As the Smirnoff tent wound down the bangers in the early hours of this morning, brutally worn-out (and slightly furry) festival goers began the dreaded journey homeward.
Under the watchful gaze of The Rock, this year’s Splendour bender was a FOMO-inducing showcase of Australia’s undying talent and emerging hopefuls. For three balmy days, and three frosty nights, Byron’s rolling hills echoed the sounds of some pretty top-notch performances. Here’s ya best performances, in no particular order, because they’re all damn as good as each other.
#1 Tame Impala
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Not long after sunset, Tame stunned the Amphitheatre with a truly spine-tingling set that marked a close to Friday’s enormous lineup. Crowds fell into a booze-fuelled tizzy as lead singer, Kevin Parker graced the rolling hills with his trademark vocals and Tame’s mind-bending audio visuals which sends us all into a groovy, mind-trance kind of sway.
To kick things off, Let it Happen reverberated across a captivated Main Stage mosh – followed closely by an enormous setlist of Tame’s trippy, cosmic-pop bangers. To close, Borderline. Uffff, that performance rivalled the kind of psychedelic space odyssey fans know and love Tame for.
#2 Tones And I
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I love YOU so much ?
“And I said to my friends, I’m going to play here one day. And now I’m fucking here.”
Last year Tones was a patron, this year she’s the opening act.
Kicking Friday off at the Main Stage was Triple j unearthed winner, and fast becoming bop icon, Tones and I. As crowds filed out of the Hill, there was shared excitement. Tones had quite easily lit up a mosh of fans at arguably Australia’s biggest festival, despite her music career being only in its newborn beginnings.
This was Tones’ first Splendour performance and my bet is she’ll be back for many years to come, even bumped up to a prime time slot if Friday’s crowd has anything to do with it. Amidst grooving, crowds were belting out Dance Monkey and Johnny Run Away and I think it was to Tones’ shock that crowds were so captivated. You could sense the fact that she was just stoked to be there…something that takes any Splendour performance from memorable to bloody magical.
#3 Childish Gambino
Childish Gambino aka @donaldglover at #Splendour last night. Thanks for another great year @SITG. pic.twitter.com/iblboPXuxX
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) July 21, 2019
Gambino introduced the set as church, and boy was it a godly groove display of epic proportions.
Saturday’s Amphitheatre antics had crowds in a boozy-fuelled groove mood for most of the day, and well into the frosty night. The biggest, though? Well it would had to have been Donald bloody Glover. His appearance came with about a year’s anticipation following his cancelled Down under tour late last year, and I’m confident in saying it was the combination of audience hype, Glover’s unmistakable energy, facials and kicker vocals which exceeded anyone’s expectations.
With a crew of back-up vocalists, dancers, and an audio-visual package which rivalled on Tame’s mind-bending laser experience, crowds were mesmerised all the way through the set. A few intimate moments had Glover reminding captivated fans that we need to love ourselves, and each other, and you could almost feel the entire Amphitheatre hanging off his every word.
Childish Gambino took Splendour to church ? Back up vocalists, live band and all the runssssss pic.twitter.com/mFK5Zf7D2U
— Mary Nawai (@MaryNawai) July 20, 2019
When the steady flow of bangers began to drop it, was a maximum energy experience which went far beyond your stock standard rap-set.
@donaldglover by far the best performer at @SITG this year. The crowd was insane. #SITG2019 #splendour2019
— ???. (@_amysinclair_) July 20, 2019
Fans were blessed with a few unmistakable crowd faves, including 3005, Redbone, Feels like Summer and This is America, but also a few unexpected tracks, like Glover’s unreleased Algorhythm.
#4 Wolfmother
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Friday was by far the kicker punk-rock lineup and as mid afternoon fast approached, crowds began descending into the Main Stage. This was arguably Wolfmother’s resurgence into the Aus festival scene, so the set was met with a little trepidation. Undoubtedly though, they tore the bloody house down. As the Amphitheatre wound down there was shared shock/horror that the Sydney-based rock band can still absolutely tear it. It’s confirmation that Wolfmother are still cool – always were.
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Opening song yesterday at Splendour, “Victorious” Thanks for joining us for an amazing hometown show!
#5 Catfish And The Bottlemen
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SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS DAY TWO @catfishandthebottlemen TWICE congrats for being the most hectic mosh I’ve ever experienced. If someone can pls explain how their mosh at Splendour 2017 was chill vs last night no one could breathe, move or even stand that would be great because I’m v confused. 10/10 set tho #splendourinthegrass #catfishandthebottlemen
Wowsers, this was huge. If there’s one key takeaway from Catfish and the Bottlemen’s absolute killer performance is that lead singer, Van McCann can and will frolic across a stage for a solid hour in front of a packed Ampitheatre. The four-piece British indie-rock band put on a stellar display as Saturday’s antics led into the evening’s madness. To wrap up, 7 was a safe bet to leave crowds amped for whatever else the night was to bring.
Splendour in the Grass for 2019 has come to a tragic, yet tremendous close and whilst I’m sad to hang up my dirt-laden gumboots for another year, I reckon I’ll be feeling the jitters up until I return for next year’s highly-anticipated antics.
Sources: @officialwolfmother, @_amysinclair_, @tonesandi, @MaryNawai, @MurrayWatt.
