Winning tickets to a festival is great. You don’t feel a need to go and ‘get your moneys worth’ 

Solar music is primarily a dance festival, however they had tacked on a side stage with some good Melbourne bands playing, namely Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Children Collide, who were playing the closing sets. So off we went to see a couple of great bands on a Sunday afternoon, a nice drive out of town, to a festival that seemingly went pretty well last year 

Getting to the racecourse with a bit of time left before CC took the stage, we were greeted by the warm welcome of 28 Days and their chronic overuse of the word c*nt. Great stuff guys. The crowd was lapping it up though as they played through ‘Rip It Up’ before closing with a new song, which got much less of a reception. The singer’s repeated proclamations of ‘EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING!!’ made me think that perhaps Children Collide had pulled the plug, but they soon started setting up… 

There was time for a quick wander to the mainstage, where Cut Copy DJs were giving the crowd something to dance to / take photos in front of. My only thought at this point was that the sound seemed very quiet. I’d rather not comment on anything else.  

Back to Stage 2, and Children Collide walked on stage to a healthy reception, singer Johnny now sporting a beard and bulky jacket, which he deftly removed after the first song. The first part of the set was unfortunately marred by some sound issues, with every hit of the floor tom sending a crackle though the speakers. Drummer Ryan only seemed to start hitting it harder. The guitar was too quiet to being with as well, leaving the vocals to cut through, showing just how good of a singer Johnny is. It was hard to tell though whether he was excited to be there as he asked ‘How are you going Franga… Mornington,  where are we anyway?’. As expected, the biggest reception was saved for recent singles Farewell Rocketship and Social Currency, which were played back to back before a manic instrumental bought the show to a close.  

Eddy Current Suppression Ring were billed as ‘Frankstons Favorite Sons’ on the Solar Website, however it seemed Muscles should have been given this tag as almost everyone left to watch him on the main stage. This didn’t seem to phase Eddy Current though, who spent the next hour playing their propulsive brand of punk rock to around 100 fans, and a few lucky passers by.

The set mainly drew from most recent album Primary Colours, with a few old and new songs thrown in for good measure. A lack of keyboards meant a lack of Insufficient Funds, but it allowed Mikey to wrestle with his guitar for the full show, physically and visibly feeling every note of his solo’s go through his body, eyes closed and trancelike, the extended solo on new track Tuning Out coming to such a huge crescendo by the end of it that he looked exhausted.

Less than a month ago, Brendan climbed out into the crowd at Meredith as his band headlined arguably Australia’s greatest music festival. The look of elation on everyone’s faces in that video has already got it being tagged as one of the great Meredith moments, yet today as launched the barrier during the start of Precious Rose people seemed to take it more as seeing a wild animal out of it’s enclosure, surrounding him in a wide circle and hamming it up for photo’s. 

The set was ended as usual by a roaring version of Get Up Morning which again saw Mikey slowly build the crowd up to the final frantic minute with a melodic walk around his fretboard instead of the usual silence. The band left the stage to cheers from those present, and I felt lucky to have witnessed a gig more along the lines of an intimate pub show than the festivals and sold out band rooms they play now. It did beg the question though, as to what kind of crowd would turn out in force to watch 28 Days, but not the most exciting band to have come out of Melbourne in the last few years… 

The Grates looked good, doing their thing with Patience bouncing and headbanging around in what looked like a Tinkerbell getup, but only a few songs were left by the time we got there. 19 20 20 had people moving, and closer Burn Bridges saw them off. The appearance of a 4th band member on keys made me wonder though, when did Angus Sampson joined the band? 

As we left, I saw the unfortunate sight of Canadian dance outfit setting up back on the stage ECSR were meant to have closed earlier. It seemed a timetabling issue had pushed Thunderheist off mainstage, instead performing to around 30 wasted kids. Probably not exactly what they had in mind when they signed on, and probably also the reason that there was bottle of spirits being swigged from on stage. We left early, stepping over some horse sh*t that was now directly in the path to the exit gate. Nice.  

All in all, Melbourne has some great bands, who I’d like to watch as much as possible, and I’d put up with almost any situation to get to see them. But honestly, it would have to take something pretty f*cking special to get me back to Solar.