Live Review: 2011 Meredith Music Festival

15 December 2011

by Thomas Gilmore

Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre,
December 9-11

For the uninitiated, Meredith Music Festival isn't quite like anything else that happens in Australia. It's essentially one stage with three days of music. It's intimate yet big, seemingly DIY yet incredibly professional, and the music is both diverse and coherent at the same time. Importantly, for the party vibes as well, it's BYO. This fact helps make this festival one of the most fun few days of substance abuse around.

Everyone in attendance seemed to be prepared for the worst. There were tarps, gumboots and rain jackets in abundance. But really, there were only a few moments where any of those things were really required and that would have only been the case if you weren't having the best time you've had in a very long time.

From the get go the music was fun. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard brought every ounce of party they had to the stage. The night went through a few changes of tack, before ending on the same kind of level, in a different genre. Somewhere in the middle, Explosions In The Sky brought the shoes off peoples' feet, Barbarion ignored the total fire ban with sparks flying about as accompaniment to their relatively unique brand of metal.

Ladyhawk was a little bland, but luckily for her the familiarity of the bulk of her material to anyone that knows her at all and the fact that it was about "peak" o'clock made it all a lot more fun for most. In a drastic genre-shift, Future Of The Left blasted the pants off the amphitheatre in a wonderfully selfish set. To top off the night, Harmonic 313 played an incredible DJ set, moving through from footwork to jungle and drum n bass. It really got the crowd moving, right until the moment they all passed out.

For me, day two began with the Ballarat Municipal Brass Band at the early hour of 10am. Not many people were around, I think it could have been why the organisers billed them at that time. Oscar + Martin were interesting to watch, with guests littering their glitchy and melodic set. However, it was Off! that people seemed to be waiting to watch, who came on at 2pm. There is nothing better than a politically charged American hardcore punk group preaching to the wrong audience between songs and then offering up music that lets you forgive them for it.

Later in the evening, it was Mudhoney that I was most interested to see. It seemed like a lot of people were treating them as a novelty, when really, it was just awesome. Touch Me I'm Sick went down a treat. Realistically, it was Icehouse that could be considered a novelty. That was until you realised that a huge wad of the people there were excited to see them and they really did do their thing well.

Cut/Copy were solid, giving the crowd the familiar danceable numbers they are known for. They were perfectly placed too, because they could have felt awfully unexciting if they were billed after the Grinderman set that followed. Turns out it was to be the last ever set from the bad. Nick Cave said that we might be able to expect something from them in ten years. No Pussy Blues was a personal highlight. From the total lunar eclipse, the rest of the night is a blurry mess, except for some asses shaking during the obnoxiously happy music of Big Freedia.

Due to various complications on the Sunday morning (packing up, waking up, not throwing up and so on), the last thing I thoroughly enjoyed was morning Tai Chi, but there were no regrets, only headaches. What an awesome weekend.