Meredith Music Festival

The eleventh annual Meredith, held over two days on December 15 and 16, 2001, at the Meredith natural amphitheatre. Meredith 2001 was big. The heaviest rainfalls in decades soaked the site in the preceding month and come Saturday morning it was bedlam, with two access roads turning into car-swallowers despite the excavators called in to dig out the sludge and replace it with rock. Once everybody got in there were almost too many highlights to mention. Warped kicked off proceedings by arriving in front of the stage in an Impact Orange Valiant Charger and rocking very hard, having driven straight from Sydney overnight. Bonnie Prince Billy eased out a sublime mid-afternoon set, John Butler Trio filled the amphitheatre with their primal jam, Rocket Science made their Meredith hat trick and Augie March exorcised some past demons with a sweet hour just on dusk. Combo La Revelacion started their famous Latin party again, TISM brought hilarious theatrics and hi-energy, and You Am I opened with a Teenage Fanclub cover and rolled through one of the most memorable gigs of the whole eleven years. Dexter and Robbie from The Avalanches played a legendary late-night DJ set before Wetmusik thumped out the last Meredoof to several thousand hard-core partiers. Sunday was cruisey, with Bob Log III one of the best things ever anywhere, Silver Ray wonderful, The Dave Graney Show ideal for a lazy afternoon, and The Drugs kicking in just when everyone thought they had had enough. Kept alive on Setline for the record.