2 June 2008

Winter Warehouse Review - what did people think?

| FC
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For those of you that attended the event –
What did you think of it?
The music/set up/location?

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Hi everyone,

I am a journalism student writing an article about the expense of alcohol at festivals like Winter Warehouse and the potential this has to increase the amount of people that chose to take drugs.

Drinks were between $6- $10.50 at winter warehouse and an ecstasy pill is $30.

Do you think this encouraged people to take drugs? also- do you think at Foreshore and Trackside (the Canberra festivals coming up) more people will chose to take drugs because of the expense of alcohol?

Would love your opinions.

cheers

Not sure.

They certainly played at Warehouse. Once they were done they were announced as special “surprise act” for the after party at academy. I have no idea if they played there or not, I didn’t go.

(Note: use of ‘they’ is highly ambiguous, as there was only one of them here)

I heard a rumour that Hybrid actually refused to play on the night, and someone else substituted – can anyone confirm or deny this?

I’d like to alter my previous statement. I went and saw Armin Van Buuren do an 8 hour set in Sydney on Friday night and it really put things in perspective.

Warehouse was crap.

I went to Warehouse and had a great time!! I love the Potbelleez and Mix Master Mike was awesome.

I agree about the stairs being a pain in the ass to get up and down, and the lack of signage about the toilets annoyed me a little too.

Overall though, I didn’t see one fight, everyone one was as friendly as you could expect and we had a great day. I was there from 2pm till 11pm!!

The TVs on the second stage were an awesome idea, and the lighting and visuals were great.

Kudos to Friction and Lexington for putting on yet ANOTHER fantasic festival to liven up the Canberra scene.

BRING ON FORESHORE!!!!

“It’s a shame that music get togethers are not what they used to be.”

“I’m pretty sure drugs have long been a part of music festivals.”

Oh thats right. They should start selling them at these events then.

I hear they are safer now than in the 70’s.

> This also made it easy for people to be dickheads and try and provoke fights by pretending not to notice they were in the way and getting uppity when asked to move.

Oh GOD yes this annoys me. Dancefloor is for dancing.

> Jeebus Christ! Wake up to yourselves. Monotonous, boring shit music. Go and catch a Bon Jovi Concert.

How does it feel to be an antique, Headbonus? You prat.

fnaah i am keen to party with you!

My two cents:

I enjoyed it, but probably because I was suffering from festival withdrawl more than anything else.

The main arena was pretty well setup, and the lighting was pretty good considering the limited equipment they actually had there. The bloody stairs to get to/from the top floor were annoying, as were the full on choke points to get from one stage to another.

As for the music, well depends on exactly what you were into and what you managed to see. Personally, I had difficulty getting into mixmaster mikes set. I admire the man’s skills, but it was just too disjointed for me so i went and listened to another stage. Potbelleez were ok, but then went into a super cheesy track that they was a new single or something. Utah saints hurt my head by the end with all the angry hard stuff they were churning out.
Hybrid started off similarly, but redeemed themselves (or himself) about 15 miunutes in by changing to trance, and from there on in it was great.

I didn’t have any problems with people trying to pick fights, but i heard a few did.

My housemate got a broken leg out of it, but that’s thanks to him trying to imitate a drunken parkour-ing kangaroo outside after the event.

> It’s a shame that music get togethers are not what they used to be.

I’m pretty sure drugs have long been a part of music festivals.

I’m with headbonius.

Although I enjoy all types of music, it’s the crowds that are attracted to it that stop me attending.

I heard that a vast majority of people at the event were all on some type of drug.

It’s a shame that music get togethers are not what they used to be.

Aston Shuffle (i.e. Vance Musgrove/Mikah Freeman/Ross McGrath) plays every Monday at Transit it seems, for free no less. They’re starting to become pretty noticed worldwide.

Glad I didn’t pay heaps to go to this gig either. Just seems like a huge moneymaking enterprise to me. Good on the guys who organised it, at least they’re bringing international acts and “festivals” to Canberra, but it didn’t look like it would work.

Full agreement with RuffnReady’s comment, and as for hingo, get your own thread loser, anyone who ventures out of their computer room in Canberra would know that “the Winter Warehouse event” and Brand Depot are not synonymous.

Absent Diane8:54 am 03 Jun 08

don’t do festivals anymore (too many fcukwits)..

but each to their own for music – I don’t mind some electronic stuff (more glitchy, breaks, d n b, electro, dub style) but I also enjoy everything else from metal,folk, punk,reggae, rock, opera, classival, blues, jazz, even some top 40 stuff – about the only thing i won’t listen to is top 40 rap – for the most part it is just crap – however i would never close myself off to anything.

