BYRON BAY - DAY THREE

Day 3
Saturday August 1st 2008

Splendour in the Grass: Day One

It's 11am. Waiting for Carole to get here. Everyone’s just about ready to go, I think the girls here are wearing roughly an entire Maybelline factory worth of make up between them. I don’t quite understand the need for foundation, powder, blush, 3 different eye shadows, mascara, eyeliner, lip-gloss and half a bottle of perfume (each) for a music festival. All you need is a good pair of shoes and a love for music, but hey it’s not about that anymore... Caz just got here! End transmission!

And now I shall change the tense of my write-up again, as my writing is horrible and unstructured but I am lazy and won’t be editing this much.

Once we had been wrist-banded and did a bit of an “OMG WE’RE AT SPLENDOUR” dance, we headed straight to the main stage to catch The Galvatrons, energetic as they were entertaining, as always. A very nice warm-up indeed. Next up we rushed over to the Mix Up Tent for Sydney-siders bluejuice. Frontman Jake was leaping and bouncing around the stage, singing and screaming so hard it looked like something was going to pop, grinning ear-to-ear the whole time... he was in full form despite his left arm and leg both in a cast. Swiftly leaping from the stage to the photo-pit, from there into the crowd, then back into the arms of one of the security guards. If I wasn't happy to be at Splendour before, I was after watching those guys do their thing!
With a bit of a gap between acts we wandered around the festival site trying to get our bearings... Checked out the markets and tasty food stalls. After a bit of a rest in preparation, then began the 3 and a half hour wait for the band I went to see... I planted myself in the front row of the main stage and watched Gyroscope rocking the now well and truly enthusiastic crowd. Next up were The Fratellis and the audience was getting rowdy, my Splendour-mate and I now pressed firmly into the cold metal of the barrier. The Fratellis were quite disappointing, they got a good response but with such catchy riffs I expected more than just three guys playing their instruments. When the band finished the crowd got rougher, everyone so eager to get closer and closer. Cold War Kids finally graced the stage and I couldn’t have been more excited to see them. They busted out with We Used to Vacation and ran through all the highlights off their album Robbers & Cowards, along with some tasty new songs including their latest single Something is not Right With Me. Vocalist Nathan Willett hung off his microphone belting out that amazing and rare voice and I was just gob-smacked. The guitarist and bassist of the band paced around the stage, screaming the lyrics in eachothers faces, it was intense. Apparently during Hospital Beds, somewhere in between me yelling “Bring your buckets by the dozen” and “Bring your nieces and your cousins” a bouncer stood on my bag which had my pride and joy (camera) in it, but I was so mesmerised that I didn’t even care - this is a BIG deal. Their set ended with Saint John, I could not have possibly been more satisfied. Caz & I finally broke free from the sardine tin that was the main-stage audience. We intended on seeing Band of Horses but got a bit lost. I ate an awesome vegie burger. Caz being the trooper she is wanted to get up close for Polyphonic Spree, but I was too desperate to sit down and relieve my feet of the stinging agony they were in. I’d run out of cigarettes much to my dismay (I smoke a lot when I’m at festivals). I realised how freezing it had gotten, so I bought a “cosy blanket” from a market stall. I then wandered around feeling like an old crazy woman wrapped in my fuzzy new blanket, seeking out people with cigarettes. Some would call that a low point.
Polyphonic Spree came so close to topping what I had just witnessed during Cold War Kids’ set. I think if I was any less of a CWK fan they would’ve knocked them straight out of first position. A giant red sash covered the stage during all the setting up and sound checking, lead singer Tim DeLaughter then cut a heart into it while music played softly, before slashing it apart, at which point the fabric flung to either side of the stage, everything lit up and the band all broke into song. I stood there stunned, and forgot about the fact I’d run out of ciggies and I needed a foot transplant. The fans went wild, and did not calm down until the set had well and truly ended (which was much later than expected). I’ll admit I don’t know a lot of their stuff but I don’t think even the coldest of hearts could resist them. They treated fans to a cover of Live and Let Die by Guns ‘n’ Roses, and then Lithium by Nirvana which had every single person in that tent jumping up and down, arms flung in the air, belting out “I’m not gonna crack”. Talk about uniting thousands of people! I don’t think there was anyone there who didn’t know every single word. Finally the end of the song came and as the final “crack” was shouted by all, a disco ball was thrown from the stage which of course “cracked” into a thousand pieces. Amazing. There was such an indescribable energy in the air during their set, I found a chair near the stage (strange, very strange) and sat there huddle up with my new blanket and just watched in awe. I couldn’t see much of the stage but I didn’t need to, watching the crowd was just as entertaining. I glanced over every now and then to see a blur of white robes, but my attention was on these people, dancing, united, it was absolutely captivating. It was so cold that everyone on stage and in the audience was breathing clouds of frost into the air, which changed colours with the lights... the bubble machine was turned on during Reach for the Sun and little rainbow bubbles mixed in with the neon frost that hovered over the bouncing audience... even the big scary security guard had his hands in the air, clapping and cheering along, thick frost pouring from his mouth. A man with a big balloon shaped like a ladybug attached to his backpack strolled in casually but soon found himself caught up in the atmosphere dancing away. Grown men in ponchos and masks made friends with strangers, girls danced on wheelie bins, it was dream-like. Mix in DeLaughter's words of love and I knew it was something I'd never forget. Every negative thing I have ever felt or thought was gently lifted from my body. Writing this over two weeks later, it’s still so fresh in my mind and I still feel so lucky to have been there for that.

At the end of the night we began the painful walk out of the exit gates, among our fellow Splendour-goers (many of whom were carrying large chunks of disco ball), past what we thought was an unreasonably long line to the buses, and then walked about 86 million miles back the hostel. It was a pretty funny walk, we were both in agony from our 4+ hour stint at the main stage but it had been such a good day, even if my face showed nothing but pain, I was so god damn happy! There were hundreds of people shivering and groaning while staggering down this seemingly never-ending road, guys selling pizza on the side of the road, a sausage sizzle... and of course, public urination... When we spotted a servo I felt my pain suddenly lift as I realised I could buy cigarettes. We also saw The Doctor from Triple J, that was exciting. We got a bit lost, then after we passed the "face tree" and the footpath ran out, we were home. Falling into bed was heaven, but my ears were ringing in a whole new scary way.