A Bridge too Far
It’s early afternoon as we head over to the main stage to find Australian’s The Living End already in full flow and running through ‘Who’s Gonna Save Us?’ in front of what is a small crowd by any stretch on this stage.
With stage times overlapping we know we’re not going to get to see much of their set today but thought we’d make the effort as last time in the Lock Up tent they really turned it around and we left very impressed. Today they suffer from the same problem as they did during the first half of the set in the Lock up tent, that being that much of their material simply isn’t that great. As a band they have everything going for them, the stage show is good, (cue Scott Owen standing up on his double bass) Cheney is a brilliant guitarist and they do have some great songs in their back catalogue but these just expose the weaker songs.
Especially on this stage with such a small crowd out the front, the sound just doesn’t fill the space, they sound lightweight and lacking any real punch. It’s a different story when they play one of the better songs like ‘Second Solution’ and they do get some crowd participation but we’re already wishing they were back in the Lock Up tent where they’d have a much greater impact and probably get a bigger crowd.