By James Murphy
Promoters of the touring Spring Loaded festival were inspired by Australian music’s 90s glory days. It was a time when the nation’s finest alternative musicians toured together in the blazing summer at the Big Day Out, woke up early on Saturdays to be introduced by Dylan Lewis on Recovery, and were delivered to ear drums of the youth by Triple J. Then, the carnival was over. Big Day Out behemoths didn’t make economic sense anymore, governments divested from the ABC, the youth migrated to commercial stations and social media. For one glorious night of nostalgia at the Entertainment Centre, though, Hottest 100 playlists of yore were re-animated on stage, as Tumbleweed, Frenzal Rhomb, Magic Dirt, Regurgitator, You Am I and Grinspoon blew away the cobwebs and reflected on the good old days.
During the penultimate set for the night, You Am I’s Tim Rogers, hairy chested in a white jumpsuit emblazoned with iconography, sipped on red wine from a plastic cup and reflected that: sometimes you think that joining a band has ruined your life but it has made your life. He paid tribute to opening act, Tumbleweed, who gave the band their first break, and the song writing of Grinspoon’s Phil Jamison on is newly released solo album. It was a night of interconnection; each band’s web was just like the other’s. The first under-age gig of Frenzal’s Lindsay McDougall, the night’s MC, was Magic Dirt; the Gurge’s Ben Ely reminded bandmate Quan of the time he returned from Sydney after discovering this “sick” band called Frenzal. Past grudges had been buried. Legacies have been forged. They made it through, so it was time to celebrate; the multi-generational audience did just that.
Early in Frenzal Rhomb’s set, a middle-aged fan sporting a 90s tee and thick black dreadlocks surfed the crowd. A few tracks later, a teenage girl in the band’s latest merch followed. When she returned safely to the ground, the dreadlocked dad proudly pointed at his daughter who had just completed a rite of passage. It was poignant.
Like the BDO, each band had truncated playing times. When Jay eyed the clock and saw they had only 9 minutes to go, that was still ample time to smash out another four songs. Frenzal, like Regurgitator, Grinspoon and, especially Magic Dirt did not miss a beat; age had not wearied them.
Magic Dirt, fronted by Adalita, vampiric in black leather mini-skirt and fishnets, reminded audiences of just how pioneering and under-appreciated they were, as they merged early career noise rock tunes like ‘Amoxycillin’ with the pop-rock jangle of ‘Dirty Jeans’ and ‘Supagloo’.
Similarly, Regurgitator are now of an age where no phases of their career are off limits: Tu-Plang, Unit and Love and Paranoia were all on the menu. There was a time where the career defining hits from 1997 were banished.
Grinspoon, as headliners, brought the stadium rock energy; Phil Jamison’s performances could be hit and miss in the 90s. He was locked in for Spring Loaded. You Am I were not quite as tight as the rest, unfortunately. Front man Rogers is doing triple duty, as lead singer of The Hard-Ons and band member of a Rolling Stones tribute tour, and the wear was evident in his voice. His sincerity, though, in addressing the crowd and narrating the evening was special.
It might be too much to dream that Spring Loaded will return next year at the Wayville Showground, that the grey in our beards will disappear and our bones will stop aching. For this night, though, bygone eras were re-visited, and the realization that we are still alive and mostly unscathed was cherished.
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