Playground Weekender @ Del RioResort, Wisemans Ferry(17-20/02/2011)

Mon 28th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Five years in, the drive to Playground Weekender still brings with it a giddy feeling of anticipation. As the crawl of Pennant Hills Road gives way to the fields and farmhouses, the drudgery of the working week recedes from view. Every year since 2007 I’ve felt that woozy sensation as Old Northern Road begins to wind down to Wisemans Ferry. Once stationed in the pub’s garden overlooking the Hawkesbury River, you’ve got no doubts about the difference between a festival and a Weekender.

Unfortunately for anyone arriving on Friday afternoon, the blissful reverie doesn’t last long. With Caribou’s 6:30pm slot the first must-see on many itineraries, the queue to board the ferries for Del Rio Resort is dispiritingly long. Everyone is laden with bags, Eskies and camping paraphernalia, and security is determined to give each item a thorough going-over. For many, the wait in the stifling heat stretches over four hours. It’s enough to leave you broken before it’s even begun.

Thankfully, the ferry’s slow crawl along the Hawkesbury has a therapeutic effect. Angling away from the dramatic ridge behind, you pass car ferries, ski-park lodges and lone houses on the riverbanks. Then the capsule of the Slingshot ride rockets into the air above the tree-line. It’s good to be back.

After three Labradors have given you the all-clear, it’s high time to make a beeline to the mainstage (via a bar, naturally) for Caribou. There’s a celebratory buzz in the air as Dan Snaith and his three pastel-clad band members take up their instruments. The spark of the Caribou live show owes something to the way the players and their instruments are huddled in close formation at centre stage. While not as visually striking in the afternoon light as it is in a darkened club, it’s still a thrill to see the four players fire into life as one propulsive unit.

It’s a perfectly-pitched set-list for the occasion, too. The precise drumming of Brad Weber keeps a danceable pulse throughout, which is only amplified when Snaith joins in on a second kit. The ecstatic house keys of Hannibal build into a virtuosic jam complete with duelling drums, while later the psychedelic swirl of Swim sends a field of hands skywards.

From here, it’s straight to the Big Top for Caribou’s touring partner Four Tet. With ‘under the sea’ themed decorations adorning the dance tent, the Londoner gets busy on his laptops and controllers. While he’s not going to rival Snaith and co. for presence, Four Tet’s music is entertainment enough. Far more four-four focused than what we saw from him in 2009, the set draws largely on There Is In Love In You, with added bottom-end. There’s a tent-wide cheer as the bass drops in Love Cry and the gathered throng remains on-side for each twist and turn across the 90 minutes.

With the colour seeped out of the sky, the next migration seems to be in the direction of the mainstage for Cut Copy, leaving a sparsely-populated Big Top for Andy Fletcher. His barrage of dated electroclash and ravey remixes is a curious follow-on from Four Tet, but any set with a smattering of Depeche Mode classics can’t be all bad. It comes close though.

The reception is warmer for Cut Copy on the mainstage, who now look every bit the headlining act. It’s all hyperactive lighting and grandiose synths, which seems to be just what the revellers are after. That same euphoric vibe is strangely absent from Ewan Pearson’s closing set in the Big Top. His tech-house selections seem serviceable enough, but the soundsystem is not holding its end of the bargain. That said, a Ewan Pearson set without enough volume still beats the guy playing Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You at The Shack.

A Tricky performance can go several ways – occasionally mesmerising, often frustrating – and tonight on the mainstage his volatile presence doesn’t translate as it might in a low-ceilinged room. Stalking the shadows while his vocalist Francesca Riley keeps busy, the frontman isn’t much interested in a feelgood farewell. He does, however, incite a commendable stage invasion.