Splendour In The Mud!

FRIDAY

We took the train up to Splendour, which was the cheapest non-car way of getting up there, but also the longest. We had a massive THIRTEEN hour trip ahead. So we started early, Johanna arriving at 5:45am, on account of her Dad giving her a lift on his way to work, so she froze for 45 mins before Sophia & I arrived. True to form, Rena arrived at 7, after numerous phone calls (Sophia - “What do you mean you just woke up?!”)

We kept ourselves amused with the dodgiest crossword, on the complimentary Countrylink magazine, and discovered the sound that a cow makes is not actually ‘moo’, but ‘low’. We stocked up on Splendour music, and Sunday Night Safran podcasts, and killed our iPod batteries.

The 3 hour bus trip (10 hours later) was driven by a guy who may have been a drill sergeant in a previous life, who gave us a thorough lecture, including such gems as:

“The restroom is the worst place to be in if you’re feeling ill. You won’t get any rest in the restroom.”

“Please do not angle the airconditioning vents down the neck of the person in front. It upsets the person in front and the balance of the airconditioning.”

We also listened to an indie-know-it-all talk throughout the 3 hour trip. He spouted things like “Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) was pissed off at Patience (The Grates) because she totally copied her mojo”. I took a little nap on the bus, and when I woke up he was STILL talking.

We finally got off the bus, bought pizza for dinner, and caught a taxi to Ballina Gardens Caravan Park. The handmade pizza was gorgeous, but they stuffed up our order so we managed to get two ‘Super Specials’, and someone, somewhere has our vegetarian pizza. The cabin was clean & cosy, and we collapsed gratefully, preparing for next day’s onslaught.

SATURDAY
In the morning, we microwaved little apple pastries that my mum packed for me. They weren’t meant to be heated up, but they tasted delicious, and were a great early morning sugar hit.

We caught a taxi back to the bus station, for the 11:05am shuttle to Splendour. It was a shitfight to get onto the bus, with people pushing and shoving to get on board. We did get on it, using our skillz built up through many a concert. Same principle as wriggling up to the front of stage :)

We got to Belongil Fields, and had to walk through fields of horse manure (Rena was really freaked out), as well as the mud! Ohmigosh, the mud. There wasn’t any grass at Splendour, and the smart people had worn gumboots to the festival, while the rest of us trudged along ankle-deep in mud.

After a dodgy bag check, we weren’t surprised to see the massive quantities of pot and other drugs that got smuggled in. For the first hour, we grabbed lunch, and went on a fruitless search for a festival program, which stuffed us up majorly because we had no idea where and when to go for the acts we wanted to see!

Angus & Julia Stone

However, thanks to Sophia’s efforts, we successfully got to Angus & Julia Stone on time. Although they were shy, probably first-time festival performers, they put on a great show. I love Julia’s voice, and Angus is really awesome too. He did a great ‘Paper Aeroplane’, and all of us left the show half in love with Angus :)

Afterwards we left to go check out the merchandise, and there were some really great t-shirts on offer. Our haul included Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Presets & Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Death Cab for Cutie
We got to the Supertop early for Death Cab, and caught the last of Youth Group’s set including a huge sing-a-long to ‘Forever Young’. Death Cab were absolutely amazing, to put it lightly. They played a lot from ‘Transatlanticism’, and some from ‘Plans’ including an uplifting version of ‘Soul Meets Body’, and my fave from their set ‘Crooked Teeth’. I was disappointed we didn’t get to hear the ‘Marching Bands of Manhattan’ though, because I’m obsessed with that song! The band was very tight, and nailed every single song.

The Grates
The pit was starting to get really rough, and we were pushed around a lot, so Johanna wanted to move back, and I agreed to go with her. The Grates did a great set, but I much preferred their show at the Metro, they were just better audio and performance wise, because I thought Patience got a little out of breath especially towards the end of this set. Next to Johanna and I, were these crazy drunk guys. One guy climbed onto his mate’s back to take photos of the band, and while he was up there, another of his friends implored the girls around him to smack his ass. No thanks.

