a place to stay in the same day! It worked out pretty great. We drove down late Friday night and just went to sleep, but the next day was amazing. I woke up at Kylah's friend Kara's house, along with 4 of her mates plus her brother and his mates, and their family had brought home a bunch of groceries and we all made an epic breakfast. I was definitely not expecting to do anything but sleep at the house, but this family was insanely hospitable, and Kara's parents were really cool too. We hung out there for a few hours before heading over to the festival grounds and getting our wristbands for the weekend.The first day we got there pretty early and walked around the markets that were set up all around. There were lots of cool stands with people selling crazy hats and clothes, crafts, and official merch for the bands. There were also a lot of food stalls with every kind of ethnic food imaginable. They had hare krishna, sushi, mongolian bbq, organic donuts, everything. It was quite the setup. There were three main stages for bands, an area where there were dance workshops, an area for dance music, and then the teepee forest, which was a collection of teepees around a stage where DJs were spinning all day and night.
We started off the day by seeing Bluejuice on the Mix Up Stage. They were pretty great for opening the day at an early time slot. It was dance music/rock, there was a pretty big crowd to see them too. After that I saw a few songs by Tokyo Police Club, they were really mellow in comparison to the first act. They were allright, nothing amazing, but pretty entertaining nontheless. We then went to Lightspeed Champion, The Music, The Gin Club, and Bliss N Eso. Bliss N Eso were really good, they're an Aussie hip hop group that had lots of good songs to jump around to. They got t
he crowd going pretty well.Later on in the night I saw MSTRKRFT, Soft Tigers Food Fight (both DJ acts), a bit of Band of Horses (lots of people were crazy about them, but the music was too chilled out for me at that moment, so I went back to the other stage and saw PNAU, which was the best decision of the day. I had heard a bit of them before, but wow, they were an amazing show. They play dance music, and the songs are all really different, which is not always the case with electronic acts. They also have a live drummer and guitarist, but most of the sound comes from electronic beats. The frontman has such a great stage presence, he has periods of extreme calm where he just stands with his arms up and stares out into the crowd, then he goes nuts and empties water bottles over his head and jumps around everywhere. Also, people come out on the stage in giant strawberry suits (and bird suits, sun suits, and a green skull suit) and just dance around during the songs. The drummer also has crazy energy, he stands up and just beats his drums during some songs, and at the end of the set he kicked his kit over and threw the cymbals across the stage. They were awesome.
After PNAU, I headed over to the far stage and saw the Polyphonic Spree, another amazing show. If you have not heard of this group, it is made up of about 30 members that all play orchestral instruments (plus some others that play guitar, etc.) from Texas, and they all wear choir robes. The frontman was really interacting with the crowd and they had an awesome sound. They even played a Nirvana cover, 'Lithium', that had everyone singing along. This random guy I met that I had been hanging out with (Kylah and the other girls wanted to see different bands during the day, so I met a lot of random people throughout the day and made some new friends) put me up on his shoulders and it was awesome to finally see over the heads of all the tall people. Believe it or not, Devo closed after them, and I went over and s
aw about 2 songs, and it was complete shit. There was such a small crowd for it too, the music was terrible, and the band members looked like they were about to fall over dead. One guy had really white hair, a huge gut, and was all decked out in the Devo uniform of those stupid red hats, a t-shirt with their own band name on it, and kneepads... it was awful. By that time everyone was pretty beat, so we went home and passed out, which was really smart because the next day was packed as well.Sunday we got up and made our way over to Belongil Fields a bit later and got there in time to see a group from Brisbane called Yves Klein Blue. They were cool, sorta folk rock, pretty fun guys to listen to. We got some food and just hung out for awhile (They had this area that was in a huge bubble that was filled with pillows and hammocks that we just chilled out in for awhile because there were no bands we were wanting to see at that moment). I then saw a bit of British India before Vampire Weekend. VW was pretty good. They were fun to listen to, but they didn't amp up the crowd too much. The Wombats from the UK came on after that, they were so much fun. Everyone was jumping around and singing along, I got pretty close to the front and had a great time. They have really well written songs too, I'd say they're a pretty solid all-around band.
I went to the Mix Up stage after that and danced around for awhile to the Bag Raiders and Van She, and then saw Lyrics Born all the way from the Bay Area. I was right up at the front for that, he has a lot of people on stage with him playing various instruments, he had a pretty good sound. I'm not a huge fan of his raps, he just talks really really fast and I'm never sure what he's saying except during the hooks, but I guess it's like that for a lot of hip hop artists. But more with him. It was fun though. I went over to check out the Vines after that, I was hoping the lead singer would throw a tantrum, but he was unfortunately mellow. He is famous for freaking out at shows and breaking equipment
, but he might be on medication now or something because he was diagnosed as being autistic or having Ausberger's Syndrome or something a few years ago. It's not quite as rock 'n roll as it was when he was having fits, but still a good set.After that was New Young Pony Club, a dance/rock group from the UK. They were fun and their lead singer had a crazy tutu outfit on, she was a really energetic performer. I went to go find my friends after that to see if they wanted to see the Presets together, but they opted for Sigur Ros instead, so I headed back to the other stage to get a semi decent spot for the Presets. They are probably one of the biggest gro
ups in Australia. They've had the number one played song in clubs since I've been here ('My People') and places just go off when it gets played.The crowed to see them stretched for so long, way beyond the tent, but I managed to get in through the side to have a pretty good spot. When they started, the place just went nuts. They consist of a guy who sings and deals with the beats and a drummer, and it was for sure one of the best times of the weekend. Note to the people at home: I checked their tour schedule, and they are playing some really small rooms in the US in the next few months (cuz pretty much nobody knows about them), it would be amazing to see them in such a small venue, I can't imagine how jealous most Australians would be to get to go to that. So if you like dance music, you should go see them. They're playing with Cut Copy I believe, another good dance group.
Anyways, that was great, I met up with Kylah again and saw the last few Wolfmother songs at the Supertop Stage, and then headed over to the Teepee forest and danced around until they kicked us out. I was really hyped up still, and would have loved to stay later, but sadly we were booted out and had to go home. The atmosphere at the festival was so great all weekend long though! Everyone was into the music and really happy to be there. There was lots of crazy art around too, like a giant Medusa head, or a bunch of socks stretched out on wires and arranged in formations sticking out of the ground. There was also a tent set up that was the 'Church of Two Hands and a Chicken'. It was a strange place that I really still don't understand, but there was a minister type guy that would occasionally come up and read from 'The Book of Chook', or have fake weddings, it was really just some sort of freak show. People had some really crazy outfits too, really elaborate cost
umes and eccentric accessories. There was a group dressed up like firemen even, or just people wearing flouro tights. I think there was 17,000 people there in all, which doesn't sound like a huge number in comparison to sports (USC football anyone?), but the place did seem pretty crowded. Everyone was so cool and open to talking or hanging out, I even met a guy that told me I should come visit his farm in New South Wales. I was really happy the way everything turned out, it was one of the best weekends I've had here. I haven't been to too many shows since I've been in Oz, but this definitely should be a fix for me for awhile (although I did go see PNAU again on Thursday because I found out they were playing in Brisbane and just couldn't pass up the opportunity...). In conclusion, everyone go see PNAU and the Presets!Pictures are: giant disco ball at Mix Up Stage, art made from tires, the Polyphonic Spree, PNAU with Strawberries, PNAU with characters looking at him passed out on the floor (those are from the other show I went to), Bliss N Eso, and the chillout area with a Ganesha statue.
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