Pyramid Rock in review…
Pyramid Rock’s location – Phillip Island – is what summer festival posters are made of…hot, dry days, pink sunsets over the water, and tipsy crowds dancing in the moonlight. Or stumbling in the moonlight. EDWINA STORIE WRITES.
This year’s show was the eighth in its history. Groups who had made the pilgrimage from around Australia arrived fresh faced on the first day and lined up to see if the bottles of vodka stuffed in their sleeping bags and goon glued into soft drink boxes would make it into the festival.
As tents were erected and flags raises to aid the inevitable drunken treck back in the early hours, the keen kids kicked things off in the Pharaoh’s Annex tent with Rockwiz and a set from Western Synthetics.
Things really got going on the second day with the main stage set to host Cloud Control, Sparkadia and The Living End. Weary faces stumbled out of their tents into the impending heat, and the dedicated ones lined up for the showers. The rest of us broke out the alcohol stash and analysed the program.
At noon, San Cisco played a tight and fun set to a small but excited crowd with Hottest 100 hopeful ‘Awkward’ igniting everyone’s enthusiasm. Ball Park Music followed and injected the welling audience with more of a party vibe, getting the festival in the full swing.
Spiderbait played bursts from their entire career, and as the sun set, Goyte gave a magical performance of the atmospheric ‘Hearts a Mess’, despite recent mixed reviews of his set at other festivals.
As that moonlight dancing broke out, The Ashton Shuffle in the Pharaoh’s Annex tent warred with Spank Rock. The Ashton Shuffle made a clear win while Spank Rock gave a private show to a tiny group of a few dozen. And while they pumped the group up, they didn’t play their hip-grinding track ‘Bump’. Festival goers stumbled home stopping by the gourmet walkway of seafood stalls and Hare Krishna vegetarian – who had their own party going.
The final day of 2011 saw a slow start with the campers stumbling around struggling to find the energy to get to the early acts. Owl Eyes burst onto stage in a flash of silver glitter makeup, and took her music from summer afternoon tunes to dance-inspiring tracks. She jazzed up her Like a Version cover of Foster the People’s ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ with dramatic dancing and her own xylophone solo.
Happy beach boys Loon Lake made hearts swoon with their rough-around-the-edges summer sound and cheeky wit. Their cover of ‘Valerie’ and ode-to-the-ocean, ‘In the Summer’, officially got the crowd amped up and ready for the last day of the year and the coming party. From then on it was running around and counting down to the random midnight pash.
Back in the sun of the Main Stage, Illy proclaimed his pride to be playing on the stage that he’d once watched back in 2006 and celebrated the end of his set with an appearance from Owl Eyes for ‘It Can Wait’.
The Getaway Plan, Drapht and The Panics followed before Boy & Bear played the pivotal show of the festival at sunset. Their clean and warm sound washed over what felt like literally the entire festival as everyone devotedly sung along. TheirCrowded House Cover of ‘Fall at Your Feet’ made us wish it wouldn’t end before Blue Juice came onto the stage with neon-lined suits and then Scissor Sisters for the countdown.
While half the crowd was at Scissor Sisters just to be with their friends for the tick over to midnight, their theatrical performance won everyone over, taking the crowd into the New Year with ‘Take Your Momma’.
Finally, Purple Sneakers DJs made party mashups in Pharaoh’s Annex of anything from SBTRKT to old-school Temper Trap, starting 2012 with sore feet and new fans.
Pyramid Rock is growing from a plan b of those who missed out on Falls tickets, into a festival of its own right and calibre. All I can say is next year, choose Phillip Island over Lorne.
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