DesertFest 2012

If you like guitars, riffs, or have been wondering where you can discover new rock music, then you probably should have been at DesertFest. Taking place in two suitably grimy Camden venues, The Purple Turtle and The Underworld, as well as one actually rather nice one, The Black Heart; DesertFest bought three days of obscenely loud music and bearded blokes to Camden over the Easter weekend. Cited as a celebration of ‘stoner’ and ‘doom’ rock (as well as a number of other slightly different but equally suspectly named genres), this was essentially a gathering of people and bands that like Black Sabbath.

I’d put my house on it, that everyone present over the three days has at least one Sabbath album in his or her collection. Just take Friday’s headliners at The Purple Turtle, San Francisco’s Orchid. A band that are essentially a very, very good Black Sabbath tribute band, that don’t play any Black Sabbath songs. The lead singer looks like Ozzy Osbourne in his heyday. The lead singer also sounds near enough exactly like Ozzy Osbourne in his heyday. This aside, you can’t help but think that the tracks from their debut album ‘Capricorn’ would have seen them firmly in the charts were it the 1970s. However, it’s not the 1970s, and that’s why they’re playing to only a few hundred people. Regardless, their set is immaculate, and they’re one of the few bands of the weekend that can boast melodies as infectious as their riffs.

The other highlight from the Friday is Germany’s Rotor. Showcasing an amount of tempo-changes akin to that of Queens Of The Stone Age, their groove heavy riff-rock epitomises ‘letting the music do the talking’. Without a single microphone on stage, and not an ounce of crowd interaction, the three-piece are entirely captivating. An apparent trend of three-piece bands over the weekend, combined with the fantastic work of the sound engineers leads to one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to in terms of sound quality. Not a single note is lost in the mix, despite the sheer volume everything is played at. Another note worthy performance came from Stone Axe. Their festival opening set, consisting entirely of Free covers, supplied the perfect start to the Bank Holiday weekend. Admirably doing justice to Paul Rodgers’ legendary vocals.

Saturday brought with it my two most anticipated moments of the weekend. Sweden’s Truckfighters and Japan’s chirpily named Church Of Misery. Despite both being contenders for ‘world’s most atrocious band name’, they both deliver unbelievable sets. Truckfighters in particular are infallible. Bringing something a little different to the festival, with a far more expansive sound than the standard all out riffing that is generally present. Thirteen-minute epic ‘Majestic’ from their latest album ‘Mania’, offers the best performance of the weekend. Combining a huge chorus with mammoth chord progressions, it creates images of open space akin to Mastodon’s ‘Crack The Skye’ without loosing touch with the obvious desert rock influences. For anyone not overly familiar with the desert or stoner rock scene, Truckfighters are the perfect place to start for fans of anything from QOTSA to Biffy Clyro.

Church Of Misery on the other hand is all out riffing. All out riffing of the highest order. Like a cripplingly loud Black Sabbath with a slightly possessed Japanese Reni-hat wearing, John Lennon sunglassed, neo-hippy lead singer barking inaudible lyrics about serial killers, apparently. What they produce is an entirely encompassing sonic assault. An assault which left me with ringing ears and apparently a mild case of high frequency hearing loss for the next twelve hours. On the Sunday, for the first time in my life, I resorted to the purchase of earplugs. Once again, the whole affair really was rather loud.

One of the festival’s disappointments came in the form of Saturday’s headliners, London’s legends of the scene - Orange Goblin. Now I wouldn’t advise saying this to his face, as his stature dwarfs that of even Josh Homme; but lead singer Ben Ward‘s vocal range in this performance was about as wide as that of a fog horn. He resembled something more like a gruff drunken bloke, with a beard (of course), shouting in the street after ten pints of cheap lager than a lead singer. His vocals on the albums are positively Matt Bellamy-esque in comparison… Well maybe not quite. This is especially disappointing in light of how fantastic the band sound in all their, funnily enough, Sabbath-ish glory.

Ear ringing slowly subsiding, Sunday marked the performance of the festival’s oldest and arguably most legendary band, Leaf Hound. A band whose 1971 album, the subtly titled ‘Growers Of Mushroom’ was once named the most collectible record in the world by Q magazine. Apparently having an average value of £3500 for a first edition copy. Relative to the other bands on the bill, Leaf Hound take things down a notch with their blend of Led Zeppelin tinged psychedelic rock. Showcasing a few tracks from their actually pretty decent 2007 album ‘Unleashed’, they mainly focus on tracks from ‘Growers Of Mushroom’. Their rapturously received set gives way to the final big highlight of the weekend, the excellently named and grammatically incorrect Gentlemans Pistols… from Leeds.

Providing another relative change in tone, Gentlemans Pistols channel Led Zeppelin through ZZ Top and The Allman Brothers Band with copious amounts of swagger. Their set is made all the better through the inclusion of most recent second guitarist Bill Steer. For those who don’t know who Bill Steer is, he’s the man responsible for Napalm Death and Carcass. Thankfully though it seems he has put the detestable notions of ‘grindcore’ behind him, for now at least. Instead providing wonderful bluesy grooves and solos, similar to his own blues-rock outings with Firebird. Gentlemans Pistols’ set oozes good old fashioned, balls out rock and roll. To not have a bloody good time watching them would be an impressive achievement.

Closing the main stage at The Underworld, Corrosion Of Conformity, bring a mix of punk, Mastodon, of course Black Sabbath and unfortunately some unforgivably cack vocals. One thing that this does highlight about the festival as that there are a few too many bands who take influence from Black Sabbath without achieving anything particularly original in the process. Also there are a number of bands where the vocals really let them down and leave you wondering why they didn’t go with an instrumental approach that the likes of Rotor and Gonga (in the absence of a lead singer) executed so successfully.

The few negatives aside, DesertFest was a fantastic success. Seamlessly organised, near peerless sound and a fantastic atmosphere. This is a hard rock festival where anyone, regardless of tattoo quantity, hair length or grandeur of beard can just come and enjoy the music. Essentially this is a festival without the bullshit. Just earth shaking rock and roll, beer and good times. Bring on 2013.