Big Day Out '09

-By Pat


Big Day Out '09 Overview
My first Big Day Out (BDO) since '07, but it seems longer than 2 years. Not much has changed, the line-up was arguably excellent, the organisation was superb and the overall experience; close to perfect. Time tabling was done excellently (only 1 bad clash) and I was able to see at least a little bit of every band I wanted to see.

Flemington Racecourse
My main gripe with the racecourse as a BDO venue is that it's not as well set out as princess park (long walks between stages - absence of a second set of twin stages). OK so I did paralyse my quads playing laser tag for 1.5 hrs on sunday, forcing my to walk around like a zombie for the day but there was a lot of walking! As usual it is an all ages event and therefore has drinking pens, but it's always so hot and expensive to drink booze that I don't think it was such a bad thing. I did have to miss the annual Triple J (non-commercial alternative radio station) Hottest 100 countdown party because this year BDO fell on Australia Day (aka: Hottest 100 day, invasion day, etc.) in Melb and not Sydney as is usual practice. I dare say it might have actually been as good as that party (that coincidentally my co-blogger hosts anually).

In the reviews below a (P) next the band name implies that I only saw Part of the band's set. also due to the nature of big day out and the popularity of the bands I'm not going to give many details about each band but I will encourage you to google it.

Trial Kennedy (P)
Only caught the end due to the Melbourne public transport system's failings but it was ok because I caught a song I knew of theirs which I thought was from guitar hero but have found out it wasn't. I came expecting punk, but it was much more interesting. It encouraged me to investigate them further. Great on-stage energy considering they were first off the ranks for the day.

Children Collide
I only knew one of their songs going in, but according to the hottest 100 lots of people know more than that! They put on a good, solid performance. They didn't stuff around, played the sh!t out of their songs and it sounded good.

Birds of Tokyo
Considering their music is all over comercial radio the crowd weren't half bad. They had the first massive backdrop for the day, looked quite spectacular - some kind of monochrome artwork that has significance to a fan, I'm sure of it! As for the BoT (heheheh) they were pretty good, I knew about 5 more songs than I thought I would (zero).

Cog
Ultimately (and sadly) dissappointing, was hoping a bit more than usual for The River Song given the presence of Ezekiel Ox (singer of Mammal) at BDO (I have previously seen a Cog set where Ox jumped around the stage doing the spoken word section of the river song - in my top ten live moments of all time). They basically played a trimmed down version of the same set I saw at Solar, good but I'd seen it before.

Bullet for my Valentine (P)
Excellent live performance and I'd even go so far as to say that they were biggest surprise of the festival. It was obvious that they too had studied up on their hair metal and knew all the moves; my favorite being the one where all the guitarists line up at the front of the stage facing the same direction with one foot up on a speaker and solo-ing generaly. It is a moment in rock, and a most excellent one at that! They also told the crowd to make one of those massive running/tumbling circles, the crowd obeyed and it ended up the diameter of the stage width (50m?) but they cant get everything right.

TV on the Radio
Good Show; it didn't occur to me until I was standing in front of them how many similarities exist between them and the dandy warhols. They opened with Young Liars then continued to play the majority of their latest effort Dear Science as well as throwing in the yelly song (Wolf like me) and I liiiiked it! Then a strong finish with staring at the sun, such a great song.

Pendulum
Another surprise here, I'd previously heard some pendulum and was expecting a DJ with some mad skillz but no! There was a 5 piece (I think) band playing the remixes...which got me thinking at what stage does a band just become a cover band? Save that debate for later, Pendulum rocked the grass I was sitting on...and it was fun! (edit: I assumed they were remixes at the time because I recognised them and in particular Voodoo people by the Prodigy but have since found out they were mostly originals - nice!)

Simian Mobile Disco (P)
Saw 10 minutes of their set, not sure how many songs that was but they were rocking it old school with upright synths and many cables that needed re-plugging, Respec!

Tex Perkins (P)
While Simian was on we thought we'd see what we were missing over here, we managed to locate the entire over 40s crowd. It was fun, not ground breaking but it was fun to see some local cameos (the jet and magic dirt singers).

