Perth Music

Over the Australian Day long weekend, Western Australia’s biggest and brightest upcoming indigenous bands performed at the Ngalang Koolark Festival at Supreme Court Gardens, battling it out to be selected as the opening act on the Roots Stage at the 2009 Good Vibrations Festival.

After facing some tough competition, two local groups ‘Bryte MC’ and ‘Obstruckt’ are now on the Good Vibrations bill alongside music heavyweights like Fatboy Slim, The Presets, Q‐Tip, The Pharcyde, Sam Sparro, Roni Size Reprazent, and many more!

Bryte MC aka Brian Lloyd, is an indigenous hip‐hop artist hailing from Brisbane who now calls WA home. Wanting to stay away from the commercial Hip Hop sound, Bryte MC performs to keep true hip hop culture alive.

Obstruckt have been entertaining and amazing local crowds with their unique sound and energetic performances. With the Good Vibrations Festival being one of the biggest gigs of the year, punters are sure to be impressed by this local group.

Good Vibrations Festival has already sold out in Sydney and tickets are selling fast in Perth so make sure you don’t miss out on THE festival of ‘09.

Tickets on sale NOW (Ticket price: $129.00 + BF): www.gvf.com.au or www.moshtix.com.au

The good people at Jam Music are again offering a local indigenous band the amazing opportunity to join the Good Vibrations lineup by being the opening act on the Roots Stage. This is along side headliners Fatboy Slim, The Presets, Deadmau5, Roni Size Reprazent, Sam Sparro, and many more.

Now in its 6th year, The Good Vibrations Festival will be returning to Heirisson Island on 22 February 2009. The festival continues to bring together the finest beat‐based party music from around the World to deliver an unforgettable party atmosphere and GVF 09 is guaranteed to be bigger and better than ever before.

The organisers of the Good Vibrations Festival are now seeking a fantastic local band, to open the festival with bang! The competition is open to Indigenous Bands/Artists who are 18+, and play music in the style of Hip Hop / Funk & Groove. Bands that enter must be able to play a half hour set at Good Vibrations and have up to 3 songs ready for the competition.

The Good Vibrations band competition will be held at the Ngalang Koolark Festival which is part of the Lotteries West Australia Day Community Celebrations on 26th January 2009, at the Supreme Court Gardens from 3.30 – 5.30 PM.

Register your Entry by email: mail@mills.com.au Or phone 9335 1945.

Good Vibrations Festival has already sold out in Sydney and tickets are selling fast in Perth so make sure you don’t miss out on THE festival of ‘09. Tickets on sale NOW (Ticket price: $129.00 + BF

Following the announcement of the huge line up of awesome acts playing the Good Vibrations Festival next February, Jam Music is keeping the party vibe going with a second announcement featuring some very cool local talent.

Local artists confirmed to perform at Good Vibrations Festival 2009:

Perth Locals:
DJ Armee
Ben Mac
Bourgeois Bogan DJ’s
Brash & Sassy
Damian John
Dave Beres
Death Disco
Downsyde
Electric Limousine
Flex
Marty McFly
Micah
Mick Zing
Mind Electric
Rob Sharp
Sampology
Signal Drivers
Stefan Gooch
Steve Lind
The Takers
The Transients
The Typhoons
Thunderclap DJ’s
Voltaire Twins
Zeke
Zelimir

These locals will be joining already announced headliners Fatboy Slim, The Presets, The Roots, Deadmu5, The Pharcyde, Sam Sparro, Roni Size Reprazent, Chromeo, Stanton Warriors, The Potbelleez, Kid Kenobi & MC Shureshock, Micky Slim, Yelle, Wale, The Cuban Brothers, Miami Horror, Rico Tubbs, Mike Relm and master of ceremonies Supernatural on the 2009 Good Vibrations Festival line up.

Tickets for all shows are selling FAST (Sydney has sold out!) so all you party people should get in quick while they’re still available!

