Golden Plains 2018 Review: Ata Kak attacks as Jen Cloher, Kamasi Washington, Perfume Genius and DJs prove it’s not Rocket Science
GOLDEN Plains 2018 Review: Ata Kak attacks as Jen Cloher, Kamasi Washington, Perfume Genius and DJs prove it’s not Rocket Science. Full report by Mikey Cahill.
GOLDEN Plains 12. Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, March 10-12, 2018.
This one went all the way up to 12.
Aunty Meredith, you put on a helluva party, the sound system created its own Boomiverse and nearly everything was on point.
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017 REVIEW
CAHILL GRILL: THUNDERCAT USES WHISKEY FOR CREATIVE VISION
CAHILL GRILL: GLENN RICHARDS CALLS ONE OF HIS BANDMATES ‘DEAD AIR’
CAHILL GRILL: JEREMY NEALE NAMES HIS SECRET HERO
NB: The next Meredith I’d like to be strapped to a River Red Gum (no reach-around, Uncle Doug) so I can’t leave the stage, I can’t pass Go, I can’t spend $200 on Pink Flamingos. Less flitting, more focus. It’s always the way.
That’s why it’d be nice to do Golden Plains twice.
Now Stephen Hawking has gone to the big after-party in the sky maybe he can start working on the Flux Capacitor and drop it off in December to postcode 3333 to ensure we don’t miss a thing (like Barbara Tucker’s scene-stealing dancer).
To describe my review scribblings as a dog’s breakfast would be an insult to every canine reading this in front of their bowl of Pal.
So here goes:
GOLDEN Seeing Perfume Genius, Kamasi Washington, Ata Kak, Jen Cloher and Rocket Science completely ace their sets during the daylight.
PLAIN
All bars running out of Pink Flamingos by 1am Monday mo(u)rning. A Royal Commission has begun.
GOLDEN
Baker Boy into Big Boi. Oh boy oh boi oh boy. Baker Boy played a new 2018 Treaty collab by Gavin Campbell, Dhapanbal Yunupingu, Yirrnga Yunupingu & Dallas Woods. It didge the job. If you read all the way to the derrière you *may* find an exclusive-usive-ive link to hear it.
PLAIN
Floating Points’ thoughtful and well-meaning set coming off as too thoughtful and well meaning to satisfy a 2am crowd (until midway through when he released the pounds via Nuits Sonores). Would have worked better at the Sports Field as a Silent Disco with Sennheisers.
GOLDEN
Naturally selecting underground DJs Toni Yotzi, Merve and Objekt and trusting their natural selections.
PLAIN
Being the fool who accidentally took out a girl on The Sup’s dancefloor. She tripped over my shuffling left Blundstone and hit the turf hard, hurting her wrist. If you’re reading this now, I’d like to take you out again (this time for a free I’m-so-sorry lunch with no Aziz expectations). Email: michael.cahill@news.com.au
GOLDEN
Bringing silicon earplugs, an eye-mask and having mates who let me stay in their teepee.
PLAIN
Two water tanks running empty. Waterfall Person would have been more popular if she supplied some H20.
Let’s change it up and break it down.
By. The. Numbers.
ATMOS & MUSIC ON SATURDAY ~^~ 34 degrees, no clouds
2 - bits of great banter during Tropical F--- Storm’s explosive set as they opened the batting. Gareth Liddiard: “This is called You Let My Tyres Down. It’s dedicated to Mathias. Where is Mathias? (random hand shoots up). Don’t let him down” and guitarist Erica Dunn: “Slip slop slap motherf---ers!”
24 - massages I gave out (mention of this review gets you a free one).
1 - massage I received from an eager, sweaty stranger. The shoe was on the other foot.
16 - shoulder-rides given (with affirmative, vocal consent).
1 - shoulder-ride received from an eager, sweaty stranger. The gooch was on the other neck.
2 - girls Kate and Carla who caught two trains and two buses (!) to bring the party and spent $500 on customised stickers to give out all weekend. Example: “Get lit” with a torch lighting up a book: @carlascottodesign
1 - cameo appearance each by Thundercat and Kamasi Washington during their respective sets.
1 - shout-out by MzRizk at the start of her set: “I wanna congratulate Sampa The Great on winning the Australian Music Prize.” That scoop on that narrow victory is here. She beat Jen Cloher 10 votes to 9. MzRizk opened with Sampa’s Female then moved through Luther Vandross, Crystal Waters, Robyn S, Q-Tip and all the right party jams.
100s - people crying quietly during Kamasi Washington’s The Truth.
