The Chemical Brothers and The Presets at A Day on the Green

03 Mar The Chemical Brothers and The Presets at A Day on the Green

Yesterday I went with friends to see The Presets and The Chemical Brothers at ‘A Day on the Green’ and Mt Duneed estate near Geelong. Rather than catching the shuttle bus from Melbourne, we drove out there in an oversized car. It was a pretty easy 1.5-hour drive from the inner north of Melbourne.

We arrived just before the gates opened, and this allowed us to get a great car park and a fantastic spot for viewing the concert just behind the Front GA (or moshpit).

The first DJ was gorgeous, and I felt excited about the day ahead. We drank, ate, and chatted until the first main act – The Presets- came onto the stage at about 6:30 pm. As someone who has been a fan of this duo for many years, I was pretty disappointed. They played two and a half of their hits. (This Boys In Love, My People and Are You the One?). These songs were transformed by some creative mixing on their decks. There were a few hands-in-the-air moments with the addition of some highly recognisable anthems from other genres of music, such as Nirvana, but overall it was not the same kind of upbeat dance rhythms that I had come to expect from this talented duo.

When The Chemical Brothers came on, I started to realise what the underlying tone of this evening was about. If you like your music hard and dirty, I feel sure you would LOVE The Chemical Brothers. It was hard-core electronica. My impression of it was some kind of electronic ‘screaming’. Nearly two hours of electronic SCREAMING, I didn’t know a lot of their music, but I did recognise three or four songs, such as Hey Boy Hey Girl and Block Rockin’ Beats as well as a couple of others. It was fun to dance to those songs. And in the words of someone I heard after the gig – the rest of the music sounded a bit ‘samey’. Their light show was pretty amazing, but the dark, satanic, evil kinds of themes were not what my soul needed on this beautiful evening in Geelong.

I was definitely in the minority though. For the approximately 25,000 people who were at Mt Duneed Estate on that lovely Saturday, this kind of music was just what they loved. My friend said that he found the hard electronica ‘relaxing’, and some of my friends got into it. It just wasn’t my thing. It just seems to be a question of individual taste. Next time I need to remember to bring ear plugs. That kind of music was not worth the potential hearing loss I may have suffered as a result.

It was so fun to do people-watching at this ‘Day on the Green.’ The alcohol was yummy and mostly came from the winery on the Estate, which was wonderful. The food was passable, and it was a beautiful evening weather-wise – we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect evening.

At about 10 pm we packed up our bongos and headed for the gates. I thought that getting out of there was going to be an absolute nightmare, but it was not too bad at all! It took just over an hour to get back into Melbourne.

It was a very fun adventure. And this morning, I woke up with some Chemical Brothers songs in my head. I feel all cleaned out, like a good late-night dancing session would do. So, I am still glad that I went.