Headbonius – do a search of henry rollins on you tube – there should be a clip with him ranting about electronic music – along the lines of what came first the crap music or the drugs – its some funny sh*t

#34 posted by Headbonius
(Rioter)
21:04, 2 Jun 2008
Quote
“You are all a bunch of tools. To enjoy this music you need to be tripping on Eccies or Speed with your light up mouth guard cleched firmly between you grating teeth. Jeebus Christ! Wake up to yourselves. Monotonous, boring shit music. Go and catch a Bon Jovi Concert.”

I think you just made it very clear the person who is the biggest tool in the shed.
Please apply your massive misconceptions and stereotypes to us all.

And no, you don’t need to be “tripping on Eccies or speed” to enjoy the music. You just have to have an appreciation for the music and/or dance to enjoy it.

Just because you peronally don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean that you have any grounds to insult people because of their taste in it.

It just shows ignorance and intolerance.
I’m not a big Classical music fan, however I can still appreciate that a lot of other people enjoy it and it deserves merit.

I thought it was pretty good overall.

I was shocked that they confiscated my chewing gum, jelly beans, bottle of water and homemade sandwhich (I’m vegan and knew there wouldn’t be much I could eat) – after telling me twice ‘no water’, the guard lady asked me if the bottle I just chucked out was unopened. When I told her it was, she told me that I probably could have got it in. They checked my bag twice and they scanned myself, my boyfriend and one of my other friends.

The ‘no passout’s was interesting too – I had some friends tickets and was told to get them to my friends they had to walk around the back fence near the toilets and I could pass them over. It looked pretty suss, but no one said anything about it. That said, the carpark was looking pretty empty and pretty clean, so I guess it did the job.

I thought the drinks were pretty pricey too – a lot of ppl seemed to be heading for the Smirnoff blacks, being double strength at only a dollar extra, so you have to wonder how effective the RTD tax (there was a sign up explaining that was a reason for the prices being so high).

They also could have made tonnes of money by putting more food places in there – I would have thought there would be more than just hot chips for sale when there were something like 7000 people there and it was open from 1pm – 11pm?

Irregardless – I had a great time! I had no problems with the crowd, the sound was great and the music was fantastic! My definite highlight was Bonde De Role – they were just amazing.

I hope it’s back next year too.

You are all a bunch of tools. To enjoy this music you need to be tripping on Eccies or Speed with your light up mouth guard cleched firmly between you grating teeth. Jeebus Christ! Wake up to yourselves. Monotonous, boring shit music. Go and catch a Bon Jovi Concert.

Heh, that lot33 set is definitely legendary, so glad i got to at least listen to the bootleg on hybridized.org. Hybrid haven’t totally lost it though, their set at Field Day in Jan last year was pretty damn good (although they were outdone by Freestylers, who in turn were softened by a farkin huge storm).

At least now when someone says “where’s the love?”, I can reply with “Gen y killed it!” 😀

Glad I didn’t go in the end.

I saw Hybrid back in 2001 at the Convention Centre, an incredible gig, and their set at Lot 33 back in 2004 is one of the great prog/breaks/trance sets I’ve ever heard, so not to be disappointed by them was reason enough to miss this one.

A venue with no pass-outs, full of hard-style wankers, and $10 drinks, sounds like hell to me. Bring back the old UC Refectory Twisted parties circa 2000, I say! Unfortunately though, the Age of Love is dead, killed by Gen Y.

Home. Brew.

OpenYourMind23:57 pm 02 Jun 08

Those Smirnoff blacks have a pretty decent wallop. 2.1 standard drinks per can.

Although thats entirely possible, I found this:

“You’ll find two different brands in the Smirnoff Ice name. The first one is distributed in the U.S. and France, a citrus-flavoured malt beverage (5% alcohol) labeled in “Original,” and “Triple Black.” The second, is distributed throughout Europe (except France), Central America, Australia and Canada, is a premixed vodka drink that’s 4.7% alcohol (7% in “Double Black” variety in Canada and Australia).”

I think I’m getting confused with the different Smirnoff premix crapola.

FC, I still had a good time, the stadium seating provided relief from the crowd when you needed it, however I believe the venue wasn’t perfectly suited – I’m sure passout ban was imposed by the venue management to stop their carpark being used as an illicit substance exchange/consumption and/or general loitering area.

Smirnoff Black is stronger than normal Smirnoff cans, much like Extra Dry Platinums, or Strongbow Whites.