1000s - brown and sienna speckled butterflies fluttering about, joining in the party.
1 - song in King Krule’s set about health care.
1 - song in King Krule’s set about a Dum Surfer.
3 - the amount of times King Krule went for the jugular in the final deathrolls of their spit-gobbing set. The band lacked an overall cohesion, more sludge trudge than Morphine morphin’. Street urchin Archy Marshall lacked nothing.
62 - caps of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky I gave out.
1 - cap of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky rejected (some poor punter did a mini-spew).
1 - sniggering “caps” joke you just made in your mind.
23 – side-to-side cobra dance moves Perfume Genius did during his life-affirming, body-squirming set. Best songs: Queen, Go Ahead, Just Like Love.
1 - person pretending to swim across Inspiration Point on the grass. Ambulance crews attended immediately and calmed him down.
1 - new Electric Possum bar in prime position left of stage in Southbank. Shout out to the barman (or was he at the Flying Calamari Brothers stand? #hazy) psyched for Objekt’s set who I saw at 5am Monday, eyes lit up like Mr Sparkle.
64 - high-fives given out.
0 - high-fives rejected.
4 - salutes to the sun.
2 - sunsets (as expected).
1 - semi-naked man dressed as a Golden Shower.
1 - overheard *mondegreen in The Avalanches song during Because I’m Me: “Kim chi, don’t love me, what can I do?” *noun: a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song.
2 - the number of original members of The Avalanches (Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi) in their current line-up. The Avalanches’ stop-start set divided the crowd, I dug it. Best songs: Subways, Flight Tonight and Frontier Psychiatrist which was book ended by mini-covers of The Animals and The Who. Time to retire Frankie Sinatra though.
9 - the amount of times I heard someone start a delicately topical sentence with “in this current climate...”
6 - the amount of people it took to work out a song in Toni Yotzi’s set, the spooky one that goes “dahhh, dah dah, dah dah dah”. Rob “Shazam” Halliday correctly picked it as Nightmare by Brainbug, a Hallam Hotel rave hit circa ‘98 after Revenge of the Voodoo Surfgods.
32 - sick drops during Toni Yotzi’s charged-up house set. Yes it’s worth mentioning that Brainbug moment again, Yotzi replied to my message yesterday: “hahah nightmare is too large, a once in a lifetime moment to play it.” Yotzi rolled a Yahtzee.
2 - The amount of times Brainbug’s Nightmare was played in the space of 10 minutes, once on stage to a rapturous, dehydrated crowd and then blaring from a car moments later in Mulwaverley.
Her set in full:
ATMOS & MUSIC ON SUNDAY ~^~ 29 degrees, slight clouds
1 - the imaginary figure Rocket Science’s Roman Tucker evaded in Being Followed until the song climaxed in a four instrument confrontation. FACT: Being Followed is about to have a renaissance like God’s My Pal.
4 - the number of towels it took to dry Tucker after they finished with One Robot and some crowd surfing. “This is our last song, thanks for having us back, Aunty.”
0 - the f**ks given by Jen Cloher, wearing an Aboriginal flag t-shirt, snarling and howling through Analysis Paralysis. “Shove it up your arse,” she adlibbed with great Australian bite after the Hansonites and plebiscites line. The crowd noise welled up each time she really went for it, like we were cheering on a prize fighter and jeering the fools who would dare to fight love. “Our all time favourite festival show hands down” she posted yesterday.
1 - Endless Plains’ Departure Lounge cocktail party in South Pines. Quite the ceremony.
48 - Ata Kak’s full body 360 spins with emoji thumbs up during the Ghanaian MC’s joyful show. “Jump in the air. Touch your toes. Do a somersault. Do whatever you feel,” he beamed. What the blazes was he rapping about? It didn’t matter. “I do the rapping, you do the clapping.” Ata Kak was Best On Sup.’
2 - times Adrian Sherwood knocked his turntable needle off the record (or was that the sub?). He more than made up for it with “the most disgusting of basslines midway through Chase The Devil” (thanks Gary Johnston for trainspotting) EARLY EASTER EGG: Listen here to Triple R Radio on Demand for Sherwood’s interview and 45 minute set on The Good The Dub and The Global (start at 1 hr mark)
1 - Fresh Treaty remix. Baker Boy dropped it early as he scampered left and right like The Sup’ was his home-ground. Here it is for your listening (not downloading) pleasure
WORLD EXCLUSIVE:
https://soundcloud.com/razorrecordings/treaty-18mp3/s-1Gdo2
1 - homemade popcorn machine pouring hot fluffy yellow morsels into my mouth during Big Boi, front left speaker. Very tasty.
