Well, it had to end at some point and day 4 marked the last of the festivities for this year’s Lost Evenings Festival.
I’ll be honest, the day got off to a rough start, thanks to the DJ set hosted by Frank at the Underworld the previous night. But after some coffee and paracetamol, I was up and running, ready for one last day of get togethers and good times.
On a personal note, I cannot let the weekend go by without giving a mention to the Solo Armada, a wonderful group of individuals who come together around gigs and events, to make sure those going alone can find someone to chat to and hang out with. There’s been lots of talk about expanding and make the SA something official post LE, keep your eyes on their website, and join the Facebook group to find out more. If it wasn’t for these guys, I wouldn’t know some of the people I now consider friends.
The reason I mention these guys is because, shortly after getting to Camden, it started pouring with rain and my plan for a morning wonder around the market was put on hold. But that was no bother, as a meet up had already been sorted over at The Lock. It meant I had somewhere to go to catch up with people, both old friends and new.
There was one more cool event before the main show, an amazing acoustic set from Johnny and Rich from PET NEEDS, at the Camden Assembly. If seeing the band twice over the weekend wasn’t enough, getting one extra show from these two was just the icing on the PET NEEDS cake. If you weren’t there, don’t worry! We have the whole performance (well, the three songs they played) over on our Instagram TV! We also chatted to the band the day before, check that out here.
Then over to the roundhouse for the last time of the event. Unfortunately, for this last night I was flying the TrueStyleMusic flag solo, this meant I had to get both photos and reviews by myself. So for the supports, I apologies if my thoughts are limited, but I hope it still gives you an idea of what the night brought.
Opening up the NA stage one last time was Berries, another Xtramile friend. I know I’ve said this a fair few other times about other bands from the weekend, but why did I not check these guys out sooner? From the one song of their set I managed to catch, they rocked! The crowd was fully on board with what they were playing, and even had a few dedicated fans singing along with the band!
Main stage saw Guise as the Sunday opener. Now I’ve seen Guise three times live now, once solo, once duo and now as a full band. To be completely honest, their music is not for me, but that still doesn’t make them a very enjoyable act to watch, in whatever form of the band it is. Full band is clearly their best performance, and the on stage chemistry between them made it even better. As a band, they just felt like they were in-sync with each other, everyone understanding and working with each member’s vibe.
Back over to NA stage, for Deux Furieuses, who win the award for most mispronounced name of the festival. I only caught about half of their first song, but I can say they were pretty good overall. Sorry I can’t give much more insight into their performance, but if you so want to know more about them, I’d suggest heading over to their website!
Skinny Lister were the last support over on the main stage, bringing their folk-punk style to the max. Anyone who has seen these guys live will tell you that every show they play is much more than just a show, it’s an experience. The band bring their full energy to the stage and crowd, with singer Lorna not standing still for the whole set. There were many crowd singalongs, chants and good times. A pretty good president to what was soon to come on the main stage.
Closing the NA stage for the final time was the wonderful Samantics. Sam is an incredibly talented musician, using his synths, beats, loops, a ukulele and his own voice to create this brilliant song, all live on stage. His songs are deeply personal, and combined with his lyrical genius and words coming out of his mouth quicker than most people form thoughts, this makes Sam my final ‘you-should-go-check-him-out’ recommendation of the festival.
Greatest hits. That was the title for night 4. And what a bunch of greatest hits it was.
Opening up with Get Better, Frank and The Souls came onto that stage and exploded with energy, and the crowd brought just as much back to them. It was also during this song that I got my first Crowd Surfer picture, thanks Stephen for being my willing participant.
1933, the punk version of Little Changer, If Ever I Stray, Out Of Breath and the rock version of Long Live The Queen were all phenomenal songs, back to back. By the end of this run we were all exhausted from the constant dancing!
New song Haven’t been doing so well also featured on the set list, and although it was only released into the world 4 days before, it is quickly making its way into becoming another greatest hit! Followed on by Plain Sailing Weather, Polaroid Picture, The Gathering and Glorious You, the band kept giving and the crowd kept receiving (even if we were shattered from 4 nights of dancing).
Then the band left the stage and we were graced by the presence of Frank alone. There She Is was dedicated to Jess, and was probably the first real tear-jerker of the night. Followed by Thatcher (I won’t use the full song name, for those of you who don’t know Frank it’s a song about cider), was just unreal. It was around this point I just stopping singing, taking pictures and videos, and just stood still and listened. The feeling of being back in that crowd, with people being happy, singing along, just having fun, was something else. Frank Turner shows, especially Lost Evenings, are always something wonderful and amazing, but after the last 18 months, it was everything and more.
The ‘unplugged’ version of Be More Kind was next, with The Way I Tend To Be, and a crowd photo, following on. 5,005 smiling faces and good times going on, this photo just is the whole weekend.
Three more high energy songs – The Next Storm, Try This At Home and I Still Believe were played before the first big finish of the night, and the band left the stage.
Frank came back alone, and after a few words about Lost Evenings, and what this next song means, it was up and being played. Well, Frank played the guitar, but the crowd were left to sing, and seeing the look on the crowd and everyone’s face during that song was enough to break Frank. There were definitely tears and a croak in his voice at the end.
The band were welcomed back onto stage one final time for Photosynthesis, Recovery and full simple words, for once played with the intro. Sadly there was so crowd surfing from Frank due to the C word, but the crowd made up for that by dancing, jumping and singing like there was no tomorrow.
And then that was it. Lost Evenings IV was done. See you next year was the final words from Frank Turner. Rumoured to be heading back to Berlin after it didn’t happen last year, who knows. All I know is I’ll be seeing you all there again next year.
For one last time, I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the artists performing on over the 4 days, the whole crew and Roundhouse staff, the security for keeping everyone safe (and an extra thank you to the Security for giving me a setlist for the last night), Xtra Mile for inviting me along, and of course to everyone who attended, for making it an awesome way to spend 4 days!
Review by Ted Stargatt for TrueStyleMusic
TrueStyleMusic 