As usual, everyone thinks that because the weather around Stonefest was pretty warm that Stonefest night would be warm. And as usual, everyone forgets that Stonefest night is ALWAYS seemingly below freezing, but this didn’t deter people from heading out. There was a large crowd early on to catch the stylings of Canberra boys D’Opus and Pornstylus rocking the main stage, and as I walked up to the main stage I heard them playing some breaks which I thought was most unusual. The crowd looked like they were getting into it, but the lads brought it back to some hot hip-hop stylings – MC Roshambo came out to help with a track from ‘The Question EP’, and I’m sure I heard some Beastie Boys in there somewhere. Roshambo worked the crowd well while he was on stage as well, getting the people nicely warmed up for the night.

I was really keen on checking out Drop the Lime, having heard some of his older messed up IDM tunes as well as his newer, dubsteppy/grimey ones and although he didn’t play either style it worked well for me. Dressed in a black leather jacket and sporting a massive grill which caught the light every time he smiled out at the crowd, he was one of the most energetic performers on the night and was obviously really getting into the set: pumping his fist and dancing around while he played live. He started with a glitchy, breakbeat track heavily sampling ‘Final Countdown’ which had really heavy beats and bass yet still managed to be cheesy. This turned out to be a theme for the rest of his set, and it worked really well on the night, later on playing tracks chopping and sampling from Mili vanili and that ‘riding dirty’ crunk track so lately parodied by Weird Al Yankovic. Over all very enjoyable and I was surprised that so many people were getting into it.

A quick duck into the refectory to see Muz & Mann before Regurgitator saw Vance (is he Muz or Mann? I always forget) dropping some nice ravey electro-house, however Mikah was not visible while I was up the front. Never mind though because Vance was holding it down nicely, catering to the Stonefest crowd without pandering. Regurgitator as always put on a great show, and I was especially happy to see them as talks of an indefinite hiatus have been frequent recently. I cannot complain too much about Regurgitator delivering pretty much an identical set to last time they were at Stonefest (save a few new tracks, of course), but I can’t help but think that maybe they’ve run their course for this phase of their career. If they were to break up I would be devastated, but it’s time for a re-tooling at least. I also think it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit more backing live, so they aren’t mostly jumping around to backing tracks. That said though, sound issues aside it was fantastic and the crowd lapped it up. Being a dirty boy I’m especially partial to their lewd and nasty songs, such as ‘World of Sleaze’, ‘I Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am’, and ‘I Will Lick Your Asshole’, and Ben and Quan left my appetite for perversion well satiated. Regurgitator are still a band that Australia can be immensely proud of.

I went up to the refectory to see what was going on there and found Milkbar Nick and Chris Fraser playing some gritty electroey house kind of stuff. I’m not so ofay with the lingo these days but it seemed pretty tough for the genre. Their mixing was mostly perfect and the crowd was liking it. The VJ inside was doing a great job as well, and the refectory made for a nice change in atmosphere, surroundings and music from outside. It was good having the headliners mostly outside as well, at least early on, as it meant that you could actually get inside as opposed to instantly getting locked out do to it getting so packed as usually happens. According to my notes there were a lot of hotties in there as well, and it must have been out of the ordinary for me to notice that and write it down. Or perhaps that just says something about me.

Back outside, Kid 606 didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It was quite interesting and some of the sounds he was putting out were excellent, but it seemed a bit lacklustre and didn’t compare to when I saw him a few years ago at a Big Day Out. Still, the crowd was again pretty decent for an act which is essentially experimental. It was a bit too ‘normal’ for Kid 606, but hey, it’s a festival, whatcha gon’ do?

Right now I was moistly anticipating the Avalanches set, which set me up to be let down. Don’t get me wrong, I like the standard ‘played-out eclectic party set (™)’ as much as anyone; it’s fun and danceable. But seriously, do we really need to hear The Avalanches doing it? They haven’t released an album in 7 years or so, so I was hoping for a bit more than this. And as is often the case in these kinds of sets, the tracks were as predictable as Tom Cruise being a dickhead. ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley you say?? Who’d have thunk! They chucked in some Franz and some Daft Punk and other things that you knew they were going to play after hearing the first 2 minutes of their set. All this was delivered with a fraction of the skill and flair of a 2manydjs or Hollertronix mix of a similar style. Their estranged DJ Dexter showed how to do this kind of set when he was last playing Stone, using skill and style, and throwing in some weird and surprising tracks. The remaining Avalanches should have sent him a muffin basket and a nice ‘For Old Time’s Sake’ themed card requesting his help for this set, they could have really used it. Still, a somewhat enjoyable set. But f’real, release another album you lazy bastards.

By this time there was no getting into the refectory unless you waited ages in a line, and it was just too cold for that. I abandoned that side of the event to those with more patience, and went back down to huddle in the middle of the crowd at the main stage, leeching warmth from those around me. And while I’m on the topic, I really liked the crowd this year. I heard from some people that there was a noticeable smell of vomit and urine in some areas but I didn’t catch a wiff, and the people I interacted with were friendly and talkative and didn’t subscribe to the general brand of fuckwits you see at Stonefest. Good stuff.

All in all it was a mixed bag, but that is absolutely inevitable with this kind of event. There were plenty of cool acts to see, a good crowd and pleasant atmosphere, and with so many acts one can easily afford for a few of them to be balls and still have a good time. ‘Til next year!