I was looking forward to this, not least because it'd be the first out and out rock show that I'd been to in ages - more than a year, I think (the last one that I can remember was Pretty Girls Make Graves/Les Savy Fav in late '04 - or, I suppose, St Jeromes itself in early '05). Also, last year's festival was a nice day out - good music, relaxed atmosphere, and filled with friendly people who were there for the music (lots of familiar faces scattered through the crowd).
There was a similar vibe this year, though the festival's grown larger with the addition of a second stage and the presence of more international acts (more acts full stop) - the crowd was friendly and largely free of attitude, and there was a good buzz happening throughout the day and into the evening (showered in the morning but the rain had stopped by the time we arrived and weather turned out fine). I went with Penny, and we hooked up with Nenad and Pia in the afternoon, but again there were heaps of other people from around the traps and we met plenty of already familiar others, friends of friends, and random strangers (sadly, we didn't get to talk to the guy who looked like Elijah Wood who seemed to be everywhere we were during the day, but - for me at least - this was partially made up for by meeting a pal of Penny's who was a dead ringer for Kirsten Dunst).
We got there fairly early and so were able to catch the first band, Temper Temper. I hadn't heard of them before, but I liked their style - a take on that current kind of New York by way of England in the 80s post-punk/modern rock and done with panache and some good chops.
Next up were Pretty Girls Make Graves, the biggest drawcard for me. The set was split between cuts from The New Romance and the forthcoming Élan Vital, and I think Penny got it right when she said that the band seemed to enjoy playing the new songs more. While I don't think I could ever tire of hearing them belt out stuff from The New Romance (and wouldn't have minded hearing some Good Health or PGMG stuff, though the recentish substitution of keyboardist Leona Marrs for one of the guitarists, Nathan Thelen, might've made that difficult), it was "The Nocturnal House" and "Selling The Wind" which really stood out as highlights, Zollo's repeated calls of "magnetic" on the former and the accordion base of the latter ringing out clarion clear down the lane.
As far as I can remember, the set went something like this (very approximately): "Blue Lights", "Chemical, Chemical", "The Nocturnal House", "The New Romance", "Pyrite Pedestal", "The Grandmother Wolf", "Pictures Of A Night Scene", "Selling The Wind", "This Is Our Emergency", "All Medicated Geniuses"...it was a good show but, as was the case last time they came down, I was surprised by how few people seemed to know their stuff (something also reflected in their early positioning in the festival set list) - I mean, they're only probably the best rock band in the world at the moment! (Well, maybe apart from Radiohead, who are in a bit of a different category - not necessarily higher, but definitely different.)
Then Wolf and Cub, another band which was completely new to me (though I've heard the name a bit recently, especially since they signed to 4ad). Turns out that their thing is a fairly heavy, psychedelic stoner-rock jam type thing (reminded me a bit of Kyuss), and even though that's completely not my thing, I enjoyed the set, though the best moments for me came when they broke into a more garagey rock n roll groove, riffs and a backbeat.
Faker played next - yet another who I didn't know anything about. Apparently they've had quite a lot of airplay, though, and the crowd was getting into them plenty. The singer was a scrawny ball of energy, hurling himself around stage (also hanging off it and scaling a wall beside it), intoning his lyrics in that Echo & the Bunnymen-styled Britpop/post-punk manner so popular nowadays, and the music draws on similar influences. One or two of the songs sounded vaguely familiar, as if I might have heard them on triple j or something, and they do a pretty good line in anthems; they seemed like a pretty solid outfit.
Sometimes it seems as if everyone with even a passing interest in music has seen Augie March except for me, so I was glad to see them play. The music wasn't carrying that well to where we were standing at that point, but it seemed pretty good (I've only ever listened to Sunset Studies, and even that one not all that closely) and I might try to check them out again some time.
In between some of those main stage acts, we'd gone into Lounge to check out Dane Tucquet and Holly Throsby, but the sound wasn't great and you needed to be very close in order to hear properly, so I didn't get much of a vibe on either, but I was keen to see New Buffalo, so we left halfway through Augie March in order to get inside early and grab a spot on the floor down the front (the staggering of the sets on the two stages was way out of synch by that time). Happily, she was able to overcome the crummy acoustics and murmur of conversation from the back of the room to deliver a really good set. She switched between keys and guitar from song to song, with help from a guy on either samples or guitar for a few of the numbers; it was mostly off The Last Beautiful Day (show closer was "I've Got You And You've Got Me", accompanied by rather too loud distorted electric guitar, à la the ep version) but "Four Seasons In One Day" got a big reaction from the crowd and there was at least one new song, which was good (as well as one or two others that I didn't recognise). Last time I saw her live, I was surprised by how strong her voice is, and it struck me again yesterday at the festival; also, how much she was able to rely on it with fairly minimal instrumentation...
The Broken Social Scene set was already well underway by the time we got out into the lane again, but I was pretty impressed by what I caught of it. I didn't get into You Forgot It In People anywhere near as much as other people seemed to, but songs like "Almost Crimes" and "Cause = Time" came through strongly, hitting the indie anthem buttons more strongly than they do on record (one of the newer ones, "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement", was also good); sadly, they started "Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl" but pulled out after just a few lines after realising that the acoustics of the lane were basically destroying the song. Also, props to them for bringing a brass section!
Les Savy Fav are another of those bands that I think I don't really have the ear for - I've never listened to a full record of theirs, but have heard plenty of their songs and never been excited by what they do...the kind of jerky three-piece attack that they ply generally leaves me a bit cold, though once in a while I 'get' one a bit more than the rest. They know how to put on a good show, though, the big, balding, bearded singer getting up to all kinds of things on stage while bawling out the words, and also going on two separate excursions deep into the crowd (the girl standing next to me had a go at tickling his belly but he just put the microphone in her face for her to sing), exhorting people to sing along.
Then, for the second year running, I didn't stay for the Avalanches set (although, this time, I at least stuck around for the start of it) - by the time they got started, a decent sit-down dinner somewhere was looking pretty good (getting soft in my old age), so we headed off.
Anyway, although there wasn't any one band that really blew the top of my head off in the way that the Dears did last year, it was fun and hopefully they'll be able to keep the festival going in years to come (I heard that tickets sold out well in advance, which is a good sign)...