We had a little dinner break, and I saw Talia from uni! Johanna had a sore back, so we decided to rest for a while before moving on to …

Mogwai
We caught the last of Lior’s set, and there were SO many people there, it was really difficult to get in. We wanted seats, and after a while of persisting, we got them, although we weren’t able to sit together. Mogwai came on and they were LOUD. Johanna had earplugs, which were probably a good idea. They bashed the shit out of their guitars, but they put on a fantastic show, ripping everyone’s eardrums with their discordant sound with a great performance of ‘Travel is Dangerous’

Augie March
We stayed in our seats for Augie March, who had massive technical difficulties (due to Mogwai’s aforementioned roughness with the guitar leads). They ran ½ an hour late, and got really pissed off with the tech problems that ran through their whole set. The drummer announced “This song is called ‘The Guitar Doesn’t Work’”. They started to play ‘Bottle Baby’, but then halfway through the lead singer stopped and said “Look, this song isn’t gonna save us. Any requests? Veroona? No! Any more requests?” They also played crowd favourite ‘One Crowded Hour’ and an awesome ‘Here Comes the Night’.

We had some time before the shuttle buses arrived so we sat near a bonfire, and listened to Sonic Youth float through the air.

At midnight we trekked back to the buses, and it was absolute CHAOS. We fought to the death to get onto the buses, and it was exactly like being back in the mosh. One of the girls joked “Hey, where’s the music?” Rena, Soph & I managed to get onto a bus, but Johanna had to wait three more buses, before she managed to catch one. I made a new friend on the bus, Shannon, who was pretty stoned, but told me great stories about being a westie from Blacktown, and how he was greeted in the pub one day by a past schoolmate who said “Hey man! How’s it going? I shot my brother in the head!” And it turned out to be true.

We caught a cab to the caravan park, it was about 3am or so, and we slept gratefully!

SUNDAY

Weetbix for brekky, and we headed back out to the bus stop for Day 2 of our Splendour Bender! Everyone was considerably quieter today, and guess what? There was actually a LINE for the shuttle bus!

The mud had dried out overnight, so it wasn’t as squelchy as yesterday. We got to Belongil and made a beeline for …

Van She

The guys in Van She probably won’t be able to have children, due to the skin tight skinny leg pants on display. However, this didn’t hamper their performance, as they did great performances of ‘Sex City’ and ‘Mission’ off their EP, as well as my favourite 80s hand-clapping track ‘Kelly’!

What’s a music festival without gozleme? Rena, Johanna & Soph all grabbed some of our favourite savoury pancake for lunch. During lunch we had a chat to a guy from Perth who told us of the story of how after he donated blood, he cycled 25km, and predictably, fainted on his couch.

We split up afterwards, with Johanna and Rena wanting to go see Josh Pyke, and me and Soph really wanting to get in early to get a good spot for Snow Patrol. So we went back to the Supertop, to see the mystery band. All day, speculation about who this band would be floated in the air: Butterfingers? The Sleepy Jackson? The Eels? It was …

The Vines
The Vines did a brilliant set, and they were much tighter then i’d expect them to be. I have a soft spot for the Vines, having come from the same part of Sydney as me. They played crowd favourites ‘Outtathaway’ and ‘Get Free’, but their crowning glory was an absolutely brilliant cover of Outkast’s ‘Ms Jackson’.

SNOW PATROL!
Here was the reason I trekked out all the way to Byron. I’ve had a love affair with Snow Patrol, which started with ‘Songs For Polar Bears’ and progressed since. It was really suffocating up the front, but it was worth it. They played brilliantly, with all my faves ‘Chocolate’, ‘Final Straw’ and ‘Run’, with their new stuff ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Make This Go On Forever’ and ‘You’re All I Have’. Vocals and instruments were spot on, and Gary Lightbody has this strange, but cool way of singing and moving his arms around, sort of like Sarah Blasko when he performs. The crowd was singing along passionately, and the whole experience was just gorgeous. Ahhhh.

