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home » festivals » Evolution Music Festival » Evolution Music Festival 2010
Sunderland acts shine above the headliners on Evolution's opening dayEvolution Music Festival 2010 ReviewFriday 11th June 2010 With the rising costs of organizing a festival, many people grumbled about the price hike from £15 to £25 for a weekend ticket, and arguably, rightly so, as Newcastle's premier outdoor festival put together a line-up that showed no real initiative, no imagination and certainly no depth. Since 2007, the last time the festival was a free one, the line-up in comparison to that of 2007 is almost laughable, and although, undoubtedly there was some talent on display, and everyone really gave their all to the audience, which despite their previous grumbles had turned out in their thousands. On the first day of the festival, the smaller of the main stages, located on the Gateshead side of the river was hosted by local dance music promoters 'Wax:On', who put together a safe and reliable line-up, culminating on one of the biggest electro-deep bassline crossover artists of the last year, Fake Blood.
Putting together a mash-up set of dubstep, minimal electro, and deep basslines, their set appealed massively to the audience, and proved to be the perfect warm-up to one of the men of the moment, in the world of dance music, Rusko. Signed to the ever popular 'Mad Decent' record label, Rusko has been kicking up a bit of a fuss on both sides of the Atlantic recently, with his music combining the best bits of 70s-80s hip hop breaks and beats, with the basslines making dubstep the popular force that it has become this year, the end product is something well worthy of a listen.
This genre of music was typical of the day, however, Leeds DJ duo Eskimo Twins did some rather brave in my opinion and took the musical genre in a completely different direction, making them really stand out amongst a packed line-up.
Combing live electronics, laptop work as well as using the work of other artists, Eskimo Twins continued were those before them had left and as the night began to loom and the bigger artists took the stage, the sense of anticipation created was quite something to behold. Over on the main stage, it was three relatively local bands that stole the scene and really impressed. The Sunderland trio of bands, Frankie And The Heartstrings, Field Music, and The Futureheads all delivery, arguably the most impressive sets of the weekend.
With jangly, Belle and Sebastian influenced guitar and pure pop harmonies, the band can't seem to fail, and from songs such as 'Tender' and 'Fragile', it becomes obvious that this band are going to soundtrack your summer. Frankie is ultimately the perfect front man, charming and charismatic and without having to interact that much with the audience is able to leave them hanging on every note he hits, and watching this, I can only see big things ahead for the band. A band who struggle to impress the audience however were Field Music, who ultimately were placed in front of an audience that really just didn't 'get' what Field Music are about.
The bands twee, almost prog-rock, inspired sound, shone through on tracks such as 'Each Time is a New Time' and 'In Context', and the band were certainly impressive, really showing what a talented band they are musically, but struggled to gain more than polite applause from the audience. This wasn't the case however, for ultimately the highlight of the day, The Futureheads, who were greeted almost like returning heroes upon taking to the stage. With a lengthy set which saw the band dip into all four of their albums, including their latest effort, 'The Chaos', and the result of that almost seemed like a best-of set list. Songs such as 'Meantime' and 'Decent Days & Nights', combined with later efforts such as 'The Beginning of the Twist' and 'The Heartbeat Song' seemed to work wonderfully together, and the bands punk-funk sound combined with the alternative/grunge American sound, and the band's general liveliness on stage resulted in a fantastic performance, worthy of a headline performance in their local area, especially ahead of acts such as Paolo Nutini and Calvin Harris. 
review by Anthony Hetherington photos by Anthony Hetherington / Tommy Jackson 
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