10 - all-in “Oooohs” after Big Boi and Sleepy Brown sang “I’m sorry Miss Jackson (oooooh)”
5 - the amount of times Daddy Fat Stax asked “Are you having a goooood time?” (we were). The duo bounced through an energised, totally-engaged, jet lag-free set. Best songs: The Whole World, Rosa Parks, So Fresh, So Clean, B.O.B, Chocolate and All Night (SCOOP: it’s the next single).
4 - regrets for missing Kaiit, Wet Lips, Mogwai, Barbara Tucker and her heroically camp dancer. I’m sorry, Aunty.
4000 (approx) - boots up during Lee Fields and The Expressions’ afternoon-clinching soul workout.
2 - total pairs of Brunswick Bitter beer-box shoes improvised by a girl using MacGyver gaffer tape after she lost her footwear two nights in a row.
1 - naked man who did three backflips as the sun went down and he showed us where the sun don’t shine. See picture up top.
1 – Simba-impersonating new born baby held aloft by their father. “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba.” (translated: Here comes a lion, Father)
1 - successful marriage proposal at Sunset on Inspiration Point. It sure went better than this.
7 - friends that used the word “visceral” during The Black Angels. They played a blinder.
100s - people crying quietly during Grizzly Bear’s Yet Again. Another polarising set. I appreciated the way they conjured those stomach-churning feelings of complex relationships, the in-between bits, the volatile and exquisite nature of true love.
3 - the amount of times DJ Manchild’s second record skipped. He saved it beautifully: “A good DJ would have cleaned his records before the biggest gig of his life” and then took us to across the world via these dusty cuts:
42 - sick drops during Merve’s set. She didn’t put a foot wrong and I believe dropped Ride On Time by Black Box right as someone kicked over the rest of the Fireball Cinnamon Whisky dregs (doing everyone a favour). CORRECTION It was Love Seansation by Loleatta Holloway (From Swervein Mervein: “I actually played ride on time as my closer at my first ever gig which is why I picked ‘love sensation’”)
Her set will be posted here RIGHT GEN FRICKERING NOW:
3 - great cover versions. Bump by Spank Rock during The Avalanches (huge 2007 vibes), Lee Fields’ Wish You Were by Pink Floyd (dedicated to fellow Daptone alumni Sharon Jones), Perfume Genius covering Big Star’s Kanga Roo.
6 - hours sleep. That’s plenty (formula: one hour is worth two at a festival. )
1 - friend Christie “Snooze Button” Butcher who left at 6am on Monday morning so she could do a 9am work presentation. Commitment.
1 - Male with a ripped rig, both-mean-and-friendly-looking, wearing a croptop that said: “Got dick?” He was Weapon of the Festival™
OVERHEARD
“That’s Barbara Tucker, motherf--ker!”
“I keep calling Eric’s Bar, Neil’s Bar.”
“Both are boring Guess Who names.”
“Do the very best you can, never be a halfway man, even when the task is light, work at it with all your might” - someone attempting to make a Pink Flamingo after the bars ran out.
“PAGING JOEY LIGHTBULB!” - someone with a loud speaker apparently. I have no idea who this was.
“The term is a bloat of dads”
“Don’t mock Papa Roach”
“Pimp my page, pussy”
“Did you wash with poppers?”
“You do you…and by that I mean go f--- yourself.”
“I think Big Boi is the greatest hip hop show I’ve ever seen.”
“Preatures are the band you want to love but just can’t.”
“Bec, remember, breathe”
“Oh sh!t. Yes. Forgot” (bashful smile)
“I prefer to call nature’s pocket a snatchel.”
“Is this a Chillbo Baggins display room?”
“Can confirm.”
INTERSTITIAL DJ DIAMONDS
Over and Over - Hot Chip
Run to Paradise - The Choirboys
Idioteque - Radiohead
Pull Up To The Bumper - Grace Jones (twice)
Brenda - Ara Koufax (played by the man, the myth Sam Gill)
Aisha - Death in Vegas
Finally - CeCe Peniston
Let Love Flow On - Sonya Spence (Hober Mallow Edit)
Thanks everyone for accepting the whisky, the high-fives and the hugs.
Props to Matt High, Woody McDonald, DC, Ang Henley, The Nolans and their team.
Pics by Steve Benn, Theresa Harrison & @mattloads.
Love,
Mikey
xx
ps: The Merve DJ set will be up as soon as I get it.
Previously in the Sup’
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2016 REVIEW
MEREDITH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2015 REVIEW
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