Sigur Rós (and others) @ The Great Escape, Sydney

So after Wednesday’s Sigur Rós show I was desperate to hear one song. This led to Amanda and I venturing out to the Newington Armory on Friday for The Great Escape Festival. We didn’t have tickets so we went EARLY. Like 9am-when-gates-open early. First impression: A music festival next to a prison = awesome. So we got in no problem and luckily there were a number of acts I was eager to see before Sigur Rós took the stage at 8:30.

First up, Pony Club Massacre.

I’m at a loss as how to describe this duo. Classical World Gypsy Indie Folk maybe? I don’t know. They don’t appear to have a website, but I assure you they are real. These two young women were a wonderful surprise. The only reasons we checked them out were:

1. We could sit at a table. Indoors.
2. They were on the same stage directly before someone I really wanted to see.
3. Pony Club Masssacre is quite simply a better band name than the band you or I are in.

They sing in a Bosnian gypsy language. One girl wore a wonderfully homemade hat. The singer sounds like a cross between an Eastern European PJ Harvey and an opera singer. Accordian. They were fantastic and I’m trying to find some more info on them.

Next up, on the same Ping Pong Club stage, was Joel Plaskett.

I’d somehow managed to never see Joel Plaskett back in Canada (he’s from Nova Scotia) despite the fact I have one friend who thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Plaskett took to the stage with just an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and an 8$ keyboard. He proved an amiable fellow with songs that probably rung a tad truer with the numerous Canadians in the audience. However, at the end of his set, the crowd responded very loudly so it seems Mr. Plaskett is making some inroads here in Australia. Playing 10 shows in Sydney (no lie) this month will help even more. He’s even teamed up with Russell Crowe and Augie March for some shows. Apparently he will be back this way in December was well.

Hawksley Workman

Another Canadian was up a bit later (unfortunately I didn’t get to check out Martha Wainwright). I’ve never been a fan of Hawksley Workman but he did put on a pretty good live show. He played guitar while Mr. Lonely accompanied him on keyboards. He pretty much played all the “hits” much to the delight of a very responsive crowd. My highlight was watching Workman’s face when three giant kangaroos (not real) hopped in front of him. He looked quite bewildered. Welcome to Australia Hawksley!

And finally, Sigur Rós.

As I mentioned last night, they played Viðrar vel til Loftárása. That was literally all I needed. The song was played wonderfully and the crowd, while noisy, did quiet down to near silence during the dramatic pause in the song. Not bad. The rest of the set was very strong as well and was perhaps even a tad better than the show at the Enmore on Wednesday (albeit a bit shorter). Apparently the show the previous night in Byron Bay was a total disaster so I think we reaped the benefits of a band eager to put a bad show behind them. The setlist (again):

Takk
Glósóli
Ný Batterí
Sæglópur
Njósnavélin
Hoppípolla
Með Blóðnasir
Olsen Olsen
Viðrar vel til Loftárása
Hafsól
————
Popplagið

Sigur Ros photos here
Other festival photos here

And just a thought on the festival in general: it has very real potential to be the Glastonbury of the southern hemisphere. I got the same sort of feel walking around yesterday as I did at Glasto in 2002. Although there were far more mall-punks out in force yesterday.

Battle of the Bands’ (T-shirts)!

The Beatles won yesterday! The Ramones were a very close second, with AC/DC taking the bronze. To the leaderboard:

Radiohead: 1
The Beatles: 1

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 15th, 2006 at 4:20 pm and is filed under General, Photos, Reviews, Shows, Sydney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.