March 14th
(pi day)
I woke up this morning, got ready incredibly quickly and bolted out the door to meet Hilde at the bus stop for the Sound Relief concert held today at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We lucked out on our timing and we made all of the buses we needed to get there and didn't have to wait long at any stop. On the way, the Australian Navy was parading down George Street. I think a bunch of their ships had landed in the harbour.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
I hadn't been to the Moore Park area before so it was neat to check it out. Hilde and I found our seats, which were up in the bleachers. It was kind of a missed blessing. On one hand, we wanted to be close to the artists; on the other hand, we were incredibly glad to be under the protection when it was raining. We grabbed a kebab, which is becoming one of my favorite foods that is sold frequently in Australia. Writing this blog makes me realize how much I eat them.
The concert itself was fantastic. Coldplay opened with a few songs, including "Life in Technicolor," "Yellow," "Lost!," "Clocks," and "Viva la Vida." On "Yellow" they let out these giant yellow balloons with confetti in them. Super cool.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Then they did a duet with John Farnham of his song "You're The Voice" which I know because of the epic scene in Hot Rod. Australians love John Farnham and they really love this song. Here's Chris Martin and John Farnham singing:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
That was pretty great, but my favorite part of Coldplay's performance was when, on their last song of "Fix You" which I adore anyway, Chris Martin just started running into the crowd. That's him in the blue outfit wearing the pants.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
While running, one of the security guards thought he was a regular person trying to jump the fence and tried to stop him, but Chris Martin is a very fast man. Afterward, the crowd came to the general consensus that Mr. Chris Martin is a solid BAMF.
Wolfmother played next and I only knew a few of their songs, but they put on a good show. The lead singer's hair is crazy:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Also, I love Kings of Leon, and so does Australia. They were playing at the same Sound Relief festival in Melbourne and I was glad they broadcast it to us at Sydney too. They did not play "Sex on Fire" out of respect for the bushfire victims. Here's Caleb and that awesome drum:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
After Wolfmother, there was a slew of bands I didn't know. Little Birdy was one of them and I thought they were pretty good. I knew Architecture in Helsinki already and their performance was a lot of fun.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
I hadn't heard of You Am I before, and their performance was okay. I also hadn't heard of Josh Pyke before, but I did enjoy his set.
And for a brief interlude I present to you the story of "High Five Guy." "High Five Guy" was drunk off his mind probably from 11am until 11pm, or at least the entire time we saw him. He went around giving everyone high fives and hugs and just being incredibly jovial toward all. Hilde and I found him very entertaining.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
We stopped and got some snacks toward the end of Josh Pyke's set. Hilde got a "Golden Gaytime" bar. We were incredibly unsure of what this was and thought it was a ridiculous name. Here's an ad:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
It started raining pretty bad soon afterward and we were really lucky to be under the pavilion area. It worked out very well. Hilde and I stayed dry. :)
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
These people sort of did too.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Another interlude: People jumping over the wall to get closer to the stage.
Everyone in the bleachers with their assigned seats sitting comfortably found great joy and entertainment from watching the dumb/drunk people try to jump over the fence and escape closer to the stage. There were times when everyone around me was making noise and pointing like something incredibly exciting was going on, and then I realized they were cheering for someone who made it over the fence and then ran away fast enough from the security guards. You couldn't pay me enough to be a security guard on a day like this.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
The sun came out and I think one of the judges from Australian Idol performed and then there was Taylor Swift. She was particularly good. Also, she had a costume change that blew my mind mid-performance. She went from black t-shirt and jeans to gold sparkling dress in the blink of an eye. This defies science for me. Regardless, she was an excellent performer.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
I tried to take as many pictures of her performance as I could for my cousins at home who love her work.
Also drunk High Five guy went around collecting cups for the concerts largest stack of cups that he was putting together. There was no reason; there didn't have to be.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
We were all very entertained. By the time it got to the bottom section of the bleachers, it was huge:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
They showed us some more of the Melbourne show including Jack Johnson between sets. Here's Jack:
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
I desire Banana Pancakes right now.
Eskimo Joe played in there too. Again, another band I hadn't heard of which were still good. And then there was Jet! I really like Jet and I think they are a great band and their set did not disappoint.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
After that, Toni Collette came out and made an announcement on behalf of the festival. I think she's an amazing actress, especially because her American accent is so good in the movies I've seen her in that I didn't even know she was Australian.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
The announcement was essentially that Prince William and Prince Harry were going to make a remark via satellite. This was exciting.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Then Kylie Minogue sang "I Still Call Australia Home" from Melbourne.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Then The Presets! I didn't know much of their music before I came here, but their single "Talk Like That" is on the radio a lot here so I hear it while getting around. They were fantastic and I really should get more of their music.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
Then Icehouse, who the only song I knew of theirs was "Great Southern Land" because it was on the Bushfire Relief CD I bought a while back, performed. I made it through the performance.
Then there was Barry Gibb. Most of his performance I was singing the theme song from the SNL sketch involving "talking it up on The Barry Gibb Talk show" which was one of my favorites where Jimmy Fallon plays Barry Gibb and Justin Timberlake plays Robin Gibb. Anyway, the real Barry Gibb was pretty great.
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
I know this is a very strange thing to say, but I think Dave Grohl might look like an old Barry Gibb when he gets older.
Then Olivia Newton-John came out and joined Barry Gibb for "Islands in the Stream" and a few others. I didn't know the Bee Gees wrote that; I'm familiar with the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton version and the bit that was sampled for "Ghetto Supastar" back in 1998, when I was 10. Thanks Wikipedia!
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| From Sound Relief Festival |
The show finally ended and we got back ok. The bus actually was incredibly convenient yet again. Hooray!
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