Thursday 25/06/09 InMusic Festival, Day Two @ Zagreb, Croatia

With the Croatian crowd in no rush to get to the festival, Art Brut opened to literally 50 people which was very strange considering it was half 5 and they were on the main stage. At this point there set could have gone either way but to be fair to them they put in the performance of the festival. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, Eddie Argos revelled in his adopted teacher-like role going into great detail about each of his songs. In a set that covered sex, comics, mountain goats and drunken texting, ‘Modern Art’ stood out as Argos climbed into the crowd to berate the locals with a tale of his trip to the Van Gogh Museum. Hugely amusing. Another rant about The Killers followed as he told the crowd not to buy their music but they seemed as non-plussed as when he read out his Myspace address. A great front man he conducts his band with a battle cry of ‘Ready, Art Brut?’ in between songs. ‘My little brother discovered rock ‘n’ roll, he’s only 27 and he’s out of control.’

Unlike the night before the main stage didn’t get heaving at all and both N*E*R*D and Moby played to smaller crowds then they would be used to. Sponsors T-Mobile ensured there were pink glow sticks everywhere which Pharrell et al took great delight in launching back and forth into the crowd. Moby then proved himself to be the antithesis of a rock star as he stopped singing to beg the crowd not to throw them because, “guys, when they hit they hurt.” Twat.
N*E*R*D spent a lot of their set hyping the crowd and went down very well, whether they have the material to play without doing that is debatable but ‘Rock star - Poser’ and ‘Lapdance’ are still class live. Closing with ‘Everybody Nose (All the girls standing in line for the bathroom),’ Pharrell invited a “fat girl” (his words) on stage for a dance. After five people had helped her over the railings he literally ripped the piss out of her but she seemed oblivious, taking pictures of herself. Little harsh maybe.

Catering wise it was faultless, £2 a pint and so many bars there was rarely ever a queue, very meaty kebabs and burgers also made a change from the shit you usually get in this country. There was also a lot of cheese on sale if you’re into that sort of thing.

Moby, accompanied by two violinists, played both guitar and piano as he churned out most of ‘Play.’ Tom Smith of Editors had played both as well earlier on, but he is in serious danger of becoming Chris Martin mark II. Moby on the other hand has always got his restaurant to fall back on – where apparently he waits on the tables - should ‘Wait For Me’ sell as well as he can throw a glow stick.

In its fourth year InMusic is still relatively new on the scene but with only nine acts across two days on the Main Stage it isn’t in the same league as Serbian rival Exit.

InMusic festival in photos