Gig: Groovin The Moo

Silverchair, Vampire Weekend, Empire of the Sun, Grinspoon, Tegan & Sara, Spoon, Lisa Mitchell, British India, Miami Horror, Kisschasy and more come to Canberra. What the? How did this happen? Turns out there is benefit to being the bush capital, because it let us sneak into the 'regional' Groovin the Moo festival.

I was really impressed with the organisation of the festival. Two stages next door to each other meant for quick band changes, and minimised waiting around between sets. There were massive numbers of bar staff (no drink queues), massive numbers of catering staff (no food queues), and plenty of urinals (no wee queues, at least for guys). The only improvement I would suggest would be designated spray-painted walking lanes on the grass where people aren't allowed to sit to make moving around easier.

The lineup was the best we have seen in Canberra for years (sorry Stonefest). So who was good?

Highlights for me were Vampire Weekend (best of the festival), Tegan & Sara, Spoon, Miami Horror, and Kisschasy. Empire of the Sun were a big disappointment - they had awesome costumes, dancers, and graphics (see right, thanks to saimagery.1 on flickr for the photo), but didn't really connect with the crowd.  Even their big hits fell flat.

Similarly, Silverchair were pretty ordinary.  They played all their old songs terribly - adding boring self-indulgent solos into the middle of them.  They played good versions of songs off Young Modern, which rescued the set from disaster. Of course I would have liked them much better if Daniel Johns hadn't opened his mouth between songs, but that goes without saying.

By the time Silverchair took to the stage the temperature had dropped to about 5 degrees.  It was beautifully sunny during the day, but got really cold at night.  There were plenty of people wandering around in singlets, shorts, and thongs getting hypothermia (despite substantial beer coats).

Vampire Weekend stole the show with an awesome performance.  They had a giant version of the Contra album cover behind the stage with lights inside the girls' eyes.  Ha!  The chandeliers on the stage were also a cool touch.

Thanks Groovin the Moo, I'll come back next year.  Make sure you come to Canberra.