Golden Plains

We've scrubbed the dirt and grime from our top weekend at Golden Plains away, but the memories remain. What a brilliant festival - a big friendly love in. There's just the one stage with a great view no matter where you set down (and you can move smoothly to the front if you've got business with the band that's on), you can take your own booze in, the food places don't rip you off and use recyclable containers (though there were plastic forks), there's good access to drinking water and the composting toilets are brilliant - there's never a queue, and, possibly because of their green innovation, the masses are respectful of them and I never found one that was soiled or sans papier (quite an achievement for a festival dunny). It's not as hyped and hard to access as Meredith, and it pisses all over the Big Day Out for all the reasons outlined above and more. A pictorial for your edification:

















The first day was slow and relaxed, after a bit of a red-faced slog to put up the tent and sort ourselves out. The enigmatic Iron and Wine was the first act we had any inclination to see, having half-watched the Triple J fodder of British India from a safe distance on a log.


















The utterly captivating Jens Lekman and band. At times Jens looked like he was tearing up from the sheer beauty of his music. And who can blame him. I accidentally messed with the settings on my camera at this point (yeah, great timing Sue) and all my pics from this point on were a different size. Spewing, because they were some of the best images I took. The Jens crowd was mellow and friendly, and his set was a delight.
































I just had to photo-stalk Jens's drummer - she was strikingly beautiful. She reminded me of the late French actress Marie Trintignant, who had similarly strong, yet fine, features, only she was brunette. Just look at her! Of course, she got an enormous cheer when Jens introduced the band. We correctly picked her as one of Jens's Swedish contingent (tough call), though there were Aussies in the band too, and he has toured with locals before. It's good to know he will soon be local himself and be able to make himself available for gigs regularly.


















Ahhhhh.... the preternaturally talented Zach Condon/Beirut and his band of brothers (and a sister on the violin). His set was a big party and he drew screams from the young girls in the crowd every time he did his little mock-flamenco/Jagger two step between stints on the trumpet and the ukelele, to our surprise - Balkan folk music goes global!

















Even the bogans were getting into it. It's understandable - I was drawn to his music long before I knew what he looked like, but his cute-as-a-button look - the chocolate mop falling into powder blue eyes - is an undeniable draw card for those fans who might need visual cues. When I saw the huge crowd gathered for him I couldn't help but feel, though only momentarily, that familiar teenage pang of loss that he's become so huge. Silly really. He deserves it - he and Jens are a welcome augmentation to the trad band archetype typified by acts like The Panics (solid as they were) and The Vines.

Unfortunately the soundcheck was a bit of a shmozzle (it's hard when there's an eight piece band sporting instruments not usually found at a rock festival) and they had a lot of technical difficulties. Which makes me wish I'd grabbed some tickets to the side show at the Corner on Tuesday, which is now sold out. If anyone wants to offload some (and you'd be crazy to), please let me know!


















Our campsite. I don't know the people in the photo, but I heard the guy say 'Maybe The Vines will make up for Beirut' after Beirut's performance and wondered if we were at the same gig. I mean, The Vines? Make up for Beirut? Bah... obviously not ALL the bogans got it...




We also sat in on Ween and Buffalo Tom for old times' sake. But (refreshingly, for someone who has been recycling the heroes of her youth for a very long time) the young maestros had the day.