2 June 2008

Winter Warehouse Review - what did people think?

2 June 2008 | By 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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Jenny0710:51 pm 12 Aug 08

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

AlpineViper8:56 am 16 Jun 08

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)

fnaah3:26 pm 11 Jun 08

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

AlpineViper11:50 am 10 Jun 08

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.

schmerica_11:11 pm 06 Jun 08

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!!!!

Nosey6:38 pm 03 Jun 08

“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.

Avy4:57 pm 03 Jun 08

> 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!

AlpineViper3:23 pm 03 Jun 08

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.

tap1:21 pm 03 Jun 08

amen :p

justbands1:16 pm 03 Jun 08

> 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.

fnaah1:52 pm 02 Jun 08

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.

fnaah1:10 pm 02 Jun 08

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.