Good Vibrations Festival 2009 Perth, Heirisson Island - Sunday 22 February

Tickets on sale NOW (Ticket price: $129.00 + BF) www.gvf.com.au & www.moshtix.com.au

Fatboy Slim, The Presets, The Roots, Deadmau5, Sam Sparro, Roni Size Reprazent, Chromeo, Stanton Warriors, The Potbelleez, Kid Kenobi & MC, Shureshock, Mickey Slim, Yelle, Wale, The Cuban Brothers, Rico Tubbs, Mike Relm, Master Of Ceremonies: Supernatural

Sat 14th February - Centennial Park, Sydney
Sun 15th February - The Nursery, Flemington Racecourse Melbourne
Sat 21st February - Parklands Showgrounds, Gold Coast
Sun 22nd February - Heirisson Island, Perth

More informations and Tickets available from www.goodvibrationsfestival.com.au

2008 saw the Good Vibrations festival try out a new location which many saw as a surprise, especially with the fantastic setup in 2007 at Belvoir Amphitheater. With a reduced temperature in the low thirties, the new location (Heirisson Island) ended up being a dusty and dirty area where thousands of music lovers descended upon to catch some of the world’s best musical acts. Many were there just to see ‘The Ego’ Kanye West, but there many great artists, bands and DJ’s playing all day.

After parking near the WACA and making the trek over the Causeway to Heirisson Island I made my way to the Bacardi Live tent and caught the end of a DJ set by the Bag Raiders. There were plenty of people packed into the B-Live tent, especially near the free water, and considering it was still early in the day, it looked like everyone there was enjoying the set. The remixes that were played were high quality and the dancing that many people were planning on doing for the next 8 hours was interesting, to say the least.

Next up on the main Good Vibrations Stage was American 20 piece band Thievery Corporation. Featuring a sitar, horns, bongos and almost a different vocalist on every song, the exotic bunch drew a larger and larger crowd as their set rolled along. Their style mixed Brazilian with Indian with Jamaican with styles that were somewhere in between and it suit the atmosphere of the festival perfectly. A huge hit for the band and a huge crowd favourite was Lebanese Blonde which had the crowd swaying and bopping back and forth.

Heading down to the Chinese Laundry tent, The Stafford Brothers were starting up their DJ set ready to remix and sample songs from the last thirty years. Their wasn’t as much dancing going on in the Chinese Laundry tent as the B-Live tent but that was mainly because the crowd were busy watching the DJ’s do their thing on the raised stage and just enjoying the Aussie producers/DJ’s.

Back on the main stage Calvin Harris‘ set was just finishing up and the audience seemed to be loving the disco sounds echoing around the island. The electro DJ that was discovered on MySpace only four years ago looked as if he was loving the Good Vibrations tour and at the same time fairly sad that the tour was ending.

After a short break New York’s The Rapture came on the main stage to a crowd that was getting dirtier and dirtier from all the dust and sand kicked up around the grounds. With a sound that fused electro and punk, the four piece thrashed out a set that was fierce and high energy. The crowd grew and grew as the set rolled along and it was obvious that the day was getting to the pointy end and the headliners were not far away.

As Cypress Hill walked on stage a buzz came over the crowd and the excitement was obvious. Before any song was played Sen Dog grabbed a mic and shouted out to the crowd “Roll it up, light it up, smoke it up” with about a third of the crowd responding by holding up cigarettes of all sorts. B-Real and Sen Dog were full of energy throughout their set which included hits such as ‘How I Could Just Kill A Man’, ‘Dr Greenthumb’, ‘Insane In The Brain’, ‘Hits From The Bong’ and ‘Rock Superstar’. Half way through their set there was a small intermission so a 20 foot tall inflatable Buddha with a pot leaf on its tummy could be inflated and the crowd loved it.

After a short break and with the stage being transformed behind a large sheet it was time for Kanye West, fresh from winning a few more Grammy Awards to come on stage. Heavily dressed in a jacket, a scarf and gloves West started off with ‘Good Morning‘, the first song from his new album Graduation, helped out by a couple of backup singers. The set was more of a performance than any of the other acts on the day and included a digital display background specifically created for Wests set, multiple costume changes, a female ‘robot’ controlled by West and one huge ego. During the song ‘I Wonder‘ West played the piano and announced he was “the number one artist in the world” but also joked that he only learned the piano for this one song because he thought it would be cool to play the piano in a rap song. After about 50 minutes on stage West announced that all of the previous songs were just part of the intro and it was time to start the show which lead straight into Gold Digger, Good Life, Diamonds From Sierra Leone, Jesus Walks, a tribute to his late mother and lastly Stronger. All in all, love him or hate him, West put on a show that proved his musical skill and ability to control a stage.

Photos from Good Vibrations can be found here at PerthNorg (Thanks to Noodlez).

The artists for the 2008 Good Vibrations Festivals have just been announced and they are world class.

