The Great Escape

Holy shit.
Big Day Out is dead to me.
The Great Escape is without a doubt, the best goddamn festival I've ever been to. The fucking best.
Why?
No lines. Anywhere. I didn't have to line up for more than 2 minutes for a fucking thing. Not food, not drink, not toilets. Fucking fantastic.
It wasn't crowded. At EVERY stage there was room to move. And that isn't because we were far away from the stage.
A view of every stage. The main stage was on a hill, so that every person could see it, no matter how far back they wanted to be. This is the best idea ever (and what makes the smaller stages at BDO so good).
Atmosphere. What a wonderful atmosphere. It was the perfect example of the festival vibe. There were people everywhere dancing, grooving, entertaining, smiling, sharing, caring. Fantastic. Everyone was my friend.
More than music. There was so much to do! Crazy art shows, cabaret, markets, workshops (of a kind), even a day spa! Fantastic.
Parking. It was no trouble to get there, no trouble to get a parking spot, no trouble to leave. Fantastic.
Perfect timetabling. Some acts played twice, and the stages were set up so that very few acts actually overlapped. So fuck you Good Vibrations, THAT is how you timetable a festival (for those of you that don't understand my reference here, Good Vibrations timetabled the 4 biggest draw cards to the event in competition with each other. I emailed them and complained, and they said that any festival has to have timetable clashes... so fuck you Good Vibrations, no they fucking don't).
3 days of pure fucking bliss.
Thank you, Great Escape.
It is here that I might add that I have created a flickr photo set to cover the events. Check it out at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jademonkee/sets/72157600058401673/
I might also add that I will be uploading a lot more photos to flickr (for the benefit of my overseas readers) as it is the easiest way to get my photos from my phone to my blog.
But onto a brief run-down of the events:
Ben and Carly met up with Leanne and I at our West Ryde abode around about midday on Friday. They were to stay with us for the duration of the event.
We were planning on getting in there around about 12:30pm/1pm, but didn't end up getting in there until later... 2pm maybe? I don't really remember. We thought we'd get in before the acts we really wanted to see started so that we can get an idea of the layout of the festival, as well as get a feel for the vibe.
The reason we arrived later was that we decided to have a bit to drink, and also decided to shave my head again... although a little less extremely than last time. Ben shaved in a question mark and the letters TGE. But because I couldn't find my pack of razor heads, and I didn't want my head shaved with a blunt razor, it was only shaved in on a "number 1," so it was actually barely visible. Possibly/probably a good thing.
Leanne drove us in, and parking was no trouble, although in my haste, I didn't pick the best way in... but that wasn't a real problem anyhow.
Once we arrived we met up with Ross, Linden, Tommy and Monique, and had a general walk around before seeing Kaki King at 3pm. She wasn't bad... but better on CD (or more to the point, better on MySpace, as that was the only place we'd heard her before). She finished at 4pm, and not being interested in Ben Kweller, Leanne, Ben, Carly and I wandered around before Rastawookie were to start at 4:40pm. During that time we visited the markets, and I bought a new beanie (as seen in the photos) and two button rings for Leanne, and Ross bought a beanie and a hemp jacket. Markets are awesome.
Rastawookie were totally cool, mang! They finished at 5:40pm, and next up was Blue King Brown at 6:20pm. They were totally cool, too! In fact, those two bands were probably the highlights of the whole festival. Yes. Totally cool.
So from Blue King Brown, it was off to Hilltop Hoods, and after them it was a short wait until Wolfmother. During that wait I grabbed some "Himalayan" food. Nice! Butter chicken, potatoes, noodles and rice for $8. Although not a large portion, it was tasty and expected value for a festival.