Mammal
Funk metal up-and-comers mammal are always awesome live. Ox managed to bully a tired, sun dazed crowd into singing for long periods of time and waving their hands in any direction he wanted while constantly reminding us that he could see us... These guys have an excellent live show that I would recomend to anyone that likes live music.

Hot Chip (P)
Didn't see much of this set due to time tabling issues, only 2 songs. A couple of these guys looked particularly nerdy, the crowd loved them!

Arctic Monkeys (P)
Hardly worth mentioning, but I did see about one song while I munched on a dagwood dog. (Advice for festival goers: if a dagwood dog is available go for that over the hotdog, it's more australian, cheaper and tastier) I really cant say much except that they were palying a song I didn't know.

Fantomas (best!)
Awesome: Fantomas are so crazy, Mike Patton is a legend! True to the rumors they performed their 2001 release 'The Director's Cut' in full and they did so with a four piece band (!). Excellent performance with the missing performers replaced by machines controlled by Patton. Not an empty sounding moment yet completely live - including pauses in reactions to crowd yelling. Excellent performance and I would say the best of the day.

Neil Young (P)
He was playing for ages, I was watching for about half an hour and only noticed 1 break between songs. The lights weren't as fantastic as previous years headliners, which was a little dissappointing. Judging from youtube clips of his hayday, I think time has tired him but the music still sounded good.

The Prodigy
Packed out the Boiler room tent as the final act of the night, the crowd loved it. They gave a different performance to the last time I saw them (BDO '02), the two main guys had ditched the instruments and spent the entire show running up and down the stage singing and posing for the cameras, at which stage you could see what rock does to the body - almost 40 year olds looking as wrinkley as 60 year olds. But these guys are rock, don't let their prancing about fool anyone they've done the hard yards to earn at least that.

The Espy (23/1/2009)

The Esplanade Hotel
With 3 stages, many beers on tap and free entry this place is awesome! Situated on The Esplanade in St Kilda as the name would suggest and was previously the home of wealthy philanthropist Alfred Felton from 1892 until his death in 1904. Our only complaint about this place would be that the air conditioning system probably needs a renovation, it was very hot and airless particularly in the basement band room. This time possibly due to the free entry seemed to attract a bizarre crowd, but they were alright.

The Detective Social
Indie four piece form Melbourne whom on their MySpace claim to sound like Bloc Party. The singer was arrogant enough to make us want to leave about halfway through their set, with comments like "We're gonna make you dance, whatever it takes!". It was very hot and they didn't play any Justice so we didn't dance. Due to the airless atmosphere we probably could have been in better conditions to see this band and we might have given them more of a chance.

The Sharks, They Bite!
Post Rock (I love Post Rock) 5 piece band that sounded like a cross between early The Mars Volta and At The Drive In sounding band. In fact when we first walked in I thought for a second that they might have been playing a Mars Volta B-Side that I hadn't heard. They also weren't very motivated to play songs, very large pauses (average 3 minute break between songs) but nothing a bit of gigging experience wont fix. I'd say they need a bit more development in the music department, not because of it's quality (it sounded great!) but their unoriginality is something I think looses them a bit of street cred.

Wicked City
Most definitely Rock, slightly Queens of the stone age and definitely not the ACDC kind. Three Piece with a unique excellent drummer/lead singer front man...at the back of the stage; a combination that worked really well, was good to watch but missing the X-factor.

Red Ink
From the mornington peninsula to the espy this indie 4 piece played a decent set. They sounded a little like the Killers and seemed unfazed by being one of the first bands of the night to play.

Summer Noise Festival (17/1/2009)

By Jimmy

After the bad taste in my mouth left after Friday nights debacle, was requiring a good cleanse, and the sunny weather combined with the fantastic venue that is the Noise Bar in Brunswick provided just that.

A mass of bands and dj's were lined up for the day, beginning at 3pm and finishing at 2am. Awesome. And 6 bucks... what can be better! Well, if I told you it was for charity, so we're all going to heaven now too! Take that shitty cult band... you know who you are.

