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!

Coffee, the weekend and a stupid haircut.

You know. It ain't so bad.
Been drinking a fair bit of it lately. I see what people have been going on about all these years. My fear of becoming dependent still looms above me, but I really enjoy it now.
It started as strong short blacks with one sugar, but this morning it was a large strong long black with 3 sugars. I'll be buzzing in a moment. A good thing, coz I was falling asleep on the train.
The weekend was good. Went 'round to Mike's place on Friday night, but didn't get there until late. Bought a bottle of vodka, but didn't drink that much of it. Had two shots of 151, and I guess that was enough. Well, not quite enough, as I still had two mixers, but you know... the 151 was largely enough.
Woah. I feel that coffee kicking in about now.
Anyway. We drank a bit, and then decided to do that lightning-bolt Mohawk that I wanted a few weeks ago. Mike misunderstood my instructions of shaving a lightning-bolt into my head, as shaving a lightning bolt into my head. So it was a kind of reversed Mohawk - although of course nothing like a Mohawk. I might also add that it was shaved in - i.e. with a razor. So the only way for me to get rid of it right now is to razor the rest of my head. But for the moment I'm sticking with it...
So yeah. Really stupid hair... but I kinda like it. You can see a photo of it on my MySpace (link to the side).
After cutting my hair, we rolled up the last of my green (from a few weeks ago), and smoked a fatty. Fun.
Saturday was spent voting (well...), and Saturday night I was to meet up with Tristan, Belinda and Boggle to see Lady Sovereign. Ha. Lady Sovereign. Woah man, I nearly forgot about the double-choc-fudge-brownies that Leanne and I bought while voting! Only $3 for the whole plate! Oh man! It ain't voting day without some kind of cheap, mother-baked goods! We also bought a sausage sizzle. Man. Voting day rules. Holy cow those double-choc-fudge-brownies were tasty. Tasty, melty goodness.
So I met up with Tristan at Bel's place at around 4pm (they paid me out for my hair), hung around there for a wee bit, then went to the Longueville for dinner and a few beers, ran into Belinda's brother there (who paid me out for my hair) then caught a bus to QVB (the Bus driver paid me out for my hair), to catch a cab to The Forum (in the "Entertainment Quarter"). Called Boggle - who was in Bondi - and he said he'd call us when he got in. There was a line outside, so we went to the Fox + Lion for a few more beers. Still full from dinner. The bouncer there paid me out for my hair.
By 9pm we headed in. Security paid me out for my hair. The guy called the others over, and insisted that there was a dress code, and that I wasn't allowed in with hair like that (bastard...). But the ticket lady said that with hair like that I should go to the front of the line. Awesome.
Upon entering, we realised that Lady Sovereign wasn't on until midnight... so more expensive drinks. Silly me bought a jägerbomb and a Soco and Coke for Tristan. $22. Oops. No more jägerbombs for Simon. We stuck to the Smirnoff Blacks from then on (2.1 standard drinks for $9... we figured they were the best value). So Tristan and I got a little drunk. Unfortunately for me though was that I also got broke.
Met up with Boggle in there (ran into Alison at the bar)... thanks for calling, Boggle.
He'd been drinking since 3pm (4pm?), so I guess that's understandable.
The DJ that was on was picking pretty good tunes (some Mickey Avalon, Presets, ODB, among others), so it wasn't terrible. Just 3 hours.
I was messaging Leanne when one of the girls next to me asked to borrow my phone afterward. When I finished messaging her I put my phone away. A little while later she again said that she wanted to borrow my phone, I asked why, and she replied that she wanted to give me her number. Ha. Forward. I talked with her for a bit, and after informing her that I was taken, she informed me that she was a lesbian... ok(?). She also said that she'd recently slept with a guy... ok(?). Strange girl. She was dancing with me (too closely...), so I told her that she was the most forward lesbian I'd ever met. She also said that she thought Belinda was a bit of alright, and told her that. I was messaging awkward messages to Belinda throughout this ordeal. Strange girl. Oh, I nearly forgot! After I told her that I was committed to a girl, she said if my girl and I ever wanted to meet up with her for a drink, that she'd like to do as such. Hmmm.... awkward (?). Oh! And I nearly forgot again! At one point she turned to me (strangely enough after I told her that I was committed) and asked "Are you gay?" and I'm like, "no!" so she asks, "and you've got a girlfriend" and I'm like "yeah," so she replies "So what's with the hair?!" Hahaha. Stupid hair.
