Four days of rock at a 'green' festival

Saturday, July 12, 2008

A music fan with a bit of ‘hippie’ spirit simply could not stay at home when the summer kicked in. Istanbul is short on festivals this summer, so it was best to steer toward Belgium, for rocking with Radiohead, R.E.M., Neil Young and dozens more

ÇETİN CEM YILMAZ
Istanbul - Turkish Daily News

After facing the fact that Istanbul will not host as many festivals this summer as in recent years, there was not much to do for a rock fan in Turkey, except head out to Europe to experience rock'n'roll where it's at.

And Belgium's Rock Werchter was an automatic choice. Leaving aside this Turkish Daily News correspondent's experiences from the 2005 festival, the fact that Werchter became this summer's finest rock festival on the continent, finally succeeding to oust England's Glastonbury with its stellar lineup, was a factor.

Actually, that is the point. Rock Werchter should be compared to its peers in Europe; comparing it to Turkish festivals would be cruel. The inequality starts with the number of people attending. Turkey's Rock'N Coke could attract about 15,000 people, at best, while Werchter announced that a huge total of 400,000 were in the festival area over four days, meaning some 100,000 people were watching every day. And 35 percent of that number came from countries other than Belgium, as stated on the festival's official Web site.

There are reasons for that, and the lineup is an important one: This was the only European festival that had both R.E.M. and Radiohead on its bill.

Yes, it was utter joy to see R.E.M. on the opening day of the festival, after its release of the glorious back-to-basics record, �Accelerate.� Just as the album title indicated, the band rushed out to the set with less talk and more tempo: A dazzling 23 songs, selected mostly from that record as well as from less-known 1980s songs, and performed for about one and a half hours. R.E.M. holds the record for performing more than any other act in the 34-year history of the festival, as singer Michael Stipe joked, �This is the 39th time we play here since 1823.�

If anyone out there is crossing their fingers to see R.E.M in Turkey, lighten up a little. Grabbing one R.E.M. t-shirt, it was nice to see that on the tour schedule, Oct. 4 is reserved for Istanbul.

Lenny Kravitz, Mika and the Counting Crows were on stage right before the Athens, Georgia rockers, all addressing different tastes, but seeing NYC indie kids Vampire Weekend play on the second stage to cause bliss with their African-tinged melodies stood out. But after all, it was the Chemical Brothers' block-rocking-beats and mind-blowing visuals that stole the show at the end of the night. It was the end of the opening day, last Thursday, but the fun was only beginning.

The second day was just as had been expected, except for Babyshambles, who pulled out of the festival at the last minute. Who knows what Pete Doherty was up to, but it left a small disappointment not to be able to see the �enfant terrible� singing his famous �Fuck Forever.� The rest was a feast for any music fan; it had Slayer for metalheads, Jay-Z for hip-hop fans, My Morning Jacket for American indie listeners, The Verve for Brit-rockers, and Moby for dancefloor-lovers. For more old-school types, there was Neil Young, and what a performance that was � from his classic �Hey Hey My My� to the 20-minute epic, �No Hidden Path,� the Canadian legend proved he is still alive, kicking and aggressive at 62.

Ben Harper had a similar effect on stage the following day, but the impact dimmed a little after Icelandic outfit, Sigur Ros, stunned the Werchter crowd with tunes and sounds from another world. Although their recent record sees the post-rockers somewhat lightened up, their effect is still unique. Toward the end of their set, a rain of confetti fell from the stage. A breathtaking scene, but Radiohead might have been ticked off by that scene. We are talking about a band that is touring Europe on a bus and refusing to play Glastonbury because of the lack of public transport to the area to be more environment-friendly.

Radiohead perfectly suited the green festival, which may be explained through a couple of examples. One got a free beer for every 20 plastic beer cups collected. Or, one could use any train line for free to get to the festival area by simply showing a festival ticket.

Enough of this green talk, let's get back to the other colors; the synthetic ones Radiohead left onstage. Maybe they are �two colors in Thom Yorke's head� as he sang in �Everything In Its Right Place,� or more colorful as �In Rainbows,� but Radiohead simply let about 100,000 people get into their heads, stay there for two hours and did not let them out even after the end of the gig. It was what the crowd was waiting for, and it was the highlight of the weekend, if not the whole summer or year.

The last day was used to enjoy the festival to the last bit, or try to chill out after the previous night's dazing experience. Both were done. Beck cooled down the area, after the Kaiser Chiefs had electrified it with their hyperactive performance. The Raconteurs and The Kooks rocked the stage, while acts like Underworld or Hercules and Love Affair made the crowd dance.

When it was over, there was not much to be done, except lingering over the memories, and wishing to �keep on rockin' in the free world,� forever. Inform