Dour not dour

Spent Sunday close to the French border at "Europe's alternative music event" - the 18th Dour Festival. Baking hot weather may have turned the site into a dustbowl, but the atmosphere was mellow and the six-stages offered nuggets of gold among the pans of silt. My itinerary took in The White Birch, Constantines, le Klub des 7, Guerilla Poubelle, Absynthe Minded, Les Wampas, Gravenhurst, Brakes, Andrew Tosh, Luciano, Two Gallants and Bell Orchestre (featuring members of Arcade Fire). The highlight was Two Gallants, a really fantastic live band (Tyson Vogel could well be the best drummer I have ever seen). Luciano's uplifting roots dancehall reggae (and his handsprings) brought the crowd to life in the late afternoon, while it was sweet to see Andrew Tosh and his long-lost brother duetting on their father's anthem 'Legalise it'. Les Wampas were bizarrely affecting and surreal as only French rock can be (a singer who invites women from the audience to dance on the stage then encourages them to all jump on top of him, calling out (en francais) from beneath the pile of bodies, "What a beautiful death, crushed to death by girls!"). You had to laugh.
Gravenhurst offered a drop of that very English afternoon tipple, psychedelic Indie rock. Distilling two parts (Syd Barrett's) Pink Floyd with one part Flying Saucer Attack, the group's mellifluous drones and feedback reminded me of watching Sunday League Cricket - long swathes where you are happy to snooze or read a newspaper, interspersed with the occasional runmaking stroke. The polite applause that greeted the end of each number would not have sounded out of place at Lord's as a David Gower cover drive sped off into the outfield.