The Highlights:
The Grates - from Brisbane. Completely infectious. I love them
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - Anything Stephen Malkmus does is fine by me. A guitar god.
Okkervil River - Glenn had given me the word on this band. He wasn’t wrong. Sublime. Who knew you could get that kind of sound out of an electric acoustic?
British India - a bit hit and miss. They played really well, a lot of cool songs. If they had never opened their mouths in between songs they would have been awesome. It was like seeing a beautiful girl, only to be disillusioned when she opened her mouth and started talking like Kimmy. British India were Kimmy. With talent and cool songs.

Leaving our esky to fend for its small self for three hard rocking hours, and then trying to find it and only recalling that it was ‘near a couch’. But which couch? I finally remembered that it was near a little tree (not the one that was later used in a pole dancing performance). I found a little tree. I found the couch. I told the girls standing next to it that I’d lost my little esky.
“Get off her esky, Fiona,” said one of them.
Fiona suddenly went from five foot ten to five foot eight and a half, and I had the esky back. Yah!

Vodka and Cranberry juice.

A banana smoothie made by a bicycle powerd blender.

Vodka and pink grapefruit fizzies.

The Pink Flamingo.

The Meredith Eye.

The Maybes:

City City City - Yawn Yawn Yawn. Another one of those Fitzroy-esque bands. Good, but need to play enclosed spaces or in a morning slot. Yeah, I’m a rock snob. So?
Architecture in Helsinki - They have some catchy tunes. Mix wasn’t great. A little bit shambolic. The guy who forgot his trumpet was v.good.
Clare Bowditch and The Feeding Set - By this stage everyone was zapped from the heat and two days of hard living. It was hard to stay in the sun and listen to reflective sounding tunes. I wish she wouldn’t talk in between songs. Yes. I’m intolerant. I don’t care.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - could have made the ‘highlights’ list if they’d killed off their lead singer. They lyrics were so bad that we rolled in the dust giggling in wonder and despair. I’d build a house, if I had a spouse. This review mentions this guy’s ‘ingenious use of rhyming couplets’. Hee hee. The actual band were fantastic and reminded me on occasion of Life Without Buildings. But the lead singer? Bizarrely bad.
Sons & Daughters - they have been so hyped. I bought their cd on the basis of the hype, because I was so keen to hear a band that sounded like Nick Cave/Johnny Cash/The Cramps/Violent Femmes - how good would that be?! It would be really, really good. Unfortunately the cd was not great. There were maybe a couple of catchy tunes. I thought they’d be better live, however it was the same as the cd. A few catchy numbers, and the rest were unmemorable. It was quite interesting to watch their guitarist switch between wishing he was Shane McGowan and then deciding that Tom Waits might be a better option. And then changing his mind again. Could’ve been amazing. But wasn’t.
Young Professionals - I spent half the time enjoying them, even though they were a bit all over the place, and the other half of the time I spent wondering how the hell they got out of the Arthouse and on to the bill. They had freaky cool outfits. Young and brave.

The Lowlights:
The Kills - Oh, please. They appeared after The Grates and AIH, so they were going to have to be pretty good. They weren’t. They were posturing American crap. Actually, they were repetitive posturing American crap, which is also how you could describe me if you knew my lineage, but you don’t. You can get away with playing your guitar with nothing but samply stuff and a pouting Cousin It to help you, but you’ve got to be good. You shouldn’t have to thow in robotic guitar playing movements and simulated sexual tension. Nor should you think that looking angst ridden whilst moving in a feline manner is going to help either. Jeeez. They bored me rigid. We went to the bar.

The Whatevers:
Led Zepplin Wolfmother and ACDC Airbourne. Um. At least Airborne were funny. They made me think of Black Rose. Was Wil Anderson in that band?