santogold on the Thekla.

Annoyingly, the pull (and the hype obviously) has dragged in too many and we can’t get onto the boat. Disappointed and drunk we head off the circuit to Woods to refuel and listen to MC Hammer - trying to pretend we're surrounded by ironic media nodes, not spray tanned office workers.

We abandon the festival completely (totally forgetting Natty) and go to Native where we catch up with the Leisure Allstars. Native has for a few years been the home of Leisure and we have a truly trollied night dancing non-stop with no inhibition or pretence.

Sunday starts with a terrible hangover and with headaches we survey the previous day's activity and decide that we're out of synch with the festival. At other event it's best to throw the programme away and find your own festival, but at Dot To Dot we that if you don’t plan the day's activities and stick rigidly to the timetable you end up sailing, but never getting to shore. We resolve to spend the day completely sober and over a Tinto Lounge breakfast read the day’s papers and meticulously plan exactly what we want to see.

On the Thekla we catch The RGBs' competent disco punk, but we stupidly miss Swimming as they're playing the Fleece not the Fiddlers. And we only realise this when we're halfway through our pints - of orange juice and lemonade. We catch a few seconds of Beat Union at Academy 2 upstairs and that's is all we really need to catch. A fairly straight-edge band whose lead guitarist seems to have employed their dad on drums and their mad uncle (who looks like a cross between Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart) on guitar. After a few minutes of this we walk downstairs to Saul Williams.

We're expecting a laid back New York spoken word cafe vibe, but instead we're assaulted by some heavy electronic beats some screeching guitar solos complete with well-informed politico-party rants. With face paints on and a kind of multi-coloured feather headdress that falls apart throughout the performance, Saul delivered a thoroughly thrilling set. The Academy is packed but the lack of involvement from the sombre audience is a bit dispiriting. Saul highlights this, claiming that he was expecting a crowd that was up for it as some of his favourite acts: Massive Attack, Tricky, Roni Size and Krust all hailing from Bristol.  Saul even plays a cover of U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', which works extremely well and thankfully gets a fair sized mosh going for the final track.

We leave Saul feeling energised and inspired before grabbing the end of Rosie And The Goldbug at the Thelka, who worry us with their co-ordinated stripy look but win us over with infectious groves and a gravely yelpy voice. Then we head off for some more food before going to the Fleece in time for the postponed Chrome Hoof - another great little of venue for another truly exciting band. The Hoof come on stage kitted out like golden monks - all eight of them, giving the impression that this may descend into the typical arts school project. Luckily it doesn't as singer Lola Olafisoye enters and pulls off a convincing Tina Turner circa 'River Deep...' era act. Furthermore she was seemingly possessed by the gyrating electro rhythms that splice into heavy metal at some points.

We leave a little early to have a peaceful respite with Sarabeth Tucek at the Louie. Though her album is a pleasing Throwing Muses style take on nu-country, tonight she appears a little too stern, especially in the wake of two mind blowing acts. We decide to give the Thekla one last try as Juiceboxxx take to the stage.

The name alone should have been a big warning sign for this skinny, white (and alleged) rapper. Christ... he honestly thinks he is Christ. At the very least he seems to have an Iggy Pop complex. Stripped to the waste with some terrible baggy pink boxers pulled up above his ill fitting faded black jeans he jumps into the audience, forcefully making them clap their hands above their head whilst ranting lyrics Nathan Barley would be proud of  "I go out on a Friday night / it feels alright." As we stare at him from the balcony he rolls on to the stage and foetally wraps himself around the monitor wedge. We leave as he murders an Afrika Bambaataa loop. Heading from the festival buzzing purely on adrenalin and lunacy we realise that we've found our Dot To Dot distillation in the nick of time. And we’re thankful we had a more interesting festival in between.

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