SET LIST: Splendour In The Grass 2014

The 2014 edition of Splendour In The Grass will undoubtedly be a favourite among festival goers for many years to come. Approximately 27 000 people attended the event over the weekend to experience some of the best performances and weather throughout its existence. Here's our SET LIST:

DAY 1:

In order to find out where everything was, a lot of the early punters spent most of their Thursday afternoon walking around the site, to familiarise themselves with the change in setup. During this period, I discovered many fantastic market stalls, which I believe were the most impressive they've had in recent years. Music festivals such as Splendour are a great place to get a brand out there and certainly provide an effective platform for people to show off their talents. I purchased this shirt with a psychedelic rabbit tripping out in sunnies on it at Falls earlier this year and since that moment, I've never looked back.

DAY 2:

On Friday morning, quite a large line was queued up outside the rum bar near G.W Theatre, as it appeared as though everyone had the same idea, an aim to hear FRACTURES' smooth vocals, while nested in the comfy hammocks inside. This cosy bar also featured giant sized Jenga and Connect Four games, which also both proved to be a hit.

At exactly midday, Melbourne multi-instrumentalist FRACTURES made his way to the stage with a full live band and notified the audience that he almost wasn't going to be able to play due to illness. Luckily for everyone, he pulled himself together and performed tracks from his new EP including 'Cadence', 'It's Alright', 'Twisted' and my personal favourite 'Won't Win'.

Over at the Mix Up Stage, CHARLES MURDOCH concluded his set with LANDO KAL's 'Further', before one of the most anticipated sets of the day erupted by THE ACID. The three piece definitely lived up to the hype as ADAM FREELAND, RY-X and STEVE NALEPA, created their addictive mixture of electronica, indie and folk music to a fairly solid crowd. The visuals, which were synced to their music, added to the performance, giving them an appropriate back drop, as they treated the crowd with tracks from their debut LP 'Liminal'. Throughout their set we heard the electrifying 'Creeper', the emotional 'Fame', 'Animal' and 'Ghost', before they finished with their euphoric hit 'Basic Instinct'. Absorbing the sounds of THE ACID through the ground was even a toaster, which someone decided was a good idea to bring to their show.

Next up on the schedule was THE KITE STRING TANGLE, who took care of the wine bar's soundtrack for us with 'Commotion', his amazing FLIGHT FACILITIES cover of 'Clair De Lune', the recently released 'Arcadia' and of course, his modern day classic 'Given The Chance'. Later in the afternoon Melbourne boys INDIAN SUMMER had the tent going absolutely spastic with SWICK's 'Full Court', DUGONG JR's remix of GUDU's 'Etheren', as well as RIBONGIA's 'Slave Trade', before closing with their haunting yet catchy production 'Shiner'.

To the main stage it was, in order to experience one of my heroes from many years ago, SPIDERBAIT. The band certainly didn't show their age and rocked it just as hard as they always have. Kram's vocals echoed all around the Amphitheatre and the guitar riffs were crisp and heavy. To me Kram is Australia's version of Jack Black, a pure rock and roll dude at heart. During their intense show, fans were taken back to the old days with 'Old Man Sam', 'Buy Me A Pony' and 'Calypso', before Kram introduced his children to the audience and the band launched into 'Black Betty'.

In front of one of the festival's designated meeting spots - a giant blow up shark, I overheard a conversation which involved a few people who were going to meet their other friends at LONDON GRAMMAR, in front of the Amphitheatre. This of course was never going to happen, but I simply didn't have the heart or guts to be the person to inform the soon to be disappointed crew.

Instead, THE PRESETS stepped in to play their first set ever on the Splendour In The Grass main stage and going by the crowd's energy, people seemed to have forgotten they were even a replacement act. The electronic duo began their set with 'Push', followed by 'Fall' which had people in a trance, 'Ghosts', a remixed version of 'Boys In Love' and 'I Go Hard, I Go Home' (featuring unfiltered vocals), as well as their latest efforts 'Goodbye Future' and 'No Fun'. They then finalised their incredible performance with remixes of 'Kicking And Screaming' and 'Talk Like That'.

Nicely dressed in tuxes, the gentlemen from INTERPOL arrived on stage to perform a balanced show of old and new tracks. I think one of the special elements of their sound is the very distinct and interesting vocals of PAUL BANKS. They opened their set with 'Say Hello To Angels', then moved on into 'Evil', 'My Desire', 'Anywhere', 'Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down' and closed with 'Slow Hands'. The band must have felt a bit of pressure following THE PRESETS, but managed to keep the buzz going before the act 3/4 of Splendour attendees were holding out for took to the stage, OUTKAST.

