Splendour in the Grass
Friday Night
- left the city at 4:15pm, swung past Moorooka to pick up Mirko, took 1/2 hour to drive from one end of Garden City to the other (in peak hour traffic), arrived in Byron at about 7:15pm
- Pty Ltd played a very good live set at the Beach Hotel, had fish & chips for dinner and a few schooners of Heineken ...
Saturday
- the show didn't start until midday, so when I got up in the morning I grabbed breakfast at one of the local bakeries and went for a walk along the beach.
- once we arrived at Belongil Fields, the first place that we ended up was the Tipi Circle. It felt just slightly weird to be dancing to a DJ in the middle of the day, but loads of fun!
- the crowd at the main stage was overwhelming - we were about the 1,000th from the front for Xavier Rudd, and only caught brief glimpses of him as he played. An impressive performance, but not a good way to see it.
- to say that Franz were tight, would be an understatement - this time, Mirko & I went right to the front of the tent on the far right, and then gradually moved our way towards the centre. Had an excellent view of most of the band, and the crowd was very enthusiastic.
- at this point I realized that if I was going to be anywhere near the front for Polly Jean, then it was going to take serious commitment. Like, dancing at the main stage for 8 hours nonstop type of commitment. At the end of Franz Ferdinand I pushed towards the front of the stage, and got to within a dozen or so people for the start of Spiderbait.
- needless to say, these guys were f*cken awesome! They played all the favourites: Calypso, Buy Me A Pony & Outta My Head among them. Kram seemed impressed by the enthusiastic crowd, and I must say that the feeling was mutual.
- I can't say that E6 impressed me in quite the same way ... in fact, my impression was more of a bunch of pretentious wankers. I quite enjoy listening to their music on the radio, but something about Dick Valentine's stage presence just made me want to punch him hard in the face...
- The Dissiciatives played a very low-key performance, and failed to stir up much crowd reaction at all. Itch-e & Scratch-e, where have you gone?
- I can't say that DKT/MC5 really grabbed me either, although it was amusing to see Evan Dando storming off stage during the first song because his mic wasn't working, and refusing to come back on until after Tex Perkins' performance.
- after almost a 1 hour soundcheck (during which I desparately tried to restore circulation to my legs), PJ Harvey finally take the stage. I must say, it was well worth enduring the lacklustre performances of certain other bands, and the interminable wait for the roadies to set up, for this: to be the 5th person back from the barrier, with a clear and unobstructed view of the PJ magic. A Perfect Day Elise & Good Fortune made my evening complete.
- a cup of coffee from one of the tents, and then caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel to get to bed at about 1am.
Sunday
- unfortunately needed to drop Mirko off at the train station (85km north of Byron), and so missed Eskimo Joe's performance
- today we were all pretty much exhausted, and ended up sitting on the grass, drinking JD & Coke and listening to the bands.
- having said that, I did still get to see a brilliant performance by Pete Murray, where he segued into I'm Still Alive in the middle of one of his own songs, and also performed a cover of Heart of Gold.
- Grinspoon live is an experience not to be missed, if you ever get the chance. In spite of feeling totally ratshit by this point, I headed into the main tent and danced through their whole set. Phil walks onto stage wearing a sash with "Miss Teen Australia" written across it, and you just know that he has got attitude to burn. Not to mention Pat, who is a dude's dude if ever there was.
- we spent the rest of the night sitting by the bonfire, where we could hear Sonic Animation's excellent performance and wish that we still had the energy to move.
- it was still quite early when we got back to the hotel, so we threw a bit of an after-party in our room before crashing out in front of the Tour De France.
Monday
- in the morning I made everone walk through town searching for the perfect place to have breakfast, but I was glad I had since some friends of ours showed up as well and we ate together. Eggs Florentine, and copious amounts of coffee.
- afterwards I went for another walk along the beach, alone this time - everyone else was just too buggered.
- on the way home I stopped off at Robina for lunch, and dropped in to catch up with the gang from AgileTV.
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