So who nailed it and who stank for you?

[puppyfeat]

puppyfeat, I'm not deaf...and a lot of what Wooden Shijps did was immense. Just feel they could expand , a little, on what they do....even gnarly old dudes playing space-rock-drone have some room for improvement

[ljsawyer]

Wooden Shjips - someone above thought they were 'disappointing'... WTF?! are you deaf? - they were AWESOME!

[ljsawyer]

I'm glad you ain't my boss - you must be one tough guy to please! It was a stunning set.

tomtrumps above has just reminded me about White Denim. I was also v disappointed by them even though we left after their first number, which we thought was never going to end - it has to go down as the most ridiculously overblown opener to a set I've ever heard, it just went on and on in the most tedious duelling guitars fashion, it was so over the top we were actually pissing ourselves towards the end, like 'when's this shit gonna end?!' That was more than enough for us.

[wockey]

Herman Dune got me going on Thursday

Beirut.........genius

Leisure Society.........love the clapping !!!

Megafaun......they enjoyed themselves and so did I

Josh T Pearson......way above expectations (couldn't stop thinking of Johnny Cash !!!!)

Other Lives.......Impressive in a Fleet Fox sorta way

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah..........My "must see" act didn't let me down

Micah P Hinson & Phosphorescent........bit off the cuff but enjoyable

John Grant.....Beautiful,voice of the festival,and i like the electronics (check out The Czars,thats what he does)

Only negatives.........Joilie Holland and Wasps

fantastic 4 days with my grown up kids and friends who have never been to a festival who loved every minute.

PS Liked the new set up,didn't seem as full as previous years,especially at the top of the Garden Stage.

[sadwitch]

Herman Dune got me going on Thursday

Beirut.........genius

Leisure Society.........love the clapping !!!

Megafaun......they enjoyed themselves and so did I

Josh T Pearson......way above expectations (couldn't stop thinking of Johnny Cash !!!!)

Other Lives.......Impressive in a Fleet Fox sorta way

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah..........My "must see" act didn't let me down

Micah P Hinson & Phosphorescent........bit off the cuff but enjoyable

John Grant.....Beautiful,voice of the festival,and i like the electronics (check out The Czars,thats what he does)

Only negatives.........Joilie Holland and Wasps

fantastic 4 days with my grown up kids and friends who have never been to a festival who loved every minute.

PS Liked the new set up,didn't seem as full as previous years,especially at the top of the Garden Stage.

[Thowky]

I'm in agreement with most of the things on here but wasn't impressed at all with Best Coast and found Clap Your Hands Say Yeah quite dull, neither were bad but they just didn't grab me at all. On the other hand I really liked Phosphorescent and Caitlin Rose, I guess everyone has different tastes in music though.

M. Ward was the the biggest surprise for me. I went along mainly because I like She & Him even though his solo albums have never completely gripped me but came away as a new fan.

Micah P Hinson was terrible, very disappointing.

tUnE-yArDs was very impressive but wasn't realy for me, I kind of knew that in advance but there were so many people saying how great she was live that I felt I had to give her a chance. Same with Joanna Newsom really, I wanted to like them and was impressed with both their performances but they just weren't for me.

John Grant, Josh T Pearson, Allo Darlin' and Dan Mangan were all great, I had high expectations and they all met them.

Lykke Li was also impressive but I've always liked her since I randomly caught her live around 3 years ago where she managed to get an amazing reaction from a crowd who hadn't really come to see her and didn't really know who she was. I think it was around the same time as she kept putting up random videos such as her singing in the middle of a park with Bon Iver but her sound has really matured since then and I think her current band puts on a great show.

[puppyfeat]

Their first song was only 3 minutes long (It's Him!), followed by another 3 minute song (Burnished). They just didn't pause between songs and allowed them to flow into each other as they do on D. The third song was an extended version of At The Farm and was a lot longer though.

I thought they were awesome

[shoebox]

Right, the top shit first:

Lykke Li - Probably my favourite all weekend. Just an amazing show. Full of bombast and big tunes. Loved it. An amazing contrast to what had gone before and welcome variation.

Dan Mangan - Always tops. Lovely fella, and I loved the alternative set-up he had going on with the strings this time.

Okkervil River - Yeah, it was a pretty similar set to a couple of years ago, with the exclusion of the new songs, but it's a festival set. All the big, rabble rousing anthems. And it was, frankly, brilliant.

