It’s 10.15 now so you’ve probably already read about this on your phone waiting at the train station, but let’s give some mention to Splendour In The Grass, that huge festival that moved up to Woodfordia last year and celebrated its new venue with a huge party.
This year is set to be pretty big as well, with the lineup featuring all kinds of hugeness, including the hugest of them all, Kanye West in his only Australian show. Although we’ve gotta say we’ve pretty much listened to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy so much that we can never listen to it again, so who knows whether he’ll be mindblowing or blah.
Then there’s Coldplay. Despite originally confusing me as a teenager with strangely repetitive Yellow, I think it’s safe to say they’re pretty much superstars now, despite my misguided teenage views. Who ever thought that funny looking Chris Martin with his unusually pretty voice would conquer the world? They’ll surely give an amazing festival show. Also their only Australian show.
Regina Spektor comes as a little bit of a surprised with her only show anywhere this year… do that many people really love her? We do, but we kind of thought she was a bit more niche that this. Oh well, get with the times!
Awesome classic rock comes to us in the form of Jane’s Addiction, The Hives and Pulp, the last of which we’re particularly excited about (the other two we’ve seen at the BDO). A bit more progressive rock in the form of The Mars Volta will go down a treat, as well as Mogwai, which will be freaking amazing – their new album rules (Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will). Their only Aussie show and we trust them to make it amazing.
DJ Shadow will be hopefully a late night treat, along with the much-hyped, good looking, soulful minimal dubstep sensation James Blake. Thievery Corporation can probably go in this paragrpah too along with Modest Mouse, who we’ve been looking forward to seeing for a while.
Excitingly for those of the more indie persuasion, we see another tour from Devendra Banhart with his band The Grogs – wonder how his lo-fi psychedlic indie folk meanderings will translate to a huge festival? Noah And The Whale is another nice addition, as well as Elbow and Gomez, who never ever fail to put on a wicked show. And Wild Beasts, who really impressed at Laneway Festival a couple of years ago.
The Aussie contingent is, as always, very strong, featuring The Living End (no surprises there; only the most festivaly band ever), Architecture In Helsinki (indie party times!!), Bluejuice (again no surprises), Boy And Beat, Sparkadia, Gotye, The Middle East, Cloud Control, Oh Mercy, Kimbra, Phrase, Dananananaykroyd (not sure if I put enough ans in there), The Holidays, Muscles, Ghoul, Liam Finn (he is very good, as I found out at Peat’s Ridge fest), The Herd, Drapht, Tim & Jean, Leader Cheetah (haven’t heard from these guys in a while), Hungry Kids Of Hungary, The Jezabels, Lanie Lane, Illy, and hot new young types Alpine, Jinja Safari, Guineafowl, World’s End Press and of course the Triple J Unearthed winners, whoever they might be.
There’s more – Kele, The Vines and The Kills are pretty dope too. Children Collide and Cut Copy will be great and will delight our music editor. Sparkadia and Jebediah, we expect you to rock us.
What are your thoughts? Who is most exciting here?
Coldplay (only Australian show), Kanye West (only Australian show), Jane’s Addiction, The Hives, Pulp, The Living End, The Mars Volta, Regina Spektor (only 2011 show…anywhere), Bliss N Eso, Pnau, Mogwai (only Australian show), DJ Shadow, Glasvegas, The Grates, Devendra Banhart And The groçgs, Modest moçuse, The Middle East, Kaiser Chiefs, James Blake, Kele, The Vines, Elbow, Eskimo Joe, Noah And The Whale, Children Collide, Thievery Corporation, Cut Copy, isobel campbell and Mark Lanegan, Bluejuice, The Kills, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (featuring The Relatives), Architecture In Helsinki, Foster The People, The Panics, Friendly Fires, Jebediah, The Vaccines, Gomez, Boy And Bear, Gotye, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Cloud Control, Mona, Sparkadia, Warpaint, Muscles (live), fitz and the tantrums, the jezabels, Drapht, British Sea Power, Tim & Jean, Leader Cheetah, Grouplove, Seeker Lover Keeper, Yelle, Kimbra, Phrase, Oh Mercy, Dananananaykroyd, The Black Seeds, Marques Toliver, The Holidays, Ghoul, Liam Finn, The Herd, Young The Giant, Guineafowl, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Jinja Safari, Wild Beasts, Illy, Cut Off Your Hands, Gareth Liddiard, Alpine, World’s End Press, Mosman Alder, Lanie Lane.