We left before Wolfmother finished (having heard them a few times before, and having seen almost nothing new in their show... although they did play a new song - which wasn't too bad - it still wasn't enough to hold our attention). On our way back to the car, Leanne and I caught sound of some fresh beats emanating from a shed, and had to go dance for a little while. So funky. So fresh. But we didn't stay too long (not wanting to keep Ben and Carly waiting), and headed off home shortly after. Alas, staying back to dance for those few moments meant that Wolfmother had finished their set by the time we went to leave, and most people were leaving with us. But, despite the crowd, it didn't take too long to leave, so that was nice.
Having exhausted ourselves from a day of groovin, we retired to bed shortly after getting home, ready for a full day at the festival tomorrow.
We didn't drink so much before hand the next day, but were late because we decided to watch the Tenacious D movie and pick up some green for all the dub/reggae that the festival was playing. So we rolled a few blunts, and were ready for a new day.
We arrived at about 2:30pm, which landed us in there during Bob Evans' set (the whingy motherfucker from Jebediah), so we had to do our best to ignore him. Unfortunately, arriving this late meant that we missed King Tide (who were playing at 1:20pm), so that was a shame. We used the spare time between our arrival and Coda playing at 4pm to go explore the markets, where I bought a CD, Leanne bought a DVD, and we bought some badges too. Oh! And Channel V interviewed me for a filler segment! So keep your eyes peeled on the What You Want segment for me requesting "She's my Man" by Scissor Sisters (I wanted Cemetery Gates by Pantera, but I had to choose off of a list they gave me). So that was pretty cool. They asked me what was the strangest thing I'd found at a festival, and I said I'd found my virginity... I'd say that it has probably already been played by now, so I don't know if I'll ever see that segment.
Anyway, Coda were awesome. Despite the fact that Leanne and I headed out of the tent for a bit to sit under a tree (it juts seemed more suitable), and despite the fact that it rained, and we had to go back into to the tent. If you're looking through the photo set that I linked to above, you will see the "robotic" elephant that appeared during their set, as well as the porcelain doll woman that was doing the rounds. She wasn't just dressed like one, she was walking and acting like one. It was awesome. You will also see the children playing with bubbles that I thought were so wonderful. It was reasons like that that really set that festival apart from all the others I'd been to. It was just such a great fucking festival. And Coda were fucking great. Their album is definitely on my "to get" list.
A brief wait and then onto Ziggy Marley.
He was cool, and played a few of his Dad's tunes (which was nice), but Leanne and I left to go to the toilet, and didn't realise it was so late, because by the time we were done, it was just about time for Lee "Scratch" Perry to start (and Ziggy to finish). Lee was awesome. Funny old bastard. He wore the craziest get up of the festival (so many necklaces, rings and badges), and has such a funny bubble voice. Rubadudadub! At the end of the show he invited some people up onto stage, and about 50 people ended up joining him on stage. You can get a good idea of how many people there were in the photos on the flickr page I linked above.
Leanne and I totally didn't want to see Missy Higgins, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the Hare Krishna stall. Fucking goddamn it was tasty. $10 for the Krishna feast, and it was a fricken feast. I also bought an incense burner from them, and Leanne bought a bag. But yes, the Krishna food was awesome. $10 bought you rice, a vege curry, 3 kofta balls with chutney and Halava (It looked most like the one down the bottom). Man. So tasty. In fact, it was so tasty and consuming and relaxing, that rather than walking to the other side of the festival to see The Bird, Leanne and I just sat and revelled in our dinner. I kinda regret that. The Bird were meant to be awesome. But man. Such tasty food. Suffice to say that I went there for dinner the next night too.
So we sat and continued to revel in our food until John Butler started, then we met up with Ben and Carly again, and watched the Trio play. Having exhausted ourselves from smoking and dancing, Ben, Carly, Leanne and I headed home after 10pm. When we got home, Ben entertained us with some tunes on his guitar, and we chilled for a bit before heading to bed... ready for the 3rd day of bliss.
