Glastonbury among the vines

New promoter Silverlake Entertainment kicked 2012 into musical gear with its debut festival last Saturday. Held in the lush surroundings of the Silverlake Vineyards just off the road to Sattahip, it was a lavish affair with the promoter spending more than Bt50 million to import foreign bands like Incubus, Seether, Anti-Flag and Owl City as well as a dozen local acts.
 Inspired by Glastonbury, the smaller-scale Silverlake Music Festival drew more than 10,000 punters, about 30 per cent of them Westerner tourists and expats. Even the weather took its cue from its English cousin, with rain, sometimes heavy, falling from early afternoon and alternating with dry spells until the shows wrapped in the wee hours.
On arrival at the vineyard, festival-goers were not allowed to walk the couple of kilometres but transported to the site by a fleet of songthaew – not very ecofriendly but the organisers were understandably worried about feet trampling the precious vines.
Back on terra firma, they passed through three security checkpoints before entering the venue itself, which featured several activities including a rock-climbing wall for the energetic plus rows of product booths.
Two young Australian women on holiday in Thailand told me they loved music festivals and were regulars at their own Big Day Out and Soundwave. They’d come to Silverlake to hear Seether and Young Guns and had also heard of Thai rock outfit Brandnew Sunset.
There were four stages, with the main one – the 60-metre-long Earth perched on the hill with the muddy bits helpfully covered by straw. The smaller 30-metre Solar was opposite the main stage, offering fans easy choices between the two after sets.
With the rain easing, Stamp opened on the Solar stage and were followed by Scrubb on the Earth stage. I walked from the main stage to the small one from time to time but like much of the crowd, spent most of time in front of Earth catching the foreign headliners.
Former Casiopea fusion jazz drummer Akira Jimbo was the first foreign act to grace Earth. He kicked off his set by jamming with Thai guitarist Thammarat “Jack” Duangsiri and Infinity’s bassist Wiroj Sathapanawat in a fusion jazz piece before launching into a drum solo that featured some sampling of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as well as the soundtracks to “James Bond” and “Mission: Impossible”.
Pittsburgh punk band Anti-Flag attacked with “The Press Corpse” from their 2006 album “For Blood and Empire” before digging in with “F—k Police Brutality” and “I’d Tell You But …”
Black clad rock fans hopped up and down and sang along with singer and lead guitarist Justine Sane as Anti-Flag continued with “This Is the End (for You My Friend)”, “1 Trillion Dollars”, “You’ve Got to Die for the Government” and “Power to the Peaceful”.
Moderndog was next but I left for the Solar stage to see Franko and Young Guns and American synth-pop act Owl City, who played tracks from its two albums, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and “Ocean Eyes”.
Then it was back to Earth for some head-banging with South African post-grunge band Seether who opened with a new track, “Fur Cue” from their new album “Holding Onto Things Better Left to Fray” before segueing into “Tonight” and “Country Song”.
The South African band whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a set that included “Needles”, “Gasoline”, “Fine Again” and “Broken”. Many of the foreigners sang along with vocalist and axeman Shaun Morgan, who changed guitars and tuned up between numbers. Fans cheered loudly when Seether played a cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”.
Incubus was the last band on the main stage and also a crowd pleaser, performing tracks from their second album right through to their latest. Singer Brandon Boyd opened with “Megalomaniac”, “Anna Molly” and “Love Hurts” and gave a high-stamina performance on “Adolescent”, “In the Company of Wolves” and “Switchblade”.
Well organised with good stage production and a great light and sound system, Silverlake was a great example of what Thailand can do when it sets its mind to it. Glastonbury may be taking a year out but that’s one inspiration Silverlake Entertainment can afford to ignore.