Good Vibrations Festival lineup:

Kanye West (VIC/NSW/WA only)*
Cypress Hill
Calvin Harris
The Rapture
Thievery Corporation (live 20 piece)
James Zabiela
Pharoahe Monch
A-Trak & Kid Sister
Sinden
Katalyst (live 6 piece)
K-OS
High Contrast Feat. MC Wrec
Pigeon John
Surkin
16 Bit Lolitas
The Bag Raiders
Radioclit
Beat Vandals
The Stafford Brothers
With your master of ceremonies Lyrics Born

Tickets go onsale November 9th.

The dates for the festivals are:

Good Vibrations Festival 2008 tour dates:
Sat 9 Feb – Melbourne
Sun 10 Feb – Gold Coast
Sat 16 Feb – Sydney
Sun 17 Feb – Perth

All photos taken by Anthony Tran - http://antz.bur.st/goodvibrations2007-belvoir/

Click on photos view larger view -

There is one thing that is certain when a Good Vibrations festival comes to town; the next day thousands of people are going to have sore calf muscles. Compared to other summer music festivals Good Vibrations is all about having a good time and dancing. I arrived at the beautiful Belvoir Amphitheatre in the early afternoon and already people were dancing everywhere – on the grass in front of the main stage, on the steps in front of the amphitheatre, under tents, in front of bars, waiting in line for the toilets and so on.

I got to the Amphitheatre stage (or Roots stage as it was called on the day) just in time to catch FDEL wrapping up his set. The crowd were loving the local DJ and were even more excited when another local (Optimus from Downsyde) joined FDEL onstage for a few songs.

Getting over to the main stage saw Sydney four piece Van She start their set to a growing crowd. With an 80’s sound that a lot of the crowd looked like they lived in anyway, Van She rocked out and funked out at the same time. Highlights were dedicating a song to a friend that is addicted to Ice, Sex City and Kelly.

Nightmares On Wax were next up on the Roots stage and it was the perfect spot for the crowd to just chill out and enjoy the music. Either dancing on the theatre steps or chatting to friends it seemed everyone was having a great time. The crowd was really building up at this stage of the day but even when someone accidentally bumped into me or stepped on my foot they made sure they apologized and wished me all the best for the day. It was definitely a great atmosphere.

It was the first time UK outfit Cicada had visited Perth and all the dancing that was occurring in front of the stage must have been a great site to see and a perfect introduction to the local dance scene. Although the heat was mentioned and Cicada front woman Heidrun Björnsdottir seemed a little uncomfortable due to the hot sun, some great tunes were played and enjoyed by all.

The ‘Godfather of Noyze’ Rahzel was highly anticipated on the Roots stage and was accompanied by DJ JS-One. I’ve seen many hip-hop artists before but Rahzel and JS-One really defined the genre on this day. Rahzel beat boxed not only with ease but was able to make it sound like there were four or five separate beat boxers on stage at once. One person dropping the beat, the chorus, the verse and the bass all at once is quite the spectacle and something everyone should experience. The definite highlight was ‘If Your Mother Only Knew’.

As it was announced that Jurassic 5 were splitting up after this tour, this performance was definitely one not to miss. And the super MC’s did not disappoint. Playing a full set of old songs, hits and songs off their most recent album, the now packed Roots stage were hanging off every rhyme. Speaking of hanging, half way through the set one Jurassic 5 fan decided it would be a good idea to climb one of the trees in the middle of the stage steps and hang off one of the branches. Well this didn’t last long and as he fell straight down onto the crowd underneath most were holding their breath thinking the worst. But after he signaled all was ok the entire crowd cheered and focused back on the act on stage.

Back on the main stage I only got to see a few songs by Sneaky Sound System but the good thing was that they left their radio songs to the end. ‘I Love It’, ‘Pictures’ and ‘Goodbye’ were all played at the end and with the sun finally set, the crowd were seeing the end of the night on the horizon.

Legends of hip hop Beastie Boys came out on stage dressed in suits and looked like they were ready for business. Besides the fact that they thought they were in Perf, MCA, Mike D, Ad-rock and Mixmaster Mike looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Tonight was their last show in Australia for this tour and after 20 years in music nobody knows how many tours are in the future. Many hits were played including Root Down, Intergalactic, No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Brass Monkey, Triple Trouble, So What‘cha Want, 3 MC’s And 1 DJ, Shake Your Rump, Body Movin and the finale was dedicated to George W. Bush: Sabotage.

Beastie Boys - Intergalactic

Jurassic 5

FDEL feat. Optimus from Downsyde