Lou Rhodes was the first act on that we cared about, so we planned on getting there at about 1pm, but even after our Easter Egg hunt in the back yard, and taking it easy in the morning, we still arrived Early enough for some Ryan Shaw and a slow amble via the markets over to the Riverside for Lou Rhodes. On the way I bought a totally hot fork ring from the same guy I bought my spoon rings from at Big Day Out. $10 goddamn dollars and it's a work of fucking art. Jangling Jack rules.
This is the ring:


Lou Rhodes had a strange atmosphere; everyone was sitting down (with the exception of one couple up against the barrier standing, and 3 people dancing - including one space cadet... I'm not entirely sure he knew what he was dancing too, or even that he was at a music festival). But it was a wonderful show, and I look forward to seeing her play again tomorrow night at The Forum. She's a cool gal. And she played Gabriel! I love that song! You can see her in the photos.
There was a fair bit of time before anyone we knew were to play, so we decided to go see White Buffalo or The Fumes (with Ross, Linden, Tommy and Monique), but ended up gettign Turkish Coffee instead. Deeelicious.
The next group to play were the Lemonheads at 3pm, but they weren't very good, and the guy was a tool. So we left that to go see Fat Freddy's Drop. Now THEY kicked ass. That Trombonist... Godlike. You can see his funky shit in the photos I linked to above. And of course, we smoked a bit for them. After Fat Freddy's there was a bit of a wait before Gomez, so Ross, Leanne and I headed over to the Riverside again to go see Floggin Molly. I had a smoke here too. They were really cool, but three days of concert going meant that I couldn't be fucked heading up front, or even standing. So I just drank a beer and had a smoke and enjoyed listening. Because of my level of relaxation, and enjoyment for Flogging Molly, I wasn't bothered to catch the entire Gomez set. But I did catch them, and they were good. But because of the time of night and the distance to the stage, the pictures didn't turn out very well.
Coming up after Gomez were a fucking kickass cool band called Gogol Bordello - a kind of Gypsy punk rock band. I was really excited to see them (having heard their "Start Wearing Purple" on MySpace. So we headed down there, to hear the funk of Booker T and the MGs... not the Gypsy punk I was expecting... this was a cover band. They then started playing some Blue Brothers tracks, and while not bad, they weren't Gypsy Punk Rock. Turns out Gogol Bordello cancelled their Australian tour. Could I get any more disappointed. Well, I didn't, so I suppose that's a good thing. So instead of listening to covers, Ben, Carly, Leanne and I headed off to see Waiting for Guinness. Ross had already done so a few minutes beforehand, but we couldn't see him when we got there. They were cool. They got a lot cooler when they started playing jewish-like dance music. Ben and Carly went off to have dinner, and Leanne and I stayed for a few more minutes until a toilet break called us away. We then grabbed dinner. And couldn't find Ben and Carly anywhere. Ben's phone was off, and I don't have Carly's number, so things weren't looking good.
Luckily Leanne and I ran into Linden, Tommy and Monique, so we hung with them for a bit. That "bit" took us down to the Riverside to see Fishbone. We met Ben and Carly down there after Carly called me. Man, what an intro. The guy was preaching about white people, stereotypes, rock music, racism, blah blah blah... he lost most of the audience, and when it started into some strange jazz number, Linden, Tommy, and Monique left. Just after they left
it became more interesting (good drummer), and more rock-like (which made more sense with his opening speech). But it began to rain, and Ben and Carly had to go down south to visit Ben's parents, so we left. We stopped off at the Tin Shed before leaving and caught two songs by a band called The Temper Trap (who were totally cool), and because of the time, decided to see what The Roots were like. Not very good. So we left.
Our festival had come to an end.
And it was truly wonderful. Best festival of my life. So goddamn good. Full fucking points, guys. I can't wait until next year.
Big Day Out used to be the best day of the year, but due to increasing price, increasing demand, and increasing crowds, it just isn't as good as it used to be. So from now on, it is the Great Escape that shall be the highlight of my year. It truly is what festivals are meant to be.
I loved it!