electronic music not quite as shit as anticipated

Went to Sandwiches Summerset 08 on Saturday and actually had quite a good time.

Of course it helped quite a bit that I went courtesy of Texture, for which I was doing a liveblog of the day. Free entry (and free drinks) in exchange for 5 minutes of writing every two hours seemed like a pretty good deal...

And I was pleasantly surprised by the music. Open Souls had a criminally early timeslot (starting up at 12.30pm when the gates were barely open) but were nevertheless in fine form - Minuit were likewise far earlier than they deserved, but at least got a somewhat larger crowd.

Crazy Penis were a particular highlight - they're a U.K. electro-funk act. I assumed based on the name that they'd be a DJ, although if I'd just taken the time to you know, read the posters or something, I would have known different. But they were really exceptional.

Shapeshifter were something else as well - with metal-edged guitar lines through a lot of their set that the ROCK2WGTN crowd would be jealous of. They had the biggest crowd of the day, which I guess meant that a lot of people just came in time to see them. Which would have meant paying $110 for one act, and while they were good... let's just say I was very satisfied with the price I paid for my ticket (see above).

I suspect that quite a few people abused the hospitality of the Media/Artist/VIP room - at around 6pm security started checking people's passes much more aggressively. Coincidentally that was about the time the vodka ran out - and by the time Shapeshifter were on all the VIP seemed to have left were a few cans of Tui. Good effort I suppose...

There were heaps of people in costume for the event, although I understand now that many of them had been hired. Quite a few people came as some sort of animal, which could have led to some interesting phone calls on Sunday morning:

"Dude... I think I just fucked a zebra!"

Not too many people seemed to be completely munted and out of it, although there was one girl who kind of tried to pash me. I would be flattered if I didn't think it was the E talking. As I mentioned on the liveblog, a couple of girls took charge of her, lest she get herself into trouble. I hope her night ended up okay - she seemed happy, just smashed.