Muddled in its marketing and shifted from venue to venue, night two of the Best of V Festival in Adelaide turned out to be a worthwhile occasion, despite the thin crowd.
The first thing noticeable on arrival at the Entertainment Centre, for a show featuring four bands all capable of selling out a stand-alone Adelaide gig, was the abundance of car parks. There was, as many attendees would have subsequently exclaimed to friends, no-one there.
It was an even starker sight inside the venue, which had been compressed and curtained off as much as possible but still felt near empty. With that in mind, it was hard not to feel for The Rapture, who shuffled onstage at 6pm for what must have seemed like a pre-show soundcheck. Their set was brief, about 35 minutes, and unsurprisingly lacking in atmosphere. That is not to say the band themselves struggled, it was simply a case of guys trying to fill an empty arena with their sound, something did not quite manage. Not helping things was the group’s status as one of those “former buzz bands”, like The Vines, *The Stroke*s or any other turn of the century collective starting with “the”.
The Rapture’s perfunctory exit left the stage clear for a current buzz band, though one that has been labouring under that title for the better part of a year now. Gnarls Barkley are essentially a duo – hotshot producer *Danger Mous*e and soul singing hurricane Cee-Lo provided the lion’s share of the slightly off-kilter delights to be found on their album St Elsewhere – but on the road they become a 10 or more piece band with a penchant for dress-ups. Perhaps in a nod to Lleyton Hewitt (or perhaps not) they took the Adelaide stage in tennis drag, Cee-Lo announcing himself by lobbing some balls into what was be now a growing but still sluggish crowd as the band played We Are The Champions. What followed was a ragged but good natured rendition of most of St Elsewhere, which showcased a vertible mess of instrumental mixtures and climaxed with the happy one-two punch of Crazy and Smiley Faces. Cee-Lo introduced the former by saying: “This song is what I like to call an instant classic … it’s the song that’s made me rich and set me up for life”. While a trace narcissistic, it was comment that explained the group’s tired look: who needs sleep when the world wants to congratulate you on writing a great pop song?
Next up were Groove Armada, who, it quickly became clear, should have been headlining the show. They too looked slightly under the weather, but a 70 minute set was characterised by decent sound, better lighting and the most excited crowd of the night. It is now more than four years since founders Tom Findlay and Andy Cato released the disappointing but still strong-selling Lovebox, and the set was more a collection of greatest hits than anything else, including My Friend, Easy, At The River, and the inevitable Fatboy Slim-styled version of I See You Baby. Criticism that Findlay and Cato are more synthesists than artists, peddling a garden variety of dance and electronica for the safe market, are valid, but that does not detract from the their shows, which demonstrate why undemanding dance can still be great when pounded through big speakers.
Exiting the stage around 9.40pm, Groove Armada left the Pet Shop Boys’ roadcrew with little time to set-up, as the Entertainment Centre works to a rough 11pm curfew. They succeeded in allowing to make the stage shortly before 10, by which time the crowd had again shrunk, betraying the fact that most of the crowd (which was no more than 2000 at its plumpest point) had simply driven to Hindmarsh for their regular chart dance fix, put their hands in the air a few times, and left again. Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant and an assortment of dancers were faced with a gathering that kept shrinking throughout their set. Fortunately for those who stayed, the duo were the most oblivious of everyone to the small turnout, and pushed through song after song of post-ironic and heavily processed pop. Though dated and thin when lined up against Groove Armada, their sound retains its capacity to entertain, and those who did not particularly enjoy the camp visuals could always listen with their eyes closed. Together now for 26 years, Tennant and Lowe are certainly ageing, the vocalist’s hair now white and the keyboardist’s famous bored visage now looking a little tired as well. But they know who they are and, even at a show that offered them little, still performed with gusto. If there was a hint of karaoke about the closing performance of signature cover Go West, no-one complained.
“Photo Gallery”: http://photos.fasterlouder.com.au/sa/Best_of_V_Festival_Night_1_001/