(This was fantastic value! All proceeds went to John Achuil, a Sudanese refugee who fled Sudan in 1986 after his village was attacked and his family were murdered. He has recently discovered that his younger sister and 93 year old father are in fact alive, and is trying to raise money for an airfare back to Sudan. Such a worthy cause! PAT)

After a few cold beers, we settled in with the modest crowd to see first band of the day, Spitfire Parade. Yelly drone-punk to a drum machine. They had a clarinet, which was a bonus, but I'm seriously not a fan of monotone shouting instead of singing. Sounds more like a whinge than anything I can really take seriously. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, and when there were no vocals, some cool loops were rockin the afternoon. (They are seriously in need of a decent drummer; the drum machine was poorly utilised and sounded a noisy MS windows crash at times - you know what I mean. PAT)

Without a break we were herded into the venues other band area to see two man band, Duck Duck Chop. Excellent. The tunes on their myspace don't at all capture the amount of energy these guys bought to the place, an impressive feat for 4:30 in the afternoon. The drums are mental, guitars are mental, and in the words of a now shitty two-piece which will remain unnamed, they are 'not bad for a two piece'. Excellent. See them live, it made me wonder what the hell the other 9 guys in Slipknot do if drums and a guitar can bring this much rawk. (They are essentially Mathcore/Noise - like The Dillinger Escape Plan but with less capacity for awesomeness due to the lack of instruments. PAT)

Due to the excellent organising, as soon as Duck Duck Chop finished, it was back to the band room to see punk band StabbieStabbieKillKill. They drank, they swore, they fell over. They yelled, got violent and sang a whole bunch of good old fashioned punk tunes. Singer Thom Parry is a mean lookin dude with a quick wit and fistfull of catchy tunes. Don't see them if you're expecting something life-changing, but if you want to jump around and shout about how much it hurts to get kicked in the head, this is the band to see. They may even demonstrate the kicking. (agreed! PAT)

Next up were Yolke, the band which appeared to have been a highlight for more than a handful of the audience members. Experimental psychedelic rock by a bunch of young guys. Was refreshing to see them not take themselves too seriously, quite a change from the standard heads down configuration of a lot of young experimental bands. The lead singer looks a bunch like Frank Zappa, with a sense of humour to match. I see big things in the future for Yolke, if you're a smartie, they have a residency at the Old Bar in Feb, so check them out. (couldn't have put it better, best band of the week. PAT)

With the amount of people getting into Yolke, organisers may have let them run a bit overtime, as we headed into the other room to see the end of Dead Before Death Gang. Not so much a gang as a twosome, they played some more monotone yelly noise in the same vein as Spitfire Parade. The drumming was tight , so once again I was impressed by a female drummer... what is the world coming to? Is there a shortage of Basses between the laundry and the sink? Ba-Boom! They're alright I guess.

As we had places to go and people to see, our last band for the day was The Great Apes. Dirty toe-tappingly fun rock... Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal etc. The crowd enjoyed it, the band enjoyed it. Really nothing to complain about. But that's about it.

The day came to an end for me, but for others it was just beginning, catching the Vascoe Era, The Sun Blindness, Ouch my Face and Horse Competition. But really, with a great open Venue like the Noise Bar, good company, cheap drinks and a tasty bbq... you're gonna have a good time, even if the bands were shit on a stick.

The Evelyn (16/1/2009)

By Jimmy

I was always told if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. So this is going to be a very short write up.

Nadine Sachinidis is a talented singer. She sings Jazzy songs with her delay pedal crazy guitar friend. It's nice enough. Perhaps not right for a Friday night.

I'm not sure what the deal was... somehow a whole lot of talented musicians managed to get together and make the most boring uninspired music I've ever heard. This applies to both the second and third bands of the night, The Word and ME (Hardest bands to find on Myspace). 

If they were ice-cream, they'd be vanilla.

If they were pizza, they'd be margarita. 

If they were Bill Murray movies, they'd be Larger than Life.

If they were potato chips, they'd be original.

If they were on the McDonalds menu, they'd be a junior burger (with the pickles removed)

If they were facial features, they'd be the cheek.

You get the idea. Other people didn't. For some reason the bizaar crowd loved every second, which leads me to believe they were involved with some sort of cult.

