Blueprint Festival, Ararat -Day Three (20/09/09)

Tue 22nd Sep, 2009 in Gig Reviews

By the time Sunday morning rocked around, everyone was exhausted. So much energy had been spent trying to stay warm and dry, and lost through shaking bodies and muddy knees. If Blueprint is to continue, it will have to rethink either its location or the time of year. That or advise the festival goers to bring a large slaughtered animal to wrap themselves in, and two pairs of gumboots.

Regardless, Day Three was completely relaxed. Like the morning before, with noon came the artistic guitar doodling of someone on a far off stage. Still attached to each other for heat like connecter pens, the tents slowly opened up to filter down to the single SYN stage. Blankets, Berroca and biblical hangovers followed, as people spent the day eating baked potatoes and drinking Moroccan mint tea.

It turned out that the amazing quasi-psychedelic guitar doodling was coming from Zoophyte – a collective that this reviewer had previously passed off as just another Aussie roots-rock band. Although the set disintegrated into some pretty stereotypical styling, there were funk elements in there that came as a welcome surprise. The bass amp was miked up to the max and gave a solid off-beat that added extra oomph.

Matt Joe Gow and the Dead Leaves stepped up to the batting plate next, providing the audience with some easy going alt country rock. However, like Zoophyte before them, they slowly moved into quite a predictable country swing style, preferring to stay on E (the chord, not the drug) for what seemed like entire songs. Gow’s voice is gravely and sexy, but sounds a little more like a lamb bleating on the higher notes. If the band stuck to the rockier, more gruff tunes, they might have got a few more people off their rugs and in front of the stage.

By the time The Boat People had come on late at 3.30pm (“we shouldn’t have stopped at Sovereign Hill,” jibed Robin Waters, wearing a lion’s head mask) at least half of the festival goers had packed up tent and gone home. Those who weren’t vegging out in front of the music were taking a final frolic through the long grass, coming back with yellow daisy chain headbands. It was these flower child characters that got their groove on for The Boat People. Their dingle-dangle keyboard melodies lightened the mood, and had everyone feel a little silly and giddy. Unfortunately, they overestimated the number of people that would know their music, resulting in some embarrassingly dismal audience interaction.

The last band that graced my ears before my ride home left was a great way to finish.Old Man River’s country roots rock was original, catchy and unpretentious. With an added jazz piano trickling in and out of Ohad Rein’s smooth, sometimes almost Arabic wailing swoon, it sounded like you had caught them in the middle of a jam session. A surprise violin riff from The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony caught many people’s attention, and then disappeared as fast as it came. But it was the massive crowd sing-a-long that he conjured at the end of La that made me leave feeling a little bit warm inside. But still cold on the outside.

As the sun set, and the guitars and gumboots were loaded back into the vans, you always leave a music festival feeling a little disappointed. This time, it was unclear whether that was just because we had to leave and return to the real world, or whether Blueprint just wasn’t quite all it was cracked up to be. The event was full of discord: beautiful setting, but too swampy; more toilets per person, but less toilet paper; one massive stage, but one dwarfed one. It turned into a paradox.

As Matt from The Beautiful Girls told Fasterlouder in the green room, “I love going places, I just hate getting there”. Blueprint still has a while to go. But it will get there. Eventually.

FOR ANOTHER TAKE ON DAY THREE READ GOAT’S REVIEW

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE FESTIVAL HERE