So yes. Strange "lesbian."
The concert itself was good fun. Boggle went down to the dance floor for it, but Tristan, Bel and I stayed up in the wings (wings? I don't know what else to call them). Boggle nearly came when she played Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols. He was wearing his Sex Pistols shirt, so when they played it, he got a lift up above the crowd (that "crowd surfing" that is so popular with the youth these days), and showed his shirt to her. She gave him recognition. Awesome.
After the show finished, we ran into Boggle and Co. at the exit, and we decided to go to Bar Broadway for the after party. We caught a cab over, and I spent the last of my money on it. Earlier on in the night I joked to Tristan and Belinda that I would get into a fight over my hair, but then we decided it would be funnier if I got into a fight with a guy wearing a Sega shirt (I was wearing my Mario shirt - along with my usual NES belt buckle). When we were sitting at Bar Browadway, a guy wearing a Sonic The Hedgehog shirt walked by. I pointed him out to Tristan and I said that I had found the guy I had to fight. The guy walked outside and sat down by the window with a mate. Tristan convinced me that I should walk out there and tell him that he was in Nintendo territory. So we both went out and I was like "Mate, what the fuck do you think your doing here? This is Nintendo territory!" I then pointed to Mario on my shirt. The guy was like "Nah, man! I own a Mario shirt too!" I told him he was a traitor. Tristan told him to go across the road with all the other Sega guys. We talked about my buckle for a bit, and whatever else, shook hands in farewell, and went back inside. Funny. I was unsure what the guys reaction was going to be, so I was happy that it was positive.
We lost Boggle at that bar (he was still with his TAFE friends), and we couldn't be bothered paying the $5 entry fee for the official after party. So we just left (I'm unsure if it was 2 or 3am by this stage... I think 2am). Wet to Maccas and then caught a cab back to Tristan/Bel's, and Leanne picked me up and took me back home. I don't want to eat Maccas any more. So seedy. Overall it was an awesome night (although I feel I owe Tristan a fair few drinks).
Sunday I slept-the-fuck-in, but decided to get up by about midday. Then remembered that daylight savings ended, so it was only 11am! Yay! Leanne and I decided to go out for brunch, and by the time we got our shit together, we thought it was good time for pizza. So we went to the nearest Italian restaurant in the Yellow Pages, which was one in East Ryde... or was it North Ryde... I don't remember. We ate an olive pizza and a tasty beef, fetta, capsicum and onion pizza. We ordered enough for leftovers, but we only left 2 pieces...
I was due to meet Nat at about 5pm, and seeing that I was still buggered from the night before, we just went home afterward (boring), so I could have a nap.
Got to Nat's at about 5:30pm (thanks for the lift, Lilly! Much appreciated), and just shot the shit there for a while, and then walked into Chatswood for Chinese. Pretty tasty actually. Not mind-blowing, but passable.
Shot the shit in Chatswood, then walked back to Nat's place and shot more shit. Leanne came around to pick me up at around 9:30pm, but we all stayed until about midnight telling stories. Fun. I like Nat. Always has a good story to tell... although he confirmed what I had suspected for some time, and that is that he doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good yarn. It's an interesting concept, and one that I've come across before. That you are taking the job of a story teller, and it's largely inconsequential if it actually happened or not. He has a blurred line between reality and imagination... he should write more. He's trying to get me to take a week off work to help him shoot this film, but seeing I don't get paid leave, I'm not so keen to lose $650 helping someone out. Actually he wants me to quit my job and go with him for the ride to the top. Yeah, sorry Nat, not so keen on the movie industry. I'd like to help out when I can though, I just can't afford it right now.
So that was my weekend. I've taken about an hour to write this at work (don't tell my manager), so that's a nice paid bludge.
I wonder what I would have thought about my future self if I could somehow have been shown this blog 7 or 8 years ago. What made me think that was that I buy mixers now, and in year 10 I was fervent that spirits were there to be shot, not mixed. A funny thought to trigger that idea, but it triggered it nonetheless. Am I how I thought I would have turned out? Would I have been happy with where my life is right now? With my actions that got me here? Questions that are probably too ponderous for a Monday morning, when I've already wasted an hour of TCard's time...
Anyhow. Off to work.