So I cracked the shits and left. 

The Evelyn (15/1/2009)

Went to the Evelyn last night without my good friend Jimmy to see The Good China and was pleasantly surprised.

The Evelyn
Great place, however contrary to what I previously said about this place there is a massive column the width of a very fat man right smack in the middle of the place and due to the place being a bit more full than usual, last night I was stuck partially behind it. Also the levels were a bit off (ear popping guitar - inaudible violin). That said - great place, still love it to bits!

The Good China
I've seen these guys and girls (7 on stage) before and I didn't really go for the pretentious instrument swapping after every song, but last night these guys rocked the place. They have a very catchy boppy sound that their myspace page describes as "Indie / Pop / Chinese pop" and which I am failing to describe so listen to them for yourself here. They were first on the bill and managed to retain the largest crowd that we saw all the night. They manage to utilise their massive array of instruments (and musicians) without over-doing it and still allowing for some brilliant solo work (awesome violinist - was a pity it couldn't be heard).

Summer Cats
Next up were Summer Cats. They're an Indie band from Melbourne, played many short songs (average of 3 minutes a piece) which would be refreshing but they didn't really do anything for us. Much of the performance quality was obscured by the ego emanating from the lead singer who appeared to love the sound of his own voice and persisted on using it at every possible opportunity.

Seagull
These guys were my highlight of the night. They sounded like a tightened up and inverted version of Godspeed you black emperor (I think that needs explanation), in that their sound had the same feeling only they mostly started and finished at a climactic points with a slowed down part in the middle and their songs were only about 12 minutes each. On a side note the vocalist sounded a lot like Thom York (Radiohead) and it made for a great formula which I would want to see again with better mixing (too much guitar!).
Just in case Seagull are reading this, I'm sorry again for trying to give the bass player my empty beer glass, you approached a nearby table wearing a black T-shirt and pointing to an almost empty beer glass and I thought you were the bar staff.

Frowning Clouds

By Pat

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to catch a matinee session over at Yah Yah's on Smith St? This particular Sunday we caught the Frowning Clouds.

Summary:
There was just one band playing and they were just alright.
Highlights: Some of their songs featured harmonica, excellent!
Lowlights: They played one song twice, and about 4 songs only sounded different by one chord in the sequence.
Final Comments: Better than watching a late night quiz show...maybe.

Yah Yah's
This is a great venue at night, it is: small in size, usually has free admission and has average drink prices. This particular visit was all of those things except because it was a late afternoon gig, visually there was extreme contrast between the dark stage and the sun reflecting light off the shops on the other side of the road making viewing unpleasant. This is an unusual and rare occurrence however so I would still rate this venue on the upper side of average.

Frowning Clouds
They were OK. They sounded a lot like The Stranglers (All the Day and All of the Night particularly- Jimmy) or The Who. I also noticed that not all but many of their songs sounded a bit too repetitive/similar with most songs sharing an identical beat and some even had the same chord structure with the end chord rhythm or note tweaked slightly. (No denying that the last tune 'Jungle King' didn't rock- Jimmy)

Overall, I rank this as the least interesting gig of this year so far, but I doubt it will stay in that position for very long.

Revolver (10/1/2009)

By Jimmy

Sean Ainsworth

The Demon Parade

The Priory Dolls

Paper Planes 

3 Beers consumed

The Revolver Bandroom always makes me feel as though I'm some sort of oddity for the Munters in the back room. Something about being in that big cage I think. And going to the bathroom always makes me feel weird.... 

'Hey, there's a cover charge to go in there...'

'To the Bathroom?'

'Oh, no.... that's just to the right... but don't go any further.... there's a cover charge to go in there...'

Fearless vampire killers are becoming a regular fixture in our 100 gigs quest, with their relentless gig playing either as headliners or supports. A Saturday night free of them on a bill is becoming a rarity. Obviously not content with spending a night in, Sean Ainsworth, FVK frontman, was first opening the night. Playing solo 60's psych, with a carefree attitude, he had the crowd relaxed and amused, particularly during a straight to the chorus cover of Radioheads Let Down.  

