The women, one of six behind the counter in the express lane at the local Foodworks looked depleted of energy when she informed me that the maximum cash-out from an EFTPOS transaction was $200. The ATM’s located in Lorne had ran out of a cash, so there was a rush in the store to by a few items as possible (for me it was a bottle of Coke, bottle of Sprite and the daily newspaper, pricey stuff as you can imagine) and then withdraw as much cash as you could. Despite the Falls Festival being in it’s fifteenth year of operation, it almost seemed like the seaside town couldn’t handle the sell-out crowd. If anything, it really points to getting a few mobile ATMs on the festival grounds. But if all I cared about was money, I could of stayed in Melbourne and visited multiple ATMs around the city - the Falls Festival was all about the music.

Sunday started unusually early for me as I woke up right at 6am. The sunlight was shining through the wooden shades fairly brightly but somehow I got back to sleep. I ended up getting up at about 9:30 and decided to be lazy for the morning rather then going out to the festival ASAP. I had a frustrating shower due to the screwed up tap which either meant the water was either too cold or too warm. After getting dressed I headed into the main street to get myself some butter (hard to eat toast without it) and have a look at some of the shops in town. The sky was clear, not one cloud yet the sun beaming down wasn’t as hot as many people had been expecting. I grabbed an oversized, overpriced container of margarine from the town’s petrol station while watching many people withdraw from the mini-ATM in the shop. I then went to the town’s juice bar and ice cream parlour (Lick ‘n’ Sip) where I grabbed an average but fresh fruit juice before heading back to my room.

While eating breakfast I wrote up my blog entry for the previous day and watched tv. I ended up watching Dreamland which I thought was good, but not great and Bad News Bears (the new version with Slingblade) as was pretty entertaining. I have to admit the amount of cursing from the kids was both bizzare and funny at the same time, with some of the lines downright hilarious. How did it compare to the original? I’m not sure, but I think I’m going to hunt it down.

I had decided I’d get the 3pm bus to the festival, have some lunch and get on with seeing artists. While I’d miss out on seeing The Pipettes and Lior, I wasn’t too fussed and preferred to stay indoors in the nice air conditioning, drinking my tequila pre-mix. At about half past two I sun-tanned myself up and headed out to get some cash and catch a bus. First I needed money, so it was off to the town’s ban. Upon seeing the Commonweath ATM reporting saying it was out of order, I headed to the nearby BP petrol station where a portable ATM existed. GASP! This ATM was out of order, with a hand written sign saying the following:

“ATM is out of money, please visit the supermarket which has EFTPOS”.

Bah, that’s just great. The supermarket wasn’t far, but was at least a five minute walk. Add in the time in the supermarket (at least 5-10 minutes), and the walk back and all I could smell was the dust from a bus driving into the distance. Could I pass on getting cash and just go to the festival? I thought about it for a minute or so before making the annoying (but correct) decision to get the bus. It meant I miss out on seeing The Pipettes, but what could I do? I need cash.

After getting some cash at the supermarket, I decided that I’d grab some lunch in town, go back to my room to eat and head off to the festival. Lorne Fish & Chips was the choice for the day, as I feasted on some freshly fried butterfish, chips and Sprite. After I was done it was about time to get the bus, so once again I was headed back to Lorne School to head to Falls, cash in hand.

Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set was the first thing I heard in the Big Top as I arrive, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood for her country-folk-rock mish-mash sounds and took a seat near the top of the hill to watch The Herd. The Herd are a weird group to me, being that they are an Aussie hip-hop band ala The Roots, who I love, and I feel that I should love them just as much. Unfortunately, they are just way too political for my liking and it’s a total turnoff. With all of that said, they played a decent set and their cover of Redgum’s “I Was Only Nineteen” sounded even better live then off the cd.

I decided to head back to the Big Top to get a place for New Zealand indie rockers Cut Off Your Hands, who didn’t disappoint. Lead singer Nick spluttered around the stage, with his right arm in a crutch (one of those crutches where your arm goes in a whole, as opposed to under the arm) and his left arm holding the microphone stand. The guy proceeded to go every which-way on stage, all while belting out each song without fail. I wish I had heard of these guys earlier because I now want to see them a whole bunch of times in the future.

