Rock....Robot Rock.
Given that the Summercase festival was set in an Industrial port, looking very much like the 1970's visions of the future, it's very appropriate that Daft Punk were playing and the robots of the future were going to show the humans how music should be made.
With almost a decade since the release of the seminal album 'Homework' and a million mythical stories and near misses, the hype surrounding Daft Punk's summers shows have been quite astounding. This writer's near miss with the robots centres around Thomas Banagalter who was meant to perform at a Pressure night in Glasgow back in 2002 but at the last minute cancelled due to tinnitus. To say that the arrival of Daft Punk was being eagerly awaited would be an understatement and a 25 minute delay from their expected showtime really wasn't helping at all.
Finally, and just when some folk were shifting away from the stage, the curtain dropped and a pyramid was on stage. As the lights flickered up, two men with robotic heads could be seen waving at the crowd and 'Robot Rock' kicked in. Taken from the unfairly criticised recent record 'Human After All', (criticised mainly because it wasn't 'Homework' or the duo had moved on from their early sounds) the track crunched and rocked as the crowd kicked off big style.
Early on, it was apparent that Daft Punk were playing a continous set and would be dropping in their tracks throughout the night. This led to an early teasing of 'Around The World' before upping the ante with the main section of 'Crescendolls' which pushed the crowd to higher levels of dancing and punching the air.
It's perceivable that the reaction was going to be the same no matter what Daft Punk played such was the intensity and desire to see the duo but the set was a phenomenon, constantly building and dropping in favourite tracks throughout. The bass was set to nose shuddering levels and as far as the eye could see back, the crowd were going for it.
Unsurprisingly, 'One More Time' was a massive success, such is the popularity of the track that it transcends dance music, appealing to the older generation due to its use on TV and sporting events. With a brief pause before the riff of 'Da Funk' rolled its way around the crowd, there was a bookending of recent material with 'Human After All' bringing back the crunching guitar sound and giving the crowd another chorus to sing and shout along to.
It may have been a hell of a long time coming but at the end of it all, it was extremely worth the wait.