![]() ![]() 'Valley of the Moon', the meaning of the word Ohio, was a melancholic delight. Scott Hirsch's bluesy ballads knocked hard on the door, not faintly as he had modestly intimated. 'Those last two were indie numbers in the hope we can make some fuckin' money,' he dryly quipped. There was also a counter punch to Trump, 'I Love America Better Than You.' Ryley Walker, whose early acoustic promise is in danger of being eclipsed in a dirge of instrumental digressions, was less compelling. Nashville's Aaron Lee Tasjan, in Friday's first slice of Americana on the Garden Stage with its adjacent proscenium arch, ingeniously lifted riffs and quotes from the pantheon of rock and welded them to his witty monologues of life's disappointments. Many bands segue between genres, which is a strength in some, but augurs a crisis of identity in others. The stand out of this year's electronica was Pixx, whose Annie Lennox-like voice added grit to her exhilarating, life affirming melodies and justified the rave reviews for debut album The Age of Anxiety. All We Are borrowed New Order and Japan-inspired rhythms to create airy, danceable synth pop. In fact, the influence of Generation X irrigated much of the festival. Larmer Tree Gardens appeared twinned with Melbourne with three bands from the Aussie metropolis on the bill, the pick of whom was Lowtide, whose dreamy vocal textures, so typical of contemporary music, washed over 80s Goth basslines and soaring guitar riffs. With a riotous sense of theatre they were a colourful counterpoint to the peacocks strutting the festival grounds. ![]() The raven-haired Japanese androgynies, who used to be the musical equivalent of a child running round and round in circles until it collapses, have added some sober guile to their mix while retaining the frenetic, ear splitting chords they wear as a badge of honour. But where EOTR excels, and where the real pleasures lie, is in the exciting discoveries lower down the bill and this year they were bountiful.īo Ningen kicked off the fun on Thursday night. 2017’s headliners all put in a solid shift on the Woods stage from the resurgent Slowdive, to Mac Demarco, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Father John Misty: a virgin performer at the apex of the chain, who admitted that he was out of his comfort zone and 'trying his best' though this wasn’t 'his bread and butter’. If the art installations are too twee for some, the deftly curated line up is for many the high point of the festival season. It has peerless food, a compact site, stewarding with a light touch, miraculously habitable portacabins and is a bastion of civilised revelry that Sunday’s torrential mud churn tested, but couldn't dispel. Attending End of the Road is like being in a three day tracking shot, a panoply of uninterrupted sights and sounds until everyone folds up and troops away on Monday morning, leaving nothing but the festival's echoes in its discarded cans. ![]()
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