We arrived around half way through the Racket set, the opening band on the bill. They had a punk edge, yet you could see they had some musical acumen. A quick Google search showed me some of the members had trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Berkley University School of Music in the US, it showed, they were tight and played hard. A good start to the afternoon/night.
28 Days were excellent, took me back to early BDO experiences, driving my burnt orange XE Falcon ( RIP, girl ) and a time when my wife and I were just settling into married life, parenthood and home ownership in the late 90's early 00's. Good times, good memories. Props to Jay Dunne for his attempts at getting a gig in a musical and gathering himself after a crowd surfer tickled his funny bone.
The Superjesus put on a show, Sarah McLeod is rock chick in every sense. Plays hard, sings hard, looks like she'd go hard too....
Played a great range of their better known hits and had the crowd winding up just nicely as the sun began to set behind Dan Murphys late on a hot afternoon. Plenty of singalongs to Down Again and Gravity. Glad I've seen them, might not be the last time.Then the messy sun drenched, Pale and vodka fueled 40 something crowd were ready for headline act Grinspoon. Never a band to disappoint they hit the stage hard, as they always do. Phil Jamieson really is a front man, I'm not sure what else he could or would do in life, no need really as he's made for the role. Joe Hansen is an awesome bassist, he's one of those guys on stage who gets lost in the moment and you can see he loves it. Pat Davern gets to shine when Jamieson grabs an axe to grind on, he loves his rock riffs but I reckon he enjoys having a rhythm alongside him to let him play out more. Krisitian Hopes puts his double kick to use regularly, making sure Hansen has something driving to follow. They're tight, they're professionals, it shows.
Was a messy crowd, those of us who remember the 90's well shouldn't be in the sun drinking all afternoon, well, we can but we shouldn't expect to deal with it like we used too. The $8 beers and $12 spirits we're reasonably accesable early, there was one period between 28 Days and The SJ where the line ups became a little overwhelming, this soon broke up as people were buying in bulk and by early evening the line ups were non-existent.
All in all an excellent night out that wrapped up by 9:30 so those fried forties could get home or get to somewhere with a whopper or Big Mac to soak up the 3 or 4 too many most of us had.
Venue management was pretty good, in fact I'd say I'd not hesitate to go back to another show there with the same number of people, food, drink and amenities weren't ridiculous at any stage ( bar the drinks line up mentioned above ). The place was well set up, the big tree at the eastern end gave refuge to several hundred as the sun did it's best work and the tables, chairs, umbrellas and mist fans added another option to escape the warmth.
Good times. Saw Dutchy, pity I missed DW....
