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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

About four months ago I decided that I’d go to a festival for New Year’s. Traditionally I don’t lot for New Year s, preferring to stay at home, drink and watch the fireworks from my backyard. When the rumours of Girl Talk, Gogol Bordello and Jose Gonzalez came up (amongst others), I stuck my name in the ballet and figured if I got an offer I’d take it, otherwise I’d just go to one of the other shows (Pyramid Rock and the Hip-Hop Showcase at the Corner Hotel were my two picks, in that order). Sure enough, I got the option to buy on the first day and took it up instantly.

So I worked out what I needed for camping supplies and saw the line-up announcements. No Gogol but the rest of the picks weren’t that bad – The Go! Team, Busdriver, Lior, The Herd, and a bunch of others that I’d hope I would discover. But as things got closer I wussed out and booked myself a nice hotel room just off the main street. While I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t write another entry until I finished my America trip report, I don’t want to put writing this off forever – so here we go, Day 1, even if it is Day 0.

Read the rest of this entry »

One day into Coachella and I was ready for another week of it - way too much fun. Two days into Coachella and I wondered how much more of it I could take - the desert sun was beating this pasty faced fat man like an early-90s Drederick Tatum in ‘The Bout To Knock The Other Guy Out’. With Sunday being the most loaded day of the Coachella Festival, I figured that all the negatives had passed and I was in for an incredible day of music.

It makes it so hard to think that everything that follows is the 100% truth.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, for those who you who didn’t read or don’t want to read my last super-long entry, here is a summary without spoilers..

Mike got up and struggled to make himself breakfast, despite the fact that everything was already prepared. He got a crappy cell phone and headed out to the festival, where he had a great time seeing so many artists. Coming back from the festival, he got into a very bad spot that he feared he would struggle to get out of.

So with that out of the way, on with Saturday at Coachella.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just before I start - I wasn’t intending for this to come out so late. Real life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, and I hate that it does. I also warn that this is badly put together over several days, so it’s probably not the easiest read. Regardless, let’s get on with the show.

Friday April 27 - today was the day. Sure the trip to America was a big deal for me, given all the extra stuff I was getting up to but really Coachella was the reason I went. Just about everyone that I talked to thought I was crazy for making this trip, hell I still thought I was crazy. The time was finally here - Coachella 2007. But I decided that it was too hot for music, and when I saw someone asking to buy tickets I got rid of them cheaply and decided to head back to my air conditioned room. I was able to watch the festival on the net and all was well.

Oh come on, you and me both know that this did not happen.

Read the rest of this entry »

No blog entries til Monday (just too tired). For live updates from the festival click the Twitter link above.