End of the Road 2018: Preview

Knee-deep in festival season (and thankfully not mud), we gear up for Dorset’s ever-expanding indie fest, End of the Road, and dish out our top alt-picks to track down off the beaten path

Preview by Cheri Amour | 17 Aug 2018

We’re knee-deep in festival season and, thankfully for this year, not the mud. So with sunshine in our step, we welcome back winner of the NME’s Best Small Festival, End of the Road, to the leafy surrounds of Larmer Tree Gardens. It might be unlucky for some, but for Dorset’s ever-expanding indie fest, 2018 marks its thirteen years of their dream: “to book the bands that we love and present them in a way that respects the music and the audience.”

Thankfully, these guys have excellent taste and are proof that at least one major UK festival got the memo about women headliners. Sandwiching Saturday night preppy party gang, Vampire Weekend, one-woman riff machine, St. Vincent is joined in the top tiers by Canadian guitar great, Leslie Feist. But it’s not all giant rock hits gripping the fields. In amongst the woodland wonderland strewn with art installations and decorated spaces, there are some experimental sounds to get stuck into. 

Headliners aside, track down these top picks off the beaten path at this year’s festival.

Stella Donnelly
It’s hard not to warm to Perth export, Stella Donnelly’s witticisms and gentle guitar strokes as she pours out carefully-spun microcosms of modern-day realities. There’s humour in score-settling You Owe Me, dedicated to a former employer and astute relationship analysis after a disastrous Tinder date in I Should Have Stayed at Home. But it’s her heart-on-sleeve approach to some of society’s trickier subjects where this songwriter dazzles. Boys Will Be Boys retells a friend’s tale of sexual assault with tear-jerking realism: 'You invaded her magnificence.' Start your day with some stella(r) social commentary at the Tipi Tent on Friday morning.

Iceage
Prefer your guitars a bit closer to 11? The pop gothic grandeur of Copenhagen’s Iceage should sort you out. Playing the frontman role with the poster-boy perfection of Jim Morrison, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt is a menace on stage. When he’s not hurling mic stands into the crowd full-throttle, he’s artfully nursing a bottle of red as he pours out slurred stanzas that slurp around the buzzsaw guitars and clattering cymbals. Recent single, Beyondless taps into a more tuneful chorus though. Calling in girlfriend, Sky Ferreira, on single Painless, the happy horns conjure up a charismatic chaos that’s definitely worth the confrontation. Go big in The Big Top with the lads on Saturday evening.

Tirzah
Early this year, Essex experimentalist Tirzah announced her debut album Devotion, which she made in collaboration with her longtime friend and composer Mica Levi (aka Micachu). It’s been a mighty four years since her wonky pop EP, I’m Not Dancing which found her clattering onto our stereos with a flat-beat that could rival Mr Oizo. New release, Gladly, is the first single to be taken from Devotion and this feels just for those who have patiently awaited her return. Preach to the converted at The Big Top on Saturday.

Duds
Speaking of angular sounds, Northern sextet Duds do their best to shirk off any distinctly Mancunian twangs with their cacophony of yelps and squeals. And, as for that name, they’re far from a flop. Instead, it’s frantic basslines driving through pummeling dual drums and an almost Gary Numan drone vocal. But somewhere in there, remarkably, there’s disco. A distinct call-to-the-dancefloor. Toe-tapping, head-banging brilliance. Duds by name but not by nature. See for yourself at The Big Top on Saturday afternoon.

Shopping
And if you’re looking to shuffle sooner than that, razor-sharp riff machines, Shopping set the pace for the weekend on Thursday night. With all the disco-not-disco drums of Duds but all the propulsive basslines of an ESG club banger, the DIY stalwarts returned with their third album, The Official Body earlier this year. Ever constant are guitarist, Rachel Aggs' (Sacred Paws) effortless fretwork and call-and-response-vocals, but there’s a slip of the synth in recent idol bashing, Wild Child. Go wild in the aisles... the Woods, fine. The Woods on Thursday night, and stay fancy the whole weekend.


End of the Road takes place in Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset, 30 Aug-2 Sep

http://endoftheroadfestival.com