Black Lips

OK, the award for the politest band of the festival is won hands down by, surprisingly, Augusta's Black Lips. Given the band's reputation for outrageous stage shows, hearing singer/guitarist Cole Alexander politely ask if he can borrow a plectrum from anyone is slightly disconcerting. Second guitarist Ian Saint Pe then teases the audience by announcing that the show will start in five minutes, only for the other three members of the band to run on and begin anyway.

From then on, it is pretty much plain sailing for these Georgians. Their style of music can best be described as 'absolutelyeverythingthateverhappenedsinceBillHayley' - at times you could close your eyes and believe that you were in the early 1960s, or the late 1970s, or indeed any time but now. Which isn't to say that their sound isn't contemporary, because you couldn't get the Black Lips sound without every other genre of music having happened. There's absolutely none of the tomfoolery that they have indulged in in the past; this is just 45 minutes of pure enjoyment.