Playground Weekender - Sat + Sun

Bring on the best bits!!!

Saturday was the pinnacle of the Playground Weekender experience and anyone could have told you this even before they had arrived. The Line up for Saturday was overflowing with exceptional acts and the only dilemma facing the White Boy entourage was who would win the clash of the playing times and receive the pleasure of our sexy eyes upon them.

The first half of the day revolved around Porto and myself heading back over on the ferry to the carpark and enjoy some sultanas and cougar bourbon (in that order) whilst we awaited the arrival of English & Dean. What we thought we be a real drag turned into the best fun you could have with two deck chairs and an esky full of goodies.

Once the boys arrived and we got back over to the festival, esky in hand and the posse completed it was around the 3:30pm mark in the afternoon. The newbies got settled and we kind of built our night around starting with some very much anticipated Cut Off Your Hands. They entered the stage with the swagger of a really famous local band your brother knew friends who knew the band but once they unleashed their musical forces on the seemingly unsurprised crowd, they commanded a far greater level of respect. I must send out a special mention to Cut off your hands for being true gentlemen, their bass player (who's name I didn't grab) gave me their ep Shaky Hands for 9 bux instead of 10 because I didn't have other change, yunno how it is, big shot blogger I only carry fifties, blunts and bitches on me ya dig? I particularly expected the quite visually interesting singer to carry a bit more of a withdrawn kind of aura about him, however quite the opposite, he was as gracious as he was fucking impressive. Cut Off Your Hands won everybody.

P.s Fuck those pricks from Portland.

Myspace: Cut Off Your Hands

Next up were Whiteboydancefloor's Australian darlings of 2006 and beyond, The Valentinos. I openly proclaim they are without doubt my favourite band in this universe but regardless of my many meetings with the Knife Machine, I was a Valentinos virgin.

After catching the ferry across with them and proceeding to sing the words to 'Rain' thinking I was so classic cool funny (a.k.a pissed) seeing The Valentinos was one of my absolute musts in a jammed packed quality line up.

They certainly didn't disappoint. While I must admit some songs did go down better than others, it was a case of when they were hot, they were sizzling hot magma, when they were good they were just that. I'm curious to see what they thought of the turn out and playing on the big stage with a moderately sized crowd in attendance but none the less, there was enough uber cool kids like me wiggen' out to their energetic music. It translated well live, by and large you couldn't question that 'CCTV' was the track which banged the hardest. A set which showed a real pedigree and while not the standout of the festival, The Valentinos will feed off better crowds as people get more and more educated about their brand of genius.
Myspace: The Valentinos

By chance I caught the end of Kid Kinobi & Mc Shureshock's set which certainly wasn't on my to do list but definitely produced a surprise. It was what I can a little too "hard stylez" for my liking but I mean those comments are really not helpful to anyone who doesn't know my strange and mostly inaccurate vernacular. Good none the less and I can definitely confirm from the girls slutting it up that MC Shureshock got laid Saturday night... what a great Australian!

Moving on. The Presets. Well what can I tell you that you don't already know? Despite some minor problems with sound during 'Girl & the sea' (i think it was) the set was faultless, polished and enjoyable to the point of euphoria. They are really fast becoming any festivals sure bet winners. They got the best turn out of any band at this festival so far and deserved every bit of praise I could heap on em. K.I.M wins best shirt "Kids Need Techno".
Over the hill and far away I was not for a second going to miss the love of my life Larissa who fronts Sydney sweethearts, The Hate Game. A set that wasn't met with applause but rather frenetic dancing didn't seem to quite cut the mustard for Miss Larissa who at the end of the set seemed visibly not impressed with the crowd response but from where I was standing, everyone loved it, Larissa looked and sounded amazing and my love for her is still probably wrong and creepy hehe BUT THATS ME!

A brief dance to The Avalanches Dj set and then a chance meeting with Bridezilla would open my ears to something truely amazing. Obviously they must have to go to the Con but none the less this is a group with a future so bright it cleans ur foot shorts better than Napisan oxi-action plus every could. Shame some of em weren't 18 because they were downright foxes, from where I was sitting I never got a look at the singers face due to one of the speakers but I certainly got a long look at her pins and jesus christ, good to see you don't have to be hideous like The Waifs to make heavenly sounded feminine music. They were up there as a highlight for me, the violinist... holy shit... Kirk Hammett you aint shit.

Myspace: The Avalanches
Myspace: Bridezilla

Now !!!

The main course for the feel good Playground Weekenderers was !!! (chk chk chk). They were running behind schedule on their start time and I was convinced I would leave early if need be to catch a half hour of Ajax' set. Luckily it didn't come to that because Ajax mate, you would have lost out. !!! (chk chk chk) were stunning, amazing, funky, jaw dropping, dancey, stupid, crazy - best fun I've ever had in my life.

I dove into their set only knowing really 3 songs (the 3 every blogging circa 2007 knows) which usually holds me back from being able to get into the set holistically. I'm normally one of those "needs to know the words" type people. For me !!! (chk chk chk) was a first, no prior history required. His awkward white boy dancing was like seeing the Whiteboydancefloor textbook acted out in vivid colour and accuracy.

Every member of this 9 piece pulled their weight and gave the overall sound something extra. The interchanging frontmen, the under rated basslines and almost missable harmony the guitarists shared was surreal. !!! (chk chk chk) rubbed the crowd the right way and in return the crowd seemed to rub !!! (chk chk chk).

Quite chuffed by the response the crowd was giving them, !!! (chk chk chk) made sure we all knew just how lucky we were to have them. It's often easy to say the songs translate well in a live environment, but in this case, the songs were 50 times better than recording. Tracks like 'heart of hearts' had a real punch and fight to them, a howling growl rather than a too-kool-4-skool whisper.

Myspace: !!! (chk chk chk)

Just when I thought no one would steal the show from The Presets, !!! (chk chk chk) did just that. Finishing our night of fun was Ajax. Demonstrating his tastes are far more superior to our own he seems to without fail be able to balance showing just why he is the best dj in the world with tracks that keep even the meat heads dancing. Mind you, Playground Weekender was filled with kids who knew what they liked, Ajax delivered, no real surprises there. Bang Gang Dj's rule Sydney, Australia, Anywhere DFA isn't.

Myspace: Ajax

Sunday... short and sweet. We left early due to work & university commitments as well as the sheer fact we were all starting to feel the pinch of that much partying (soft I know, fuck you). But what can probably be most attributed to our early departure was the train wreck that was The Punisherz. Featuring Channel [V] presenters Yumi & Steve, [V] street wasn't enough to get these guys across the line. Their frontwomen (who'd you'd bang in a heartbeat) thought she could make up for dogs balls vocals with token Asian stereotyping and saying C*nt a lot. Didn't wash with me however I love Stevo, that guy is just too cool. How racist do I sound writing on WHITEboydancefloor saying I didn't like the swearing Asians but I like the little white guy? Maybe because he didn't have a mic and he shut the fuck up.

However, Chris liked em. Then again we all know Chris gets off on train wrecks and is a brutal capitalist who one day will justify doing your Mum through the theories of John Locke. I hate most Asian food FYI.

In keeping it shorter (as I've bullshitted too much) when environment, back drop, music and facilities are all taken into account, the best festival I have ever been to. Take a bow Playground Weekender.

Pics possibly comming soon :D