Coming hot on the heels of a pretty triumphant return at Glastonbury, the first date of two at Hyde park was a vast celebration of all things Albarn, Coxon, Rowntree and James: from the overpriced official programmes, “souvenir” editions of Time Out and the t-shirts both official and knock-off, the whole day was a celebration of four chaps who’ve (temporarily) given up animated, anthropomorphised primates, politics and lawyering, solo low-fi shenanigans and cheese-farming.

It was probably put best by Crystal Castles’ Alice Glass who pointed out to the crowd that they were here to see Blur and not Crystal Castles themselves.

And she was right.

This was all about Blur.

Read the rest of this review AFTER THE JUMP…

They came on towards the end of the day and as the light was beginning to die – probably perfect conditions for a set that would be full of some of the group’s lower-tempo numbers. But this was a dynamic and energetic performance that aligned Damon Albarn’s ebullience with Blur’s crowd- and singalong-friendly repertoire. Damon dominated the show (aside from Graham’s performance of Coffee and TV; and, remarkably, even Graham looked happy throughout), which is, to be honest, pretty much to be expected.

The crowd pleasing banter was in full force: explanations as to why Damon was tying his shoelaces (“if I don’t do it properly, I’ll just have to do it again later”), exhortations to pay attention to the sunset and the rising moon (“say hello!”), as well as a short reminder of the 2003 Hyde Park anti-Iraq war demonstration (“I’m just reminding myself”) before the band launched into the only track from Think Tank, Out of Time. Damon even waved in the direction of Buckingham Palace when he sang the line And the Queen, she’s gone round the bend, / Jumped off lands end during This is a Low, which was a nice touch.

The set ranged across Blur’s back catalogue (setlist). They began with Leisure’s She’s so High before moving into material from Parklife and then an enthusiastic There’s No Other Way. Tracks from Parklife and Modern Life is Rubbish dominated the performance, with Blur and The Great Escape getting a decent lookin too. It was a show that defined gusto – each song performed with a great sense of fun, and the band played with their audience’s expectations – a slow intro led into song 2 where Dave Rowntree’s drumming, intentionally or not, was in rhythm with an electronic “Vote Dave” (Rowntree will be standing for the Labour Party at the next UK General Election).
The fast numbers got an obvious audience response; and there was a lot of energy in the crowd that got turned into a fair number of well-earned bruises. But the crowd went for the slower numbers too. The set took in all the high spots, and made the most of them: Phil Daniels joined in for Parklife, and Damon’s megaphone got a more-than-effective airing for Oily Water.
Given the diversity of Blur’s recordings, it’s amazing how well, how cohesive, their material actually is. And even if they’ve been away for a long time, they’re an incredibly tight live band who read each other and their audience incredibly well. Not that this audience was going to be anything other than ecstatic (although it was a little disturbing to see fans who were younger than Leisure…).

While there was energy, there was also a sense of a group settling into a comfortable relationship with themselves and with their audience; and this resulted in greatly affecting versions of To the End, Badhead, The Universal, This is a Low. Butting heads with the excitement of song 2 and Popscene (still Blur’s finest song), the performance and the two encores delivered a consummate pop experience; an experience that was even recapitulated at the entrance to Hyde Park Corner Tube as the crowd sang Tender to the mounted police officers assigned to look after the exodus from the park.

I’d been waiting for this for a long time. And it was great.

But that’s not all!

Four acts supported Blur on Thursday: the first group, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble pretty much stunned the mid-afternoon audience with their sound and with their sense of fun; they brought a mass of energy into the afternoon sunshine and defied the expectations of the crowd of practically middle aged men who’d turned up for the 2pm opening of the gates.

Unfortunately, all this energy was squandered by the Golden Silvers, whose set was summed up at the prompting of their own lead: “Did you enjoy the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble?” –crowd: “Yes!”; “Are you looking forward to Blur?” – crowd: “Yes!”; “We’re going to play a few more songs!” – silence. One can only presume they made the bill because Graham didn’t want people to enjoy themselves too much.

Third up were the incredible Crystal Castles.

For an act which is musically based around a voice and a keyboard, they do have an abundance of energy. Alice Glass probably earned a couple of security guards some danger money as she started diving into the crowd, handing over her mic to let the front row sing instead of her; but, as with their music, it’s an energy that’s accompanied by an exaggerated and playful darkness (suggested by Alice’s “Oasis has AIDS” t-shirt, which of course referred to Noel Gallagher’s 1995 comments regarding Damon Albarn and Alex James, subsequently retracted, as well as her emphasis that the crowd both felt nothing and that they were not here to listen to Crystal Castles); this was certainly the most dynamic nihilism I’ve ever encountered.

Alice was all over the stage: to begin with she crawled on clutching a bottle of Jack Daniels and looking like she was the worse for an afternoon in the pubs and gutters of London; but this was soon supplanted by as she became a beserker torpedo that found ever more bizarre locations from which to perform (including the drum kit, as well as the crowd itself; it’s almost surprising that she didn’t begin to climb up the scaffold), since she seemed to be going up the walls.

This was a great set from a band that has a massive surplus of energy in their music; and the edge might have caused a few confused wtf stares in the crowd, but there’s an effective marriage of performance and musical aesthetics. It doesn’t hurt that they seem to be mad as a bag of spanners.

The final support act was a band which appears to be popular with “the kids”, but who I have to say I’ve never heard of (despite recording Matt’s second favourite album of 2008). Apparently they’re called the Foals, and they seemed to get people singing and dancing. Seemed pretty generic to me, I’m afraid, especially coming after Crystal Castles; they seemed pretty static, even when the lead got his little drum kit out.

Still, they had a few catchy tunes and seemed like cheery enough fellas.

Blur – Popscene (Live at the Budokan)
You can order CDs/downloads of both gigs here.