As far as Sydney festivals go, 'Vivid' has been a bit of a flop. First of all, as Anonymous pointed out to me, what's the point of a Sydney festival if the tag line is: 'Bringing downtown Manhattan to Sydney for two weeks'?
Secondly, bands were supposedly playing (free entry) each lunch time in one of the foyers of the Sydney Opera house. On Monday, I went down with Anonymous to check out said live bands. Were live bands playing? No. Staff were on hand to inform that it had been a typo, albeit appearing on several different marketing posters, programs, emails etc. Bands would be playing for free every lunch time except Monday. Rort.
Thirdly, in that same foyer, on that same Monday, Lou Reed was supposed to do a live radio show in full view of anyone wishing to observe from 2pm. Did he? No. Again the SOH staff had to explain that due the unfavourable acoustics of the foyer Reed would be hosting the radio show from undisclosed, closed off location in full view of no one. I particularly loved when one SOH staffer explained 'well, it's Lou Reed and that's just Rock 'n' Roll and so he can do that'. Rock on. You would think that if the King of Cool was coming to town and hosting a radio show, that you'd check the acoustics. Especially in an Opera House.
Fourth and last in my rant list, I did think it was a cool idea to project images onto the Opera House and so attended to watch the lighting of the sails on Vivid's first night. What did they project? A craft inspired image: Scissors, twine, possibly a band-aid and some cheese on a blue background - it looked like something that may have been the intro to playschool at some point. After that, leopard print, then a disco ball and feathers. Fail.
The only redeeming experience of Vivid so far, has been 'Noise Night'.
"This is a noise-rock showcase, where walls of sound are sculpted and woven with practiced mastery into works of strange and terrifying beauty, ironic humour and adrenaline-fuelled excitement. Prepare for an assault on the senses that will leave you rocking and reeling and wondering what is music anyway... "
- Vivid LIVE website.
The first band were utterly awful. I actually fell asleep. I can't even remember their name they were so bad. Oh, that's right - Zond. The set, at least the part I was awake for, was the complete opposite of the description above. It was boring, dull and flat. Ambient? That's not exactly how I'd describe it...I did wonder if it could be labelled music. Fast forward to Japanese punk band Boris - who were FREAKING AWESOME. So good, it almost entirely made up for the epic Vivid fails above. I say almost, because the coolest part of the whole night was when Lou Reed came out on stage at the end to jam with Laurie Anderson (on an electric violin) and some of the other muso's from the night, in what truly did become a fabulous, dynamic music-scape. Even more delightful was the fact that about half of the audience thought the intermission was in fact the conclusion of the night so everyone left over got to shuffle forward, making the experience much more intimate and well, cool.
Here are some photos, they aren't great because they were taken on my iphone, but you get the gist.
Zond. (above)
Boris (above and below)
Audience after the intermission (above)
Reed jamming...
C. x
