Brisbane and Canada rock the Dew Process pre-Splendour party
- Aug 05, 2008
A night of no sleep... a 4am wakeup call... a 6.30am flight to Brisbane... the only way is up after that! I am collected from the airport by my friend Nat and her mates Bill and Tegan, and we commence the drive down to Byron for Australia's premier music festival, Splendour in the Grass. For them, they've done this journey many times before. For me, it's my first Splendour and despite the no sleep and early morning action, I am very very excited. The drive is punctuated by the obligatory stops at Maccas and the bottle-o. I think I speak for all of us when I say the highlight of the roadtrip is the new Tugun bypass, which we wouldn't even have noticed if Bill hadn't helpfully pointed it out to us. Thanks Bill haha.
We arrive into Byron, where it's already starting to get busy on the roads. Cars and vans crawl up the road into town, people making their way to their various accommodations. Byron is completely booked out for the weekend - and I mean completely. Good luck to the folk who rock up without anything booked, hoping to score something. We (sort of) help the guys set up their campsite at Splendour, and have our first experience with the Splendour booze cops (aka security), who are going from campsite to campsite trying to bust people for bringing grog into the camp. We have a couple of very, very close calls, but all good. Others are not so lucky - some festival volunteers tell us a group were searched, the cops called and drugs found. Not good at all, and all before the festival has even started.
Nat and I make it to our accommodation, which is with a friend of a mother of a girl that Nat works with. Get that?! We are very lucky to get a place to stay, all we need is a bed and a shower but it's good to stay with a nice family. We relax for a bit, then spend an obscene amount of cash at a gourmet grocery store and eat chocolate mousse, cheese, dips and pasta salad until I feel slightly sick. Then it's time to get ready for the Dew Process pre-Splendour party!
The venue is the Great Northern hotel, a happy pub filled with punters relaxing before the weekend, waiting for the pre-splendour party or watching the footy on the TV. We notice The Galvatrons having a drink and a few laughs, and meet some dude from Melbourne (who I think was trying to score a place to stay for the night!). We have some random chats with a range of people, really nice folk who are sooo happy to be going to Splendour! On our agenda for tonight (our overall aim: "we're not having a big one") are Yves Klein Blue, an up and coming young band from Brisbane; Tokyo Police Club, a young Canadian band; and The Grates, who I've resisted seeing since I heard of them years ago (and I thought they were kind of annoying), and am now finally about to check them out.
I expected the venue to be more packed, especially considering it was sold out, but it's nice not to have to fight your way closer to the front of the stage or become part of a whole-floor moshpit. For us, it's a chance to check out bands that we might not be able to see during the festival due to timetable clashes. Yves Klein Blue - firstly, what a cool name. Named after artist Yves Klein's famous blue paint that "does not lose its brilliance over time, forever appearing wet and freshly applied". Let's hope these dudes can follow suit. They've definitely got talent, lead singer Michael Thomlinson has a cool voice and the band have a good indie-rock sound that remind me a bit of The Strokes (with less ego and less polish but more to like). There's so many good Aussie bands that it's hard to stand out but I think if they stick it out for the next couple of years, they will do very well. And to get a guernsey on the Splendour bill, well, some people would argue they've done well already. A good start to the evening.
Tokyo Police Club are great, really fun and energetic, great rhythm, and the keyboardist Graham Wright kinda steals the show, he's so into his keyboards - it's great to watch. They're a mix of rock, indie, post-punk and pop with a rolling beat and catchy riffs. Thoroughly enjoyable, lots of people get up to dance, and it's happy times. The numerous vodkas and beers are now starting to, ahem, take effect, so my dancing probably didn't look as coordinated or as good as it felt.
Then it was The Grates, and it was obvious this was the group everyone was waiting to see. Lead singer and big personality Patience Hodgson is an amazing frontwoman, she's absolutely gorgeous and lovely. While you appreciate John and Alana and their talent, you just can't take your eyes off Patience. Looking around, everyone has huge smiles on their dials and dancing with their friends, strangers, anyone really. When Patience does her ribbon routine, she uses the ribbon that Nat's sister Fo bought for her (just before the gig, Nat gave the ribbon to a friend to give to Patience). They play tracks off their latest album, which I much prefer to songs like Trampoline etc. It's a more evolved, rockier sound, but still has the fun and freshness of their earlier stuff. I am definitely no Grates expert however - I'll leave that job to Fo and Nat!