Honourable mentions, in list format:

Admiral Fallow, Among Brothers, Allo Darlin', The Leisure Society, Austra, Wild Nothing, Midlake, M Ward, Joanna Newsom, CYHSY, Other Lives, Slow Down Molasses, Kathryn Calder, Caitlin Rose, Laura Marling, Rue Royal

Disappointments:

Phosphorescent - Just didn't work for me this year. I guess the full band show last year was so stunning, that this just didn't seem as good.

Kurt Vile - I don't think this was his fault. I tried to do half of his set and half of The Leisure Society's. As a result I ended up disappointed because I had to leave TLS. He sounded good, but just didn't grab me.

Junip/Herman Dune - Again, probably my fault for being too drunk, rather than either of them being off in any way.

This Frontier Needs Heroes - The only band of the weekend I can say I saw who I just didn't enjoy.

[wolfamongwolves]

highlights for me

drum eyes

m ward

health

john grant

josh t pearson

stank

okkervil river

[Timberford]

Bands that nailed it for me..

Beirut

Great fun when everyone was swinging to 'The Shrew'

Lykke Li

Best 'show' of the weekend. Set really flowed with loads of energy.

Allo Darlin’

Loved that they were so humble "this is a big crowd... is it raining outside?"

The Spectrals

I was so pleased when they were added to the lineup only a few weeks back & they didn't disappoint!

Okkervil River (acoustic pirate boat mini set)

Sounded amazing in the intimate setting. Great crowd sing-a-long too!

Lanterns On The Lake

A band I hadn't heard of before. Have promptly downloaded all their music from Bandcamp.

The Fresh & Onlys

Respect to these guys as two of their guitarists went straight over to play with Woods directly after their set.

Wild Nothing

One of my favourite bands. Confirmed even more so now I've heard them live.

[DandelionFudgeMud]

My first EOTR and my first live experience with every band I saw. Highlights were:

Joanna Newsom - I was already a fan and despite the questionable timing of the show (note: she needed and deserved to have all other stages silent) as well as the temperature not being favourable, she exceeded my expectations. For me it was an incredibly emotional experience.

Tune-Yards - again, I was already a fan. She's brave and incredibly inventive. I felt that she was genuinely surprised by the size of the turn out and did not disappoint.

Bob Log III - one man should not be that entertaining, I've yet to wipe the smile off my face

The Black Angels - wow, huge stadium rock sound, had me thinking of Alice Cooper fronting an Oasis that were angry as opposed to catchy.

'Allo Darling - low expectations led to huge admiration, the best opening act that I saw all weekend.

Okkervil River - Really enjoyed that show and the effort their front man put into it.

Kurt Vile - ok, I see what the fuss is about now, he is very good.

Drum Eyes - reminded me of an industrial-rock version of F**k Buttons. An acquired taste but I really enjoyed their set.

The Walkmen - missed all but the end quarter of their show, but it was enough to win me over. Not getting there earlier is my only disappointment from the weekend.

Brakes - Talk about misguided genius, those boys can really play... but seem to be playing under pop lyrics half the time. There's a heavy-rock giant in them, somewhere. As for their 'jokes'... if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all boys!

Edited September 5, 2011 by DandelionFudgeMud

[jol33n]

Nothing stank. I enjoyed everything I saw at different levels. Bob Log III was a fav though, both his gigs were excellent and fun. I loved Mogwai, especially after all my friends told me they weren't as great as before.

Lykke Li was very good but it felt like the audience wasn't into her much, when she played a short sample of the Knife, some people around me started moving until they realised it was only a sample...

I enjoyed Megafaun too, great little band and very communicative. Wooden Shijps, Kurt Vile, CYHSY, HEALTH, well, I won't mention them all but I thoroughly loved all the music this year.

[frankswildyears]

Loved Herman Dune on Thursday night. Sam Amidon, Tune Yards, Tinariwen, Joanna Newsome, Josh T Pearson, Phosphorescent, the Robin Ince comedy night on Saturday and scaring myself silly watching Apocalypse Now in the cinema tent!

[BasculeTheFule]

puppyfeat, I'm not deaf...and a lot of what Wooden Shijps did was immense. Just feel they could expand , a little, on what they do....even gnarly old dudes playing space-rock-drone have some room for improvement

Edited September 5, 2011 by BasculeTheFule

[BasculeTheFule]

Stuff I loved:

• Bo Ningen*

• HEALTH

• Wooden Shjips

• The Black Angels

• Mogwai

• Brakes*

• Josh T Pearson

Stuff I had higher hopes for:

• The Fall

• White Denim

Qualifying the latter, no one really stank IMHO, it's just that The Fall only really came together for one song and I have seen White Denim perform a tighter more engaging set as a 3-piece.

