Good Vibrations
Flemington Nursery, Melbourne
Sunday 21 February 2010
Still slightly perplexed by the deeply unhelpful, demonic persona of the ogre
under the bridge in the media tickets allocation booth, I stagger into the early afternoon sun as the hordes of fake tanned teens and not-so-teens lead me down the orange drip road and into the fray.
Bluejuice are on the main stage and making a lot of noise. A late addition to the festival after the cancellation of Friendly Fires, Bluejuice are taking advantage of their paramount positioning doing all they can to whip the seemingly zealous crowd into a frenzy.
“I want to see you all dancing, this is pathetic” shouts Jake Stone. Reverse psychology at its best. Their favourites get a roar including 'Broken Led' and 'Vitriol'.
Apparently giant vodka Slushies are all the rage this year. But, Tiger beer is a worthy opponent despite it being $8 per tiny can. The layout of the festival is quite good: lots of big trees and flat, grassy areas. And unlike the whopping Big Day Out (BDO: 50,000 people. GV: 15,000), it's not a chore getting from one stage to another. But in saying that, I don't move from my position as regular festival favourites
Art Vs Science being their hostile takeover of hearts and underwear.
The lads are in form today: beer skolling, shirtless rock poses on speaker stacks and promiscuous crowd members leads to a powerfully evocative chant from the sensitive section of the crowd: “GET YOUR TITS OUT FOR THE BOYS, GET YOUR TITS OUT FOR THE BOYS!”. One lass does and on the the screen we can see headlights. Old hits 'Parlez Vous Francais', 'Flippers' and 'Hollywood' earn them throne like status before the trio bow and depart.
A quick sample bag of
Gym Class Heroes,
Tim Deluxe, songstress
Sam Obernik and a less than compensating DJ set from sole Friendly Fires member
Jack Savidge diverts me back to the main stage where veteran queens
Salt and Peppa are shoopa-dooping with the Peppa Shakers. They seem a bit rusty. No suprises there, but the hits are fun and tight.
I'm finding it impossible to leave the main stage and the first reason for that is about to shimmy her way on. Beth Ditto and Co - also known every know and then as
the Gossip - have risen in popularity immensely lately. Not an obvious pick for a Good Vibes lineup, both musically and aesthetically, The Gossip prove that they deserve a main stage guernsey more than most. 'Standing In The Way Of Control' sends people bananas before 'Heavy Cross' closes the set out.
As stated in our
interview with Felix Buxton,
Basement Jaxx love timing their tours so that an Australian summer is incorporated. While the balmy breeze kicks through and the sun starts to set, the guys must be happy. Their set is super colourful, both visually and musically. New tracks 'She's No Good', 'My Turn' and 'Raindrops' are huge crowd favourites, while seminal nightclub mega-hit 'Where's My Head At' does the expected, even if the sound did drop in volume for some unexplained reason. Great set.
The most talked about band of the lineup – before, during and most likely after –
The Killers, had pulled out of the Sydney and Perth shows. We found out earlier today that this was due to the loss of Brandon Flowers mother, Jean. Flowers decided to finish the tour off, and inevitably a chapter in their careers.
The familiar Killers backdrop is now glistening in full. Illuminated palm trees, keyboards and anything else that once looked dull, shines back at us as the band storm the stage and waste no time before launching into 'Somebody Told Me'. It sets the tone for the remainder of the set. The playlist could be confused for a greatest hits album, which I guess in someways a Killers set is, so ubiquitous have they become.
“We've played all over the world. We've played in England, we've played in Iraq....but tonight, we're wrapping it all up here in Melbourne”, Flowers intones in the breakdown of 'Bling'. 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'Read My Mind', 'All These Things I've Done', 'Bones', 'Mr Brightside', etc etc are all in the main set. They leave briefly and return with 'Jenny Was a Friend' and finally saying goodbye with 'When You Were Young'. The Killers set and touring schedule comes to it's head. At least for now anyways. A fitting, glorious end to the 2010 Good Vibrations Festival.
Nick Holt
(Pics: Tim O'Connor)