'friend of the night' was listed but not played.

splendour in the grass
g.w. mclennan theatre, 8.15 - 9.15

reviews/comments

from www.ravemagazine.com.au:

moseying over to mogwai felt not dissimilar to being rounded up like cattle. the gw mclennan theatre was heaving with people eager to see and/or hear the scots. good thing this group have one of the loudest and keenly moulded sounds going around – and it was fortunate that they were playing under a tent with the most impeccable sound experienced at the entire festival. lucky thing too that this is a band lacking in the ‘visual pretty’, as not being able to enter the stage left me in the cold outside. but with the epic 'mogwai fear satan' swirling out of the canvas enclave, and out to those viewing from under the stars, well, you kind of felt those inside were the ones missing out.

from taz:

the minute i walked through the splendour gates, i knew the festival was going to be crap. and, overall, it was. the number of tools increases every year and i swear soundchecking times do too. but no matter, the ever-reliable mogwai gave hundreds (thousands?) of unsuspecting punters (tools mostly..) the most definitive/different/magnificent hour of their lives. i wasn't unsuspecting, but i sure as hell was blown away just the same as people who had never heard the 'gwai before. and i am probably just as much a tool too, now that i think of it. the sound of course was the hugest thing anyone had ever heard, and together with the blissful state of being mogwai are so kind and so able to bestow upon us lesser humans - it was stunned heaven.

i remember rejoicing at the delays with the setup and soundchecking beforehand, and the guy standing next to me thought i was crazy. later, at the end of helicon 1, he knew exactly what i meant. he said 'i never want this to end'. which just about sums up everyone at the g.w mclennan theatre's feelings during the set. i'd been waiting at the barrier for four hours (quite unneccessarily as it turned out)..and i know it's silly but in my defence i will say i am teenage, a girl and not exactly blessed with high stature. so out they came with their little green jackets (and throughout the concert, one by one they took them off) and subsequently blew everyone in the tent away from the first. unfortunately, no one around me were mogwai fans and i'd have to say i missed them because though the music was great, the atmosphere kinda sucked. especially as i was standing next to these girls who kept talking through the whole thing - satan finally shut them up. also some chick behind us with a bottle of champagne in her hand was swaying and about to pass out kept falling onto us. and we were like 'get the hell out of here' cause we didn't want her to die or more importantly, puke on us, but then we couldn't force her to go, so we just had to accept her annoying presence.

i did hear some people request obscure things behind me though - it was funny when someone requested stanley kubrick or something and barry was like 'we don't do requests' and then they were like 'give us a wave' and he said 'we don't do those either'. it was nice to witness the making of some new mogwai fans though, although i was feeling a bit possessive and jealous (i-knew-them-first kinda syndrome..so silly). also as i mentioned before, most people in the crowd were idiots, and i didn't like the idea of idiots getting into mogwai. but whatever, maybe the tools became less toolish by getting into mogwai - and that's good for the world. anyway then to end it off - we're no here - fuck. then at the end martin threw his stix into the crowd. but not to me :(. i suppose i secretly hoped that he'd recognise me from the gig the night before (i was in exactly the same position, maybe they thought it was dejavu) and would appreciate my loyalty and actually personally hand me the sticks. but no. i was so obsessed with the aerial path and subsequent landing of the sticks, i forgot stuart and barry were still on stage making sweet noise. i snapped back around to catch the last of it and then they were gone, like friends of the night..i mean.. thieves in the night. shout out to the guy standing next to me - thanks so much for getting the setlist for me!