Splendour in the Grass 09 – the short and sweet version
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| Hipsters, goblins, Tipi Forest, and some music |
Jul 28, 2009 at 10:40 |
On the Friday night leading up to Splendour’s official opening, a certain band played a not-so-secret show under the alias of The Silent Alarms. Kele Okereke announced that Bloc Party were going to perform their entire debut album Silent Alarm. Shrieks of delight ensued. ‘Banquet’ was a predictable crowd pleaser and everybody went nutso for it. Okereke (crowd-surfing and sharing the stage with a billion adoring fans) is an amazing, charismatic frontman. You would do anything he told you to. And love it.
SATURDAY
Wow. Breakfast beers and bad music were apparently the duo du jour on Saturday morning. Some of the kids got overly razzed early; passing out and/or vomiting before even reaching the festival. Classy. Overall the punters were a strange mixture of well-dressed hipsters and bogans. Low Budget played a fun set which included choreographed dancing and underwear. Architecture in Helsinki performed with such enthusiasm and style that the audience spilled out metres from the tent. People were losing their shit for The Living End (Jane’s Addiction’s replacements) and we – unlike the hands-in-the-air, singing along to ‘Second Solution’ types – were a little perplexed. Midnight Juggernauts are commanding and powerful and very good live. A wrong turn took us to Tipi Forest. It was a mistake.
SUNDAY
The crowd was still out of control, but a lot less so than on Saturday. Perhaps some of them were hanging out at St John’s or stayed home with alcohol poisoning. Either way, the overall feeling was a lot more relaxed on day two. We missed Friendly Fires and our sources at The Vine told us that they were incredible. Bummer. People got right into the spirit for MGMT with Indian headdresses everywhere, braided headbands, masks, feathers, and all kinds of tribal-psychedelic ‘Electric Feel’ type fashions. ‘Kids’ was a clear favourite but it also had people desperately escaping the mayhem inside the tent. There were tears. And the faces of ecstasy gone wrong. The Flaming Lips were all glitter, balloons, frog outfits, straddling gorillas, and crazy. The awe-inspiring sense of occasion only thrilling the crowd even more.
PS. We saw Maddison from Australia’s Next Top Model. She told us not to sit next to her. It was AWESOME!
BEST: Architecture in Helsinki.
WORST: Jane’s Addiction cancelling. Duh.
EVEN WORSE: The 40-something acid casualty who wore pixie ears, scary face-paint and resembled all too much the bad goblins from Noddy.
EVEN WORSE STILL: When said pixie-man attempted to pole-dance.
More to come.
Photos courtesy of thevine.com.au.
Posted By: Katie Olsen
Tags: Music, Tours, Festivals
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