Playground Weekender 2010

Review: Q: What did Postman Pat say to the blue Power Ranger?
A: Isn't it nice to just take a weekend off and get on the pills.

Welcome to Playground Weekender. Thousands of Sydneysiders flee the city, don the most ludicrous outfits they can conceive of, see some amazing live music and get super, super loose. All genres, all ages, all right!

Day one: By the time all the transport and camping hoo-ha was taken care of, Friday evening was well under way and OK Go had taken to the main stage. How was the first taste of the weekend's live music offerings? Let's just say that if you cause the coining of a phrase ("OK, no") for everything that sucks about camping, you probably haven't done all that good a job. I would suggest avoiding a mid-set hand bell breakdown if you can't, you know, play the song's melody on hand bells.

There was nothing for it but to take a trip back in time to when things were simpler, a time before that treadmill video clip ruined everything. Enter the Ro Sham Bo Year 10 Formal. At the far end of the venue, over the course of the festival, the full gamut of the dance music spectrum was cranked at full volume from the Melody Wine Bar. Tonight just happened to be the golden years of hip hop and it suited us just fine.

Next up on the Main Stage was Brain Jonestown Massacre and they were suitably pleasing. No tantrums, no on-stage stabbings, just some nice, mellow tambourine rock.  Possibly more suited as atmospheric background tunes than a Friday night headline slot, but judging by the amount of spliff in circulation, it seemed everyone knew how to take it with a pinch of...

Day two: Campers woke on Saturday morning to a blistering summers day. By 8am it was unbearable to stay in our overheated tents, so there was a mass campsite exodus and a beeline for the river. By 5pm it had cooled enough to venture into the full sun of the main stage and Jamie Lidell absolutely killed it during his early evening slot. Lidell managed to turn what was essentially a karaoke act with a chaos pad and some loop pedals into an hour of arms-in-the-air elation.

Just when you thought Lidell's genre was left of centre (funky-soul electronica) out comes Bjorn Again (the ABBA tribute band) and to be frank, they were just bad. Luckily, there was so much on offer at this loopy adult fun fair that the music oftentimes became an afterthought. After seeing a twister board share a Jamaican curry with a cheerleader and an aubergine break dance with a naughty nurse, the shameless seventies cover band seemed a distant memory.

Upon return to the main stage, The Cribs sent plenty of otherwise ecstatic (read ecstasy-at-it) festival go-ers into an hour-long aural purgatory. Looks of desperate confusion and calls of "Why has Johnny Marr (The Smiths, Modest Mouse) done this to me?" ensued. The only good thing about their set was the 20-second snippet of the Twin Peaks theme that played as they took to the stage.

Salvation came with the entrance of The Polyphonic Spree. Burly security guards distributed Indian headdresses to the crowd (mildly culturally insensitive), lead singer Tim DeLaughter emerged with his 22 hippy comrades, and we learnt first hand what happens when 23 instrument-wielding people simultaneously take a tab. It's awesome. 'Light to Follow' and 'Soldier Girl' delighted alongside a few covers before an abrupt "See ya later" from DeLaughter. Thankfully this was not the end. The ensemble returned moments later in full-length white kaftans for a spectacular rendition of Nirvana's 'Lithium'. I'm sure the line "I'm so happy ‘cause today I've found my friends: they're in my head" was all too true that day for many in attendance.
 
Following the Spree it was off to the Sounds Bigtop for the progressive beats of Gui Borato (live). I feel the "live" requires parentheses as I'm still not sure if using Ableton qualifies a producer as playing live. No brackets about the set, however. It was faultless, and the perfect way to end the epic party day.

Day three: Sunday morning was an all-round struggle. Have you ever seen a smurf on the back of an acid trip? It isn't pretty. Gaslamp Killer lifted spirits in the late afternoon on the Soco Carnivale stage with his high energy dup-step, hard rock, hip hop set. We'd highly recommend jumping online and nabbing some tickets to his Civic sideshow on Sat (27th).

The festival's best was most definitely saved till last, as Orbital, our favourite old school ravers, transformed the main stage into Brighton Beach circa 1992. Unlike some of Playground's contemporaries, the sound engineers had nailed the levels (obviously before donning their vegetable outfits and losing their shit completely). The visuals matched Orbital's tracks on the epic front in a manner not dissimilar to Kraftwerk in their slot at last year's Global Gathering. It turns out hard dance and war imagery make you really care about rave. Oh, Playground, I-wish-you-never-had-of-ender! Erin Moy, pix by Jason Catlett