By Russell Baillie
Dear folks,
Firstly thanks for sending the soap, sunblock and fresh socks. The cheque's in the mail. Promise. Well, once I clear up my tab at the vegeburger stand and get to the bank. You know how it is ...
The second half of my stay in Sweetwaters country certainly has had its moments.
There has been drama, there has been economic crises, there has been sunburn.
Weather-wise what was mud on Friday is now dust, undoubtedly disappointing many a late-coming participant for the traditional last day rockfest bog-dancing.
On the karma-readjustment side there was a minute of silence for Planet Earth Peace Day early on Sunday evening which was a very handy way of finding out who was playing on the other stages - just like the trans-generational line-up, the clocks don't exactly sync up around here. Too bad. All part of the appealing lack of urgency of the place.
Well, yes, there was some panic as you might have heard. Though Cyclone Costello just sort of blew on by, unless you were among the fraught types backstage. More on him later.
Right now, Karen Hunter and Love Mussel are giving it some on the mainstage in the midday sun. Sounds really quite impressive, her band backing giving her songs a needed purposeful swagger.
This time yesterday, the same thing could be said about Stella, a group (now here's a phrase that's about to become well worn) fronted by Bic Runga's sister Boh, but very much a band. And with a nice line in tough-but-sweet songs.
Other good bits of the afternoon included Eye TV's poprock squall and the sunstruck grooved-up jazz of the New Loungehead - the latter matched later in the day on the Jazz/ Blues/Roots Stage by their Aussie equivalents d.i.g. (directions in groove), a band of much funky verve even if their rapping bits sound somewhat trying.
The evening on the mainstage provided a couple of the highlights of the entire bash.
Firstly, Californians Grant Lee Buffalo who delivered their dustbowl folk-rock in epic style and with a mix of brute force - frontman Grant Lee Phillips pulling searing Neil Young-type lead lines out of his amped-up 12-string acoustic - and delicate tunes.
Whether it was like the massed grand twang of Lone Star Song or the occasional song with soul-shaped tunes and tornado guitars, GLB's set offered many a musically transcendent moment.
Which is possibly one reason that afterwards Paul Kelly came on a little flat.
Plenty of band-fired songs - including the wobblybottomed Nothing On My Mine - from the last album but a little light on balancing balladry and the set just sort of finished. Like that.
Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis is in the building. Striding on postmidnight he announced: "We're gonna do a Beatles song called You Never Give Me Your Money."
But instead he ploughed into his own Accidents Will Happen.
From there it was a case of songbook wanderlust with a guitarplaying Costello and onetime Attraction, fleet-fingered pianist Steve Nieve, mixing the old and the old-sounding new pieces from Painted from Memory, his Burt Bacharach collaboration.
Yes, he did have a go at local accounting practices, though he probably overstepped the mark by saying nobody at the festival had been paid.
However, his rancour added a certain zing to his set.
That's whether it was swinging from the early likes of Radio Sweetheart (adding a bit of Dexy's Midnight Runners' Jackie Wilson Said for good measure) and Chelsea to the Burt-boosted balladry.
In this stripped-back context, together they made for an exquisite mix.
And to help make his point he was here for the punters, he just kept on coming back for encores. There were three in total finishing on What's So Funny About Peace and Love and Understanding? - still a fine sentiment, especially here.
Yes, he was worth every delayed cent.
Soon the Sweetwaters hills were alive with the deep dark and thrilling throb of Auckland electronic outfit Pitch Black offering a hopefully futuristic note to go out on ...
No, here's a better ending. Just now reformed Kiwi pop-punks Spelling Mistakes have ripped into their very own timeless classic Feel So Good. Sums it up for me.
Pictured: Elvis Costello during his set at Sweetwaters. HERALD PICTURE / GLENN JEFFREY
Another letter from Sweetwaters
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