Over the bank holiday weekend Newcastle was flooded with musical talent, guilty pleasure food vans, poorly organized queuing and baffling one way systems. Read Transatlanticism's review of Evolution Festival after the beep.
65/100 So i'm going to start off with all the best bits before I have a little moan towards the end of this post.
The five best things about Evolution 2010
1-Lissie
This girl really does have some talent and to be able to see Her in the intimate Ballast Hills tent was a pretty special experience and one which probably made the festival value for money on its own. The tent was surprisingly empty considering the hype around her on blogs and in the music industry in general, but during her first song, that all changed. Her melodic and powerful voice must have echoed around the tent because the lazy sunbathers soon began to rush in, clearly enticed by the impressive live sound Lissie produced. Some of her songs took on a whole new persona in a live set . The country classic lyrics of 'Oh Mississippi' were accompanied by a delicate guitar riff as apposed to the piano in the recorded version and 'Little Lovin'' was played at a pace which gave Lissie's music even more impact on the crowd. This was an easy choice for the best thing at the festival, Lissie played her heart out and turned a crowd of intrigued onlookers into a solid fan base with ease.2-The Weather On Monday
3-Polarsets
Whilst watching Polarsets I again got the feeling that they are going to be major band in the UK indie pop scene. Their Live preformance was impressive and considering this was one of their biggest gigs they have played, they had a confident stage presence. They even managed to play their last two songs without their Laptop tracks and as they modestly put it they "used to be a proper band" before they started using a Laptop. But in my opinion they are not just a proper band but one which also has a unique sound and good future.4-Dawn Landes
Finding artists like Dawn Landes is exactly what music festivals are all about. I stumbled across her in the Ballast Hills tent which I was pretty much using as a shelter from the not-so-summery-summer-weather. She plays a soulful brand of folk-rock and has the potential to be one of the more diverse and successful artists in this genre. I even managed to get a signed vinyl copy of her single 'Caroline'. Smiles all round.5-Ben Howard
Another Ballast Hills tent find. Ben Howard played before Lissie hence why I stumbled across him, It seems some my best experiences at this festival came from the unexpected artists. Ben Howard's music shows why the simplicity of acoustic music can be its strength, he lets his lyrics and voice do most of the work and simply complements them with a melodic guitar riff. He reminds me of some of the newer pioneers of this genre such as Bright Eyes or Sufjan Steven's and definitely has the potential to emulate them.The five worst things about Evolution 2010
1-Annoying young people
Shouldn't you be in school. I know its a bank holiday weekend, so you shouldn't but I'd rather you were. Especially soon as you are all Hadouken fans. I also know I am still young but I'm not annoying....sometimes.
2-Missing Let's Buy Happiness
Damn queues.
3-Ridiculous queues
Damn queues.
4-Ridiculous one way systems
Ballast Hills Stage 20 yards away. hmmmmmmmm......no we would rather you take an extra half an hour out of your day to walk through the queue for the main stage.
5-The weather on Saturday
