The wonderful End Of The Road festival returns to Dorset’s Larmer Tree Gardens this weekend, August 28 to 31, for its 19th edition. A staple in the UK’s festival calendar at this point – and a perfect wind down to a manic and arguably over-stuffed summer season – it is now able to pull in big names from all over the world. Headlining this year are none other than Sharon Van Etten, Caribou, Self Esteem and Father John Misty.
Look below those big names and your eyes will start to spin at the veritable cornucopia of options available to you across the festival’s five unique and atmospheric stages. While the choose-your-own-adventure possibilities are endless, we’ve highlighted six sets from the earlier part of the day that we’re certainly not going to miss.
Florist
Friday, 3pm, Garden Stage
While Hayden Pedigo’s set will be an idyllic opener for EOTR’s iconic Garden Stage, it’s Florist’s bow in the mid-afternoon that has caught our eye. The NY-based art-folk act’s subtle blend of psychedelic experimentation and caressing melodies are a perfect match for the verdant setting provided in this arena. With four faultless albums to date, including this year’s Jellywish, they’ve got a whole bag of goodies to pull from, and we can’t wait to hear which ones they choose.
The Orchestra (For Now)
Friday, 4.30pm, Garden Stage
Following up Florist on the Garden Stage are the highly-touted The Orchestra (For Now). Giving this young septet an hour-long slot in prime real estate on the schedule is a vote of confidence from EOTR, given that they’ve only released a handful of tracks so far. However, their debut Plan 75 EP, released in March, displays a band with bags of talent and an unmistakable flair. Their orchestrally-augmented art rock songs are the latest iteration of the kind of music we’ve heard coming out of the capital for a little while, but these youths have the potential to carry the torch forward to a more grandiose and epic place.
The New Eves
Saturday, 12.45pm, Woods Stage
Shocking the senses out of hungover patrons snoozing in their fold-out chairs in front of the main stage on Saturday will be Brighton’s inimitable The New Eves. Hot off the release of their debut album The New Eve Is Rising, the quartet are finely tuned and ready to deliver their raucous, incantatory vision of modern art rock for all who are in earshot. They recently told us how many of the tracks on the album came out of freeform jamming, and we can be sure to hear some of that energy and chemistry on stage on Saturday.
Titanic
Saturday, 4pm, The Folly
Mabe Fratti evidently had a wonderful time playing EOTR two years ago, because she’s back and this time she’s pulling double duty. While she has a set under her own name in the Big Top on Sunday, on Saturday the Guatemalan cellist’s other project, Titanic, with her partner Héctor Tosta (aka i la catolica) will be lighting up The Folly with their skewed mash up of 80s psychdedelia and modern experimentalism with jazz inflections. Their new album HAGEN arrives in September, so this is a perfect opportunity to get an early glimpse.
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Sunday, 1.30pm, Garden Stage
North Carolina troubadour Jake Xerxes Fussell is a folk artist in the true spirit of the genre; he brings standards and traditionals back to life with his rich baritone and delicate guitar. On his most recent album, last year’s When I’m Called, he in fact crafted the songs before retrofitting traditional words onto them, bringing whole new aspects to them. He also had a crack team of collaborators with him including Blake Mills, Joan Shelley and Joe Westerlund, among others, which only speaks to the regard in which he’s held. His set is bound to be the ideal thing for a slow early Sunday.
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band
Sunday, 2.15pm, Woods Stage
Following straight on from Fussell over on the main stage is the exceptional Louisville songwriter Ryan Davis and his rag tag Roadhouse Band. If you’re feeling a little worse for wear by this point in the weekend then Davis’ whisky-soaked meditations and his band’s pedal-steel imbued jams could just be the tonic to harmonise with your hurt and pull you through. Their recently-released album New Threats From The Soul has received widespread acclaim and they’re almost certainly going to be much higher up the bill next time they return to the UK fesitval circuit, so this is your chance to say “I saw them when…”
