Festivals According toWolfmother

Wed 4th Jun, 2008 in Features

Surely one of the most sought-after festival bands to come out of Australia, Wolfmother knows a thing or two about working massive crowds. The band has been a little quiet of late, but frontman Andrew Stockdale emerged from studio lockdown to give us his verdict on the best and worst of festivals.

What is your fave festival to attend?
The Isle of Wight was pretty cool. After the show I played Frisbee with Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh. Something about this guy can turn any event into an instant circus, so the place turned into some kind of acid-induced, B-grade Italian art film without subtitles. Before this we had about 80,000 people with their hands in the air clapping along to Joker and the Thief, which blew my mind. To me it wasn’t a festival; it was a pilgrimage. It was a wonderful opportunity to take our vision of rock’n’roll to a place where the heart and soul of rock ‘n’ roll was first magnified and felt by thousands of people, with bands like the Stones, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. I also got to see Donovan play Jenifer Juniper, which was a total trip after calling my daughter Juniper about one and a half years before this show.

Your best festival moment?
Arthurfest. Whilst we were recording the first album we were asked to play Arthurfest, a festival for Arthur magazine. There were about 10 to 15 thousand people there. Sonic Youth headlined the night that we played; the next night Yoko Ono closed the festival. I saw Devendra Banhart wearing some kind of biblical looking crown that added to the vibe. The Black Keys, Dead Meadow, The Winter Flowers, markets, beads, tie dye; the whole thing was in full swing. The event was within a Frank Lloyd Wright Park, so the atmosphere for greatness was set. From the stage you could see all the way from central LA to the Hollywood Hills to Silverlake. We played pretty close to sunset so the atmosphere was ripe. At this point I thought of Jim Morrison’s lyrics “Bloody Red Sunset of Fantastic LA”. I saw it, I felt it, I just took that energy and invoked the spirit of Jim and took it as far as I could. The festival had a dream-like quality. I’m not sure where this mag is at these days, though at that point it was burning bright.

Best and worst bands ever seen at festival?
I remember wandering around the park behind Stadium, where we played a festival of which name I probably should not mention, and all I could hear from the distance was a mash of metal/industrial goth/speed metal/scream metal – the whole thing together – and I thought to myself, “God this sounds like a generation, of unrealised hopes and dreams of a million lost souls on the conveyor belt to musical hell. Why on earth would anyone pay to subject themselves to this aural displeasure?” It sucked to be me at that point.

On the better side of festival experiences, we played Bonaroo in Nashville I think maybe a year ago on the main stage with the White Stripes headlining. I heard the sound of Jack White’s guitar from our dressing room that was about 200 metres away and the room literally shook.

The whole show was the epitome of what the White Stripes are about. Every vintage organ, keyboard, Leslie cabinet, piano, vintage amp, vintage mic – no expense spared and every extravagance fulfilled. Just the stage itself was an accomplishment in design. The performance was absolute controlled chaos, full of manic disorder. He went to the place that he exists within his music and lived it on the stage to the fullest extent – unashamedly. Icky Thump was an absolute triumph in eccentric medieval wonder that makes no sense and has no relevance in any way shape or form to the vacuous hole of modern music, though somehow it manages to obliterate all in its path.

People like this need to exist to put a bomb under the arse of the complacency of the music industry, to remind everyone of the purity and value of an unadulterated artistic vision.

Essential item for festival?
Ears.

Wolfmother play the sold-out Splendour in the Grass on 2 August at Belongil Fields, Byron Bay.