OUTKAST had an absolutely hilarious stage presence and were by the far the best hip hop act I've ever seen live. Their enormous 24 track set list featured all of the songs I grew up listening to including 'B.O.B.', 'Ms Jackson', 'GhettoMusick', 'The Way You Move', 'So Fresh, So Clean', 'Prototype', 'Roses' and 'Hey Ya'. The words of one of the lucky ladies who were invited on stage to get their groove on consisted of "I'm losing my shit right now" and that's exactly what happened to the entire crowd. On a side note, that was the most boobs I've ever seen out at a festival. Thanks for providing the hits, humour and boobs BIG BOI and ANDRE 3000!

DAY 3:

It's crazy to think how far BASENJI has come over the past six months. During his 45 minute set, we heard SINJIN HAWKE & DJ SLINK's 'Gas Pump', A. G. COOK's 'Beautiful', RYTMEKLUBBEN's 'Seen' and his own track 'Dawn', which received a powerful roar upon commencement.

Once day became night, METROMOMY hit the Mix Up Stage to play their catalogue of electronic pop songs 'Radio Ladio', 'Love Letters', 'The Look', 'I'm Aquarius', 'Heartbreaker' and 'The Bay'. I think their time slot was chosen thoughtfully, because while they are a dance act, their sound isn't too in your face so it left room for the headliners to do their thing and amp it up!

As a huge FOALS fan, I left METRONOMY's set a tad early to find a massive sized crowd at the Amphitheatre. While the band are amazing live every single time, seeing them in this enormous setting was a completely different experience and one I'll always remember.

They began their set with 'Prelude', before letting loose to 'Balloons' and 'My Number', the spiritual 'Spanish Sahara', 'Inhaler' and ended with 'Two Steps, Twice', which had almost the whole crowd clapping along to the guitar riffs. As a front man, Yannis was at the top of his game and did a superb job at keeping the audience pumped, resulting in a truly magical atmosphere.

DAY 4:

Beginning the final day, early risers woke up to the sounds of CHROME SPARKS, who played tracks such as 'The Meaning Of Love' and 'Goddess' from his latest EP. "I can smell that shit from here", he advised the crowd before conveniently beginning his older song 'Marijuana'. The only downside of this set was that it was on a bit too early to be appreciated at the level he deserved. Hopefully we'll see him and his band back in Australia soon.

Armed with inflatable palm trees and backed up by ridiculous meme orientated visuals (thanks to some help from the good sir FLERM), Gold Coast producer PACES then took to the stage! "Does everybody here like Doritos!?", he shouted prior to throwing about 15 packets into the crowd. It was a special guest bonanza as MADELINE VIDA, ERIN MARSHALL and fellow SITG artist TKAY MAIDZA all joined him for 'Can't Touch Me', 'Julian' and newbie 'Switch Lanes'.

Following PACES, we experienced quite a different set to what was typically heard over the thickness of the weekend. Triple J House Party girl KLP gave us a nice change of sound with BAG RAIDERS' 'Nairobi', the ultra catchy 'Bugatti' by TIGA and MICKEY KOJAK's 'Feel My Pain'. She was even kind enough to value our post Splendour depression so much that she uploaded a recording of the entire set, but unfortunately those nasty folks at SoundCloud took it down within 24 hours.

One of my favourite parts about the bill for this year's event was that while they had the classic artists like OUTKAST, LILY ALLEN and KELIS, the organisers also made a lot of room for the really interesting upcoming acts such as THE ACID, WILD BEASTS, FUTURE ISLANDS and JUNGLE.

I'll be honest, I hadn't even heard of JUNGLE until the line up was announced, but after their performance on Sunday, which featured entertaining funk songs including 'The Heat', 'Busy Earnin', 'Julia' and 'Time', I think this is an act we'll all be hearing a lot more about in the future.

Back at the Amphitheatre, the very cute Lauren Mayberry from CHVRCHES provided the LOLs. “I’m probably the only person to talk about tampons on stage at Splendour” she joked, while eating Tim Tams. I couldn't quite get into the band's music before the festival but after hearing them perform I think I'm now a fan. 'Gun', 'Tether', 'Lies' all made their set list for the evening, prior to them closing with 'The Mother We Share'.

For the finale, NINA LAS VEGAS got the crowd excited for DANNY BROWN and DARKSIDE on the Mix Up Stage with tracks such as an instrumental version of SABLE's 'Feels So Good', YHETI's 'Fresh' and FALCONS' 'Be Quiet'.

Last but not least, the amazing DARKSIDE performed tracks from their five star album 'Psychic' including 'Freak, Go Home', 'Paper Trails' and 'The Only Shrine I've Seen'. Hats off to NICOLAS JAAR and DAVE HARRINGTON, for closing such an epic festival in the most enjoyable way possible.

BEST. SPLENDOUR. EVER.

Words by Tony Kingston

SEE ALSO:

OUR SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS TOP FIVES

SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS ROADTRIP PLAYLIST

FALLS FESTIVAL THROUGH THE EYES OF A VOLUNTEER