Extensive Awake Pageant
Brockwell Park, London
twenty seventh Could 2023

The climate was variety to the revellers of Extensive Awake, who loved a high quality, sunny day of mischief and a good quantity of psyche music.

It started, unexpectedly, on the Friday. As I used to be drearily working at my pc, a good friend referred to as and requested if I wished to go see Beak> later that night in Hackney’s EartH venue. I didn’t realise it on the time, but it surely turned out this was a pre-party for the next day’s Extensive Awake Pageant, a becoming turn-up for the books, seeing as I used to be set to jot down about that very occasion the next day. Serendipity is a high quality factor.

In addition to Beak>, a bunch of acts I’d by no means heard of have been additionally taking part in this pre-party gig: Slift, Beatfoot, and the fantastically named Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. I wished very a lot to attempt a Psychedelic Porn Crumpet, so I accepted the invitation, skipped out on work early, and made my means eastwards.

We noticed Slift first, a French psych band with a good edge to their sound, and the aforementioned Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have been a little bit of enjoyable, too. As for Beak>, they didn’t present up in any respect owing to a bout of sickness taking Geoff Barrow out of motion, which was disappointing, till we went to observe the band who stuffed in for them.

They have been referred to as Good Biscuit. I used to be totally transfixed by this efficiency, for causes I don’t totally perceive. We’d say this level reveals extra about this author than the band themselves, however I discovered all of it to be oddly erotic. There was simply one thing about seeing 5 engaging Australians — three males sporting ridiculous, matching boiler fits, and two females sporting matching blue attire and white, high-heeled boots — on a very giant stage in a grand previous theatre, carrying themselves in a disinterested but choreographed method, that was actually fairly beguiling.

After struggling to search out out what their title was, I discovered they have been taking part in at Extensive Awake the following day, which was good, as a result of I couldn’t make sure that I hadn’t simply been overly captivated with them due to how drunk I used to be on the time. I’d see them once more within the contemporary mild of day, and I’d know whether or not or not they actually have been nearly as good as I assumed.

The next morning was heat and brilliant, and regardless of a nasty little hangover, I used to be feeling optimistic. I made it contained in the competition for round two, by which level the sunshine was already pounding down. I discovered the Windmill x So Younger Tent, the place the band walked on with the boys sporting their boiler fits once more and the women sporting new outfits which appeared match for 2 flamboyant fairies. It grew to become clear, instantly, that my response the earlier night time had been affordable. I really like this band, for causes I nonetheless don’t fairly fathom. The music is nice — a psych and storage sound — but it surely doesn’t precisely break any boundaries. The genius of Good Biscuit lies of their efficiency; the arm’s-length distance at which they maintain you, as they go about their shtick with obvious boredom. I’ve by no means seen a tambourine performed in a extra disinterested but alluring means earlier than. The one smile that was ever cracked, on their half, got here on the finish when the efficiency was over. Why I discover that fairly so attractive is past me, however I’m positive Freud would have a number of concepts about it.

The next couple of hours have been spent getting my bearings across the web site, catching up with folks I hadn’t seen shortly, and customarily basking in daylight. After a protracted, depressing winter, the enjoyment of a competition’s longer sunlight hours can’t be overstated. The wildly costly cans of gin and tonic have been taking place fantastically.

Because the music obtained correctly up and operating, we went to see the Belarusian post-punk group Molchat Doma, which was a fabulously camp affair. Considered one of my pals instructed me he’d seen them as soon as in Paris, at a midnight present dotted with flaming barrels, which admittedly appears like a extra applicable surroundings to see them in than this. The sunshine didn’t essentially match as much as the dystopian, chilly drone of their sound, but it surely did make for an amusing distinction. In some unspecified time in the future throughout this set, an previous good friend handed me an ice-cream cone from a close-by Mr Whippy van, which was such a easy act of kindness it virtually brought on me to shed a tear. I wouldn’t be the most important crier, as a rule, however I actually like 99s.

The one main conflict I needed to endure was between Gilla Band and Viagra Boys. Having already seen the previous carry out a few occasions this 12 months, and having by no means seen the latter, I needed to go for Viagra Boys, a call that didn’t go unrewarded.

“I would like you to be in your worst behaviour,” beseeched frontman Sebastian Murphy early into the set, encouraging us to do our bit to signify the freaks of the world. He later knowledgeable us that they’d performed a unique competition the day before today; an occasion, he instructed us, that had been filled with 50- to 60-year-old hippies, the place every thing had smelled of dreads and hemp, and the place he had not been remotely relaxed. He was, he stated, comfortable to be right here, in Brockwell Park, amongst his friends.

The person carries himself with the air of a mad uncle, the sort who provides you your first sip on a beer can, and who, whereas beloved by your dad and mom, nonetheless causes them deep concern when within the firm of their baby, such is the potential for hazard or hysteria that follows him always. Working example: through the efficiency of Sports activities, I drifted into my very own world for what will need to have been not more than 5 seconds, and by the point I appeared as much as the stage once more, I discovered he’d eliminated his trousers and was engaged in a set of vigorous push-ups, grunting wildly.

I later caught a little bit of Shygirl, however I discovered I couldn’t fairly deal with the potential for this largely middle-class viewers to start grinding, so I slipped away and located myself dancing at a Habibi Funk set, much more my velocity on the time.

I disregarded headliner Caroline Polachek in favour of Californian psyche heroes Osees, who, I confess, I knew little or no about — possibly the actual fact they alter their title each few years makes them troublesome to maintain observe of, or maybe I’m simply not with it. In any case, I find out about them now. Their set was initially blighted by sound points, which they handled admirably, however as soon as that was sorted they blasted by means of some tunes which went from wistful psychedelia to outright ’80s hardcore and again once more. It was an exquisite last set to cap off a beautiful day that left me feeling so glad that, as an alternative of going for a pint or an afterparty, I as an alternative wandered dwelling, ate some chips, calmed my thoughts, and went fortunately to mattress early.

The summer time had been threatening to reach for some weeks earlier than Extensive Awake, however now we may be sure it’s safely right here. It began, for a number of thousand of us, in Brockwell Park.

~

Extensive Awake: Net | Instagram | Fb | Twitter

All phrases by Tiernan Cannon

All pictures by Luke Dyson