southbound saturday

After a not-so-trashy new years eve in a Bunbury caravan park it was off to Southbound!

I had to drive as my boy was feeling rather poorly (self inflicted so he gets no sympathy), and driving his beast is always a bit nerveracking for me. It’s not something I particularly enjoy but we arrived at Sir Bovells Park, Busselton in one piece, and rather far away from the entrance.
Lugging three days worth of clothes, tent, bedding, and other miscellaneous items 400m into the campground is not fun. But we eventually got through the bag check unscathed, and parked ourselves under a tree. We made friends with our neighbours and chatted until the first band (The Ghost Hotel) was due to begin. BFF (for this weekend she was known as Marnie, as she got really sunburnt like our friend Marnie did last southbound) came with me and we left the boys at the camp site.

Local Perth band, The Ghost Hotel were suitably chilled, but their catchy folk sound had won over a few new fans by the end of their set. The floating sounds of “Amantes” got the crowd into a festival vibe.

Next up was a wander around the base camp – it had changed considerably since last year (in my opinion for the worst) with no separate campers only base camp, which meant that the non-stage side drinking areas were fuller than they should have been.
But we met up with the rest of the group and listened to the pop sounds of 6’s and 7’s, and Young Revelry in the background.
Next up was Angus & Julia Stone, who didn’t disappoint. After seeing their set at On The Bright Side 4 months earlier we were expecting the cover of “the one that I want”, but crowd favourites were definitely “and the boys”, “big jet plane”, and “just a boy” from their first album.

Hot Hot Heat were next on the Paper stage and opened with “bandages” which had us all jumping around like hooligans. And the jumping didn’t stop with hits coming left right and centre.
‘21@12’ was an obviously crowd favourite with the jjj crowd, but ‘talk with me dance with me’ had this girl dancing for her life.
We had a wicked spot just behind the fence so Marnie and I stayed for Ladyhawke (all the boys miraculously had other places to be) but we didn’t mind.
After so much jumping to Hot Hot Heat my shin splints were killing me, so we listened to most of her set from the grass.
Not being a massive fan I didn’t really get into it, but singing ‘my delirium’ was a highlight.

Interpol was up next and I tried to stand on my legs, but with not much success, fortunately we were at the fence and I was able to cling on and dance (rather limitedly) away. It wasn’t my favourite set list, as I only have 3 albums and they didn’t really play much stuff I knew, but it was good all the same.
Maybe I had built them up too much in my mind, but they didn’t blow me away, and I limped out of there just a touch disappointed.
Fortunately my boy had returned to watch Interpol with us so he had the oh-so-fun duty of supporting me whilst I was unable to put any weight on my right leg.
We grabbed some greasy hamburgers before returning to the tent to have a scotch before bed.