Optimus Alive: Day 2

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All photographs by Ruben Viegas.

Crystalline blue skies over the Optimus site were a welcome change on Saturday. The atmosphere seemed lighter and a real festival vibe took hold, prevailing over yesterday’s niggling thought that this was really a large gig in a carpark.

One of the musical high points of the year let alone this festival The Antlers played a rather early set on the second stage, although what time and where became irrelevant as soon as they began; their set was truly transcendental. Opening with the heart-wrenching ‘No Widows’ they had the crowd captivated immediately. The lush, hazy, more spacious new tracks from Undersea were threaded through a set otherwise composed of songs from Burst Apart. Despite the band having stated they found it a little trickier to bring these new songs to life, live all four came across very well, with ‘Crest’ and ‘Drift Drive’ being the most enjoyable last night.

Throughout the set Pete Silberman’s vocal prowess was sublime and the strength of Darby Cicci’s complimenting harmonies live were a pleasant surprise. Although both men also almost nudged the shimmering, blissed out majesty into comedy at certain points with their synchronised erotic microphone caressing. Darby attacked his keyboard and synths more impressively than I have witnessed on a stage in recent months, and drummer Michael Lerner’s timing and touch was impeccable. The Antlers felt like a band on the verge of true lasting greatness, one that should soon be on main stages around the world.

Meanwhile the act that was actually on the main stage as the sun set over Lisbon was Mumford and Sons. From what I caught they seemed proficient enough but their musical offerings just served to bring the brilliance of The Antlers’ compositions into starker relief.

Next up is Art Department. Jonny White and Kenny Glasgow are two of the most respected house DJs on the circuit and you couldn’t fault their skill but as I put it in my notes to myself, “prog is just prog”: progressive house is always going to be a little dull and even then you might struggle to really feel anything.

The Cure were the headliner last night, and although I didn’t catch all of their three hour performance, what I did hear was quite brilliant. Robert Smith’s rich, warm voice carrying through the night with the band on top form as they played their many, many hits to a packed arena during this marathon set.

Next up we find the unilaterally well liked Katy B. Her vocal performance was impressive and her stage presence has benefited from last year’s touring experience, the inclusion of live sax and trumpet was a nice touch too. The set was slickly performed and packed full of hits from On A Mission. Just a couple tracks in Katy got a rave atmosphere going in the previously sleepy stage area but the show still felt a little too contrived at times such as during the fake DJ battle medley half way through.

Katy also played a new song, which to be honest to me was musically indistinguishable from the rest of the set, though this is not necessarily a bad thing for her fans or her career. It was a really fun show all in all but a thought I couldn’t shake despite the bouncing crowd and party vibes was that whilst Katy’s singing voice is superb and she now really can work a crowd, there is still something missing, an underlying artistic voice with a little more personality showing through perhaps.

Strolling around the site briefly before turning in for the night the prevailing feeling away from the stages, as it was yesterday and even with the extra bodies now carousing around, was still one of being rather relentlessly advertised to in an overly corporate arena.