Splendour in the Grass - Day 2 @ Belongil Fields, Byron Bay (03/09/08)
Day two and once again an earlier than most start for this reviewer, making the way through the gates a little bit after midday and spending the early exchanges seeing Fox n Cat at the Tipi Forest, Slot Machine at Mix-Up and British India at the Supertop. Following on from British India was New York pop rockers Vampire Weekend. One of the more light hearted moments for the weekend came when a pair of green sunglasses were thrown on stage and the lead singer proceeded to wear them for the first half of the set; and they didn’t look that bad!
Next for the aural pleasure was 4-piece band Van She. Dubbed Australia’s answer to Soulwax, their single Cat and the Eye was the highlight of set for many but for me personally Memory Man was the pinnacle. Heading to meet a friend at the G.W. McLennan Tent I caught, by chance, the UK folk pop singer Laura Marling, who was as easy on the ears, as she is on the eyes!
5.25pm and rising Australian band The Grates were on the Supertop Stage and proceeded to give one of the performances of the weekend. Lead singer Patience came out in a batman suit, full from head to toe (with nipples popping out!) and played the first song complete with the mask on. The band played an interlude to start the set with a short bootleg of the Batman theme song, which was received by the audience with one of the loudest cheers heard all weekend.
Next was Japanese-born American MC Lyrics Born, who served up a delicious set of hip hop and funk. His monumental performance was slightly eroded by two mistakes of Australian geography, twice asking the crowd: “How you doing Sydney?”
Van She Tech, the DJ guise of Van She, was next on the Mix-Up Stage and played the first of two inspiring warm-up sets, this time for New Young Pony Club. At the same time Australian rock band The Vines were playing a devastating (quite literally) set on the Supertop Stage. Lead singer Craig Nicholls is a highly evolved rocker and would easily take the gong for the leading front man performance of the Splendour festival. Their rollicking set included some slower songs through the middle of the set but finished explosively with He’s a Rocker and Get Out. Post-set was were the fireworks really went off as Craig Nicholls went about destroying every piece of music equipment the band had on stage, with guitars being smashed on the floor and through the drum kits.
Approaching 8.45pm and 30mins to The Presets highly anticipated performance, we started making our way to the Mix-Up Stage in the hope of scoring a good position for their set. We obviously were not alone, as a sea of people made their way into the stage with the very same ideal. Van She Tech were back on and played a roaring set of party anthems that peaked with Kayne West’s American Girl. Then the lights went out, the music was turned off and the anticipation rose as the crowd feverishly awaited The Presets to the stage.
With an explosion like never before seen of noise, sound, light and energy, The Presets made the grandest of entrances and tore straight into a pulsating set of thumping industrial electro, techno and dance music opening with Talk Like That. To put the set in context in one word, it was… MENTAL! We were lucky enough to be about 15m back from the stage and the throng of people inside the tent and outside the tent meant that no matter if you stood 15m from the stage or 150m from the stage, it was like being in a sauna inside sardine tin. People were dropping left right and centre from dehydration, heat and downright exhaustion. Punters, myself included, took themselves to the brink of passing out, just to stay in their desired spot and see the whole of the set. Nobody dared move, to fearful of missing out on any part of the set, with the duo taking the tempo & intensity of the set higher, faster and harder with each track. Complete with pink tuxedo on and ties, the performance was complimented by some absolutely mind blowing/bending visuals, the most notable for My People. Steamworks, Are You The One, This Boy’s In Love and My People were the highlights of the set, which ended with the quite appropriate I Go Hard I Go Home.
While the set finished at 10.30pm, it was closer to 11pm that we finally got out of the Mix-Up Stage, such was the gravity of people squashed in and around the arena. When we finally did we had a chance to head over to see the last remaining tracks from Australian rock gods Wolfmother. While I didn’t have the chance to see the full set, I did have the chance to catch up on the set list from a friend who was front n centre from start to finish. The band was introduced by a weird/funky/alternative looking guy in a full traditional American Indian outfit, before the band. Wolfmother played all their classics such as Women and Mind’s Eye, as well as three new songs that worked brilliantly. They closed their set, and the stage, with the explosive Joker & The Thief. Lead singer Andrew Stockdale was obviously trying to give The Vines’ Craig Nicholls a run for his money as the lead front man for the festival, with his insane gyrating theatrics.
11pm and only two stages remained open, the Inter-Slate Social Club and the Tipi Forest. Bang Gang DJs & Friends did their thing in the Inter-Slate Social Club while we finished the festival to the banging psytrance of Olli Wisdom in the Tipi Forest. As he closed with two encore final tracks, we were done. The Splendour in the Grass festival for 2008 was (unfortunately) over.
In summary the festival exceeded my expectations. It’s not often an event or festival is so highly anticipated, and yet still manages to exceed your own expectations. Splendour promoters have confirmed that 2008 is the 8th and final year the festival will be held at Belongil Fields. With change brings both negatives and positives, and it’ll be a pity to lose the centrally located Belongil Fields location, which has housed the festival for all 8 years. However, this change will allow the promoters to use a much bigger space to house a much larger audience of people. Only 17,500 people have been able to enjoy the festival over the past few years at Belongil Fields as it filled to capacity, with the new venue we hope tens of thousands more punters will be able to enjoy this great festival. I look forward to embracing the new venue and continuing to rock out at Australia’s premier music festival. See you at Yelgun in 2009!
CHECK OUT PART 1 OF THE SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS REVIEW.
