The Vines made a triumphant return to live performance last Sunday at Splendour in the Grass. Apart from a low-key gig at The Annandale earlier in the week, it was the first time The Vines had performed in front of an audience in two years. The thousands of muddy festival punters were shocked to see The Vines hit the stage, revealed as the mystery act in the mid afternoon, billed only as ‘???’.

Whether watching the band will be as exciting as it once was now Craig Nicholls appears on the straight and narrow remains to be seen. The band performed professionally, and Craig was in the finest voice i’ve heard him live. But part of the fun of a Vines set used to be watching Craig unravel – like watching the Grand Prix, the excitement draws from the anticipation of an impending car crash.

I’m sure The Vines will do just fine though, they’ve got plenty of good tunes to entertain, with or without the histrionics.

There’s some more photos of The Vines, including one of the new bassist, in my first batch of Splendour shots. There’s also shots of Snow Patrol, Matisyahu and Josh Pyke in there. Plenty more to come.

By the way, there’s a few photos buried in my archives of The Vines the first time i ever saw them, at The Hopetoun on the 7th February 2002.