It may not have been one of my international excursions. It may not have even lasted 24 hours. But my trip to the Brisbane leg of the Harvest “gatherings” turned out to be one of my most memorable musical expeditions to date.
For starters, I made things terribly difficult on myself. Used to cheap last minute deals and still quite broke thanks to CMJ, I left the booking of my flights to Brisbane (from Sydney) until the last minute. However, I hadn’t factored in this whole “Schoolies” thing, which saw fares doubling and tripling before my eyes. Booking roughly 48 hours before my flight, I ended up having to fly via Newcastle to get up to Brisbane, adding 3+ hours to my journey each way. Ouch. But what’s an adventure if not epic?
Leaving Sydney at 8am and arriving at the venue – Riverstage and the Botanical Gardens – around 2pm, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the location. Much like in Sydney and Melbourne, the venue organisers ticked all the right boxes in making this boutique festival one to remember. There was, however, quite a bit of walking up and down hills to get from the main stage at Riverstage to the rest of the festival. So one will have left this festival a little more exhausted than they may have elsewhere. This was far from a negative, however, as there was quite a bit more in the “art” department than there was in Sydney, including a performer in a bubble that wasn’t Wayne Coyne (see below) and lovely little additions like an entry way adorned with umbrellas. Not a bad view for the journey!
Heading along to two Harvest festivals has its advantages: you get to see the bands you missed, and relive the ones you adored. Filling in the latter category were TV on the Radio, The Flaming Lips and of course Portishead. The sets were much the same as they were in Sydney, though I enjoyed my Brisbane encounter with TV a bit more, and Sydney’s Portishead set was slightly preferred. But that may have been the awe and bewilderment more than anything. Tonight’s set was the last of their current tour, and brought to a close an epic two month world tour. The band members were notably moved by the occasion, while the beautiful Riverstage filled to capacity.
One interesting aspect of The Flaming Lips set was Wayne Coyne’s “public service announcement” in advance of his set, letting people know they were to look after each other when he emerged in the bubble, and that they should close their eyes if the strobe lights became too much. I’d be interested to hear why this PSA was required. Was someone hurt at a recent gig? In either case, it was a first in my experiences with the band! The rest of the show employed the same tricks we saw in Sydney, the laser hands were just as cool and the infamous gong made an appearance, cut from the Sydney set. As always, the looks of amazement and happiness from the people who’d never seen the band before makes this just as special and entertaining as watching the show itself.
But there were a pile of bands that I didn’t get the chance to experience in full (or at all) at the Sydney Harvest, and so this was an excellent opportunity to make up for those missed opportunities. I caught The Family Stone (great fun – the sort of band that makes Bluesfest so spectactular), Mercury Rev (they fell slightly short of the mark I’ve seen them reach in the past, but were still entertaining), Death in Vegas (absolutely phenomenal – worth the trip alone!), Emilie Autumn (playing to a small crowd, Emilie put on a “show” in every sense of the word… very theatrical), Bright Eyes (Conor jumping into the crowd was particularly cool, and all around this was a high energy, very impressive set) and Phosphorescent (what a fucking cool band – major props to the promoters for booking this relatively unknown act… check them out when you can!).
My festival ended with some much needed (and delicious) pancakes in the city, before I made tracks to radio station 4ZZZ for an “iPhone experiment” featuring Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips. It was one of main reasons I’d chosen to make tracks to Brisbane, and though it was what many regard as a “glorious disaster”, for all involved it was a terrifically entertaining, incredibly memorable evening. So… where to begin…
We arrived shortly after midnight alongside the rest of the iPhone orchestra – a group of 160 Flaming Lips fans who, in four groups of fourty, were going to attempt to play Zaireeka in full from their iPhones. It was a logistical nightmare to make work, but the plans were in place and once the station got Wayne into the studio to get the ball rolling, we did the test run and it failed with flying colours. At Waynes suggestion – showing frustration for the task at hand (and being no doubt exhausted from his travels) – we jumped right into it, playing the first track for the album. It worked better the second time, but it still wasn’t perfect.
Wayne had had enough. He opted to turn the event into a party instead, getting all the fans outside and having them set off party poppers. He shook as many hands as he could, signed a few bits and pieces, and made an exit. It was a pity it didn’t work out, but it was perhaps inevitable. Especially considering they were attempting this with groups of exhausted fans – led by exhausted band members (like The John Steel Singers, DZ Deathrays and The Holidays), at about two in the morning.
But for many of us, we followed in the advice of Wayne, and turned it into a party, continuing to party until 5 or 6 in the morning. At about 430, myself, Andrew Wade (our photographer) and a couple members of the John Steel Singers hijacked the radio station and played songs like “Gay Bar” at “Yonkers” for anyone unlucky enough to be up at that hour of the morning. My, what fun we had. One of the most memorable evenings of my time writing about music to date.
You’ll be seeing plenty more about the 4ZZZ adventures soon. We had exclusive access to the night and will have a short video documenting the shenanigans online at some point soon. Maybe not until next year, we’ll see how we go…
And so, heralded by a slightly over intoxicated Larry passing out on a Jetstar flight, my epic Brisbane adventure had come to an end, and along with it the Harvest tour in all its fine form. It was a brilliant festival and we here at the AU are already counting down the days until the next one. It sounds like the venue may have to change in Brisbane, which is a pity, but who knows what the future holds. I would like to propose a bit of Radiohead for the next one? Just throwing it out there…
