Enter MTV's Lair
The Lair, MTV: Metro Theatre
By Sarah Norris
Taking advantage of the influx of big name artists in Sydney for V Festival, MTV hosted a one-off out of season Lair session, giving a handful of Sydneysiders access to an intimate, up-close, money-can’t buy performance by Brazil’s CSS, Canada’s Hot Hot Heat and the once hugely influential Illinois alternative rock group, Smashing Pumpkins; as well as interviews with the distinguished (read: aging) English popsters, Duran Duran.
Attracting the usual scensters and their hanger-ons, the one-hour Lair performance saw each band play three songs throughout the venue’s three stages, with camera men madly dashing between the action, barging past and stopping for no one to capture that perfect camera shot.
Lair host Darren McMullen displayed the right level bravado needed to keep the MTV audience glued to their set – not that the Metro audience could hear what he was saying, Lair interviews are beamed direct to the outside world, with the music and free booze considered enough to keep the rowdy in-house crowd busy.
The cute CSS did just that. From the top-level walkway stage the rock/dance-pop outfit brought a sweet flavour to the Metro, fronted by the extremely charming Lovefoxxx and her ribbon jacked. Out back, Hot Hot Heat gave us their trademark jangly high-energy indie rock, with Steve Bays bouncing from one pretty blond-haired fan to the next. In the down time between songs, there was even time for a bossa nova rendition of the B-52s ‘Love Shack’
But the highlight was Billy Corgan, the unmistakable front man of one of the biggest bands of the 1990s, who noticeably enjoying his stage time, all smiles and genuine pleasure. For most it us it was a walk down memory lane, for others it was a chance to see what has become of the band that created the soundtrack of our teenage years; for Corgan, it was a chance to be in the spotlight once again.
As was expected, the song selection was odd: he opened with an acoustic and radically different version of ‘That’s the Way (MY Love is)’ from last year’s Zeitgeist, followed with ‘The Rose March’ from the just-released EP American Gothic, and a cover of ‘Lips Like Sugar’ by Echo and the Bunnyman. How random.
It was a pleasure to see it all unfold in front of us and at only an arms-length away, it was a great start to the V Festival weekend.
Time Out photographer Dan Boud captured these shots of MTV's Lair