Sound Relief


After devastating natural disasters swept through Victoria and Queensland last month, a charity concert was held to help raise some money for the victims. In Victoria, multiple fires swept the state destroying thousands of homes and killing hundreds of people. These uncontrollable fires also consumed countless numbers of animals and wildlife. Just think about cute little koalas being too slow to escape the fires. :(

On the opposite end, Queensland was being drowned by massive floods across the costal areas after weeks of continuous rain.

An amazing lineup was put together for these relief concerts. There were 2 concerts being held at the same time. One in Melbourne and one in Sydney. A few of the artist flew to both venues so they can perform for everyone which I thought was cool. All of the artist, crew, advertising, and venue were all donated so that 100% of the proceeds could go to the charity.

Here’s the line up (in order of appearance):

Coldplay – Coldplay opened the showed at around noon. This was pretty surprising for a band this big to open a charity show, or as Chris Martin said ‘I thought our band was doing ok. Didn’t think we’d be the 15th opening band for Barry Gibbs (Bee Gees)'. As expected though, their set was amazing. They played ‘Fix you’ for their last song, which rocked as it’s one of my favorites. In case you were wondering, Coldplay had their own concert to perform that same night so they had to do this early. Props to them for taking the time out to perform with their concert schedule.

Wolfmother – I only knew one song from these guys. They rocked it. I couldn’t get over the fact that the lead singer looked like a non-steroid version of Carrot top.

I didn’t know the next few bands – Hoodoo Gurus, Little Birdy, Architecture in Helsinki, You Am I, Josh Pyke. I’m sure if I was more hip I’d know who these people are.

After that, Marcia Hines sang a song. This was interesting as she’s one of the Australian Idol judges. Interesting to see if an Idol judge knew what she was talking about.

Then the time came. The moment I was waiting for. Up next. Taylor Swift!!!! It’s embarrassing I know. I was singing at the top of my lungs during her entire set. I felt a bit bad for everyone around me, but not bad enough to stop. What I thought was a bit surprising was how excited the crowd was for her. I didn’t think she was that big outside of the US, but apparently she is. She performed much better than I thought she would (I thought her SNL and CMT awards performance last year needed a little bit of performance). She had a great stage presence and got the crowd all fired up (fired up enough where a fight broke out). She ran around the stage and was very energetic which was fun to watch. She is also as cute in person as on TV.

Eskimo Joe came on next. Nothing to report here.

Next came the 3rd of 4 bands I really wanted to see. Jet. They were quite good. Again, more fun singing with a stadium full of people.

After Jet’s set, came time for a special announcement. Sort of a reminder of why we’re actually there. Up on the monitor came 2 guys that I wasn’t expecting. Price Harry and Price Williams. They got quite a high pitch squealing welcome from the audience. They had a nice speech thanking everyone for their efforts, especially the firemen and emergency services people. After that, Kylie Minogue came on in Melbourne (live telecast). In case you didn’t know, they absolutely adore Kylie here. Kylie led a sing-a-long of ‘I still call Australia home’.

After the special announcement came the last act that I was there for. The Presets. I don’t think most people outside of Australia would’ve heard of them, but they rock (electronically) something hard. Just listening to the album is ok, but this is the second time I’ve heard them live and it’s simply amazing live. Everyone was up and dancing in the stadium. There wasn’t a person sitting.

Right before they started playing, the rain started coming down pretty hard. I don’t think anyone cared and it just seemed to just get people more excited as they all danced to the Presets in the rain. There were lightening everything. It almost seems as if the skies were dancing along as well and providing the light show.

After the Presets were done, about half the stadium cleared out. I had planned to leave after the Presets as well, but a certain someone was keeping me there. That’s for another time.

So I stayed and listened to the next band. Icehouse (not the beer). I don’t know who made the schedule, but to put Icehouse (who’s songs are older than most of the people at the concert) after the Presets is just silly. I knew one song from them.

Finally, the final act of the night came on. Barry Gibbs (Bee Gees). The first impression I had was that he looked really old. We heard a few songs, but then we decided to leave before he finished. I read today that Olivia Newton-John joined Barry to close the concert. I was a bit bummed I didn’t see that, but after 10 hours of concert, I was pretty done.

Other big acts performing in the Melbourne concert was Kings of Leon, Jack Johnson, and Midnight oil (very interesting to have your current minister of the environment be in a rock band)

Overall, it was a great concert. I believe it was the biggest concert ever in Australia. I was very happy to have been a part of it. I would say my favorites were easily Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Jet, and Presets. Objectively, I would say Coldplay had the best set followed by Presets, Taylor, and Jet. Personally though, I would say Presets (since I like dancing), Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Jet.