There is no doubt that in its 27th year, St Kilda Festival is still one of the premier events of Melbourne’s cultural and musical calendars. Returning for its second year after a brief hiatus, the festival filled the entire of St Kilda’s Esplanade and beach with stages, sports and attractions galore, and easily drew an estimated 350,000 strong crowd that packed every train and tram commuting to and from during the day. The biggest attraction of St Kilda Festival – its music – has increasingly improved and this year was no exception, with iconic Australian acts ( Hoodoo Gurus, Archie Roach) and newer favourites ( Expatriate, Operator Please ) all on the bill for the larger beach concert, and acts all over the Esplanade on its four other stages.
Melbourne’s The Lectrics opened the main stage around midday with their Bon Jovi-esque look and completely cock rock inspired tunes. The local foursome seemed a loud slap in the face for those arriving though had little in the way of musical creativity. Hanging around would prove a worthy choice, however, when Sydney’s Expatriate took the stage in front of a lawn full of seated onlookers. Ben King on vocals not only looked like Bono but danced and even sung at times like the U2 frontman. Regardless, King had a coolness about him that let him breeze through their set whilst encouraging onlookers to get involved. Their melodramatic rock proved an early highlight to the festival, with their take on *Everything But The Girl*’s ‘Missing’ and epic closer ‘Are You Awake?’ showing genuine originality despite other frequent sound-a-like moments.
Next door to Luna Park, the O’Donnell Gardens hosted a stage for the funk and jazz enthusiasts. Despite the stage’s theme, a certain rockabilly punk band known as The Longnecks managed to hijack the afternoon. Seemingly the worst kept secret going around, the thinly disguised Living End punked about in front of a rather large group of mostly teens. The reason for their playing under the ruse of the Longnecks was to road test material for the trio’s upcoming album. With the exception of the opening couple of tracks, most of the new material – with themes of faith, guns and space travel – failed to vary from past work and seemed a little bit of a disappointment overall. Chris Cheney and co. need not fear though, because judging by the reaction of the considerable crowd of fans the new stuff was liked, and even more so was the favourite closer ‘West End Riot’ which brought with it a cloud of dust from bouncing feet.
Back at the main stage, Gold Coast teen popsters Operator Please belted out a shorter than expected set. The group proved they didn’t need the glitz of their Big Day Out stage setup (giant inflatable hands, etc.) to entertain a big crowd and Amanda Wilkinson and Taylor Henderson in particular sounded incredible on respective vocals/guitar and violin (being able to sing so quickly and clearly is a true skill). Again, covers proved to be a hit on festival day ( Archie Roach had also provided an the awesome Goanna track ‘Solid Rock’ to a satisfied crowd earlier) as OP let out a frenzied ‘Whip It’ and were met with an even bigger reaction than for their popular novelty ‘Just a Song About Ping Pong’.
Finishing early meant that local funksters LABJACD were soon on stage providing their alternative Latin based blend of funk and hip hop, a complete turnaround from the previous giddy pop and proof that this beach concert had something for everyone. Like the massive ten piece San Lazaro who simultaneously provided soulful funk and hip hop over on the World Music Stage, LABJACD provided a energetic yet still laid back late afternoon shift to completely alternating punters – many fans but also way too many tipsy wanderers (it’s confusing why the festival promotes the “dry zone” so heavily yet does such a half assed job of enforcing it). San Lazaro may have had the upper hand however, with the market and world food stalls surrounding their stage for a more thematic experience.
Whilst classic Aussie rockers the Hoodoo Gurus packed out the beach stage for their sunset appearance of many an iconic tune, the Espy began to fill to its brim also. Whilst old supermarket songs, ‘What’s My Scene’ and ‘Come Anytime’ were belted out by the rock veterans outside, new up and comers managed to cram pack the Espy front stage in a matter of moments (up until now many festival goers had avoided the Espy’s take on the festival due to a $10 entry and no passouts rule). On show as night befell outside were a couple of fantastic local pop bands ( The Basics, Little Red ), Adelaide’s latest and finest psychedelic rockers Lady Strangelove and a special treat in USA’s experimental rockers Trans Am (proving the Espy to be not quite with the St Kilda Fest’s policy of Australia music).
The Basics were – as expected by their full crowd – a great load of fun with tracks ranging from the gentle heart felts to the intense rock moments. The variety in tracks was also helped by the sharing of vocals amongst the trio. A slowed down version of ‘Looking Over My Shoulder’ – complete with *Kris Schroeder*’s comical commentary of *Wally de Backer*’s lyrics – provided a set highlight as bobbing heads and tapping feet moved with the old style pop sounds. Following in the same genre of old school pop duplicates, Little Red followed with their selection of fun filled tunes, again sharing the duties of vocals (which as always proved bassist Quang Dinh to have the best and most versatile voice of the three lead vocalists). Shared singing efforts all over the early track ‘Cry Cry’, as well as Taka Honda’s always way-to-happy drumming provided LR’s finest moments.
Whether lounging at the beach stage, in the gardens, or standing on the sticky-like-velcro floor of the Espy there was music to entertain the masses greater than previous years have provided. Still one of the best events of summer, the festival seemed to attract more new faces and hence has the potential to grow even bigger than it already is in the coming years. The four year major sponsorship deals will ensure that the quality of this and last year’s festivals continues until 2010 so Melbourne can count on great things to come.