The end of the night comes all too quickly... but those vodkas have really done the job. Not ready to go home we forge on ahead, back to the public bar area and meet some chefs and some boys from Melbourne and so many others that I can't quite remember... But I do remember the walk (or should I say stumble) home - we must have looked a sight. Tucked away into bed by 2am, it's not a bad effort. And we had a great night with good tunes and good people. So much for good intentions! Next: Day one of Splendour
We arrive into Byron, where it's already starting to get busy on the roads. Cars and vans crawl up the road into town, people making their way to their various accommodations. Byron is completely booked out for the weekend - and I mean completely. Good luck to the folk who rock up without anything booked, hoping to score something. We (sort of) help the guys set up their campsite at Splendour, and have our first experience with the Splendour booze cops (aka security), who are going from campsite to campsite trying to bust people for bringing grog into the camp. We have a couple of very, very close calls, but all good. Others are not so lucky - some festival volunteers tell us a group were searched, the cops called and drugs found. Not good at all, and all before the festival has even started.
Nat and I make it to our accommodation, which is with a friend of a mother of a girl that Nat works with. Get that?! We are very lucky to get a place to stay, all we need is a bed and a shower but it's good to stay with a nice family. We relax for a bit, then spend an obscene amount of cash at a gourmet grocery store and eat chocolate mousse, cheese, dips and pasta salad until I feel slightly sick. Then it's time to get ready for the Dew Process pre-Splendour party!
The venue is the Great Northern hotel, a happy pub filled with punters relaxing before the weekend, waiting for the pre-splendour party or watching the footy on the TV. We notice The Galvatrons having a drink and a few laughs, and meet some dude from Melbourne (who I think was trying to score a place to stay for the night!). We have some random chats with a range of people, really nice folk who are sooo happy to be going to Splendour! On our agenda for tonight (our overall aim: "we're not having a big one") are Yves Klein Blue, an up and coming young band from Brisbane; Tokyo Police Club, a young Canadian band; and The Grates, who I've resisted seeing since I heard of them years ago (and I thought they were kind of annoying), and am now finally about to check them out.
I expected the venue to be more packed, especially considering it was sold out, but it's nice not to have to fight your way closer to the front of the stage or become part of a whole-floor moshpit. For us, it's a chance to check out bands that we might not be able to see during the festival due to timetable clashes. Yves Klein Blue - firstly, what a cool name. Named after artist Yves Klein's famous blue paint that "does not lose its brilliance over time, forever appearing wet and freshly applied". Let's hope these dudes can follow suit. They've definitely got talent, lead singer Michael Thomlinson has a cool voice and the band have a good indie-rock sound that remind me a bit of The Strokes (with less ego and less polish but more to like). There's so many good Aussie bands that it's hard to stand out but I think if they stick it out for the next couple of years, they will do very well. And to get a guernsey on the Splendour bill, well, some people would argue they've done well already. A good start to the evening.
Tokyo Police Club are great, really fun and energetic, great rhythm, and the keyboardist Graham Wright kinda steals the show, he's so into his keyboards - it's great to watch. They're a mix of rock, indie, post-punk and pop with a rolling beat and catchy riffs. Thoroughly enjoyable, lots of people get up to dance, and it's happy times. The numerous vodkas and beers are now starting to, ahem, take effect, so my dancing probably didn't look as coordinated or as good as it felt.
Then it was The Grates, and it was obvious this was the group everyone was waiting to see. Lead singer and big personality Patience Hodgson is an amazing frontwoman, she's absolutely gorgeous and lovely. While you appreciate John and Alana and their talent, you just can't take your eyes off Patience. Looking around, everyone has huge smiles on their dials and dancing with their friends, strangers, anyone really. When Patience does her ribbon routine, she uses the ribbon that Nat's sister Fo bought for her (just before the gig, Nat gave the ribbon to a friend to give to Patience). They play tracks off their latest album, which I much prefer to songs like Trampoline etc. It's a more evolved, rockier sound, but still has the fun and freshness of their earlier stuff. I am definitely no Grates expert however - I'll leave that job to Fo and Nat!
The end of the night comes all too quickly... but those vodkas have really done the job. Not ready to go home we forge on ahead, back to the public bar area and meet some chefs and some boys from Melbourne and so many others that I can't quite remember... But I do remember the walk (or should I say stumble) home - we must have looked a sight. Tucked away into bed by 2am, it's not a bad effort. And we had a great night with good tunes and good people. So much for good intentions! Next: Day one of Splendour
