No entries since the end of March... that's just plain wrong. I mean,
I've been doing things and I've been having a good time, but... just not
put things down (which kind of is why I have an LJ after all). Well,
I've been doing a few things recently, especially over the last week or
so - and in reading that line again it sounds trite and inane. Still, I
have been a little busy and seeing a few people out. Basically getting
on with life, trying to enjoy it as much as possible, working and yet
not letting things pass you by - and THAT my friends is what it's all
about.
Let's see... the end of March. It was a busy weekend that weekend -
March 29th.
Saturday - March 29th... V-Festival :)
I was looking forward to this quite a lot because I was going to see a
few bands I hadn't seen before (even though they were so well known it's
not funny). The morning was simply a case of futzing about and getting
ready, you know the drill, then having Jared, Alicia, Barbara and Gill
arrive for all of us to leave and get to Centennial park about 2pm
(although Jared and Kate were running a tad late and turned up after
us). Now this was the way to get people into a large Festival. Good
lines, easy to get to, large entry gates with enough staff, no
'overbearing' police presence, programmes handed out as you go through,
easy signage, water and food easy to find and not overpriced, gosh!
Soundwave can learn a lot (and no quips about Richard Bransen's money
backing it - the things I have mentioned are all common sense and
generally written in the Terms and Conditions of people/vendors wanting
to take part in the Festival).
The bands were easy to find, 3 stages all far enough apart to have sound
distortion at a minimum. Though it was a trek between This Stage, That
Stage and The Other Stage, the only problem I found was at the end of
the day where you had to leave early to get to Duran Duran, and then
leave that early to get to The Smashing Pumkins (which in hindsight was
a BIG mistake). Still, it's tough to program and if I had a complaint I
would have that as my only one - the overlap of bands I wanted to see.
Still, I did get to see who I wanted to, and to me that was what was
important.
Jesus And Mary Chain - had a rocky start to their set with some
technical hitches and foldback issues. One could tell by the scathing
glances of both Reid brothers toward the mixing enclosure, followed a
song later by a snappish "I can't hear anything up here!" A fair cop,
and to be frank a few fans (knowing William's penchant for leaving a gig
if something's not right) expected the set to stop very soon... but lo
and behold technical hitches evaporated (showing that unlike others I
could name, when V Festival see a problem they solve it right then and
there). Still, the best thing was seeing people who were not born when
'The Chain' formed in their post-punk heyday, seriously getting into
them. Of course there were the 'old-timers' like me who were there to
see if they still had the edge after their reformation. They did - and
handed it out in spades. I think the only criticism I would have it that
the Reids are so in sync with the band and the numbers, that they almost
stroll their way through the set. It doesn't come off as boredom and
'business as usual'... yet. However, it comes across as comfortable in
what they are doing - no less enjoyable, just comfortable. As others
have noted earlier, it's always funny seeing british bands come 'down
under' and have them cringe at the sun. Nicely, though, the band took
the light and the crowd and the minor glitches in their stride. A sign
of professionalism, and experience. All too soon the set was over :(...
Queens Of The Stone Age - blistering set... I think that's all I can
really say about them. They attacked the stage with a fierceness rarely
seen in this country. Now, fierceness is not meaning the same as
violence, but more of a focussed fury directed through arrthymic chord
blasting, frentic drum and vocals to make you look behind you. Very
intense and very worthwhile. Definitely one of the reasons I was at the
Festival in the first place. The disappointing thing was needing to
leave halfway through to get to the next stage (across the fields and
far away) to check out Duran Duran.
Duran Duran - I've heard reports that the set by Duran Duran was
lacklustre and camp. Strangely enough Camp tends to be about things 20
years ago, 60's was camp in the 80's, so 80's is camp now. 90's will be
camp in 2010, get the drift? Anyway, I'm not sure what those people were
watching, but the Duran Duran I saw was breathtaking. I was
apprehensive, as the last time they were here it was a case of 'How
large has Simon gotten now?'. Thankfully Mr LeBon and company seem to
have gone to the same dietician as The Cure, and had a big stage
presence. 'Hungry Like The Wolf', 'Planet Earth', 'Rio', 'Girls On Film'
the boys hit all the marks with a pretty flawless performance, marred
only by the absence of 'The Reflex'. The crowd I was in seriously got
off on the show, and didn't want it to end. It was a nice touch to have
the lights dim out and go off in-between songs (as that's when Earth
Hour had struck, and even though the ticket included paying a carbon
footprint off-set, it was a nice gesture regardless). It was also a nice
touch to have Simon tell everyone to get on over and see the end of The
Pumkins as well, which was what we all did as soon as the Duran's set
had definitely finished.
Smashing Pumpkins - I only got to hear the last bit of the Pumkins' set,
as I took the trek across the field. What I saw was a seething mass of
people having a great time... backlit with some great lightning in
amongst the clouds. What I heard was... er... self-indulgent rubbish. I
was expecting spotless and manic grunge, a reflection of the Pumkins of
old. What I heard was a 20 minute (although it seemed like hours in a
dentist's chair) warbling feedback-laden wanking ode to a guitar hero. I
THINK this was united States, but I could be wrong. Can someone please
enlighten me as to what Corgan and company were thinking with this.
Granted, perhaps they were expecting that people would just suck it up
because (after all) it IS The Smashing Pumpkins. However, many weren't
so forgiving. I think we suffered through about 15-20 minutes and then
elected to walk off (with the other masses) out of the Festival. Well,
it was the final band (except for the presets, but they were all the way
over the other side of the grounds and to be frank, the only good thing
about the Pumkins' set was the lightning show in the background. I have
heard they they hit the stage running and that their earlier numbers (of
the set) were great and right on the mark. Pity I didn't get to hear the
greatness and all I (and those of us coming in from other stages) got
was the guitar masturbation show. Back it up Billy, you're supposed to
get better toward the end of the set and 'leave the crowd wanting more',
not 'have more of the crowd wanting to leave'.
After V Festival, it was a dashing off to the debut of Shallow Nation. I
won't go into the politics of Shallow Nation, because that should be
left out of everything - and to be frank politics has no place in
club-land. OK - I will say that I think The Jagermeister Girls were
definitely NOT a drawcard. The Lewisham Hotel is a good band venue. I've
seen 'battle Of The Bands' there in prior years and it works. However,
at the moment I think Shallow Nation seriously needs another venue. It's
out-of-the-way, a pain to get to, and a pain to get out of. It was on
the same night that the regular Metal/Indie night AbductionX is usually
at that premises, so there was a clash there too. I mean even the
co-promoter left before 1. The cost, however, was right, the idea was
right, the people were right, but too many things came together to make
it seriously underattended, to the extent of the venue closing at
1:30am. I did get to see Megan and Mikey there, I got to spend a little
time with Liv and I saw Bec and Aaron.
From there we headed over to Radioactivity which was better attended,
but still a little on the sparse side. The atmosphere was better though
and the mix was just right I think. As a club Radioactivity has a good
venue and a good music mix. It's also centrally located on the 'Gothic
Mile' in Newtown which almost guarantees it to have a good mix of
people. It was a nie place to be at the end of the night and thence to
home.
Wow - I wasn't expecting that to be such a long-winded note. I think
I'll leave the rest for another entry.
I'll also probably move this on to LJ - back around the end of March, so
it's all in the right timeline.
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