I’d have to agree with most comments about the crowds and the music.
It was ok. I still had a great time. But for an event of that scale I would have expected a bit more.
As for the “no passouts”. That really pissed me off as after being in a massively crowded place like that for a few hours – needing to get some fresh air is important. However the outside bit was so crowded with smokers that there wasn’t any fresh air out there.
All in all I think it was good.
I’m glad that they are bringing big events like this to Canberra.

Deadmandrinking2:24 pm 02 Jun 08

Sure you weren’t so pissed after the smirnoff you were reading a beer bottle?

OK, take it or leave it. Last time I was at Big Day Out. Extra Dry cans were about 5% and Smirnoff was 4.5%. I remember being suprised because I too thought it was much higher. Anyway, judging by the response, I’m discussing this with the wrong person.

“Hingo:You do realise that a can of VB contains more alcohol than Smirnoff Black anyway right? Just a tip for the next time you want to get wasted at such an event.”

Hingo, thanks for the tip but my aim wasn’t to ‘get wasted’ at all – I was merely expressing my suprise at the costs. And FYI a 375ml VB contains 4.9% alochol, a Smirnoff Black contains approx 7%.

OpenYourMind22:04 pm 02 Jun 08

I had a great time at Warehouse, but tend to agree with the comments by fnaah about Utah Saints and Hyrbid. I was a fan of Utah Saints the first time around and was hoping for a bit more of their old stuff mixed in. Given Hybrid was the headline act, they really were quite bland.

The crowd was a bit pushy at times, but the event was fairly well run.

I’m just glad to see events of this scale come to Canberra and be as well patronised as Warehouse was.

Edited to get past the moderation process in a timely manner:

ll up, I’ve got to say I was a bit disappointed.

The venue wasn’t too bad. The main arena was well suited to the event, but getting from that to anywhere else was an exercise in frustration due to several choke points. This also made it easy for people to be morons and try and provoke fights by pretending not to notice they were in the way and getting uppity when asked to move. The light show in the main arena wasn’t bad, although I get the feeling the lighting guy was doing as much as he could with limited resources. Don’t people believe in lasers anymore? There weren’t nearly enough bins, which meant that by the end of the night you were wading through a floor littered with crushed cans and plastic bottles, which is a bit of a hazard around people who have self-induced temporary coordination and balance issues.

The crowd was generally well behaved, apart from the previously mentioned (and inescapable) knuckle-draggers who usually show up to this type of event. I’ve seen much worse interstate, but it would have been nice to see a bit more security around to deter this kind of retardedness before it dominates Canberra’s emerging event scene.

As for the music, my very personalised and subjective opinion is that it wasn’t great. I was glad they managed to squeeze in a short set from A-Skillz, as that was the highlight for me, along with Mixmaster Mike (although he did totally train-wreck once). Potbelliez were OK, albeit frustrating for never actually letting the crowd ride a dropped beat for more than four bars, despite constant sample teasing and contrived build-ups. Utah Saints were godawful – an unrelenting, offensive and physically painful barrage of distorted bass, brain-piercing synth whine and almost hard-style angry beats. They never played the two tracks that most of the crowd had been waiting 10 years to hear. The hybrid set was similar, if toned down from that – they seemed to try and match styles with Utah Saints, which is almost diametrically opposite to what they’re best at – melodic breakbeats with rich, symphonic nuance and haunting atmosphere.

It’s a shame the music tended to cater for the shirt-off giant-sunnies angry-stomp-dance crowd, but I guess that’s where events are headed these days. With this in mind, I doubt I’ll be heading to another one.

You do realise that a can of VB contains more alcohol than Smirnoff Black anyway right? Just a tip for the next time you want to get wasted at such an event.

I went. Got there at about 5.30 and caught a bit of mix master mike. I was amazed by the site of the arena full to the brim with people dancing – the set up was good and the lighting was amazing. Overall I had a good time. I found myself growing ever more frustrated with the shoving and sheer amount of bodies crammed in there. You couldn’t get away from it and having ‘no passouts’ really didn’t help the situation. This was mostly the reason we arrived later, I couldn’t imagine being stuck there from lunchtime.

I was suprised at the level of security to get in. My partner was metal detected but I got through unchecked (unless you count the guy who riffled through my handbag). I heard they were confiscating breath mints, lip gloss tubs, chewing gum and anything else that could conceal drugs/weapons.
My favourite act (and the main reason I bought a ticket) were Bonde Do Role. Amazing stage presence and got everyone up and dancing. Great to watch/listen to.
Damn expensive drinks too. I think it was $10.50 for a smirnoff Black and slightly less for every other pre mixed drink they had for sale. They also had a sign up explaining the mark up was due to the new alcopop tax… So I drank beer instead (VB cans for $6).
I wouldn’t go to another one but it was an interesting experience worth having.

