Cockatoo Island Festival Day 2 @ Cockatoo Island, Sydney (26/03/05)
This Easter Long Weekend brought with it a new music and arts festival, marooned in the middle of Sydney Harbour amongst the concrete and corrugated iron sheds of Cockatoo Island. The Island has an interesting history; it was a prison for convicts, an institution for delinquent girls and a boat building factory, but has been disused and abandoned until this year, when the old factory sheds and historic convict barracks were converted into a series of sound stages, bars and camping grounds.
The Cockatoo Island Festival seems to be aimed as an alternative to the Blues and Roots Festival; an extended (three day) camping festival, but with bands aimed more towards a younger, Triple J listening audience. In fact, the festival had a lot in common, in terms of the vibe, with that other great Byron Bay camping festival ‘Splendour in the Grass’, with a similar line up of acts but with more of an arts focus.
There was definitely a little of something for everyone at Cockatoo Island, with ten stages offering everything from Aussie hip hop, indie rock, electronica, folk, reggae, jazz, comedy, spoken word and cabaret (in fact, I think nearly every established Sydney band was squeezed onto the line up somehow), as well as art installations and a photography exhibition. The diversity of the entertainment was reflected in the punters, who ranged from your average 20 and 30 something rock-festival-going folk to families with toddlers, middle-aged hippies to under-aged indie kids.
Saturday was undoubtedly the busiest day of the festival, featuring one of the festivals two international acts, Gomez, who were the main draw card for many at the festival, myself included. The morning saw a bit of rain but fortunately by the afternoon it had dried up and the sun had come out to bless the day with the best weather all weekend. There were so many bands playing that I only had the opportunity to catch four; Machine Gun Fellatio, Gomez and Decoder Ring on the main stage and The Bird at the electronica stage. MGF were typically outrageous, unveiling a new concept at their Cockatoo Island appearance, ‘MGF on Ice’ (a nice triple entendre), that seemed to involve lots of cock-rock wigs and the usual semi-nudity.
Gomez were, as might be expected, f#@king awesome and undoubtedly the high light of the weekend for me, playing a variety of tracks from their impressive three album back catalogue. Ben Ottwell’s incredible gruff voice filled the cavernous warehouse like no other sound all weekend, and they also impressed by being one of the only bands all weekend to actually play their full set time. I think that the organisers must have instructed the bands to finish fifteen minutes short of their stated set time for some unknown reason, as every group finished early. Indeed, when Gomez came back on for an encore, Tom Gray said that they’d thought their time was up and that they’d just have to improvise for the next ten minutes.
Sydney 5 piece Decoder Ring had the top slot at the main stage, an impressive feat for a band still working their way towards being a household name. However, as soon as they took the stage it became apparent why they were headlining, as they held the crowd captivated for an hour, the darkening interior of the ‘Turbine Hall’ perfectly suiting their atmospheric electronic melange. They stayed away from their more dance oriented tracks and instead had the crowd spell bound with the ambient material from their sound track to the film ‘Somersault’. Decoder Ring are definitely a group to keep an eye out for in the future, they’re not dance and they’re not rock but they will move you.
Finishing off the day at the ‘Electroplate Pavilion’ was live drum and bass group The Bird, who had the place packed and dancing to their extended jams. I do like The Bird, their drummer is amazing and they’re very funky, however its just not proper d’n’b for me, as their songs tend to meander off into long jam sessions, instead of building up and then breaking down with a massive bass line as a d’n’b track should.
Everything sort of closed up at ten pm, with the only stage left open being the Convict Workshop, where a selection of DJs from the Funktrust stable were providing the late night entertainment each night. I dropped by to see if it was worth sticking around for a few beers before getting the last ferry home at midnight, but was disappointed to find that the acoustics in the ‘Convict Workshop’ were absolutely shot, with the sound echoing around so much that all that was audible was the bass and the occasional drum or snare.
In fact, that was my only complaint about the whole weekend, that the acoustics at most of the stages were pretty terrible. The Convict Workshop was by far the worst example; however the sound at the main stage was crap as well unless you were in the front third of the room, and the ‘Electroplate Pavilion’ was not much better, as the bass sent the corrugated iron into vibrating spasms. In fact, the only indoor stage with good sound was the rock stage, the ‘Factory Floor’, where the sound was so good that I’m still suffering an acute case of tinnitus. However, a few teething problems are to be expected for the inaugural event, especially when you’re dealing with buildings that were designed to be factories and warehouses, not concert venues. Hopefully by next year they’ll be able to sort out their problems with the acoustics and the festival will be just about perfect.