Jose Gonzalez
What the guy does with his guitar is bloody amazing, he’s my favourite singer/songwriter. A dreamy performance of ‘Heartbeats’, and of ‘Hints’. The only thing that spoiled the show was the angry security guards, who kicked people (including Johanna, Soph & Rena) out of the over-full venue.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Halfway through dinner, I was like “Shit, I’m missing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs!”. So I rushed off to the Supertop, promising my friends that I’ll be back in time for Gerling. At the back, I could only see a little of the stage, but I heard a beautiful performance of ‘Y Control’, ‘Maps’ (“Wait! They don’t love you like I love you”) and ‘Rich’. I didn’t hear ‘Tick’ and I was disappointed :( They sounded fantastic, and I know Karen O has a great stage presence, so I bet it would have been awesome down the front.

Gerling
The only Gerling songs I know are ‘Dust Me Selecta’, and ‘Who’s Ya Daddy’, so I’m not a huge fan, but the vibe in the Mix Up Tent was pretty hyped. They were two acts before the Scissor Sisters (!) and we wanted a good view of stage.

Bang Gang DJs
Still in the Mix Up Tent, we hung around to see the Kink regulars play conventional dance, and of course, the obligatory Bloc Party remix. The DJs doused the crowd in alcohol, threw empty cans into the audience (one of which almost killed the lens of a camera), and a giant inflatable carrot. Fun times.

Scissor Sisters
These people are the ultimate glam-rock band. Love Ana Matronic! Jake holds a special place in my heart too. They kicked off with ‘Take Your Mama’, performed my fave ‘Laura’, ‘Mary’, ‘Comfortably Numb’ along with a lot of new stuff featured on their upcoming album. It was good that we got in early, cause it was totally packed and you had to fight for breathing room, let alone dancing room! The roof started leaking mid-way, which meant it was raining outside, heralding the return of the mud! These guys finished their set, and the crowd was like “No way are you getting out of here without doing ‘Filthy/Gorgeous!’” so after an encore, they came back on stage, and the crowd went absolutely berserk throughout the song.

By this stage, we were totally content. We had a bloody fantastic time. We had no dramas getting on the bus back to Ballina, and it was the perfect end to a brilliant day.

MONDAY

Our train caught on fire at Nambucca Heads. Yah. I know. And my mum told me that driving to Byron was dangerous! They fixed the problem, and ½ an hour we got back on the train.

Then this crazy girl and her mother got on the train. This girl, she was like a violent 5 year old in the body of a 19 year old. For 10 hours we had to witness and listen to this awful girl HIT her mother, call her mother all kinds of names, and generally be an terrible bully. And the whinging! Omigosh, the whinging. “I don’t wanna go to Sydney! I don’t wanna go to Kings Cross. People get murdered and robbed in Kings Cross!” I felt so sorry for her mother, and a little sorry for the girl herself. What a life.

Johanna and I played ‘Mr Squiggle’ and we made up the awesomest stories to accompany our pictures. Johanna – “So these two guys are having a fight to the death with magnets, and the guy who loses gets eaten by the shark. And there’s also a motorised butterfly coming to save them.” Me – “So we’re in this Western, it’s high noon, and the giant sheriff has hung one of the midgets. So the midgets are retaliating with giant arrows, and the giant sheriff is hurling cannonballs at them.” Here is a photo of Johanna with her handkerchief rabbit!

And if you thought that it couldn’t get worse than the girl & mother, and the Dickhead on the train, then one of the guys down the front was attempting to convince people that aliens exist!

We were SO glad to get off the train at Central. And as we went to the carpark, where the sky decided to dump torrential rain on our heads, just as we were leaving. We were like “Yah. That’d be about right.”

We had a gorgeous, brilliant time, and the most fun in the world! I loved it, and I’m so glad that we went. I really felt it, when I got the hugest reality this morning as I opened up my email inbox and saw 27 emails.

Yeah, I’m back.

*Thanks to Soph for photos