Monday to Thursday

Monday 29th of July

We hit the stage with One Flew East and Trilling Robotics Orchestra.

Due to illness, One Flew East had to play the show sans-drummer, and it clearly showed - their set was less "acoustic" and more "our drummer isn't here".

It looked like they would have to get a ring-in drummer for the Jaeger Uprising final, but at the end of the day he pulled through, and a good thing too. One Flew East's straight up rock is totally held down by the drums at the centre. It was great to see them in full flight on Thursday at the Annandale rather than clearly uncomfortable on the Monday.

Trilling Robotics Orchestra are a conceptual clan who wear animal face masks, blindfolds and make strange dischordant, improvised noise. They're clearly inspired by the new sounds of bands like Animal Collective and maybe even Sigur Ros (one guitarist used a cello bow), but while I can see what they're trying to achieve, I have little patience for the unrehearsed experimentation that was their performance.

They might be capable of great things if they gave their tracks some structure and rehearsed. Unless you're immensely talented, pure improvisation belongs in a garage, not on a stage.

Thursday 2nd July

Winter People put on a stellar performance, and took out the Jaeger Uprising. I proceeded to get wasted and ignore the other bands, except One Flew East - none made a great impression on me, but it probably wasn't their fault. The night and prize belonged to the Winter Peeps.

Congrats to the lot of them, and keep an eye out for the live video I'm editing together of them performing an acoustic version of "My Town" out at Cockatoo Island.