for people who can't read

The Best Of The V-Festival (Pixies, Jarvis Cocker, Phoenix, New York Dolls) | The Sidney Myer Music Bowl | April 4th
Review by Thomas Mendelovits


“Hey… been trying to meet you!” was a sentiment many fans could concur with when the recently reformed Pixies (the band broke up in 1993) announced they would be traveling to our shores for the first time ever as part of the V-Festival line-up.

However, for Melbourne fans, this meeting would prove more difficult to arrange as the V-Festival was only to be held in Sydney and Brisbane. For a long time, no-one knew what the hell was going on, but finally, two showcase ‘Best of V-Festivals’ were announced for the Sidney Myer Music Bowl featuring the Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Groove Armada, and The Rapture on one night and the Pixies, Jarvis Cocker, Phoenix, and the New York Dolls on the next night. Cynicism abounded regarding Virgin’s tactics to trick hordes of Melbourne music fans flying interstate for the Festival and to make matters worse, side-shows for all acts were announced seemingly deliberately at the last-minute and for the Pixies quickly sold out. Bottom line, for many of us this was probably the only chance ever to see the Pixies.

It may seem like I’m forgetting the other bands, it felt the same way on the night. Fans of the New York Dolls and Jarvis Cocker, seminal in their own right though not to the extent or the ‘nowness’ of the Pixies, probably enjoyed their side-shows, while the addition of Phoenix padded out a brilliantly diverse line-up yet one which favoured the kinds of fans attracted primarily to the Pixies. Anyway, here’s my gripe: festivals should make you feel insignificant and yet part of an epic and transcendent event. But, from the ridiculously far partition of General Admission from Reserved Seating and the stage as well as the long queues to get into the licensed section, and the general disinterest in three of the four acts, a damper was put on the ‘festiveness’ of the event from the very beginning. I guess they were right in naming it the ambiguous ‘Best of V-Festival’. “Must be a devil between us”, indeed.

Even if views of the stage were far from revealing, the sound was great and for the people in the Reserved section I’m sure the three acts prior to the Pixies put on a fantastic show. Being a fan of Phoenix I stayed for their whole set, and they quashed any doubts as to their out-of-studio legitimacy, but the lack of people and atmosphere in General Admission was a bummer. It seemed more people were busy socialising and quenching their thirsts in the overly corporate Jaeger and Red Bull tents, right up until the end of Jarvis Cocker’s set. Jarvis doesn’t do any Pulp songs (“That would just be wrong”) but his new solo material is strong enough and he is an expert charmer.

Before the Pixies were due out, the grassy knoll quickly filled and ironically now it was almost impossible for most people to see anything from General Admission. However, a chill went through the crowd from the very first bars of drums of ‘Bone Machine’ and by the time Black Francis and Kim Deal locked voices the whole vibe was immediately transformed. It was a bizarre experience to see and experience people coming together, singing along to the debauched and depraved science fiction, biblical and marine themed lyrics of Charles Thompson, but this only proved their cult and now-classic status. During ‘Hey!’, ‘Where is my mind?’ and ‘Here Comes Your Man’ especially it really did feel like a festival and they seemed to play nearly every song, or at least those which by now they realise are all but perfect.

From comparing reports of their side-shows it seems that the Pixies themselves felt like this gig was some kind of festival; indulging the crowd with some nice banter (that’s such a negative word, personality display?), on-stage antics, and an encore, none of which occurred at the Palace. Stopping dead in the middle of ‘Where Is My Mind?’ seemed like a ploy suited perfectly to the manic build-up of that song, however, it turned out that a beach-ball had landed on stage and Black quipped: “Pixies don’t do beach-balls”. It took bassist Deal a while to figure out where to come back in from, and aided by Francis it was nice to see the two, whose bumpy history has been so commented on, share a joke. During the final encore, ‘La La Love You’, each band member took the mic to sing “I love you” to each other and then left the stage with arms interlocked. Ah, it was pretty good after all.