Queenscliff Music Festival @Queenscliff, Victoria(29-30/11/2008)

Mon 1st Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

The Queenscliff festival has garnered an enviable reputation over the years and the 2008 festivities lived up to this reputation and even exceeded it. The layout of the festival is part of its charm – they have a couple of outdoor stages down by the foreshore and also another few inside that are scattered throughout the main strip of Queenscliff. It’s an idyllic setting for the weekend’s entertainment.

The first group I saw were an all female group named Kaya who blended perfectly in sync harmonies with a Capella beat boxing, this was a great indication of the quality of acts to see over the weekend. After Kaya’s ambitious set I wandered of to a church which had been converted into a café/band venue, this was the perfect setting for the Tides of Welcome Soul Gospel Choir, the choir were a local group of singers who beautifully sang classic gospel songs with original tunes. One of the highlights of the set was the song to Down to the River Pray well known from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack; they sang this amazing confidence and great soulfulness. Next up was Jess McAvoy at the Atrium café, her breezy pop songs were the perfect blend of insightful singer/songwriter and polished pop gems, her unpretentious attitude was what was made her songs sing true.

Later in the afternoon after a couple of songs from pop songstress Lisa Mitchell – her beautiful evocative singing had the small crowd that gathered encapsulated – it was off to Gurrumul Yunupingu the first of many highlights from the weekend. Yunupingu’s appearance had been highly toted and rightly so, as soon as he hit the first notes the crowd was his, and he kept the audience captivated throughout. It was unusual to be at a festival stage and have complete silence, something I had never experienced before; yet Yunupingu’s stage presence had that effect on the audience. Throughout the set he sang in his native tongue, but that didn’t alter the effect of songs at all, his voice had that transcendent quality. Most of the set was from his debut album, with just one faster tempo tune from his former group, the Saltwater Band. I was privileged enough to see both of his sets over the weekend, making sure to catch his repeat performance on the Sunday afternoon at the Grand Ballroom, a perfect setting for his haunting songs.

One of the more interesting sets of the weekend was the Van Morrison tribute; a group of selected performers got up and sang their favourite Van songs. The bluegrass punks The Wilson Pickers sang an unusual interpretation of Jackie Wilson Said which had the crowd singing and dancing along throughout. Steve McEwan sang a gorgeous version of Sail into the Mystic and country singer James Blundell performed an awesome rocking version of Wild Night.

Over to the main stage guitar virtuoso Jeff Lang, delivered another brilliant set; he never disappoints and this set was no exception. Jeff is constantly reinventing himself and the perception of blues music, his inventive way of playing is always hitting new highs, but still keeping in touch with the traditional blues sound. I was at a loose end after seeing Jeff so I wandered back to Grand Ballroom to see what was on offer next and had the good fortune to catch VulgarGrad with guest singer Zulya Kamalova. They described their sound as the – œGurgling sounds of Moscow’ though they brought a German beer hall vibe to the ballroom. Vulcarcrad had the crowd up and dancing, and would perhaps have been better suited to one of the bigger stages. The bass player had a very unusual guitars, a massive wooden triangular instrument they looked impossible to play, though obviously he handled it beautifully.

On the Fishnet stage Root!, the new band for Humphrey B. Flaubert who used to front TISM, were ready to roll. Musically Root! are totally different from TISM but lyrically there were a lot of similarities, sharing a satirical/piss-take approach to pop-culture with their tongues planted firmly planted in their cheeks. One of the most anticipated sets of the festival was the reformation of Aussie progressive rock legends Madder Lake, and they still had all the power and rock action that they had on their albums from years ago. With a set including hit Goodbye Lollipop, they previewed a song from their upcoming album that is going to be released next year, but it lacked the same sonic attack of their older material.

The Audrey’s are always a highlight of any festival and as expected the new songs from their latest album After the Flood, sounded fantastic as did all the hits from their first album. The lead singer Tasha Coates has the most beautiful honey coated vocals and with every song her voice wraps it’s self around you like a warm winter jacket. To finish of the Saturday night electro funk stars Jackson Jackson pumped up the crowd and had the whole main stage heaving with their unique brand rock and futuristic pop. At any given time there were about ten performers on stage that included five back up singers aptly named the Jackson Jackson Five. Harry Angus, of Cat Empire fame, was the ringleader of this psycho-circus, bouncing and dancing as the orchestrated the band like a maestro from the future.

Early on the Sunday morning the biggest highlight of the weekend was about to take place – the Liyarn Ncarn showcase with Archie Roach, Shane Howard and guests playing contemporary Indigenous songs. The importance of these songs could not be understated; Archie Roach’s soulful voice reflected not only voice of the stolen generation but also the voice of land. His songs of loss and cultural identity spoke volumes about what its to be indigenous in today’s society. A highlight of the set came with Amy Saunders, of folk trio Tiddas, with a beautiful rendition of a Neil Murray song; Amy’s poignant voice captured the spirit and emotions of Neil’s lyrics perfectly.

In between each song Archie told tales of how the songs came to be, such as the track Little Sister which was about an Indigenous man Warren Brady who was adopted out to a white family and given the name Louie St John in honour of an English soccer player before his unfortunate demise when he was only nineteen. At the end of the set the whole group did a stirring version of the Goanna song Solid Rock, proving that the song still has all the power that it did when it was released over twenty years ago.

Final performer of my festival was Josh Pyke; the live versions of Memories and Dust hits playing out beautifully. Josh’s lyrical songs had the young audience singing and clapping all through out the afternoon. His style of light pop have that humble quality to them, refusing to leave your head and clearly proving why he’s on his way to becoming one of countries most popular singer songwriters.

Queenscliff festival has the one of the best setups of any local festival and any other festival couldn’t do anything wrong by taking a page out of their books. I will definitely be coming back next year.