I joined The Waifs in progress and was stunned at how good a live act they are. While I was only familiar of their singles, the band put on an inspired performance which really lit up when they started into “London Still”. The crowd decided to sing the entire first verse before vocalists Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson would get started, stunning the two ladies in the process. Thorn said it best following the bands performance of the song, “The power of a radio hit”. Indeed!

I wasn’t sure who I wanted to see next and was thinking about grabbing some dinner but decided against it and headed down the front to see Neville Staple’s Specials. Let me say that making this decision was the best decision I had made during the entire festival. The Specials put on a hell of a performance, playing ska while Staple’s performed in front of a fiesy but small audience that built up towards the end. Easily the stand out performance of Sunday, Staple belted out the tunes while everyone (this blogger included) danced up a storm. What amused me was the teenage girl standing in front of me, who seemed to know every single word and flirted with Staple. Generally, she’d be looking and pointing at Staple, he’d come over to the right side of the stage, point and look back, and the girl would then turn to her friends, smile and laugh. This happened half a dozen or so times and amused me a bit.

Following the fun performance, I made the hard walk back up hill and decided to grab a very average Steak burrito with a water. After stuffing myself, I went back to the tent to watch Little Red finish their set to a pumped up crowd and watched the entire audience clear for the next act. I sat down in the sun and watched Goyte but felt that his music was above my head for some reason - I just didn’t get it and wasn’t in the mood for it. The DJ who was setting up in the tent seemed to be playing hip-hop samples, so I decided I’d check that out and wait for him to start.

The artist was DJ Mugen. After a pretend Japanse death metal group opened the set (I believe their name was Oroshi), Mugen played some fairly wanky self-indulgent music in front of a huge crowd as seen below.

Yes, that is a real picture. No, it wasn’t taken while no-one was performing, this was taken between five and ten minutes into his set. It remained this way until Paris Wells appeared, and just like at the end of Field of Dreams where all the ball players appear out of the corn fields, the crowds appeared in the Big Top. Despite her somewhat tacky dress sense, Paris can belt out a hell of a tune, doing it “freestyle style” over ready made beat’s such as Jurassic 5’s “What’s Golden” and singing some originals. Paris only played about twenty minutes but really should of had the entire set because she was just that good. After Paris left about half the crowd joined her, but the break dancing allowed the crowd to stick around.

I didn’t like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, so I decided to stick around for The Paper Scissors as I didn’t mind the sound of them from what I’d previous heard. But the frontman decided he was a comedian (I’d use the word wanker to be honest) and after ten minutes I couldn’t take it any more, refusing to listen to someone talk about a zip on their jeans. I headed out and took a spot somewhere, catching a bit of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who were disappointing in their mediocrity (which doesn’t mean they are good).

Paul Kelly was the next guy up, and I happen to like him so I grabbed a spot on the left hand side of the hill. For those who haven’t heard of Paul Kelly, he’s a fantastic rocker who’s songs are just classics in Australian music. Acoustic guitar, mellow story based tunes are probably the best words to describe him, and the crowd ate it up, singing along legendary songs like “To Her Door”. But the crowd was weird as it featured the most crowd surfing I had ever seen at any show before. Now Paul Kelly is the kind of guy you’d hold a candle up in the air for, not jump on your back and get pushed to the front. But tens of people were up the air and getting dragged by security to safety. Over, and over, and over again, it was the oddest thing I had ever seen at a festival. Good show, none the less.

Hip-hop act Blackalicious brought us into New Year’s Eve with a half decent performance based around a ton of crowd participation. Lead rapper Gift of Gab may look like a fat nerd but he can spit a freestyle that would come close to the speed of a rhyme by Twista. A decent show, but I was very tired and decided to pass on seeing The Go! Team who apparently put on a decent showing. I headed back to the bus stop and grabbed the 1am bus, sinking into bed as soon as I got into my room.

It was New Year’s Eve and all my favourite acts were playing today - Jose Gonzalez, The Panics, Regurgitator, Busdriver and Girl Talk. What would happen? Find out.. pretty soon!