Fat As Butter @ NewcastleForeshore (23/10/2010)

Mon 25th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

With a change of venue from Whickam Park back to Newcastle Foreshore for its third year, Fat as Butter was ready to explode and get the locals booties shaking.

As soon as that sea breeze hit and the predicted 29 degree high temperature was thwarted, you could not argue with the location for the festival. And so with dehydration worries gone it was time to hit the bar. The bars were well located, the lines were great and the service was quick, but the rest is hard to be positive about. Fenced in bar areas meant on the spot fines for alcohol outside these areas and the 180 police involved in the day were doing their best to make sure of this. Plus full strength priced mid strength alcohol was the order of the day and when you paying $9 for a mid strength rum it’s hard to justify collecting cans for your $1 return.

Children Collide was the early highlight of the day for certain and would have been just as comfortable playing at 6:45pm rather than 2:45pm on the main stage. A lively crowd reacting to a scintillating performance had the multitude of fans bouncing early. Newcastle youngsters are punctual to festivals it seems.

The Beautiful Girls were up next on the main stage with a smooth and calming set, while Horrowshow was ripping it up on the Butter stage, feeling the love from all around and definitely making some new fans. Tame Impala’s set coincided with dinner time for the security guards and 10 minutes of rain, leading to abandoned posts and a flood of punters jumping the barrier and filling the pit just in time to get down with Remember Me and Half Glass Full of Wine. Grafton Primary spread out on the Butter stage next for what was some dance motivating rhythms. These guys need an under 60 policy to keep the hospitals from filling up with hip replacement operations.

As time passed on it was getting harder and harder to ignore the crowd, which was like the BDO without the indie cred. Even a few hipsters would have made my day, but alas it was bogans and teeny boppers as far as the eye can see. I snuck into the mosh area trying to see Muscles only to find myself surrounded by thirty girls up on guys shoulders. With meatheads and teeny boppers surrounding me, I retreated back to the Fat stage. And with The Potbelleez and Sneaky Sound System closing this stage, I vowed not to return.

A large crowd remained at the end of what seemed to be a well received set from Bliss and Eso, sneakily followed by DJ Spin Easy of whom was a ploy by organiser to keep the crowd near the Fat stage until Ice Cube came on for his 75 minute set. After an early distraction caused by a few well practiced break dancers my attention returned to Ice Cube who was moving through his set chronologically. Punters standing on the west side of the crowd felt very welcome as the “west side” was mentioned every five minutes, while anyone to the east must have felt left out. You Can Do It was the most well received song of the set after a less than pleasing rendition of Check Yo Self earlier in the performance. Hello also was a highlight of what ended in a waning set.

Finally Wolfmother tore it up in front of an ever shrinking crowd playing all the favorites. The rain set in and every time I turned to look there were 100 less people. Those 200 of us smart enough to move into the mosh kept warm in what was the surprising highlight of the day, with Wolfmother throwing in covers of The Doors Riders on the Storm and The Who’s Baba O’Riley .

Check out the photos from the festival