Listening to: TZU - Smiling at Strangers (I want to get the double CD version of this album... I'll be miffed if it disappears when I had all intentions of buying it last year...)

The D

Tenacious D time you motherfucker, go!
FUCK YE-EAH!
So last night was the Tenacious D concert. Most awesome. It started out with them lying in their loungeroom and waking to play for us - so it was already a more interesting stage show than last time. Lee himself came out and raided their fridge and smoked a bong with them. Then JB decided that the band needed to move into the 22nd century and go electric.
He said he'd bought an electric guitar that day that some guy had made himself - it was made from tin foil, an extension cord and a toilet seat. Because it was electric, they plugged it into the wall and promptly electrocuted themselves.
They played a video of their descent into hell, where they came across the anti-christ playing guitar, and Colonel Sanders and Charlie Chaplin playing drums and bass. So they started a band.
The screen retreated and revealed hell - complete with 666 drum kit, volcanoes and skulls. They rocked. It was awesome. I ended up to the side of the stage because it was easier for Leanne to see, and was pretty close. I took a heap of photos (my zoom rules), but the camera had trouble focussing in the poor light... which sucks. It may have had to do with the batteries being near dead, too.
Ben and I finished work at 4pm so that we could get on the drink before the show. Poor Josh wasn't going to come to the show - the Tenacious Triangle would be incomplete.
I met up with Leanne after work, and the three of us headed to the Strawberry Hills hotel for happy hour - and what a happy hour it was.
Before this though, we stopped at a newsagent to get the stuff necessary for a kickass Tenacious D sign. We made it at the pub, and added authentic beer stains. Awesome. It read "I poisoned your wine!" and had a goblet as the Y, with a demon hand holding it, and a pitchfork + pentagram exclamation mark. It was fuggen kickass. I will try and post a photo today.
We also had a quick go on the pokies, but only lost money.
I called the rest of the gang (Jon, Helen and Boggle) and decided to meet them at the Captain Cook hotel (I'd already arranged to meet Ross and his roommate Chris there).
So we hopped in a cab and headed over. The cabbie was a champion. Had a great conversation with him about food, heat and sex. Funny guy. We thanked him and gave him a tip in gratitude.
Shortly after we arrived there, Ben recieved a call from Josh; he was coming. Fucken A. This meant Ben had to run over to the Hordern and buy a ticket though. So off he went. He was fucken puffed. But he got one! And more than that, they sold out just behind him! Just in the nick of time, Josh! Awesome. The triangle was complete!
We all grabbed a steak there (I realise more and more why I don't enjoy steak), and headed in.
And the rock began...
On other news, I shaved my head last week (a number 2). I reckon it looks awesome. Almost every Summer I think about it because of the heat, and this time I finally decided to go ahead with it - and I'm totally happy with it. Showering is easier, sleeping is easier, putting on headphones is easier, getting ready is easier, swimming is easier, having the window down in the car is easier. Generally, it's all good. Stoked. I had all intentions of growing it all back, but because of the simplicity it brings, I'm less sure now. I'll see as it happens.
I'm late for work. I was buggered after The D last night, so I slept in an hour, and now I'm late. As I walked up to the station the express train arrived and left, and I'm now on the stop-at-every-station-wait-at-every-station-coast-between-every-station-take-longer-than-any-train-should 8:45am service from West Ryde, and I'm fekkin late. I thought I'd get in (late) at 9:15am, but it's now that time and I'm only at Redfern. Lame.
So this is all I can be bothered typing right now.
Later!

Listening to: train noise. This is the very reason you folk got this post; I left my bag at the office so that I didn't have to carry it to The D. Because of that I have no iriver, and no book. So I turned to my blog for entertainment.
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Edit o'clock... here is a pic of our sign: