First-time festival Wild Oats was organised by a committee of local young people in conjunction with the Shire of Northam. They’d been planning it since the start of the year and by some happy coincidence The Novocaines, Abbe May and the Rockin’ Pneumonia, Magic Dirt, Gyroscope and Spiderbait were all able to be in the same place at the same time to put on a stellar show for both Northam locals and out-of-towners who had sensibly decided this was the place to be on Saturday 4 October.

Unfortunately, it was cold in Northam. Really cold. So cold that 2 pairs of socks, jeans, t-shirts and jumpers plus mittens and a beanie couldn’t ward off numbness in the extremities. That may be my only complaint for the day. Oh and also the technical glitches leading to short power outages in the Gyroscope and Spiderbait sets. Here ends the complaints.

Not too many punters had arrived when The Novocaines were on, but this did not put off the band from putting their all into the set. With their skinny jeans and fashionable haircuts, this band look trendy enough for you to think they may just be another same-same indie band that are all the rage at the moment. Don’t be fooled though, these kids play some damn fine rock ‘n’ roll and have more oomph than some bland bands can poke a stick at. No gimmicks required, just simple, strong songs like Lately which speak for themselves (not that they’re lacking in the stage presence department though). Corey Marriott let on that it’s full steam ahead for the band, as they are working on an EP coming out soon with Ben Kweller lined up in a production role.

In between bands saw 2 dudes from Hot FM fulfilling hosting duties by amping up the crowd with as many expletives as possible. Let’s just say they got as many Fuck Yeah’s out of the crowd as humanly possible in the time they had.

Abbe May and the Rockin’ Pneumonia graced us with their presence next. Singer Abbe May was crowned the 2008 WAMi Best Female Vocalist and she certainly showed those at Wild Oats she more than deserved it. This band plays blues you can dance to, at least in Northam you can. Starting out strong with Put my 2555 in your 71724 with May punctuating each number in such a way that you know it must mean something pretty damn important. Killer guitar riffs were provided throughout the set by May and K.T. Rumble. The set continued with solid instrumentals and soul reaching vocals that connected with those content to sit and listen in wonderment as well as those who were moved to dance. They finished up with a cover of Willy Dickson’s Spoonful which showed that their instrumental skills matched May’s impressive vocal talent. Bassist Rodeo Stone complimented dancers and proclaimed it was their first visit to Northam. I’m sure Northam would be pleased for them to return with plenty of punters taking it in turns to cross the divide between the still small audience and the stage to take pictures. This band’s worth remembering.

As the darkness was setting in, Magic Dirt took to the stage. It was during their set that the crowd filled in and started to let loose, taking their cues from the band onstage. Magic Dirt showed they’ve still got what it takes to put on a rock show with singer Adalita Srsen doing some impressive high kicks and later headbanging along with Raul Sanchez Also impressive were the stand-in bassist’s flowing locks. The band traded blues sounding guitar and drums with heavier sounding bass and feedback with standard rock songs. Friends in Danger started to slow things down a lot but then picked up with Srsen repeating “i can do it” over and over and drums and bass building up with rock moves galore. Romy off the new album Girl was next and they finished with a cover of The Scientists’ We Had Love that saw the first moshing of the day.

Gyroscope pulled out all the stops, remaining high energy from start to finish. Like Magic Dirt they are masters of rock moves and started in on them early on. Starting out with All In One they got the crowd going straight away with the “hey hey” perfect for crowd sing/yell-along. Doctor Doctor worked for that too and led to singer Daniel Sanders jumping off stage onto the crowd barrier. Only then did Gyroscope say g’day to the crowd, but I think we’d already been well introduced to what we’d be in for for the rest of the set. Beware Wolf was next, then 1981 which started to show some of the sound glitches a bit more, as Sanders’ vocals were cutting in and out. The crowd didn’t care as they were getting into it a little too much and had to be warned to cool their jets as one punter was pulled out by security already. The band powered through until Safe Forever which led to a total power outage. After a few seconds of playing ampless the band and crowd realised what had gone down then had to wait patiently for the minute or so it took to get things running.

Gyroscope were unaffected, with bassist Brad Campbell joking that they’d rocked it a bit too hard. They got back into the song and Sanders got back into the crowd until he was pulled down by a groupie hoping for a kiss and the bouncers decided that was enough so dragged him out. This was just in time for him to turn his attention to side-of-stage to serenade his wife with the chorus “I did it for you Jess”. The first crowd surfers of the day emerged, and this continued along with lots of jumping about and more chanting with the songs that followed. The next highlight was Fast Girl when Sanders almost did the splits and midway through they broke into Beds are Burning with Sanders sounding surprisingly like Peter Garrett. After the chorus they finished off Fast Girl then ended with Snakeskin. Drummer Rob Nassif and Campbell jumped down to shake hands with the crowd who no doubt knew they were meeting part of one of the finest rock bands in Australia.

Spiderbait provided more of a stand and deliver type of performance, letting their classics speak for themselves. Drummer/singer Kram started out talking about how good it is when a new festival starts out in a country town and that we need to give it support. And how freezing it was. Janet was obviously affected as she could be seen rubbing her hands together for warmth in between songs. Spiderbait’s set consisted of long teasing intros before kicking into old favourites.

Kram and guitarist Whitt started by launching into an extended intro for Shazam then Kram started in with hey you, you never shoulda….and the power cut out again! The crowd yelled for them to play it again and like true professionals they jumped straight into the song and the crowd jumped straight into each other. They rolled through Take Me Back, Outta My Head and Pack it Up. At this point the amped crowd were yelling requests. Another guitar/drum intro set the crowd up for Four on the Floor in which Kram picked up and left the stage mid-way through…he looked pretty spent and calmly walked down the steps and I’m sure some were worried he’d given up for the night! Thank goodness he was just going to get up on the crowd barrier for a brief hello then calmly walked back on stage to finish the song. Tonight brought the energy levels down to give the crowd a rest until Fucken Awesome where we yelled at the top of our lungs. Old Man Sam led to more boys being pulled out of the crowd and one of them trying his best to rush the stage …but the security were too on the ball for that. Whitt teased with the guitar riffs to Calypso before the crowd sang along from start to end. Kram announced the last number of the night well before close time and we were treated to a super long Black Betty the crowd moshed along to guitar and drum interludes and were chanting oh yeah all right for ages before Kram howled yeeaaahhh to top off an awesome night.

Anyone that missed out should cross their fingers that Wild Oats will be back next year and that the kids can organise a line-up as good as this. With relatively cheap tickets and an atmosphere of hardworking musicians playing to an appreciative crowd who were there for the music rather than to pose/get wasted like a lot of punters at city festivals these days, it was definitely well worth the drive east through the country-side to get there.

None of the fasterlouder photographers could make it, so you’ll have to make do with my photos here