A splendid weekend part 2

The conclusion to Scotty Mac's Splendour reflection features a stunted Florence Welch, a sedated Julian Casablancas and a sloppy Richard Ashcroft. Find out what happened when the stars came out to play at the conclusion of this year's Splendour In The Grass Festival.

    It was The Joy Formidable’s first Australian festival appearance, possibly LCD Soundsystem’s last and definitely Richard Ashcroft’s shortest, with the 10th Splendour In The Grass offering a variety of sounds to appease the 32,000 music fans who descended on the bush setting of Queensland’s sleepy Woodford.

    Arriving on stage in a white veil theatrically flicking in the night breeze, Florence Welch’s Amphitheatre appearance has attracted such a large crowd that marshals end up shutting the area off to punters during her set. Less than six months since Florence & The Machine’s last Australian festival slots on the Laneway bill, her fanbase continues to grow but her lively onstage demeanour appears to have been slightly curbed. Her melodramatic stare and Gothic sweeps now have her cast halfway between David Bowie and Kate Bush’s most artistic moments; you can easily imagine Bush to be a fan of this woman’s work.

    As she sings in her finale Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), her voice is a gift. How she builds on this gift with her follow-up album will be the real test, but her Splendour airing of new track Strangeness And Charm indicates it will be another showcase of Florence’s impressive vocal range.

The Vines' Craig Nicholls

    Popping up on stage straight after this mystical UK maiden, Julian Casablancas outs himself as a Florence fan. He also appears to be a fan of bizarre comedy and garbled mutterings, but you can cross camping off his list of fun things to do. Asking how everyone was coping in the “Tent City Of Lost Children”, he then adds “I guess it looks kinda fun” with all the excitement of a guy being asked to consider adult circumcision. It appears Julian’s dabbles in the great outdoors extend as far as weekends in the Hamptons, but he does seem momentarily awed by the sight of 25,000 people watching a Strokes greatest hits set in the Aussie bush. “Oh yeah, this is pretty fucking nice!” the cool chap offers before his band explode into Hard To Explain. “What is this called during regular humanity?”

    Exactly what he means (or what he’s on) isn’t entirely clear, but in front of a backdrop of retro arcade animations The Strokes rip through a conclusive setlist of Is This It, Room On Fire and First Impressions Of Earth. With no new material it seems a little premature for the New Yorkers to be already wheeling out a career retrospective, but their tight kick is a far more exciting buzz back to the sound of 2002 than fellow Splendour acts Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Vines.

Jonsi

    With timetable clashes an inevitable feature of any major festival, sometimes seeing the full set of favourites was impossible. Despite this, sweeping generalisations can be made: Jonsi’s gnomic electro pop is an upbeat swirl at odds with his more dour Sigur Ros output, but his outfit looks like it’s made from Empire Of The Sun scraps and seconds from a carpet warehouse; Surfer Blood prove wearing shorts on stage is never cool, no matter how much Pitchfork like your band’s rehash of Weezer and Vampire Weekend offcuts; Laura Marling (joined on banjo by beau Marcus Mumford) is a lovely singer with a beautiful voice, but her subtle folk becomes wearying beyond half an hour or so.

    Alison Goldfrapp offers a far more convincing personality on stage, with her swirling hands, smoky eyes and silver poodle outfit all adding to the allure of her hour of electro disco highs. Debut Felt Mountain and fourth album Seventh Tree are completely avoided in favour of the liveliest back catalogue moments, including Rocket, Train and the sublimely ridiculous Ride A White Horse. The compact setlist whizzes by in a retro flurry, leaving fans thrilled but aching for more.

Alison Goldfrapp

    Sadly Sunday’s final GW McLennan Stage act Richard Ashcroft fails to follow up on Goldfrapp’s vibrant UK pop. The former Verve frontman’s debut festival appearance in Australia gets off to a surprisingly cool start with new tune Are You Ready, but Mad King Richard obviously doesn’t agree. Throwing his microphone down at the close of the song, he then kicks out at the drum riser and walks off stage, followed by his flabbergasted band. The stunned audience soon assists with the equipment destruction after it’s announced that Ashcroft won’t be returning “due to an unfortunate incident”, throwing missiles, bottles and detritus at the guitars and drums left unoccupied after the grand total of five minutes. Don’t expect Ashcroft back in Australia any time soon.

    It’s a shame that Splendour ends with such a fizzer at the hands of an egomaniac allegedly disappointed his crowd numbered less than 1000. For all the mud, dust and sweat experienced over the weekend, the new venue for the 10th anniversary show proves to be a real winner. Even if the final artist was a real loser.

Words and photos: Scott "GW" Mclennan

Check out part 1 of the review here.

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