Blueprint Festival, Ararat -Day Two (19/09/09)

Mon 21st Sep, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Day two saw the introduction of rubber mud, which provided bouncy joy for many, as well as what could be seen as the payback of festival organisers for all those smuggling booze into the grounds – they held out on restocking the toilet paper.

The jumping action of Friday night had left the front of stage a nice mud field, so people took their places on blankets over the hill to ease them into the day. To aid the hangovers and provide some easier going tunes, Matheson opened the RRR stage with their country folk rock. The Ballarat trio were closer to home than most bands and delivered a good set, highlighted by their best track Safe For Now and Aaron James Matthews’ solid vocals. Shane Nicholson then continued the easygoing tunes on the same stage, with tunes that ranged from gentle solo acoustic, to rollicking country blues alongside his band with slide guitar and bass, one such number being a great cover of Neil Young’s Dance, Dance, Dance.

“You’ve tried the potatoes, you’ve tried the wraps and you’ve tried the Middle Eastern food. Now you’re trying the Basics.” Wally De Backer’s comment may have been completely cringe-worthy, but it was warranted, with a decent crowd in higher spirits than the day before gathering for the pop sensibilities of The Basics. Plugging their new album, their setlist was full of new tunes, including the strong With This Ship, new single (and soon to be known as their best live track), The No. 1 Cause Of Death Amongst Youth Today, and the just recorded for Neighbours, Home Again. Their retro sound was favoured as always though, and a cover of The Kinks, All Day and All of the Night went down a treat.

If the Basics got a decent crowd, Ash Grunwald got an incredible crowd – easily one of the best of the festival. His late afternoon blues had the mosh pit bouncing again, with Fish Out of Water, the hilarious Dolphin Song (who doesn’t love a rock and roll dolphin?) and the romping Breakout all getting people’s feet moving. Grunwald’s classic “Boogie challenge” cropped up, too, as he asked everybody to move, whether they were sitting down or not. The fact that there were jeers and so many “awws” when Grunwald announced he wasn’t allowed to do an encore about sums up how popular the man’s set was.

The timetabling of the festival proved a little questionable on Saturday night, as it began to choose status over style. After acts like Grunwald had had everyone partying in the sunny afternoon, the chilled style of Tim Rogers was saved for the very chilly evening. “Thanks for choosing art over mundanity,” announced Rogers. The usually raucous You Am I front man took a big step back from his rock glory on the night, though, delivering a set of his solo material that proved a little less than captivating in anticipation of the party Blue King Brown were promising later. Tracks dated back to the Twin Set record from 1999 ( You’ve Been Good To Me So Far ), but within the decade’s work there unfortunately didn’t seem anything lively enough for the time slot.

Blue King Brown were another story. Unlike The Fearless Vampire Killers on the SYN stage, who from several reports were completely oblivious to the fact people were there to watch their wasted tirade, BKB knew what they had to deliver to satisfy the yet again freezing crowd. In a set that included everything from Indian headdress, reggae keyboard solos, percussion battles, back to back covers of Roxanne and Is This Love? and odes to Michael Jackson and ACDC, BKB delivered the party that punters wanted. Singles Come and Check Your Head and Moment of Truth were stand outs for the bouncing crowd, as the band produced one of their stellar live sets. As is tradition, there was plenty of call and response, and to end it all, eight bars for the crowd to let the rest of Victoria know they were partying.

As further proof of status over style, The Panics followed BKB on the main stage, in what seemed like a very odd programming choice given punters had just been so riled up. The Perth boys still put on a good show, however, which was mostly made up of their award winning Cruel Guards, with the odd oldie, such as Cash, thrown in for good measure. While vocalist Jae Laffer spent much of the set sitting at his keys, guitarist Drew Wootton made a concerted effort to show some energy and encourage the crowd. Still, even if the Panics did take the energy down a notch, the high vibes were still there – a midnight sing along of Don’t Fight It enough to deem their set a highlight of the festival.

FOR ANOTHER TAKE ON DAY TWO READ PORGIEPIE’S REVIEW
DAY THREE REVIEW

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE FESTIVAL HERE