Day 1 of Synergy 2012 didn’t exactly allow for a gentle easing into the weekend. Instead, things were full throttle from the get-go, featuring a crowd of thousands that descended upon the festival’s new venue (the Theewater Sports Club), some insane wind, even by Cape Town standards, and the fest’s international headliner, The Prodigy.

We arrived at around 3 and scrambled to find a place to pitch our tent in the beautiful forest camping area. More than an hour later (the treks to the car and back took ages), we headed to the festival area for the first time and passed some members of the Nomadic Orchestra on our way. ‘Sorry we missed you!’ we said, to which they replied ‘we missed us too – there are huge delays on the main stage and it hasn’t opened yet, our set was cut.’

Oh dear, seemed the wind was causing havoc; later we heard there’d been a terrible storm the night before, with wind and rain destroying and collapsing tents (including the one over the Your LMG Stage) and generally making life miserable for the organisers and artists who were on the scene. Talk about adverse conditions.

Still, for all that, things were looking good on the banks of the Theewaterskloof Dam. After some initial confusion (more camping here? Is that the electro stage? Oh look, food stands) we found the LMG tent and hung around to watch Crossfire Collision, whom I hadn’t heard before and thought were pretty cool.

The main stage finally opened with the Future Primitives. There wasn’t a huge crowd but it grew as people realised the area was now open.

And so began the yo-yoing motion that was to become my MO for the festival – I didn’t catch too many full sets due to hopping back and forth between stages, and am just going to say now that aside from the bands I hadn’t seen before, no-one really stuck out as having an awful or an amazing set. I started feeling overloaded rather quickly (to the point where I was sure I’d missed a few bands until I saw I had photos of them…) so my comments on bands I’ve seen before are going to be brief – for the most part, the ones I like were cool like they always are, and the ones I’m not mad about didn’t change my mind.

Stoker were new to my ears, and I enjoyed them.

Peachy Keen pulled a decent crowd and had the lovely sunset as a backdrop.

The Very Wicked seemed to take ages to set up which was a pity. I loved their EP and was looking forward to seeing them so will have to look out for their future gigs to do so properly.

I love Desmond & The Tutus. Beach Party always make me smile. BEAST grow on me more every time I see them. Dead Lucky are always a riot. I clean missed The Narrow thanks to bad timing.

Unlike with 2010 and 2011’s Synergy headliners (Feeder and BRMC respectively), I’ve never been a huge fan of the Prodigy and my knowledge of their music doesn’t extend far beyond the 90s. Still, they’re huge and the anticipation and hype in the crowd was infectious.

I found myself next to a guy who’d seen them in the UK some years ago, he explained their live set-up to me – the three core band members (Liam Howlett behind the laptop and MCs Keith Flint and Maxim Reality up and down the stage) as well as a live guitarist/bassist and drummer.

The set-up was exactly that, and it worked really well. Flint and Maxim really hyped up and engaged with the crowd, it was awesome, and the guitarist, Rob Holliday, was one of the most legitimately rock-n-roll-looking musicians I’ve ever seen (turns out he has quite the pedigree too, having played most notably with Marilyn Manson).

Apparently Synergy 2012 boasted the largest sound rig ever at a South African festival, and it really showed – it got to the point where the bass hitting and resonating in my chest made me feel like throwing up, it was uncomfortable, but, crazy as it sounds, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling.

Much to the delight of everyone, the Nomadic Orchestra‘s original 4pm main stage slot was shifted to an infinitely better one: post-Prodigy in the LMG tent. Those still on a high continued to dance, I would’ve joined them but by that point all I could manage was a gentle head bob as I watched happily from the floor of the pit.

It was a great end to a hectic day which managed to keep me smiling even as I stumbled in the dark on the long walk back to the tent…

– – –

Synergy Live  |  The Prodigy  |  BEAST  |  Desmond & The Tutus  |  Peachy Keen  | Future Primitives  |  Nomadic Orchestra

Your LMG  |  Dead Lucky  |  Beach Party  | The Very Wicked  |  Stoker  | Crossfire Collision

Photos on Facebook over here