Space images soon took over the projector, a fitting intro for the 80's Psychedelia stylings of the Devil Parade. Clearly also feeling a little restless, keyboards were provided by FVK bassist, Whill Dempsey. The singer kinda looks like Ronnie Wood but sounds a little like Richard Ashcroft. For some reason I had the Stone Roses stuck in my head afterwards, but that's not a bad thing.

Zac Efron, Michael Cera and the Mighty Boosh dude now have a band apparently, and they are the Priory Dolls. While I wasn't sure of their poppy/noisy sound at first, by the end of their set they had won me over.  Songs about soldiers on holiday combined with guitar noise work quite well (I made that up, I have no idea what the songs are about, I never listen to lyrics- Sorry... but the music is heck- good). Plenty of energy made this my band of the night. Jack of the Morning Sun on their myspace is currently keeping me motivated. 

Closing the night were Paper Planes, named after the popular MIA song of 2007. That's a lie. Grungy female angst may have been big in the 90's (Hole, Garbage etc.), but unfortunatly for this band was not enough to hold the majority of the audience, who had made like cheap frankfurts and split before the show began. They missed some very long hair, lots of distortion, and a bassist that looked like he could smell a bad fart when he was rockin it. While not mind blowing, it was refreshing to see different kind of retro sound. What they did, they did well, but it's not for me. Not this year anyway.

Fearless Vampire Killers (8/01/2009)

By Pat

I think Jim's account of what went down at the Metro (it's not and never will be the palace!) says everything I wanted to, so I will soldier on and give you the low down on last night at the Evelyn.

Summary:
Thoroughly enjoyed The Fearless Vampire Killers (FVK) uninhibited set, consumed 2 x $2.50 pots and 1 pint of local draught.
Highlights: A particularly Awesome moment during a song in the FVK set where after a fantastic period of psychedelic rocking and soloing the band returned to a very familiar sounding hook-like rif that had featured earlier in the song and really brought it home.
Lowlights: Spun Rivals (if you're reading this, sorry guys read below!)
Final Comments: Good night, great band!

The Evelyn
A good venue with decent acoustics, tap beer (limited) and history (the venue been in operation for over 150 years!). There is always (every time I've been) a cover charge at the door however tonight it was a meager $6. There are usually drinks specials such as $6 Jagerbombs (dangerous!) or $2.50 pots. They have 2 beers on tap - Carlton Draught, Cascade Pale Ale (nice!). They have columns in the middle of the room, that can potentially block view of the stage, however they are slender (head width) and I've never had a problem with them. They have a neat looking grand piano shell for the mixing desk.

The Box Rockets
These guys started off the night with a very promising 'pop' style show. This four piece is driven by a powerful bass player and interestingly skillful, female drummer! Everyone I was with at the gig liked these guys but I didn't. (Sounded like the Smiths with some Stadium style reverb... love it- Jimmy)
At first I thought I read on the bass drum 'the box rockers' and appreciated their daring name with a giddy chuckle but then was disappointed to find out their actual name. Which really summed up their performance for me: promising some fun then revealing that what was there wasn't really that interesting after all. But I expect these guys will grow with time, good luck.

Spun Rivals
Entertaining, energetic, wild, grating rock with extra balls. They scored bonus points with me for the Scottish accents! They did appear to have lost some songwriting in the mix but they put on a great show and had guitar solos, woo! The lead guitarist even jumped off the stage and onto the floor to solo more! Rock!
Everyone I was with disliked this band immensely and I admit, they didn't sound good, but they had excellent accents and were energetic enough to put on a show.

(It's not that I disliked them... What they were trying to do, they did exceptionally well.... it's just that what they were trying to do wasn't that great.... They're a polished turd. But I'd probably see them again. - Jimmy)

The Fearless Vampire Killers
These guys are classy! They play an accessible range of psychedelic rock filled to the brim with power full riffs and prolonged yet pleasurable jams. I felt during this set there were a couple of what Jim and I like to call 'Awesome Moments'. It was great to see them do a headline show, they were uninhibited by any proceeding bands and were free if not invited by the crowd (some tool heckled "Play a F#%$ing song") to play a great and full show.

