Splendour Day Two: The BestBits

Sun 31st Jul, 2011 in Local News

Without a huge headline set from a Kanye or a Coldplay and Jane’s Addiction struggling to draw a crowd to the amphitheatre, the second day of Splendour was one for the newer acts like Foster the People and The Jezabels and local festival favourites like The Grates, PNAU and The Living End.

ZEITGEIST – FOSTER THE PEOPLE

“This is the most people we’ve ever played to outside of home… it’s an amazing feeling!” Foster The People are clearly the band of the moment with everyone in earshot of the Mixup stage dancing and punters attempting to clamber on top of anything available – holders, bins, the tent posts – to get a look at the group. Pumped up Kicks is the undeniable anthem of the day, so much so that it was almost impossible to hear singer Mark Foster over the crowd’s own rendition of the tune. Judging by the ecstatic roars of approval the band could easily return to headline one of our summer festivals.

LOCAL HEROES – THE JEZABELS

It’s been a very good Splendour year for local bands who haven’t even released an album yet – with Boy and Bear and The Jezabels both attracting mighty crowds. The ampitheatre was all but abandoned as punters headed to the GW McLennan tent to hear The Jezabels or, perhaps more accurately, to hear Hayley Mary’s amazing voice. Mona (aka early Kings of Leon without the fame) were left with a small crowd to entertain, with the majority of punters preferring to check out the local act play crowd pleasers including Mace Spray and Endless Summer.

QUEEN OF THE MCLENNAN – REGINA SPEKTOR

Like the Jezabels, Regina Spektor also drew a crowd that suggested that the scheduling could have been tweaked a little with the McLennan unable to cope with the huge turn out of fans. The tent was crammed and sadly the crowd outside could barely hear the very jetlagged singer as her huge crowd drowned out her vocals singing along to On the Radio. The backing beats provided by the Aston Shuffle down on the Mixup stage didn’t help either.

Despite the sound issues, the appeal of seeing Spektor perform her only show for the year was clearly a much bigger attraction than seeing Jane’s Addiction on the main stage – although as one punter sagely noted “it’s not good if you’re peaking”.

NO KIDS ALLOWED – ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN

“Thanks for coming to see the old fogies” Isobel Campbell tells the crowd of 30 somethings who have taken refuge in the GW McLennan tent. There were no hands in the air, just hushed reverence and gentle swaying. It’s the kind of set the shouldn’t work at a festival, but somehow the small crowd worked in the their favour with no one daring to chat over sound of Campbell and Lanegan’s hushed mummer.

The bass of Architecture in Helsinki throbbed up the hill distracting Campbell and forcing the band to postpone the especially mellow Backburner. Campbell laughs that the rivals on the Mixup tent are “probably young hipsters” causing Lanegan to muster his lone comment – a bone dry “They really rock” in reference to the interruption by AiH that leaves no doubt that he’s won’t be rushing out to buy any of their records. Lanegan spares his ancient voice for the songs; he’s a man with a job to do and he does it wonderfully closing the set with the wonderfully seductive Come On Over (Turn Me On).

TURNING SPLENDOUR ON – THE GRATES

Mid way through The Grates’ main stage performance a punter turns to his mate to announce: “I told you she was crazy; that’s why I’m going to marry her.” He’s not the only one lining up to propose to Patience is busy throwing herself around the stage and directing the crowd to clap, cheer and give the middle finger to everyone behind them. She’s clearly been picking up a few band leader tips from their support gigs with the Hives earlier in the week.

Her co-conspirator in all things Grates, John Patterson thrashes away at his guitar and the touring members keep up their end of the deal behind the keyboard and drums, but Patience is undeniably the star attraction. Jumping into the crowd to hype the kids for 19 20 20 she even has to tell of the front row punters for getting a little too affectionate – “don’t lick my legs!”.

CLICK THROUGH TO READ THE MARS VOLTA, THE LIVING END AND JANE’S ADDICTION REPORTS