* Can't believe no one has mentioned these already - Brakes gave the best performance of all I saw over the weekend

[tomtrumps]

Dandelion, I can understand why JN would need silence, but not sure why she "deserved" this? It just meant there were a whole heap of folks wandering around waiting for something else or going back to their tents early. Not the end to the festival I'd have hoped for.

[Yokel Again]

Amazing - John Grant!!! AMAZING! What a way to end the festival.

Very Good:

The Walkmen

Lanterns on the Lake

Dan Mangan

Tiniwaren

Bob Log III

Good:

Other Lives

Dry The River

Lightning Dust

Secret Sisters

Beirut

Mogwai

Lykke Li (well, heard it from our tent, sounded ace)

Disappointing:

Caitlin Rose (LOVED her in 2010, 2011 was just, well, crashingly disappointing.)

Laura Marling (mainly due to the fact that you couldn't hear the 1st few songs due to the Big Top crashing away)

Willy Mason (tune your guitar up!)

And BEST OF ALL - THE SONG DOCTORS! (In The Wonderlands)

Edited September 5, 2011 by Yokel Again

[Dom Dom Dom]

The diagrams - Really enjoyed that 45minutes!

Newsom was brilliant be it in the wrong setting. Very happy she came back and did Book of right on.

Walkmen - were great

Josh T Pearson - not just a great musician...Great Show-man

Gutted I mist the Tune Yards heard they were fantastic.

Midlake sounded prity incredible live.

Lanterns on the Lake

To be honest i dont want to say who was'nt very good, As It's each to their own with music:

Actualy because Laura Marling had no presence and seemed totaly overated, very dull, and because she's involved with the mainstream music destroying machine that is Radio 1. Sorry John Peel, things aint what they used to be.

[moonshinewilly]

My first End of The Road and it was really great! I saw more music over the weekend than I've done in my last X years of festivals, and most of it was amazing.

Did no one else on here see The Staves? They were stunning. They need to change their name though.

Other highlights:

Mogwai - totally captivating for an hour and a half with almost no vocals, very impressive.

Caitlin Rose - I didn't spot her rush to get off stage, I think she's quite nervous, sounded amazing anyway, special thanks to the guy from scooby doo playing pedal steel.

Phosphorescent - really liked this despite myself, even the loops on the first song. This may have been even more impressive had tuneyards not done what she'd done the day before...

Beiruit - I really like the album I've got but didn't expect much live - wow!

Bob Log III - yeah!

Disappointments

Not being able to see Okkervil River as they clashed with Mogwai

Midlake - I thought it was really flat, maybe it was me.

I'm baffled by everyone loving the walkmen, I thought they were really boring. Hey ho.

[sadwitch]

To be honest i dont want to say who was'nt very good, As It's each to their own with music:

Actualy because Laura Marling had no presence and seemed totaly overated, very dull, and because she's involved with the mainstream music destroying machine that is Radio 1. Sorry John Peel, things aint what they used to be.

[sadwitch]

Also I was really looking forward to Beirut but got extremely drunk and lost my friends and spent the whole set being miserable and drinking heavily because I'd decided "the beer will be my friend".

[riverlodge]

what a fantastic weekend, i'm very happy but ridiculously tired so i'm only going to post one thing before going to sleep: i now unreservedly love john grant.

seen him twice before one gig + one sunny latitude set but its never felt like that before. maybe it helped that he'd sort of been teed up perfectly by josh pearson, but - for me - the arrangement was superb (particularly given that we all exected midlake to come crashing in) and his crowd interaction was lovely. if i wrecked queen of denmark for anyone ten back in centre by my singing i apologise (a bit) but wow.

anyone else see jesse from other lives enjoying it in the wings so much he was snapping pics with his cameraphone?

[perfectpassion]

RL I am not surprised you are tired....I know who you were hanging out with ... I saw that too but thought he must be one of Midlake, they all look similar to me....

So tired that that post does not really make sense except that what i meant is just having breakfast with BH is exhausting....

Edited September 5, 2011 by perfectpassion

[benrio1]

ok, i now see theyre called Megafaun, not Megafun......whatevs. they should support John Grant, nightly, here in Nottingham.

[Duffbox]

main highlight was Mogwai, utterly blew me away with every bit of everything they played, also really enjoyed phosphoresent solo set, as well as lightning dust, dry the river, best coast, wild beasts, ruff rhys, the walkmen and gordon gano!

emmy the great bugged me though, terrible stage banter, sounded decent mind,

first time at EOTR, tool me a while to get in to the vibe coming straight from shambala, but really enjoed it!