Homebake @ The Domain,4/12/2004

Mon 6th Dec, 2004 in Gig Reviews

The 10th anniversary of Homebake was an amazing showcase of just how much talent there is in Australian music and a practical demonstration of how much the Australian people like to party! The sights, the smells and most importantly, the sounds that make an outdoor festival were all in overdrive for Homebake.

Arriving at 10:45am, I was greeted by a thick serpent of people lined up for at least 700 metres in both directions waiting to get in, not wanting to miss a minute. As I walked through the gate, taking a look around the grounds, surmising the grass in less than an hour it would already be covered in refuse and sweaty, sunbaking bodies. I studied a map of the ground and headed for The Dome stage and after trekking to the diagonally opposite end of festival grounds, accepting that a map reader I ain’t, I trekked back to find The Dome, arriving just after the kick off of The City Lights set. City Lights are a strong outfit with the lead singer, James may have been dressed for a job interview and by the end of their set there was no chance he would have got any other job but front man for a band (and not just because he could face a beer at 11am!). 

The City Lights had their work cut out for them in the difficult first-cab-off-the-rank slot but they drew people in from their first notes. She Don’t Even Know My Name was a great track and made me giggle because there were School of Rock “Ooh la-la-la’s” in the chorus, actual guys singing “Ohh-la-la-la”, priceless. Escape From Tomorrow Today was catchy and is also the name of their album, embracing the long intro, which had a slight be-bop, feel to it.

They closed out with What You Gonna Do? People stayed until the last beat before heading to their next band. They had a bigger crowd than the first band on the main stage Ground Components and with good reason, The City Lights were good, really good.  Ground Components were, unfortunately, not so good, the singer sounded like he was had never met a note that was in tune. My head actually snapped back in surprise when he started to sing. I left quickly, feeling bad for them as there were only 10 people listening and I’m pretty sure the keyboardist saw my reaction. I negotiated my way through the universal booths of henna tattoos, jewellery, t-shirts and weird food you wouldn’t eat in a restaurant but for some reason you will eat from an unsanitary, overheated booth, back to The Dome to wait for The Morning After Girls. 

The Morning After Girls were not my thing.  Full of Brit-pop poseur pouting and not much else.  They looked good but had nothing to back it up so the crowd consisted mostly of people sitting and eating lunch before the long, hot afternoon. They had one good song, Chasing Us Under which they closed with.

Everyone finished their lunch and headed to the main stage for new buzz band Wolfmother. They absolutely delivered on the promise of greatness.  No one claims that Wolfmother are doing anything new, marrying Black Sabbath sounds and Led Zeppelin inspired vocals and imagery but, boy, they do it well. The crowd was pretty big for the Wolfmother boys and they absolutely wailed in the hot midday sun. There is a dissonance between the appearance of these unassuming lads, the scary name and the meaty psychedelic-metal sounds of the band, they create an atmosphere with their music that is as close as any of us are ever going to get to the true ‘60s hippy music festivals. Opening with Dimensions, a magical time warp, which reminds everyone of the mystical lyrics of Zeppelin as does White Unicorn.

Not afraid of the wah-wah pedal, the set and the spell continued to be worked. In a small venue, this band would be even more potent and Apple Tree was probably one of the best songs of the whole festival. White Unicorn made me think of Kyuss with its slightly self-indulgent instrumentals that lost the crowd a little but overall, Wolfmother was one of the day’s highlights.

Next I hightailed it back to the lunch area, I mean The Dome, to see Sarah Blasko, armed with a deep-fried assortment of vegetable nibblies (the only way to eat vegetables) hoping that would see me through until the heavy hot chips-carb binge I was planning for the mid-afternoon. Sarah Blasko was mesmerising, her voice is compelling and she moves like an enchantress. The backing band was a bit flat and seemed to be just a millisecond behind the lovely chanteuse but her songs Don’t You Ever, Beautiful Secrets and Your Way came together really well. If you like PJ Harvey, you would love Sarah Blasko.

The Dome stage was running a little behind schedule by this time so in the most fortunate turn of events of the day I got to see a few minutes of the Gyroscope’s set on the Main Stage. Gyroscope was amazing, they had a huge crowd considering the time of day and they delivered their songs with energy and gusto. Get Down went off and the crowd loved every second of it. Fire Away was the first song of the day I had witnessed that made the crowd sing, it was a great moment.

