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A Day In The Life Of Southern Amp 2008
A Day In The Life Of Southern Amp
2008
Story & Images by Leah
Duran
Additional Photos by Oli Fagg
I'm wired, inspired and exhausted. It's 3 p.m. on Monday and I'm in recovery mode from Southern Amp 08, Sunday's all-day music festival in Christchurch, New Zealand. But let's backtrack to how I got into this whipped, but eternally grateful, state:
11:35 a.m.: The florescent green and orange sticker affixed to my camera bag reads "Working." And so I am, if you can call it that. I'm covering the Southern Amp 08 festival for the lovely folks at Scoop.co.nz.
The Exiles open on the New Zealand Music Stage at 12:30 p.m. People are still sleeping off their post-election hangovers. For those who missed out on morning coffee, here's your wake-up call. Bright lights, two keyboards, tons of energy, an indie rock sound with a hint of electronica. A faithful following are up on their feet and dancing already.
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1:16 p.m. finds me at the Christchurch Music Stage. I move from the heavily layered power-rock of The Exiles to the soothing banjo, harmonica and acoustic guitar sounds of The Eastern. "The more records you buy, the more we eat and drink," singer Adam McGrath says. So kudos to everyone who came out to support all the artists at Southern Amp. It's still a job, though it may not seem like it.
Even with running between four stages to catch snippets of each act, I still have time to kill, so I wander around the festival grounds of the Westpac Arena. Other people kill time by playing Hacky Sack and drinking. Despite a record-breaking crowd of more than 7,000 attendees, there are still plenty of open spaces.
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The crowd is a lively mix of diverse personalities and fashion tastes. One guy wears a shirt that tells me the weather report: "Mostly drunk, with a chance of scoring." The forecasters are wrong again; it was pretty warm, slightly windy.
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Artists strolled through the crowd intermittently, making it seem like one big cheery family gathering (except way cooler than your average family get-together {sorry Mom!}, because, they're like, rock stars).
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3:10 p.m.: The Cairo Knife Fight gets political. "Have we got any National Party fans in the audience?" double-trouble drummer and vocalist Nick Gaffaney asks. Silence. "No? Well, it's a new day, it's a new dawn."
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The day is filled with great music, even between sets. I hear The Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" and The Zuton's "Valerie." When the clock strikes 3:30, the tone switches with Ed Muzik, who offers amusing lyrics about a girl's school and bad drug trips set to funky electronic beats. "You've got to keep dancing to stay warm," Ed urges, hopping offstage and showing his moves.
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5:10 p.m. and it's time for me to camp out at The Rock FM main stage, situated inside the arena. I want to make sure I'm up front for The Dandy Warhols. In the meantime, Aussie rock band Gyroscope takes the stage.
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6:25 p.m.: There's nothing fake about UK band The Charlatans – just fun, feel-good vibes streaming from the keyboards and guitars of this Britpop alternative act. Following a slight break in the set, singer Tim Burgess declares, "I want to keep dancing." And he does, smiling and swinging the microphone like there's nothing else in the world he'd rather be doing.
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THE DANDY WARHOLS:
Alchemists of Sound: Dandy Warhols At Southern Amp
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8:30 p.m.: I'm on a high from The Dandy Warhols. The world could end right now, and that would be OK (it's got to happen sometime, right?). There's no time to relax, as The Living End yanks the crowd's energy up a dozen notches. The music also increases peoples' desire to crowd surf and shove bodies every which way. My legs hurt from standing, my neck is sore from surfing and lugging around a camera, I'm slammed against the metal stage barrier, and I couldn't be happier.
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10:00 p.m.: My front-and-center-stage stakeout ends. After The Living End, I step out for much-need water and grub, along with some crowd shots.
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