Pic: Ben GookThe revamped Melbourne Showgrounds were a welcome sight indeed. Clean, functional...and a LOT smaller. The sunken lower stage inside a cornice of tiered seating was most inviting in particular. But best of all of was the distance between the two main stages. Cunningly called “This Stage” and “That Stage” the two were erected either side of a vast tent that held food stalls and bars. Unlike the ineffective and dangerous D Barrier used at the Big Day Out, this simple placement negated the overcrowding issue entirely. Golf claps all round.
As thunderclouds loomed
Little Red kicked off the day to a small but appreciative audience. Winners of the “V2Garage” competition held earlier in the year, the band's harmony-laden pop and enthusiastic stage presence made for an easy beginning to the day, even if the sound was a little flat. Not so for the band backing Swedish pop-princess
Robyn however. The one time child star has resurrected herself as a foxy indie-queen, thanks largely to the international success of her 2007 international breakthrough
Konichiwa Bitches. Sporting a wide grin she minced and strutted away the inherent cobwebs of the early festival spot. While effortlessly enjoyable, particularly during the rendition of her 2006 collaboration with Christian Falk “Dream On”, the set just sparked where in a club show it would explode. Which I then kicked myself for missing.
Hot Heat Heat were faced with a crowd still trickling through the gates but the Canadian 4-piece had the front rows dancing from the get go. Frontman Steve Bays, sporting a fetching porn moustache to go with his "bling" white microphone, was a bundle of energy. He had some trouble keeping his footing on the greasy stage after it was laced with a light rain. But after some roadie repairs, the band kicked into “Bandages” their biggest hit. And at this point the corporate benefactor of the piece reared its awkward head and the insipid sanctioned practice of launching beach balls into the crowd began.
Look, we know we're at a festival. We got your branded iTunes card at the door, the signage, the wristband and the inflatable phone. We thank you for bringing the bands out. Good work. But there's no quicker way to fuck up a festival experience for both band and crowd than to have giant beach balls crunching everyone on the head and threatening to tumble on to the stage and band themselves. As they did in 2007 when some genius threw up several of them into the sloping amphitheatre that is the Myer Music Bowl. Within seconds the balls had rolled down to the stage and then ON to The Pixies in the middle of a song. Which they then had to stop in order to remove the balls from the stage. Unforgiveable.
Number one band in the country
Cut Copy kicked off their set next with
In Ghost Colours standout “Out There On The Ice”. Cut Copy can come across a little
lite for the late night party set at times, but their laid-back electro-cruise-pop worked well here in the early part of the day. A strong start and some instrument swapping held the attention for the first half, but when the lush backing-tracked vocals of “So Haunted” kicked in through the PA behind frontman Dan Whitford's lead vox, one wondered how much of the music was actually being performed. Which is a shame for an electro-guitar band that prides itself on retaining the more “live” elements of their set.
No such issue for indie-rock stalwarts
Modest Mouse who, with a 6-piece line up, create if anything too much noise. At their side show the expanded line-up seemed bloated but here in a festival setting it was powerful and rich with instrumentation. Isaac Brock moaned about having lost his voice in the last few days and in the giant side-of stage TV screens was looking a little worse for wear. But he poured himself into another wide-eyed, cock-eyed, ranting performance. Set closer “Spitting Venom” was an epic highlight, coalescing into a Mogwai-esque crescendo of noise.
Part 2 tomorrow