Day One at Clockenflap

With the onlooking sun perched high in the sky and a hitting heat that warmed the grass, the Clockenflap Music and Media-Arts festival started firmly in chill-out mode. The audience was lazily scattered across the stepped podium, listening idly to the early acts while pulling at grass, being fondly reminded of those summer afternoons where days were long and responsibilities short; where time was your own and the setting sun didn’t mark the end of your day but the beginning of your night.

When the sun started to wane, dipping below the horizon to send the sky a brilliant orange, things began to pick up.

Local band sensation Chochukmo wielded a raw energy which they fired off into the crowd with the thunderous starts of a trio guitar ensemble and intense vocals from Jan Curious. This combination kicked the audience into overdrive, eliciting screams and shouts – the first we had really heard all day.

From then on, the crowd was in that elusive sixth gear, that possessing trance which kept them standing and dancing through the Volt In Music DJ set until the appearance of Beijing sensation Pet Conspiracy.

As the five-person band sound-checked on stage the crowd was itching, anticipation occasionally getting the better of a few as they screeched encouraging remarks, not all of which were sanitary. A blast of red and blue and Pet Conspiracy were off, led by nymphet Helen to envelop the crowd with lyrics so sexually charged you’d wonder if Freud’s spirit was floating about.

The old psychoanalyst would have plenty to say when, over the blaring chants of a wildly animated crowd came a sultry voice: ‘This song is all about my pink.’ The crowd lost it. Pet Conspiracy, with all the panache of seasoned touring, upped the ante to culminate in one final act of true performance which started with ‘throw some water on me’, followed with drummer Edo and guitarist Huzi kissing on stage, and ended with that same sultry voice: ‘I want to feel your spray.’

-Hugo Stanford

Read our interview with Pet Conspiracy!

Tags: Chochukmo, Clockenflap, Pet Conspiracy
Posted in Blog