weather... awesome.
But the elements that make an awesome festival are many, and varied
and sometimes not even essential. Good weather is one of those things
that is probably not so essential. With friends, bands, food,
recreational drugs and alcohol in attendance you can easily get by
without good weather. If anything, sharing shelter with strangers
tends to aid in making strange new friends.
So let me tell you about bands.
Pavement: sounded brilliant, but I was too munted to figure out what
was going on, slightly regret this.
Dinosaur Jr: Anyone who knows my tunes will know how big an influence
on me Dinosaur Jr are. So catching the original line up a second time
was a must do. What I've discovered about these guys is they may be
one of the patchiest live acts around. The gig I saw at The Forum a
couple of years back was atrocious, disappointing and heartbreaking
for someone who'd been waiting 20 years to see the original Dino line
up. Luckily at GP they were totally, absolutely, beautiful, and
awesome. J sang in tune... mostly... enough for me to enjoy the
melodies. His guitar wailed as expected, and looking at his stack of
amps, he must definitely be deaf, the poor bastard. Lou and Murph
were amazing too. I always feel a slight discomfort when I hear the
post/pre Barlow period songs (Feel The Pain, The Wagon) while I
wonder if Barlow minds playing songs that were hits after he'd been
fired in one of the most cowardly firings in rock history (J told Lou
he was breaking up the band, and then reformed with the drummer the
day after). But Lou plays these tunes with a passion so I stopped
worrying for Lous potentially bruised ego. So yeah Dinosaur Jr gig...
awesome. I think you've picked that up by now. Rain did hamper my
enjoyment of this show. It was pissing rain when they decided to
follow Freak Scene with some obscure track from the first album. I
decided I wanted to be dry at this point, and left.
Nashville Pussy: Ha ha!! This was my surprise packet. I'd never heard
these guys but I had a good idea of what to expect. They are a
powerful hard working band. The effect is not unlike having your head
beaten in with a cro-bar, by a stripper. They had a guitarist that
was like Angus Young in the body of a stripper. In fact it was like
going to see an awesome band and strippers all at once. Freakin
magnificent.
Dirty Projectors: Going from Nashville Pussy to Dirty Projectors is a
neck breaking musical chicane, the only thing Nashville Pussy and
Dirty Projectors have in common are guitars, drums, bass, and
chicks... and dudes. The situation was not helped by Max Crawdaddy
playing AC/DC right after Nashville Pussy and keeping the rock heads
up front and sexed up right until Dirty Projectors came on.
DP looked terribly nervous while setting up their gear in front of
the dancing horde of bogans (including myself). Having listened to DP
a lot in the weeks previous and thoroughly enjoying their record
(especially Temecula Sunrise) I felt for them. This would be tough,
trying to win an audience for their nerdy afro-pop freak folk after a
crowd primed by some seriously ballsy Southern Rock. The thing is
Dirty Projectors are an amazing band. The vocal interplay between the
2 female singers is unlike anything I'd heard before. And I think if
I had seen em at their own show I would have enjoyed them more. But
I just wanted more rock after Nashville Pussy... so I'd have to say
that maybe this was a case of some rather poor sequencing of bands.
They should have put DP on earlier.
Tame Impala: So I managed 2.5 songs of Dirty Projectors before
slinking back to camp for some company and conversation. But I
returned in time for some intense rain and Tame Impala. I wanted to
be up front, except I was hating the rain. I spent some time in the
Pink Flamingo watching at a distance. I flirted with moving closer
until eventually the rain abated and I got up front for one of the
highlights of the weekend. TI's segue from Skeleton Tiger to half
full glass of wine. When the that riff kicked in the kids went sick
in one bouncing throng. Little Psychedelic Angus The Impalas
"touring" guitarist is hypnotizing, as you wonder how such a young
kid wound up rocking out in front of you... what a little freak?
How's the Impalage!
Calexico: I'm a massive fan of Feast Of Wire, but I do find these
guys a bit MOR at times. However I got the same kick out of watching
the pedal steel player as I did from watching Little Psychedelic
Angus. They played Sunken Waltz, and their Love cover, "Alone again"
And that's pretty much all they had to do to make me happy.
Cruel Sea: Fucken loved em. Great to see em again, wish I had the
energy to catch the entire set. They've written some new songs. So I
think I smell an album coming.
It is a dream of mine to play at Meredith, either GP or Meredith, but
I'd prefer GP, the line up is usually more my speed.
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