FC said :

I’ve never been to brand depot.
But that hasn’t really got much to do with the Winter warehouse Music festival 🙂
LOL

That depends how you look at it. Maybe this should be a Winter Warehouse vs Brand Depot thread.

Oh, and when my comment has finished awaiting moderation, please add Mixmaster Mike to the highlights along with A-Skillz.

I should I say ‘hear’

Thanks fnaah.
I guess it couldn’t really be helped on Cassius’ behalf then.
Kinda sucks tho – as he was one of the main ppl I was keen to see.

I’ve never been to brand depot.
But that hasn’t really got much to do with the Winter warehouse Music festival 🙂
LOL

Apparently Cassius’ flight was delayed/postponed due to a combination of industrial action by Qantas maintenance engineers and bad weather in Qld.

Yeah its a good drive. You can get some good Footy supporter gear out there as well. Its still expensive as hell, but its a good range. Why are footy jerseys so damn expensive? Its damn near impossible to find one under $100. Someone is making a lot of cash of that shizzit.

All up, I’ve got to say I was a bit disappointed.

The venue wasn’t too bad. The main arena was well suited to the event, but getting from that to anywhere else was an exercise in frustration due to several choke points. This also made it easy for people to be dickheads and try and provoke fights by pretending not to notice they were in the way and getting uppity when asked to move. The light show in the main arena wasn’t bad, although I get the feeling the lighting guy was doing as much as he could with limited resources. Don’t people believe in lasers anymore? There weren’t nearly enough bins, which meant that by the end of the night you were wading through a floor littered with crushed cans and plastic bottles, which is a bit of a hazard around people who have self-induced temporary coordination and balance issues.

The crowd was generally well behaved, apart from the previously mentioned (and inescapable) dickheads who usually show up to this type of event. I’ve seen much worse interstate, but it would have been nice to see a bit more security around to deter this kind of arsehattery before it dominates Canberra’s emerging event scene.

As for the music, my very personalised and subjective opinion is that it wasn’t great. I was glad they managed to squeeze in a short set from A-Skillz, as that was the highlight for me. Potbelliez were OK, albeit frustrating for never actually letting the crowd ride a dropped beat for more than four bars, despite constant sample teasing and contrived build-ups. Utah Saints were godawful – an unrelenting, offensive and physically painful barrage of distorted bass, piercing synth whine and almost hard-style angry beats. They never played the two tracks that most of the crowd had been waiting 10 years to hear. The hybrid set was similar, if toned down from that – they seemed to try and play a similar style to Utah Saints, which is almost diametrically opposite to what they’re best at – melodic breakbeats with rich, symphonic nuance and haunting atmosphere.

It’s a shame the music tended to cater for the shirt-off giant-sunnies angry-stomp-dance crowd, but I guess that’s where events are headed these days. With this in mind, I doubt I’ll be heading to another one.

Yeah, I got some decent shoes for $21. Didn’t really see much else out there that warranted a trip out to the airport though.

Its not too bad. Good for getting shoes and footy jerseys. Its also a good excuse to grab a coffee at Starbucks. Coffee snobs wouldn’t be impressed but fudge ’em, I like Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha.

I’ve only been to Brand Depot once.

FC said :

Ok – Maybe I should have given a little more detail.
But I guess if ppl don’t know what it is then they wouldn’t really have gone and therefore wouldn’t have any feedback about the event.

I did go to Brand Depot on the weekend. I needed clarification. Last time I checked, this was a blog, and blogs contain stories, not chat room one liners.

Yeah what was up with that?
Does anyone know why he didn’t play?

Except Cassius didn’t play…

Ok – Maybe I should have given a little more detail.
But I guess if ppl don’t know what it is then they wouldn’t really have gone and therefore wouldn’t have any feedback about the event.

Warehouse Winter Music Festival
Held Saturday at the AIS from 1.00pm till 11pm

Some of the line up:
Mixmaster Mike (Beastie Boys)

Cassius (DJ/Live, France)

Utah Saints (‘Something Good’ UK)

Bonde Do Role (Live, Brazil)

Mr Oizo (Ed Banger)

Van She Tech

Ajax (Aus #1 DJ)

TV Rock

The Aston Shuffle (‘For Everyone’)

Jeff Drake

Winter Warehouse? Is that at Brand Depot?

Gee – do you think this story could be just a little more informative?

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