The last day of a festival is usually the best day. Either you’ve grown sick of being in grass fields full of overgrown idiots or all your favourite acts are playing on the final day. For me at the Falls Festival, this was a bit of both. Promising personal favourites such as Busdriver, Jose Gonzalez, Regurgitator and Girl Talk, I was going into 2008 either with a big fat smile on my face or vowing never to return to the sea side. With heats predicted to reach 42 degrees in the daytime, I was going into the new year with a big fat smile on my face (and a sweaty body to boot) or I’d be vowing to never visit the seaside town again. Which is it? Only one way to find out (and it’s the hard way unfortunately). Let’s get on with it.

Another morning - another breakfast of thick cut raisin toast with lashings of margarine washed down with another fruit juice from Lick ‘n’ Sip. I had a few phone calls - one from home followed by one from work, so I shelled out $25 for internet access just in case I needed to remotely log in. Sure enough - no phone calls followed. I decided I’d get into the festival around 3pm due to the heat which was already in full effect, so I sat in my room watching Let’s Go To Prison and playing online poker. It meant I missed out on seeing The Panics, but hey - I wanted to save my energy.

The walk to the bus was probably took the longest of the three days, and on arrival I saw teams of people carrying coolers filled with ice and beer, only to be told that no ice could be taken onto the bus. The Falls staff seemed to be greatful for the bagged ice, making them into bean bag sort of things. Standard stuff on the bus, except for the tents. The camping area was at it’s capacity, with people kicking back in tents or walking towards the stages. Dropped off at around 2:35, I walked around the shopping area and passed the tent before taking a seat for Operator Please. I had previously seen them playing warm-up for the Arctic Monkeys and didn’t think much but put it down for bad sound from the venue. They were better this time around but lacked the spit and polish you hear on their cds - thumbs in the middle from me.

While Operator Please were about half way though their set, I took a chance on Mattafix in the tent and enjoyed the set. Weed was in the air while they played songs such as their hit single Big City Life amongst others. But as soon as José González hit the stage no-one else mattered. I grabbed a seat on the top of the hill and enjoyed life. The set was filled full of his back catalogue, playing favourites of mine such as Crosses, Down The Line and Heartbeats, finally finishing off with a great cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop. As far as chillout vibes went it wasn’t quite as good as Explosions In The Sky in a similar timeslot at Coachella but it was a damn good performance.

I ran back to the tent, hoping to catch the end of Busdriver. Due to delays, he was just setting up and about to get into his set, and even better I was able to get right on the rail without hassle. The set was not a good one, a small crowd who were more into giving golf claps then cheering combined with sound problems made for a bad show. While Busdriver doesn’t have a huge following in Australia, it didn’t seem like enough people gave the guy a chance. Oh well.

Not wanting to see the The Mess Hall, I decided to grab a meal. While food choices had variety, value for money wasn’t a strong point. I took my chances on a vegetable curry meal from the Hari Krishnas. The food was delicious and after slurping down a bottled water, I headed down the hill to catch Regurgitator. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to get as I was only familiar with the ‘Gergs singles.

What came next was manic - a tightly packed together crowd jumping in unison from start to finish. Many beach balls were up in the air, as much crowd surfing as Paul Kelly saw the previous night, and a combination of the two when a rubber raft was dragged by four guys into the crowd. The raft went up and in climbed a naked guy, followed by another, then one more. Finally the weight of the raft gave in and the men collapsed into a heap. Band member Quom remarked “I’d like to be doing that right now”. The set consisted of many songs off their new album Love and Paranoia, and any band who says “We are going to play our new song, Drinking Beer Is Awesome!” is fine by me.

The Beautiful Girls were up next and while they entertained many, they were not my cup of tea. I tried finding something else to listen to and contemplated walking to the Arts Village, but was just as content to sit there and tune out. Built To Spill were not much better, telling the audience how nice it was to play Falls rather then a “bullshit cell phone sponsored event”.

Towards the end of Built To Spill I made a dash towards the front of the stage, ready and waiting for Girl Talk. First Built To Spill’s gear was taken off the stage. Next, a metal desk popped onto the stage along with a large laptop. A few minutes passed, then the intro track from Girl Talk’s first album Unstoppable kicked off before the man himself, Gregg Gillis jumped onto stage and kicked off an amazing hour long set. As with his sets, about an hour in VIPs popped onto the stage and started dancing. Being near the gate for the main stage, I watched the chain reaction this started as various people tried to get backstage to get on the stage, only to be denied by security. Pretty funny, trust me.

Back to the tunes - the set consisted of new tracks and stuff off Night Ripper, which a heap of the crowd got down to. I’m a pretty ugly dancer but I didn’t care enough to stop during each song, even getting down with a few members of the opposite sex. Once the set ended one told me how I was a good dancer, which I laughed off and spat out a sarcastic “yeah” to. Easily the best set of the entire festival, and my favourite performance of 2007 - in by the skin of it’s teeth!

I wasn’t that interested in southern boys Kings Of Leon, so I found somewhere to sit down and chill out. A teenager ended up taking a seat next to me and we ended up talking for about forty minutes about various things - how good Girl Talk was, how much I hate Kings Of Leon, other gigs we have been to and how we find out about new bands. If anything, it made me realise that most people are not like me, sorcing new music from blogs and podcasts and sticking to the basics - namily friends recommendations and Triple J.

I stuck around for the countdown to 2008 - which the band didn’t care for and quickly brushed off so they could play “Southern Fried Rock Tune #571″. Why have them play into midnight if they don’t even care about bringing in the new year? Should of swapped KOL and Girl Talk - I could just imagine what Gregg would of done with Auld Lang Syne. I ended up getting the bus back to town, walking quickly passed the local drunk teenagers hanging around the cafes and beach.

That was the Falls Festival in a nutshell. I am glad I went, I had a great time however given the crowd I think it’s the kind of event that you must be with a large group of people to appreciate in full - it seems like more of a social event to enjoy with friends rather then an event where music is the focus. If I was returning by myself for the 2008 edition, it would have to be because the lineup was over the top.