Franz Ferdinand (5/1/2009)

By Jimmy

Bands Seen

Red Riders

The Temper Trap

Franz Ferdinand

3 beers consumed.

I read an article once on how to write a music review, and apparently the worst thing to do is write 'I' or 'Me'.... fuck that. I write my reviews as a long train of thought, and don't bother with a reread or spell check. Or Grammar check. It may help if you read them in my voice, and if you don't know my voice, try Michael Caines voice. 

To begin, the Palace (formally the Metro) has been refurbished into a great venue. While there were no beers on tap and my license was scanned on entry, it has a big stage, and multiple levels each with great views of the stage. The kind of theatre John Wilkes Booth may have appreciated. 

Opening the night were the Red Riders. While I knew a few of their tunes from days gone by, they failed to really get me or the crowd going. I missed the start, so I'm unsure if they played

 'Call on Me' as I missed the very start, but I hope they did... because that song is the Sauce. This is them in a blue light.

I next enjoyed the Temper Trap (not the Cribs). The Bass player used to work in the donut shop at Box Hill, so I expected great things. I recall seeing them as a support for someone years ago, and being unimpressed. This time, I was not unimpressed. You could even say, I was impressed. With a bonus two members, six people hit the stage for some safe songs about love and stuff (I guess). They played their famous song (Sweet Disposition- could be a U2 cover) and could have left the stage leaving everyone feeling satisfied. 

WOAH BOOBS!

Well, no boobs, but good as. Last song in, half band members dropped their instruments and joined some random drumming fiasco which caused much lifting of my heart. It was the second 'awesome' moment of 2009 (first going to Anywhere at the Presets). I'm a sucker for forced improv, so Temper Trap, I salute you for that reason. Here's them. 

Then Franz Ferdinand came on and played some new songs and some famous songs. Come on Home was fun, Outsiders was great, and I enjoyed a few moments of them dicking around with their instruments. But largely it was a very safe set, which no doubt rocked the socks off a lot of the people there. Unfortunately my socks stayed firmly on. And here's some photos of them (Franz, not socks).

 

Solar Music Festival (3/1/2009)

By Pat

Hello friend! My name is Pat and I will be joining Jimmy in our quest to see and review 100 gigs in 2009. Fantastic isn't it?

An (optional) quest I have undertaken for this time is to devise a "perfect" rating system for gig enjoyment with an aim to actually predict how good a gig will be prior to attending!! This seems like an impossible task currently but i believe it is possible and imagine it will evolve as time passes.

Anyway the purpose of this post is to review SOLAR MUSIC FESTIVAL (click the link for background).

Summary
Poorly organised, bogan crowd, 4 beers and 4 jagerbombs consumed, some good bands and great friends!
Highlights: Cog, Pnau, revolution of the drinking pens, not finishing one drink card all day,
Lowlights: Everything not mentioned above with the exception of the bands mentioned below that don't have the description "you suck".
Final Comments: Despite the poor reveiw, I had a great day and didn't get too sunburned!

Organisation
Organisation, planning and management are critical enjoyment factors for any gig experience but I would rank them even higher for a music festival as there are a butload things that can go wrong. Solar music festival sadly scored poorly in all of these categories, it took us an hour and a half to get in, causing us to miss a potential 5 acts! The waiting didn't stop there, on average there was a 20 minute wait if you wanted to do anything except see an act, including: buying drink cards, buying drinks with the drink cards, toilets, food and migrating between pens (farcical! - set up at an 18+ gig??? then torn down by the public in 2 hours). At times I doubted the festival organisers had attended a music festival before! This was a poorly organised event however to their credit (excluding the withdrawal of 1 act) the bands i wanted to see ran within 15 minutes of schedule which is probably below average but solar did such a good job of setting the bar so low this seemed like a benefit.
Sorry for ranting so much up there, I'll try to keep it brief now...

