262: Offset Festival, Hainault Forest, Hainault, Essex

Bands seen: Invasion, Bo Ningen, Egyptian Hip Hop, Male Bonding, Kap Bambino, Comanechi, Good Shoes, Bridport Dagger, Art Brut, Thomas Tantrum, Mystery Jets, Pulled Apart By Horses, Not Cool, Chrome Hoof, Connan Mockasin, Fiction, These New Puritans

Meh. This is another Offset Festival, some great bands, but full of terrible poseurs. It's like Hoxton in the countryside.

Who was great this year? Art Brut are always good. Thomas Tantrum were surprisingly great. This is the third time I've seen them and they did nothing for me previously but they were really good this year. I was drawn in by Megan Thomas's vocals which sounded surprisingly like Louise Wener to me. Kap Bambino makes up in stage performance what their music lacks. It seems like one of the best bands was one I just missed - I would have loved to have seen Oh! Gunquit and their hula-hooping singer on stage.

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