Catching the last sip of summer, End of the Road has traditionally been a golden weekend of warm weather and stellar music. And whilst the weather wavered on occasion this year (here’s looking at you, Saturday), the calibre of the artistry on offer never did.
Thursday opened with a forty-five-minute slot from Westside Cowboy. The elongated set times that End of the Road offers in contrast to other festivals provides emerging artists like the Mancunian band a chance to showcase a broader range of their music. With just one EP out in the world, Westside Cowboy gave audiences glimpses of other angles of their multifaceted, self-styled ‘Britainicana’. They alternately dabble in grunge, indie, and even folk, like seasoned painters mixing up a colour palette of their very own. A quick pitstop for the first festival meal of the weekend – a bhaji wrap for me – and it was on to Anna Erhard, whose idiosyncratic lyricism and wry humour packed out the tent.
Westside Cowboy – Credit Cameron JL West.
The weekend’s first headliner, Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory, performed to a crowd soaking up one of the first of many rain showers. Strobe lights intermittently illuminated the rain drops, before dropping and leaving them in darkness – an odd effect which meant that it almost felt like it wasn’t raining at all.
Arguably the best stage at the site, The Garden Stage saw its first performance on Friday morning from Texan guitarist Hayden Pedigo. Encouraging a receptive audience to slow down and appreciate the quieter moments in life, his fingers tripped across chords and strings, silence proving just as vital an element as his mastery of guitar. Friday also saw So Young host the Big Top, with Man/Woman/Chainsaw playing to a heaving crowd that pushed out to the edges of the tent, alongside acts including These New Puritans and Joy Orbison. Elsewhere across the site, The Orchestra (For Now) brought a visceral, acerbic edge to their live performance, and Broadside Hacks presented a gentle and joyful tribute to 70s icons The Incredible String Band, replete with original member Mike Heron. The fact that these two widely different bands performed one after another on the same stage is a testament to the multiplicity that defines the festival, with so much variety embedded into its character. As the evening drew in, Lisa O’Neill performed a set that would prove a highlight of the weekend, embodying the grounded, earthy spirit of the festival with her deep-rooted Irish folk, flecked with politics and humour.
The Orchestra (For Now). Credit Cameron JL West.
Saturday would prove to be the wettest day of the weekend, with fast-moving clouds across Larmer Tree Gardens’ wide skies. But as fast as the clouds were gathering, the crowds were moving just as swiftly for The New Eves, who opened The Woods Stage with their guttural, literary folk punk. Over at The Big Top, mary and the junkyard joked that last time they played the festival, a journalist branded them the quintessential End of the Road band. With their magnetic indie rock and status as fixtures of the London music scene, they entrance an audience who emerge afterwards, blinking, from the starry darkness of the tent into the early evening light.
By half past four, the rain has really set in. Icons of the Dutch indie scene Personal Trainer power through, performing an electric set that sees lead singer Willem Smit hurl himself around the stage in a delightful ecstasy that proves just how fun music can be. And as the night sets in, whilst other So Young staffers head over to catch the Viagra Boys, I stay true to the hat I sport most of the weekend and head to Self Esteem. As a side note on Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s crossover hit of a baseball cap, which sports the words ‘6 Music Dad’, I am hardly the only festival-goer to adopt this fashion. In fact, finding my friends (who yes, are also wearing the same hat) feels akin at times to scanning the final page of a Where’s Wally? book, where Wally finds himself in ‘The Land of the Wallys’. But it’s a headline set that proves why she inspires such devotion; a triumphant, vibrant performance complete with a choir dressed alternately as puritans and footballers.
The New Eves. Credit Cameron JL West.
Mary in the junkyard. Credit Cameron JL West.
Credit Cameron JL West.
The last day opens with something a little different: a listening party for Big Thief’s latest album, ‘Double Infinity’, which lands officially lands on Friday 5th September. Tired bodies are scattered across The Folly, making most of grass that has avoided turning boggy like it has across other areas of the site. Next up, on the same stage, Personal Trainer’s Willem Smit returns for the UK-debut of his new project, Long Fling, a collaboration with his partner and fellow indie darling Pip Blom. Packing a buoyant sense of charm, it combines the two musicians’ talents into something idiosyncratic and very special. Over on the main stage, Ryan Davies and the Roadhouse Band fill the air with open-road Americana that rolls leisurely through both sunshine and showers. As the evening skips on, Katy J Pearson and her band are all smiles to one another as they launch through a greatest hits set of their sunniest indie, dispersing any lingering rain clouds. She looks like a true star, wind pushing back her hair as she breezes through her garden-fresh songbook.
On the final night, I find myself unable to choose between musical juggernaut Father John Misty’s theatrical prowess, and Black Country, New Road’s jubilant and charged Garden Stage performance. So I run between the two. Both, in combination (especially given the way the sound from one stage had a tendency to drift over to the other), provide a wild, rejuvenating end to the weekend.
Katy J Pearson. Credit Cameron JL West.
Father John Misty. Credit Cameron JL West.
Elsewhere across the weekend, The Line of Best Fit hide secret acts nestled in the woods, with intimate performances from acts drawn from all across the lineup. I catch Ellie O’Neill, Squid, and Kristin Hersh from Throwing Muses. Each set provides the artists with an opportunity to unveil another angle of their musicality, mingling covers with stripped back versions of their songs performed to delighted, albeit soggy, onlookers.
It’s a weekend of beautiful vignettes. A shot of Stuart Murdoch performing Belle and Sebastian songs at his emotive book talk, framed by umbrellas. Peacocks in the trees as the sun sets at Lisa O’Neill. A perfect rainbow that cuts right across the stage at Florist. At the song gallery, artists create songs that can only be heard once, on site; CMAT and Declan McKenna collaborated for the Sunday offering. As a concept, it perfectly encapsulates the ephemerality of a weekend like this one. It can never be recreated, but that won’t stop us from doing it all over again next year.
Find our full gallery from the weekend here.
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