Splendour In The Grass - Yeah Baby!

Hey there fellow Poppets!

Now whilst I am a Pop fan at heart, and this is my favourite genre of music I do, depite common beliefs, have quite a broad range of music taste. I like anything that makes me feel good, and whilst pop tops the list, I enjoy other things too so here we go....

Ah yes, not only had I never been to Byron Bay...but I had never expereienced the festival legend that is 'Splendour In The Grass'. And I was not disappointed!

The Stand Out Performances: For me were without a doubt Queens Of The Stone Age and the Finn Brothers.

Honourable Mentions: The Living End and Sarah Blasko.

Embarassment of the Festival...Ryan Adams.

I don't get it. Yeah his songs are OK (at best, that is probably being generous), but waht is with the tantrum throwing? From what I hear this is quite a regular occurance. Who does this guy think he is? He is not Elvis or anything, there are surely only so many times you can be rude and chuck a mood before people are going to get fed up. Sorry I should explain...for anyone that was not there, or who has not heard.

He was not happy with the sound at the festival (which is fair enought, festival sound is usually far from perfect, but that is no secret). He commented a few times before stopping mid song and asking if was a joke and then left the stage without finishing his set. The following week in Sydney at his gig he refused to continue to play after someone shouted out something along the lines of 'Play Summer of 69'.

Does this guy have a sense of humour? Did he not consider these sort of comments before he put out an album? After all, the fantastic and very talented BRYAN Adams has been around for a very long time, the joke was always going to be there to be made.

As for his sound issues, I fail to see how this is the audiences fault and how storming off is fair to the people that may have paid to come to the festival to see him (as unbelieveable as this concept is to me, apparently this moron is quite popular).

Enough of this. Back to the positive stuff...I could bitch about this idiot for hours!

Bands like The Living End never fail to impress me. They have so much energy live and the crowds just love them. They play with so much enthusiasm and you can tell they are enjoying themselves...makes a nice change from the snivelling whinger mentioned above.

The Finn Brothers almost seemed surprised by their response from the crowd. It is nice to see people being humble in an industry full of such egos. I heard on the grape vine that organiseres were hesitant to include the Finn Brothers on the bill...I'll bet they are glad they decided to give them a go!!!

Ah, my good mate Josh and fellow Queens of the Stone Age-ers. I must admit that I was a little unconvinced after my first few listens to 'Lullabies To Paralise' but I get it now after seeing some of the songs live. The band is deffinitely different without Nick Oliveri, but I don't think they are necessarily better or worse without him. The new albumis less edgey and rough sounding, but there are still some classic Queen's stuff in their. They still have a very distinct sound, and blow you away with their live sound.

I also experienced The Hilltop Hoods for the first time at Splendour. I am not sure that I would necessarily buy their album, but I will see them live again for sure. Certified! Hell yeah!

Thats about all my ramblings for today, I've kept you long enough!

Pop on!

Pop Princess xo