During the course of the afternoon, my friend Adrian took my notebook and wrote a “review” of Gyroscope to the effect of “Greatest Band Ever” and that he loved them even more than my other friend Boo. In the VIP tent many hours later, I was chatting with some others who asked what my highlights were. I said that I had really enjoyed Gyroscope without realising that I was talking to the singer Dan (and his soundguy Brent who was nice enough to get me the Jet set list for my sister) who proceeded to laugh at the look on my face due to my relief I felt having not said something terrible. I believe he even blushed when I showed him Adrian’s review by way of proof that I wasn’t pulling his chain!

Running even further behind, I checked out the DJ stage before 78 Saab. A lot of energy in there and the smell of sweat was enough to gag a maggot. I retreated to the live stages where you, at least get the intermittent waft of pot smoke. I saw a few songs from 78 Saab set before I decided to move to the next band. 78 Saab have put out one of the best Aussie releases of the year and they back it up live. Although they played to a smaller crowd, the crowd they had were avid fans and sang their little hearts out.

Starting with Saviour and you know you are among fans when you end up listening to a bloke from Marrickville singing so loudly that you can’t hear the actual band. Since I couldn’t really hear the band despite being in the second row, I concentrated on watching the band and appreciated their stage show. The keyboardist Jake, had the moves, really grooved and was great to watch, you could even see, the singer Ben’s hickie! No Illusions and Cops are singles of their album and were really strong, the sound reproduction from studio to stage was spot on.

I left the 78 Saab set to see The Tremors at the Hopetoun Stage. If you get a chance, see The Tremors, they define what a good rock show should be. The singer Geoff has so much energy and he sweats and swears and struts across the stage like a rock rooster. Keyboardist and bass player Eleanor defied cliched chick rock stereotypes and proved to be an ultra-talented rock queen. My favourite part of the show, excepting of course Geoff’s request that the audience “Display their mammaries” before the song Bible, was Keep It On where Eleanor took up a trumpet as well as bass and kicked rock arse. She then climbed up on the crowd barrier and incited a near riot among appreciative Tremors fans. Bad Teenage Poetry was another fine moment and overall, like I said before, it was everything that a rock show should be.

After dodging like a pro-footballer to miss my first teen vomiting for the day, I caught Kiwis, The D4, back on the main stage who were decidedly solid and put on a really entertaining show. Although they played to a slightly smaller crowd, this band are a tight, talented bunch. The song Party was a crowd pleaser and made you shout. Girl, Outta Blues and Heartbreaker were the highlight songs and Get Loose, the last song brought the house down.  The D4 kickstarted the building momentum for the countdown to shutdown.

That momentum unfortunately flagged during Rocket Science. They had solid material but just didn’t have the same energy as the previous band. I enjoyed Sex Call, it was a little Cure-sounding, Eternal Holiday and Too Tough To Care were also strong. They were tight, impeccable and had showmanship but it just fell a little flat for no particular reason. I haven’t seen them perform before so I suspect they are more a closed venue band rather than an outdoor festival band. They played to a large crowd and the keyboard spinning skills were flashy but still the mood dipped regardless.

Spiderbait were next to take the main stage and the feeling in the crowd was that they needed to do some of their old stuff pretty soon or lose them. The mood began to turn for Spiderbait when Janet pulled out Fuckin’ Awesome and it built from there. Spiderbait make festival rock look easy, once they started to give the crowd what they wanted, they took Homebakers to the next level of excitement. I left before the end of the set but I hear that Calypso and Buy Me A Pony brought the house down and Black Betty sealed the deal.

Hightailing it over to The Hopetoun Stage to see The Cops. I had missed them when they were in town the last time and regretted it. I was right to be sorry, they were fantastic! They had an amazing way of interacting with the crowd and were actually a little bit funny rather than the normal banter you endure at a show. They had a huge turnout with great energy in the room. Rectify got the crowd going and Wallet/Puffer/Smokes/Keys had a Nutbush City Limits feel to it and a pumping pace. Be My Lover, She Sleeps With Guns and Dirty Little Rebel were written for a live crowd and hit the mark.  They also had Rusty from You Am I as filling in on drums which added to the excited vibe of the show. Absolutely worth missing a bit of the Spiderbait set.

