Perth Music

The gods were smiling upon The Esplanade Reserve in Fremantle for day 1 of The West Coast Blues ‘N’ Roots Festival as the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was as friendly as ever. The crowds may have been a little down compared to last year but this just meant it was easier for the 20,000 fans that did attend to wander from stage to stage and catch more of the world class artists that were playing. With 26 bands and artists playing on day 1 and 24 playing on day 2, there was something to see for everyone and then there were the market stalls, food stalls, music stores, micro brewery, silent auction and chill out areas all in an eco-friendly environment. This festival has set the standard for perfectly organised music events for a long time and this year was no different.

Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set were the first band I got to see in the Big Top Stage and even with a smaller crowd Clare was excited to be playing and fun to watch. With her husband/producer on hand to help out with songs from her last two albums and previous EP’s, the music was full of joy and happiness. This came across to the crowd and it wasn’t long before the crowd was dancing and bopping along to You Look So Good, Peccadilloes, Your Other Hand, Orange (which Clare explained is a song about finding clarity…..in a Corona factory in Mexico) and When The Lights Went Down.

Next up on the Big Top Stage was Sydney singer/songwriter Lior who has just released his second album Corner Of An Endless Road and surprisingly rocked out compared to the softer sounds of his debut album. There were some initial sound issues and this was a precursor to a lot of sound issues that occurred over the whole weekend in the Big Top Stage but Lior soldiered on like a true professional. Crowd favourites were Autumn Flow, Daniel and This Old Love but the highlight was definitely the power that could be heard in Lior’s voice throughout his set.

The crowds for Angus & Julia Stone have been getting bigger and bigger over the past year, mainly from word-of-mouth and even as they started to play on The Harbour Stage I could hear people in the crowd talking about their friend that told them that they HAD to see Angus & Julia Stone today. And they didn’t disappoint. With a slight breeze cooling the crowd, Julia Stone danced around on stage looking beautiful and Angus Stone sang with his highly distinctive voice. The Beast, Wasted, Just A Boy, Paper Aeroplane and A Book Like This were all played to the appreciative crowd as plenty of new fans were gained on this day.

Even though this was a blues and roots festival it was definitely time for some good ol’ Aussie rock ‘n’ roll as The Cruel Sea started to play next up on The Harbour Stage. Tex Perkins was looking like all of the touring he has done recently with Tim Rogers has turned the two Aussie rockers into the same person and the crowd was loving it. There were some sound issues early but as soon as Better Get A Lawyer started to get played they were ignored.

One of the real draw cards and legends of folk rock was on next on The Big Top Stage and that man was Don McLean. It was pretty obvious that most of the large crowd only wanted to hear one song and the heat inside the Big Top Stage was not helping. Looking older and not in the best shape, McLean struggled through most of his set but the crowd would forgive him as long as he played American Pie. Even though American Pie was released 37 years ago and even after the terrible cover that Madonna released, the song is still an all time favourite song for millions around the world and the crowd here today were a mixture of the old, the young, the professional and the hippy. With the crowd encouraged to sing the chorus a few times alone, the song went for 10 to 15 minutes and everybody loved it.

Out on The Crossroads Stage, 21 year old, Canadian based Hayley Sales played to a fairly small crowd that grew larger and larger as her set went on. Looking a bit like Norah Jones but playing the acoustic guitar instead of a piano, Sales impressed the crowd in attendance with her soulful, folk based tunes. A huge fan of Sales is Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and considering the beautiful and poetic nature of her lyrics it is easy to see why. It was a shame that her set was squeezed between Don McLean’s and KT Tunstall’s as she deserved a much bigger audience as she played tunes from her two albums.

Wearing a sparkling, silver dress, Scottish singer KT Tunstall was up on The Harbour Stage to a crowd that were mostly still buzzing from hearing American Pie live. KT is probably more famous overseas than in Australia and the only song of hers (Suddenly I See) that has charted in Australia was the clear crowd favourite. I didn’t really get to see much of KT’s set as it was that time of the day to get some (quite expensive) food.

The Harbour Stage was then host to multi-instrumentalist and a true blues and roots artist: Xavier Rudd. Playing guitar and the didgeridoo together perfectly, Rudd played hits such as Shelter, Messages and Let Me Be and arranged close to ten tribal aboriginal dancers come on stage to dance and physically show what he was playing. Earlier in the day Rudd had told me an ancient native American story about the hummingbird and the edge of the Earth and watching him on stage it was obvious that he is passionate about his beliefs and everything he sings about. Rudd is a true musical talent and artist and was the perfect example of the blues and roots festivities on today.

Former lead singer of Manchester’s The Stone Roses, Ian Brown was up next on The Big Top Stage. Never known as one of the world’s best singers, Brown still entertained the sweltering crowd with his rock and roll demeanor on stage and true rockstar attitude. Brown has released five solo albums since The Stone Roses called it quits but knowing the popularity of the band he still played quite a few of their hits. There were huge sound problems at the start of the set and Brown ended up starting about 15 minutes late. After a technician apologized to crowd for the delay Brown grabbed the mic and announced that he wasn’t sorry and that it wasn’t good enough. Looking and acting very Liam Gallagher-like, Brown was everything the crowd expected in an English rocker and more.

Sinead O’Connor was another artist that had her fair share of sound problems on the day but The Harbour Stage still had a huge crowd gathered in front of it. And even though she looked a bit like a pregnant nun that had just gone through chemotherapy, O’Connor put on a fairly decent set full of her hits with Nothing Compares To You one of the biggest crowd pleasers of the day. The sound problems were pretty constant throughout O’Conner’s set but wasn’t too noticeable after the first few songs.

Setup strangely on the smallest stage in the reserve, ex-Tea Party front man, Jeff Martin played, I believe, the best set of the day. Martin was layed back playing an acoustic set with only himself and a drummer and covered songs from his solo album as well as a bunch of Tea Party hits. Even though it was acoustic there were many moments that Martin put so much energy into the song that the rock/soul level was pushed up a notch. Interesting to note was that Martin mentioned that his wife is from Perth and that their son was also born in Perth so he feels almost at home here. Martin also mentioned that the 60 minutes he had to perform at Blues N Root was not nearly enough for people to really enjoy his music and that he would be performing a near 3 hour set at the Fly By Night Club this coming Sunday. Even with only the 60 minutes Martin put on a truely awesome set and the fans that caught it were completely satisfied.

Another ex-front man of a legendary band was on next on The Harbour Stage. Former Kinks man Ray Davies was ready to play a set full off hits that covered 40 years of rock and roll. Just like Don McLean, Davies looked much older than most fans would remember or even expect but the sound he created was just as good as ever. The biggest hit was of course Lola but he also played a slew of Kinks songs that had the young and the old singing and dancing in front of the stage. All in all, day 1 was a complete success and fans were either going home happy from what they had seen or going home to get some sleep before heading back for day 2.

More photos can be found here thanks to Noodlez

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Gig Reviews, Music Festivals, Touring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.