The phrase "folk festival" was once taken to mean bearded fiftysomethings dressed entirely in hemp perched on home-whittled stools while watching Roy Harper. Thanks to the rise of Pitchfork-endorsed alt.folk – Pitchfolk, if you will – festivals like End of the Road find crowds of hipsters-with-strollers enjoying one of the most discerning bills of the summer. And Roy Harper.
At this seventh EOTR, Friday is dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the cult label Bella Union, which showcases a bumper 2012 harvest. Cashier No 9 deliver ghost-ship shanties and acid-pop showstoppers, the misty melodies of Lanterns on the Lake engross, and Sweden's I Break Horses steal the day with tsunamis of dark euphoric drones that relay Spector's Wall of Sound via Saturn. Shadowy Baltimore headliners Beach House supply a soothing comedown akin to Mazzy Star sunk in aspic.
Come Saturday, Alabama Shakes summon the weekend's biggest crowd with one bawl from Brittany Howard's titanic soul larynx, built to flatten forests. Grizzly Bear unveil new material that shifts their impression of a cranky, psychotropic Fleet Foxes into challenging new areas of fractured art-folk, but they struggle to fill their headline slot, running out of songs after the Smile-style Two Weeks and limping to curfew with the ponderous 10-minute Colorado. "Smoke whatever you can find," advises guitarist Ed Droste.
Sunday requires no such sedation. Fresh from a poetry reading in the woods, Patti Smith powers through a punchy hour (she spells out "Pussy Riot" during Gloria), her dotty hippy persona shining as she leads the crowd in dog barks during the one-chord Banga and reassures us her feedback issues will be solved by Pegasus. Finally, reformed heroes Grandaddy are a refreshing melodic blast, lacing their wondrous pop flashes – Now It's On, The Crystal Lake, the arcade epic AM 180 – with the toytown synth spasms of Hamley's at Christmas. You hope End of the Road never gets big enough to book Mumford & Sons because, as Patti Smith hallucinates: "There's nine million people here! It's ruined."
