Everyone feared this festival would implode, but there’s Alice Cooper waving a boa constrictor on stagePlacebo, Deep Purple, Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four, Gyroscope and Petch were all removed from the bill last week, and a few days later Palaye Royale dropped out too. Communication wasn’t great. The promoters offered only partial refunds, andBut we’re all here, in Caribbean Park in Scoresby. The 7500-strong crowd is rugged up and happy, and everything is smooth.
One punter tells me she really came for Placebo, and she flew her dad in from Wellington for Deep Purple. “It’s okay,” she says. “I’m looking forward to Blondie.” And who isn’t?The remaining seven acts are puzzle pieces that don’t quite go together. The country rock of Aimee Francis into the raucous pub rock energy of Cosmic Psychos into ’70s hard rock tribute act Wolfmother makes a kind of sense. The violent left turn to Wheatus less so.
“That one song rocked a thousand times harder than all of Wolfmother,” I overhear an audience member observe, correctly.