They marched through the city streets, easily differentiated from the other pedestrians. They sported chokers and ankle high boots and immaculately trimmed beards and all manner of fancy hats. They darted throughout foot traffic, all headed in the one direction; the direction of a sort of beating noise. I guess you could say it was like a kind of drumming? The beating of a drum? Yeah, it was definitely Beat the Drum.
And so it was that on the 16th of January I found myself attending Triple J’s 40th anniversary celebratory concert in The Domain, Sydney (permission to be jealous now). Music permeated the streets all the way to the edge of Hyde Park (probably because we were running late, as always) and its murmur sent tremors through the crowd so that the general pace of everyone steadily quickened.
Reaching the gates and filtering through, patrons were met with a simple but effective design, with one main stage laid out along the scrolling hills of the main park and surrounded by a horseshoe of food and, of course, beverage outlets. By the time I made it in, the concert was well underway with Ball Park Music kicking it off, just one big name in the amazing lineup. Throughout the short but sweet day, I was graced with a combination of full and mini sets from some of my favourites including Vance Joy, Goyte, The Preatures, You Am I, Cat Empire, Illy, Sarah Blasko, The Presets and The Hiltop Hoods. Not to mention all the other bands I’d never heard of.
Triple J packed as much into the short time and one stage that they could. And good god was it jam packed! The mosh was the perfect combination of chilled out and happy without being subdued and hyped without being violent. The crowd bounced off each other with all manner of dance moves (I personally sported a fabulous rendition of the sprinkler).
High points for the evening were definitely the amazing crossovers and covers that featured throughout the concert, giving the audience a taste of the unusual and unexpected. The peaks of this for me included Ball Park Music’s cover of the Hoodoo Gurus classic Like Wow – Wipeout, featuring an actual member of the Hoodoo Gurus, Dave Faulkner and The Preatures cover of Boys in Town with Divinyls guitarist Mark McEntee.
As afternoon hit dusk, the chilled tunes and odd, smokey haze that began rising from the crowd around Heart’s a Mess by Goyte, gave way to a more party vibe. Stage lights flashed with a new, multi-coloured intensity and the mood only escalated; proving the Barney Stinson theory that you don’t need any falls for a good mix in music, it should just be all rise! The Presets saw me on my friends shoulders, literally screaming (as a short person, I wasn’t prepared for her average height lifestyle) but calming down enough to belt out My People. By the end of the night, The Hilltop Hoods brought me all the way back to my 11 year old love affair with Nose Bleed Section, ending a perfect day on a perfect note.
Stumbling away from the show, it was clear that every attendee’s spirits were high as folks shared cigarettes and laughs from the bathroom queue all the way to Town Hall station. Honestly, after a long spell of purely rock and metal concerts, Beat the Drum was the perfect combination of everything for me and really encapsulated the aus-centric, something-for-everyone vibe of Triple J in one amazing package. So, happy 40 years, Triple J and thanks for the bitchin’ party.
UOW101 