overview

Ibiza Rocks is more of a contradiction in terms than a reflection of the islands current musical perspective. Sweaty, intimate live venues jammed with eager indie/rock scenesters is not an association that is regularly made with the White Isle but gradually things are beginning to change…

The overhaul is being spearheaded by super club Manumission’s little brother Bar M, which is nestled nicely on the front of the tourist-infested cesspit that bares the name San Antonio.

Ibiza Rocks! is a summer long event, now in its 2nd year and boasting a line-up guaranteed to have indie kids salivating, with Libertines throw-aways Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things both on the bill, along with the latest scourge of NME endorsed breakthrough bands and the odd random act that begs the question ‘should this event actually be called Ibiza Rocks?’.

Theoretically the venue is an open air one, but in actual fact it maintains the intimacy of a grimy, backstreet indie bar, which is a brilliant atmosphere to have created for this type of gig, especially in such a short space of time.

A closing mini-festival at the beginning of September signalled the end of Ibiza Rocks! summer and the event had secured the likes of The View, The Automatic, The Cribs, Captain, and Boy Kill Boy to close the event.

Throughout the 3 day mini-festival the crowd was a mixture of the sombre, the curious, the indifferent, the inebriated, and the occasional fan. It was quite an odd mix and made for a rather unusual atmosphere.

Captain swooned the main stage with their bland synthesised indie droning. Sometimes the harmonies work, sometimes they don’t but the majority of the time the band just seemed weak and uninteresting, something that was reciprocated in the passive audience. The band are shortly set to embark on a tour with fellow irritators The Feeling, which sounds to me like one of the dullest tours imaginable. Still, for some time ‘Glorious’ threatened to take over Radio 1’s airwaves and even live does add a bit of much needed energy to their set. The familiarity obviously worked with the crowd as well, who were appreciative enough to hear something they recognised, if only vaguely.

The Cribs would have to go a long way to beat their awesome performance at Leeds festival, and unsurprisingly they didn’t get even close. Instead of Leeds’ unrelenting barrage of adoration they just got a few blank stares and one cry of ‘You’re Shit!’. There were a few Cribs fans drawn down the front, singing back every other word in a drunken slur, but the majority of the crowd seemed here out of curiosity than any previous love of the band.

Typical Cribs favourites were included, with a set not too far removed from their Leeds performance. ‘The lights went out’, ‘You were always the one’, ‘Hey Scenesters’, and the brilliant drinking foot stomper ‘Martell’. It was an average set for a band known for their brilliant live performances and I left feeling they never really put their heart into the whole thing – but it was enjoyable nevertheless.

Ibiza Rocks! is undoubtedly a good idea, but the festival in itself hasn’t been created for the love of rock music but more as a conveniently self-structured event to pander to a minority taste. This isn’t an event that people would travel to Ibiza for, and I fear that it’s future will rest on the forthcoming relationship between indie-rock music and the mainstream. However, while it is here it is a welcome alternative to the other styles of music on the island and proves Ibiza can create some form of diversity.

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