Garden Party 08
For the true UOW student, the annual summer garden party is one of the two biggest nights of the year alongside its chilly winter brother. However, with the winter show being canned this year and the summer show taking centre stage, Unibar put together a stella line-up of Australia’s hottest acts to entertain on the night. If presales were anything to go by, this night was set to be huge and in reflection, it did not disappoint.
After delaying the opening of the gates by 10 minutes, hundreds began to poor through with many flocking to the first act up on the unibar stage, 2007 band comp winners, Reason Strikes. After setting the uni ablaze last year with their politically inspired punk rock, Reason Strikes won their way onto this year’s garden party line up and opened the show with an awesome display of energy and passion on stage. With many of their fans still trying to get in and many more waiting in line at the bar, they played a mixture of older songs as well as new songs off their new EP which they were set to begin recording the following morning. The highlight came with the floor full of fans singing along to their final song ‘Sinking Ships,’ who’s anthemic lyrics were the cornerstone behind their ‘07 journey to the NSW campus band comp final.
Next up on unibar stage were fellow Wollongong outfit, Ras Gong Guerrillas. These reggae masters soon had the entire crowd dancing up a storm to their unique form of roots music that would not be out of place at Woodford or Byron. True musos who love their craft, the boys feature previous supports slots alongside bands such as Rastawookie and King Tide and have certainly stated their claim that Wollongong isn’t all punk and hardcore and are definitely a band to watch out for in the future.
From there, unibar began to spin it up with the ‘Bustin crew DJs taking over as most partygoers filed into the hall or waited in line for a cold refreshment. The first band on unihall stage were Grafton Primary and with some describing them as ‘weird fellas but crazily cool,’ I’m sure they put on a great show. I was looking forward to catching their set, however, due to the 45 minute wait for bar service, my priorities laid in quenching my thirst. It has to be said that this was one of the biggest complaints about this garden party. Whilst the musical entertainment was the best line up in years at UOW, the lack of fire twirlers, giant twister or 5 minute angel massages combined with the huge bar lines to put a drain on the evening.
Anyway, after next missing out on The Cops, it was out of the line and into the hall for Gyroscope. With their lastest album, Breed Obsession set to be released just days after the show, they promised to give their older fans one last taste of the classics and boy did they not disappoint. They were all there, starting with Fast Girl and ending with Doctor Doctor, the UOW crowd showed their true colours and went insane for the final set of the night. With numerous circle pits opening up and security struggling to contain the moshing, this looked more like a warped tour gone wrong than a UOW garden party. After coming out for one last encore, the night was over and it bought to a close the most memorable garden party in my five party history for all the right as well as some of the wrong reasons.
