Perth Music

It was day 2 of The West Coast Blues ‘N’ Roots Festival and just like day 1 the weather was perfect for a day of outdoor fun. A bit of cloud cover threatened rain for most of the day but it also kept temperatures down to allow fans to enjoy another great day of music. The Esplanade Reserve was so clean that you could not tell a musical festival had occurred there just hours earlier, but given the environmental theme of Blues ‘N’ Roots you would expect nothing less.

An early start was good and bad for Abbe May & The Rockin’ Pneumonia as they started to play on The Big Top Stage. The bad was that there were only a handful of people watching the local band when they played their first song, the good was that the crowd grew and grew and grew and the Big Top area was not the sauna that it would turn into later in the day. A group of 4 or 5 girls decided to get into the mood of the day early and danced around the front of the stage as if they were at Woodstock and it was quite a sight. Abbe May is Perth’s best front woman and the band played a set full of rock and folk music that will see them much higher on the bill in the very near future.

The Audreys have had a pretty meteoric rise in the past 2 years and as they started playing on The Crossroads Stage crowds still entering the reserve stopped to watch as much as die hard fans were pushing to the front barrier. A band that all wear formal dress and consist of a various band members playing the violin, melodica, banjo, double-bass and ukelele would usually come across as gimmicky but The Audreys pull it off with professionalism and a lot of musical talent. Guitarist, Tristan Goodall even managed to change guitars mid-song to a huge cheer from the audience as he only just got the second guitar tuned in time for the chorus.

Next up on The Harbour Stage were The Beautiful Girls and they had a very healthy crowd eager for them to play their radio friendly tunes. Not having ever seen them live before, I’ve always thought of The Beautiful Girls as a rocking/roots based live band but what I saw at the start of their set was quite different. Acoustically sounding almost exactly like Jack Johnson, the band played the perfect chill out start to their set before turning up the volume and rocking out to the excited crowd. Triple J favourites Under A Southern Sky and In Love were clear highlights of their set as the clouds cleared and the Fremantle sun shone down on the dancing crowd.

Kasey Chambers walked on to The Harbour Stage as happy as could be and that joy was also obvious in the songs that she played. It was certainly a family affair for Chambers as she explained that her father was on her right playing guitar, her husband Shane Nicholson was playing guitar on her left and her brother was doing the sound mix. With a new album due out next month Chambers played a few new songs but also delighted the crowd with a whole bunch of hits from her previous three albums.

Playing at the same time on The Big Top Stage was Cat Power who had the same sound issues on that stage that many others had the day before. After a small delay she was ready to get the crowd pumping as she played a set full of hits. Wearing one glove and constantly grabbing her crotch, Cat Power could have been mistaken for a white, female Michael Jackson and with a strut in her step as she sang, she could have also been mistaken for a female Mick Jagger. Not many artists could have pulled this off without looking ridiculous but with her husky voice and sexy looks Cat Power pleased everybody present.

Back in their home town, it was time for Eskimo Joe to take The Harbour Stage by storm. Just as John Butler had done the year before, the Eskimo boys announced how good it was to be playing in their home of Fremantle and that this would be their last show before they start writing and recording their next album. The set started out like a normal Eskimo Joe gig with guitars, bass and drums turned up loud but then had a 6 piece string section join them half way through for some acoustic tunes and then rocking again along with the string section. A range of songs were played including From The Sea, London Bombs, Life Is Better With You (which turned into Crowded House’s Weather With You), New York, Forever Young, Sarah and Black Fingernails, Red Wine.

The highlight for almost everybody in attendance and the real headliner of the festival was former Creedance Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty. Legal disputes had prevented Fogerty from playing CCR songs for a long time but luckily this was resolved a couple of years ago and the Blues ‘N’ Roots crowd were allowed to witness a true legend of music at his best. Even at 62 Fogerty is a fantastic musician as well as a fantastic showman. Tales were told about playing at Woodstock, jokes were made with the crowd and of course great music was played. Legendary hits such as Bad Moon Rising, Rollin On The River, Lookin’ Out My Backdoor, Down On The Corner (with great appreciation by the 5 girls behind me who started singing it in between every single song), and Proud Mary were all played and the cheers from the crowd was deafening. With that the ultimate two day music festival was over for another year and as the crowd walked out most would have been thinking already about attending again in 2009.

More photos can be found here thanks to Noodlez

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Gig Reviews, Music Festivals, Touring, Eskimo Joe. 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.