Set List:
Dive For Your Memory
Magic In Here
Head Full Of Steam
The Clock
Was There Anything I Could Do?
Surfing Magazines
Bachelor Kisses
Streets Of Your Town
German Farmhouse
Draining The Pool For You
Bye Bye Pride
Going Blind
Spring Rain
Karen
A bit of a prelude to get the feel...If you were not aware of some of the performers on the day...here are the ones we chose to see, in order......Frenzal Rhomb (for my 12 year old son,really!) Coldplay, Gerling, Killing Heidi, PJ Harvey, Placebo, Powderfinger, Rammstein, Alex Lloyd, Zoo Bombs and The GB's. Others...we had to miss.
Apparently 55 to 60,000 people attended. Other features were... viewing the mud wrestling (some nude), the good old dodgem cars, the skate ramp (providing spectactular antics)and lots of good food.
The Go Betweens were the last act to play at this Australia Day festival, they came on at 11pm and played for an hour straight...their dedicated time. The audience around me seemed to have paced themselves well for this 13 hour day...a bit hard to tell as we were in the front row with only the security and a few cameramen in front of us.It appears the entire show was being taped, probably by Channel V Foxtel.
The GB's played on the Green Stage which was in a gigantic hall. Luckily this hall had the best sound system of the day... especially when comparing against the main arena stages where I found the sound to be very ordinary. I have no idea how many were inside to witness the band, the capacity I would guess being about 6 to 8,000. It was a thrill to see the "The Go Betweens" name on the bass drum again.
A similar set to Wednesday's night at the Enmore... again Robert doing most of the talking and taking centre stage...he's a star! They were in superb form, with Adele and Glenn clicking, once again giving Grant and Robert the extra "in yer face" intensity. It was great to hear Surfing Magazines being played live with audience involvement....some of Grant's songs, eg. Bachelor Kisses and Bye Bye Pride ...you could have heard a pin drop...such was the passion.In the intro to German Farmhouse, Robert declared that this song "defines rock 'n' roll in 2001!" They really ripped it apart with Grant on electric as well. And to finish up on Karen ...well, say no more. They played it with the same urgency, if not more, as they did 15 years ago!
It must be hard for the boys to choose their set at the moment....wanting to satisfy old fans, at the same time, impressing the new. A security chap (guessing he was not familiar with their work) even said to me that he was going out to buy their album.
thanks to Frank Webb for the review