Bands
The key feature of the day! I was impressed with the majority of what i saw, however due to the massive amount of waiting in queues I did, I didn't see as much as my companions.
I saw:

• Josh Pyke - not impressed generally, but i didn't know any of his music, watched it on a audio delayed LED array, and he played an acoustic guitar for most of his gig. So he was probably pretty good if you were closer and liked him.
• Miami Horror - disappointed, I've seen Miami horror play 4 shows now (3 in gameboy/gamegirl) and I was expecting some original stuff, however if I was expecting a DJ set, he is a skilled DJ and uses his own mixes so he's still alright in my books. I expect he would have whipped out his stuff for a more appropriate crowd.
• You Am I - These guys were the first rocking band for the day, being the most experienced band at the festival they delivered an awesome set. I only knew 2 songs and watched it from that same LED array with the delayed sound, so maybe Josh Pyke sucked after all.
• Kisschasey - you suck
• Pnau - Awesome, I only knew 1 song that kind of annoys me (baby?) but they played it early and delivered and entertaining show. Biggest surprise of the day for me.
• COG - Wasn't expecting much more than I had seen at a previous big day out (seen them at 3 gigs, and 1 festival) but they managed to deliver a great show. Their set was dominated by stuff from their latest album but they did throw in a great version of 'Open Up' (mixture of the versions on the open up EP), as well as a good selection of songs from the new normal. Easily the band I enjoyed the most.
• Presets - I was expecting the crowd to seriously jeopardise my experience here and they didn't surprise. During some of the Presets' more awesome songs (anywhere, aeons) some of the crowd got bored and decided to climb a fence and jump over it, cheer for the people that jumped over the fence being chased by security guards and send a massive plastic barrier crowd surfing. Despite these interferences, I still managed to enjoy half the presets' gig (i missed the an extra 15 mins due to the below average timeliness of the bands).

Crowd
The crowd was exactly what I expected of a peninsula music festival, and all I'll say is there was little kinship, trust or general happiness that makes a festival great.
A funny thing happened when I was on my way from Cog to the presets; I was making my way through the crowd when I came to a point where crowd density denied my further passage. All of a sudden the bogan in front of me looked at the guy next to him and started yelling "What the F$%& is your problem? You better hope...." blah blah, you get the point. So I stepped in and tried to reason with the agressive bogan to enjoy the show and stop being a d!ck. He looked at me now and yelled "He just pissed on my leg!". My reaction was confused and I proceded to get away from them.
At Cog the crowd (I'd estimate at roughly 400 people) towards the front started one of those circles where people get a run up and crash themselves into others inside the circle or the people unlucky enough to be standing around the edge. This behaviour baffles me, but each to his own, they didn't bother me.

Venue
The venue was as good as any I suppose, a little interference from other stages could be audible between songs which is never a good thing, especially when it's John Course. One of the bar staff who's name has been withheld (thanks again!) was incredibly friendly and made mine and my posse's festival experience much better - however even with such a massive helping hand the queuing system made it impossible to get drunk past 5pm - not sure if that's good or bad.
Drinking pens were a stupid idea, wtf were they thinking? overage gig = free range booze! At least the crowd were good at trampling the pens in a revolution!

Solar Festival (3/1/2009)

By Jimmy

Artists/Bands Seen

• Josh Pyke
  
• Miami Horror
  
• Snob Scrilla
  
• You am I
  
• Ajax
  
• Pnau
  
• Presets
  

4 Beers Consumed

Good Stuff

• Miami Horror played Lykke Li. 
  
• Snob Scrilla can work a crowd like nobodies business.
  
• You am I rock and Tim Rogers is sarcastic. 
  
• Pnau is great.
  
• Presets are better- played most of the latest album (including 'Anywhere'!) plus 'girl, you chew my mind up' (which nobody seemed to know), 'Are you the One?' and 'I Go Hard I Go Home'. 
  
• Crown Lager cans are genius. 
  
• Some very friendly bar staff.
  

Bad Stuff

• Lining up to get in for at least an hour, including a delightful crowd segregation segment- Also causing me to miss Lisa Mitchell. Who is cuter than my fish.
  
• Miami Horror not playing any of his original material, only his remixes.
  
• Josh Pyke not bringing his giant guitar boat.
  
• The few people circled in these photos-
  

So I'm a Snob. Here's a few other photos.