Back to the main stage and Eskimo Joe took to the stage and the crowd adored them. There was singing and arm waving. I was standing behind a group who were really into it. My question is: how good a friend does one bloke have to be to put his mate on his shoulders to dance? They were singing their hearts out, swilling the Tooheys Dry and dancing around with the other members of their cricket/football/spitting and nose-picking club on their shoulders. Is it the beer or am I unenlightened? It was nice to see them having so much fun though, I think those guys will be buzzing about the great day they had for days.

Eskimo Joe pulled out their winners early, From The Sea is a great song and you have to be pulseless not to love that song. I was standing with some serious metal-heads and they were “Hello Hello-ing” with the best of them. Older Than You went down a treat and once again, the field became a campfire sing-along, really quite touching if you weren’t indeed being touched by the sweaty people all around you, getting a contact sweat bath, eww! They played Planet Earth, Wake Up, Life and This Room, they have a signature guitar sound that is so sweet but I must admit my attention was starting to wane but I fully accept that was just me. The crowd loved every moment!

The highlight of the night followed when Grinspoon took the stage. I hadn’t seen them live before and they were awesome! They kicked festival arse and took the audience to a near frenzy. They kicked off with Hard Act To Follow from Thrills, Kills And Sunday Pills which started the crowd moving and followed up with No Reason and Bleed You Dry. The Grinners were on a roll and it was just so much fun. Lost Control was next but it was Chemical Heart that made the set. They bought out a choir which you could barely hear because the roar of the crowd was so overwhelming.

The Grinners pulled out some older tracks and crowd went wild. They did DCx3 and PostEnebriatedAnxiety and that was a huge thrill. PostEnebriatedAnxiety was the first song of their first show at Homebake eight years earlier when they were the first band of the day. It was awesome to hear a band perform a song that meant something extra special to them, just for that moment in time: priceless.
The singer Phil, is the ultimate rock front man, he is just so freaking cool. He stands there and sings from the gut, he might nod his head a bit but that is it and it is just perfect for them. The music screams from the stage and he lets it whirl around him making it near impossible to take your eyes from the stage. This was the festival highlight for me and I suspect for many in the crowd, they were just so good.

Jet took the stage a minute or two before ten and the crowd were ready to kick the 10th anniversary Homebake home. I’m not a Jet fan if I can be honest with you, so when they began their set with the whooping of an evacuation siren I thought with a giggle  ”If only!”  They began with Nic standing on top of one of the huge speaker banks building anticipation for what was to come. The first song was Cold Hard Bitch and the crowd surfing began with gusto. The crowd surged with the excitement of the main act and the adrenalin that comes from a crescendo. The sound wasn’t great but the band itself sounded pretty good and had it together. 

They moved onto some album tracks Get What You Need and Sgt Major before hitting Rollover DJ. The crowd continued to surf but you could see a bit of thinning occurring around the edges as people headed out early to beat the rush. Look What You’ve Done had everyone singing and that was a good thing as the mix on the vocals warped a little and the crowd covered it for the most part. The crowd was not as frantic and energised as they were for Grinspoon but from the stage and the very midst of the mosh pit, who could tell.

Are You Gonna Be My Girl went off – the crowd jumped and the bodies surfed across the sunburnt heads as if they were light as feathers. I may think of Jet as an Oasis cover band but damn that is a good song! Get Me Outta Here and Take It Or Leave It closed the show with a slightly subdued fanfare. I know it wasn’t just me but Jet seemed to be a disappointing closing act overall, yet it couldn’t dampen the day.

Exhausted, ears ringing and more than a little curious about the location of the mystery sunburn (you know the spot that you have routinely missed when applying sunscreen throughout the day and only become aware of in the shower), I left Homebake satisfied.  With a Jet set list for my little sister who will think I am super-cool, sore feet and throat hoarse from singing, at the end of the day I felt, more than ever, that Australian music and this festival, in particular, celebrates it in entirety, really is something very special.