Friday night was... er... nothing. Really. There was nothing on aside from taking delivery of 2 tickets to Big Day Out (for Hannah), staying up a little late, watching some cable and thence snoozing because the next day was...
Homebake. Sure we had people popping around from 10am to get ready. We had an Ernie forgetting that she was going and running crazily to get to mine before we headed into The Domain, and an Imogene who turned up and didn't need the ticket bought for her, as she nabbed a free ticket (yes a FREE) ticket from some guy out the front giving them away (hence leaving me with a spare). Pft, such is life I say. Anyway, the day was hot, the bands were great (and you actually didn't need to be in the mosh to appreciate some of them, as the sound carried very well). The weather was hot, and because of the recent rain the word muggy doesn't do it justice. You could cut the air and serve it with whipped cream, calling it a pavlova, it was that humid. Still, the trees were a good place to sit and take in the ambience, the fence-jumpers, the security who were doing little but chatting up girls who wore shorts so low you needed a wax-job sold with each pair (not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm not going to go on about each band I saw... well not in detail, anyway. In no particular order:
Behind Crimson Eyes - better than I expected for a 'Festival Warm-up Band' (I mean being in that early-ish slot). I'd never heard them before - and they were good in that geeky early Weezer way, which means I'll keep an eye on where they are playing next.
Wicked Beat Sound System - the 3 numbers I heard were... ummm... pedestrian at best. They have a reputation of making people want to dance, but nope - very laid-back and slow-ish. If the songs had more drive and were more upbeat (at least double the tempo they were at) they would have been good. Could be that they are better in the evening after the heat of the day is gone. However, this time, not my thing.
Operator Please - an audience favourite and justifiably so. You didn't need to be in the mosh to hear them, and they were bang on. Looks like ARIA success has given them much confidence and they didn't disappoint.
Soft Tigers - Never heard of them, and was interested in shade, so heard them by accident. Nice, tight, and fun onstage. A good brassy sound.
The Brunettes - Surprisingly good. Seemed a bit gimmicky to begin with, but they were also quite tight and the Hopetoun stage suited them. Poppy with an air of 'we don't give a damn'
Gotye - One man and his drums went to slay the Festival. I think he just walked onstage and wanted to have fun, and it showed because it drew crowd from all over the grounds. Mind you he was early - by an hour, so something must have gone awry with another artist. Still, VERY worthwhile live.
Missy Higgins - at the risk of sounding insulting (and I'm not) she was a one-woman wrecking crew. She held the audience in her hand and squeezed the cheers out of them. She was awesome live - regardless of the 'muff-diving' jokes being thrown about by the Neanderthals standing next to me.
Architects In Helsinki - 4 words - Always Worth The Effort.
Divinyls - After announcing her problems with having MS on A Current Affair the night before, Chrissie looked tired and took frequent opportunities to sit and rest while still belting out songs in that great 1980's rock-chick style. She was brassy, in-your-face, carried the tunes, and gave the audience the 'I can still do this!' attitude. She's still got it, and the rest of the band was great, too. I've always liked the disturbingly good gimmick of having a choir of young girls (dressed in catholic school-girl uniforms) singing the chorus to 'I Touch Myself' as an introduction to the band :)
Pnau - frantically trying to keep their volume down during the clash with the Divinyls' time-slot. Thus, they were on last in The Big Top. Brilliant, tight, slick, almost a pre-recorded sound. Very professional and a lot of fun to end the night on - even if they went overtime :)
No pass outs until 5pm meant that they had to get cash-out EFTPOS in onsite, which was smart as people were complaining at the start of the day. Drink prices were abysmal - but what can you do with a monopoly on alcohol? The queues were inordinately long (some taking an hour to move through - I watched, I wouldn't stand in a queue for an hour). The added $1 to the price of all drinks was a brilliant move though. You could redeem each can for $1 token which you could then collect and (in essence) get discounts on further drink purchases. Hence, the grounds were almost spotless. Brilliant strategy! They were even cashing all unused tokens in for cash at the end of the evening.
All in all, it was a great day, with great company. Some REALLY great company. Then, had a quick dash home to change and head out to Die Maschine, dropping Ernie in to grab some doubles of DVDs which I have - then getting a welcome and surprise lift to the club from Patrick. So, the last DM for 2007 was a little under-attended, as was (I noticed) Trash Saturday on the way past (which reminds me - I think we broke Andrew's (from Blink) brain in the Divinyls' set, right Ernie?). Anyway, missed out on seeing some people at DM because of lack of fundage on their part. Saw a few there I was looking forward to see. Then after close, with Frank taking off his shirt, headed home for cable-geeking and sleep. After all I had the next evening to look forward to.
Sunday was a day of pseudo-rest. I was too jazzed to sleep long because I was really looking forward to The Opera House. Nabbing Amelia (who would appreciate the humour, the Python-ness, and who deserved a night out) - Hint: Don't eat at The Sidewalk Café, it's kinda sucky. Now, the show.
[Insert paroxysms of effervescent ebullience here] Oh. My. [Insert Names Of Deities Here].
I cannot tell you how good this show is. There are no words. However, I CAN tell you that it's on again on Wednesday night and that I will be getting tickets again IF there are any left. Imagine if you will, the setup for Handel's Messiah. The Orchestra, the Choral group, the main Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, the conductor comes onstage and the audience applauds. All goes quiet. The orchestra then starts into a flawless performance... of the Theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus. It went uphill from there :) 20 minutes of stand-up from the most Excellent Eric Idle himself, followed by a choral/oratorio version of The Life Of Brian. New music, certain tuneful snippets paying homage to earlier Python works, hilarity, audience laughing so much they were losing their trousers, pop anthem tributes, Welsh hymns, country and western, doo-wop, hip hop, a smattering of Broadway-style, Greek chorus, Idle as Bob Dylan in his most confusing mumbling electric-guitar-and-harmonica phase, beat-boxing to Hail to the Shoe (sung to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus) and, a final singalong to 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' with Eric Idle singing - as he was always meant to do. There were snowstorms, and pipers, and sheep and it all brought a huge lumping nostalgic tear to my eye. There wasn't a dry seat... er... eye in the house. Get a ticket - last night was the premiere and there's only one night to go. What? You can't afford it? Auction off your merkin on eBay. Come on, Cheer up. Worse things happen at sea, you know. I mean, what you got to lose? You know, you come from nothing. You're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing! Nothing will come from nothing. You know what they say? Cheer up, you old bugger. Come on. Give us a grin. There you are. See? Oh! This is the end of the blog-entry. Incidentally, there are hats and T-shirts available in the foyer. Some of us have got to live as well, you know. Who do you think pays for all this blogging rubbish? They'll never make their money back, you know. I told him. I said to him, 'Bernie.' I said, 'They'll never make their money back.
Go. And. See. It!!
Thus on a high, I dropped Amelia off home and headed back to The Fortress, falling into bed and dreaming of Welshmen darning socks by night, with the subliminal strains of Shirley Bassey in the background punctuated by a whistling chorus of crucified non-messiahs and the surprised bleating of amorous sheep.
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