Turning-up half-way through the festival doesn’t make me the best candidate for writing a thorough review of yesterday’s V Festival but upon only hearing bad things of the bands who played previous to my arrival I’m actually quite pleased I arrived when I did.
Entering the big white marquee gates was a breeze and once I was wristbanded and ready to go I headed over to “This Stage” to see the recently reformed Scottish rock veterans, The Jesus and Mary Chain. Starting to what seemed like an extremely timid crowd was very much to the displeasure of the leadsinger Jim Reid saying “Am I just singing to myself here?” but once they played their more widely recognisable songs from their seminal “Psycho Candy” album, the crowd responded to each song with rapturous applause. Luckily a certain Ms Johanssen was nowhere to be seen and “Just Like Honey” went off without a hitch!
I then journeyed around to the other side of the hill to “That Stage” to see long-time running French electro duo AIR. Unfortunately the crowd and the impending feeling of fatigue sent me walking away from seeing what I would have thought to have been one of the most interesting sets of the day, but that was not to be.
Traveling back to over the hill to “This Stage” and whilst waiting for the return of Queens of The Stone Age to Sydney after a 2 year absence, I contemplated whether or not I would bother seeing Duran Duran in the break between QOTSA and the much anticipated headliners; The Smashing Pumpkins. But my thought process was completely abolished as soon as the men of Queens of The Stone Age, complete with the most loveable red-head in music, leadsinger/guitarist Josh Homme rushed on stage! Even back up on the hill opposite “This Stage” I could clearly hear every word and instrument as they ripped through a highly energetic set which would put The Smashing Pumpkins to the test! Playing a set consisting of songs from albums “Songs for The Deaf” to last year’s “Era Vulgaris” it was a sight to behold as the video-screens showed every moment of songs which included “3’s & 7’s”, “Make It Wit Chu”, “Burn The Witch”, “No One Knows”, “Little Sister”, “Go With The Flow” and the finale of “A Song for The Dead”, which tore on through an extended rip-roaring outro, whilst quite perfectly a distant lightening storm struck violently over the stage.
Earlier that day whilst reading through the V Festival mini-magazine I learned a “Festival Fact” I wasn’t previously aware of; Billy Corgan (of The Smashing Pumpkins) introduced his then girlfriend, Courtney Love to late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Upon reading this I felt slight resentment towards the man, but as the Earth Hour presentation played on the video-screens either side of stage and the newly reformed Pumpkins filed onto the vast stage to play the opening blissfully simple notes of “Today”, who could have any resentment against such a man? Even moreso when he had the crowd singing the opening verse of the song, I couldn’t stop smiling and knew this was going to be an amazing performance. Obviously I opted to stay away from seeing Duran Duran and was pleased to have done so as few of my friends told me of the washed-up tragedy playing-out on “That Stage” as the Pumpkins lunged straight into “Tarantula” from their most recent record “Zeitgeist”. Upon previously hearing that “Tonight Tonight” was played early in their set I was adamant to stick around to hear it before heading over the hill for the final time to see Sydney’s very own; The Presets. Taking to the grandiose keyboard I knew that the opening orchestral notes of “Tonight Tonight” were close at hand, my suspicions were validated as they rang-out into a screaming crowd as more lightning played-out over the stage.
On a high after such an uplifting song I decided it was time for me to head over to the other side to see The Presets. Jule and Kim walked onstage right on time and dived straight into “Down Down Down” to boisterous shouting and applause, following up with a bevy of songs, old and new including; “Kitty In The Middle”, “Cookie”, the recent radio thrashed “This Boy’s In Love” as well as “Are You The One” to which the whole crowd sang along, “Bad Up Your Betterness” and “Steamworks” just to name a few!
Exiting early I was lucky enough to see the final two songs by The Smashing Pumpkins, a Church cover and “Siamese Dream” opener as a finale “Cherub Rock”! And that was it!
Tags: AIR, Apocalypso, Beams, Billy Corgan, Centennial Parklands, CSS, Duran Duran, Festival, JAMC, Jesus and Mary Chain, Josh Homme, music, QOTSA, Queens Of The Stone Age, Richard Branson, Sydney, The Presets, The Smashing Pumpkins, Today, Tonight Tonight, V Festival Australia, Virgin
