No Sleep Til @ The MelbourneShowgrounds, Melbourne(17/12/2010)

Sun 19th Dec, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Friday saw Christmas come early for the entire naughty list of Melbourne when Australia’s third No Sleep Til, after that of Perth and Adelaide, hit the Melbourne showgrounds. Many were sleepless in anticipation of the new festival and the day proved that they really would have no sleep til the grit, grime, sweat, blood and tears were washed off. Until the bruises faded and the ringing in their ears from the big guy, Fat Mike from NoFX that is, were nothing more than a memory. Dancing sugar plumbs were replaced with hardcore moshing, glasses of warm milk with a chilled beer and as for being safely tucked up in bed, patrons were more concerned with living out their happiest nightmares.

The weather showed true Melbournian hospitality, as international bands were offered the most our city can give, with the day beginning fresh and sunny, followed by patches of rain and later in the day, strong gusts of wind. Many festival-goers were also caught off guard and received added lashings of sunburn to their beautifully coloured Christmas gifts of bruises and injuries from the pit.

The event saw two stages set up, the Red and the Black, with many choosing an alliance to one or other for the majority of the day. Two drinking areas and numerous food vendors were also stationed in-between the stages, waiting time in lines was minimal (with the exception of entry) and toilets and drinking fountains were easily accessible and generally clean. However, there was collective anger concerning the management of drink cards, with patrons needing to purchase a $30 card in order to even buy one drink, many leaving with unused drinks left on the cards.

The timetable revealed small to moderate differences between the line-ups from city to city. Melbourne’s featured less-known bands play first at around 12 noon, like that of Australian Confession and Break Even, then transition through the countries and popularity levels including Katonia, Frenzal Romb, Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies, Dropkick Murphies, A Day to Remember, until the secession of the festival on the high notes of Megadeath and the Descendents, with the festivities finishing up around 10pm.

Confession were first up off the bill on the Black stage, whose members come from nearly every state in Australia. The band were formed in 2008 by Michael Crafter, the band’s vocalist, who lives a straight-edge lifestyle. Despite the undeniable presence of drugs throughout the day, the band proves they are not a necessity to put on a good show.

Preparation for Gwar saw the stage covered in black plastic and bottles of red Gatorade were put out next to towels for each member. Yet Australia could never truly be prepared for Gwar’s first visit down under. Surely some of the time and money invested into Oprah’s visit, should have been put into warning mothers and fathers to lock up their children for safe keeping at home? “Oprah’s a whore,” shouted Oderus Urungus, which was met with adequate applause and cheers. The members of Gwar walked through smoke onto the stage, semi-naked with cheeks protruding either side of their g-strings, and were met with a great reception as they assumed their positions one by one.

“Take all the elements of gross liquid that people have inside of them, you know whether its pus or blood or urine, diarrhoea or congealed seamen … and what were trying to do with Gwar is loosen up a lot of that baggage,” said Urungus in a recent interview with FasterLouder , and loosen up they did. For those brave enough to venture close to the intergalactic space aliens during their performance, they had the sickly pleasure of being sprayed with blood, alien jizz, urine and faeces, branding them as Gwar’s worshipers with the stained colours that would mark them for the remainder of the day. Songs for the set included Let Us Slay, Damnation Under God, Maggots Gor Gor and Sick of you, while Oderus poured red Gatorade onto his massive cuttlefish penis and rubbed it, shouting provocative comments to the woman in the audience.

The band’s costumes were detailed, very well-made and were suited to the melodramas that they acted out ,initiating tremendous crowd involvement. After all sorts of sexual innuendos, they left the crowd with one important question, “doesn’t everyone want a tight koala asswhole?”