Truck 2011 Sunday Pt 2

The Go! Team’s performance, on the other hand, would be invigorating at any time, but after the staid afternoon we’ve had, it’s like the second bloody coming, a vast ball of energy rolling from the main stage. Ninja may not be the greatest vocalist nor gymnast in the country, but she can put them together better than anyone we’ve seen in many a year, and the band leap into the music as if it were a swimming pool of chilled champagne. Aside from a moment or two like “Security Song”, which is like Stereolab without the Marxism or the krautrock collection, their tunes all have an old school hip hop joie de vivre performed with irrepressible positivity: Sugar Hill played by Grange Hill, if you will. We are also reminded of The Cookie Crew, Polysics and Rip, Rig & Panic at various points, but primarily the Go! Team are idiosyncratic and original, and we salute them for it.

This year we decide to take up the offer of a lift before the annual snooze through The Dreaming Spires’ set, and it seems wise to leave the festival on a high. The conclusion is that this larger, longer Truck has been a resounding success. There are inevitable criticisms. Firstly there’s still too much toothless country for our liking – some of this strumming could have been swapped for just one or two metal bands, surely – but we suppose that’s part of the deal. Secondly, as this is now a three day concern, there could have been more musical options on Saturday and Sunday afternoon; plenty of local acts would have been happy to fill the empty space on that lovely Wood stage free of charge, we’re sure. But, in effect, Truck has made itself bigger to keep itself small. This year was the biggest turnout ever, and yet for the first time in a long while we found that there were rarely queues for anything, and one could nearly always get close enough to a stage to enjoy it. Naturally, there were some Truck veterans who had a moan – it’s kind of a hobby for music fans of a certain age – but conversely we met many Truck virgins who couldn’t believe how great it was. In an era when most music festivals are horrible drinks advertising gulags or thinly disguised food fairs, it’s easy to see what makes Truck special, and no matter what small mistakes they might have made, we still believe they provide a uniquely excellent service.

Just don’t mention Groupon.