Saturday 18/07/09 Latitude Festival, Day Two @ Henham Park, Suffolk

As we’re already on site, no traffic to contend with (apart from buggies) today, Gigwise manages to get our teeth into the music a little earlier on day two of Latitude. First up, Yes Giantess at the Sunrise Arena. The quartet are so now if you cut them all open they’d be date stamped with July 18th 2009, all 80s Miami Vice synths and three minute throwaway pop songs that increase the kitsch even beyond Passion Pit levels. The short is good but leaves Gigwise a little cold as they yet to showcase the hits that will draw the fans in.

Unfortunately we linger in the woods a little too long and are treated to a dirge that calls itself, Band Of Skulls, who are like the Dead Weather but even worse at aping The White Stripes. We escape for a bit of detour from the music and head to Latitude’s famous comedy tent for what will be one of the weekend’s most infamous moments – the debacle that is Janeane Garofalo’s six minute adventure in getting no laughs.

Now some of our group feel sorry for the American actress but not Gigwise, if we weren’t in such gentile surroundings we’d be heckling her off-stage. Luckily Ed Byrne is there to save the day and delivers a brilliant monologue on the absurdities of wedding planning. Meanwhile Janeane is probably out back wondering where her career went wrong after SNL.

Back to the music and we make the short trek to the Lake Stage to catch a double header of Pulled Apart By Horses and The XX. The two bands couldn’t be more different, PABH are amazing to watch – using the stage as a launch pad to scorch the face off the crowd while having little or no song structure. The XX on the other hand have the least charisma Gigwise has possibly ever seen but what they do have are melodies to burn. Their brand of mumble-core is brilliant on record but live it’s a bit like watching paint dry in East London.

Saturday night is closed by two of the best shows we’ve witnessed this year. The sunrise arena is packed to the rafters for Passion Pit; people at the front are being pulled out for their own safety and the forest surrounding is alive. The Cambridge quintet rise to the occasion and they pile through debut album ‘Manners’ from the saccharine sweetness of ‘Little Secrets’ and ‘The Reeling’ to the off the wall brilliance of ‘Sleepyhead’.

If we thought couldn’t be topped, we hadn’t counted on Grace Jones. The woman is a walking colossus, an Amazon of electro funk and on this Saturday night in Suffolk she is pure, maniacal genius. The stage show, the costume changes and between song segues just work so well. At one point Jones screams at the crowd, “I need a man! Bring me a man!”, but no man in this audience is brave enough to take on the challenge. The set contains the essential hits - ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ , ‘My Jamaican Guy’ and ‘Demolition Man’ – but she could have played the spoons on any part of her ridiculously toned body and we would still have been mesmerised.

Day Two in photos: