Unidiversity @ UCU Refectory(03/03/07)

Mon 12th Mar, 2007 in Gig Reviews

A music festival designed to celebrate diversity through music certainly lived up to its
name; with a broad range of musical acts from rock to hip-hop to electronica and dance.
Held over three stages at the University of Canberra, and boasting an impressive line-up of
national and local acts as well as the promise of ‘roving performers, art installations and stalls’
the festival seemed like it had the makings to be a success on its maiden run.
The bands did not disappoint, with funky crowd-energisers Casual Projects and Los
Capitanes delivering their usual sweet beats and rhymes. For those inclined to groove the
night away in front of a DJ deck- the bar’s chill-out lounge provided a raver’s glow-stick
decorated heaven, with mixing angel Typhonic returning to his former home
(Canberra) to treat electronica-inclined punters. A few other locals came along and threw
their musical weight around – Alchemist and the always amazing Koolism ,
neither of whom disappointed. Highlight of the evening was 28 Days’ admission that
they were past their prime- “ten years on and yeah, we probably should have quit a while
back”. Gotta love a rock star that’s in touch with reality. Nontheless, the soon-to-retire
rockers delivered a great set that canvassed their hits and new material from EP Bring it
Back.

However, it wasn’t all gold stars for the virgin festival. The ‘breaking in’ perhaps could
have been a little less painful with a little more advertising to bolster crowd numbers. While
the acts were great and the line-up a real coup for a first-time festival, the crowd numbers
were nothing to write home about and the atmosphere was well, dull. There were almost as
many people in the beer garden as there were in the refectory listening to the headline acts.
(Although perhaps this says less about the festival per se and more about the crowd?) The set
list was posted around the venue, but by 10pm it was lagging 20 minutes behind, leaving a
gaping hole in scheduling and nothing for punters to see except roadies setting up. Another
disappointment greeted fans at the gate – a notice advising that headline act The
Valentinos were ‘unable to play a live set’ and instead members of the band would be
performing a DJ set as side-project Knife Machine . While the set certainly wasn’t bad,
it was like being given minute steak when you were offered scotch fillet – it still tastes good,
it does the job, but it’s not as good as it could have been. Again, perhaps this was not
organisers fault, but was still a dampener on the night. This anti-climax reaction indeed was
the general response to the festival. It has a long way to go to really make its mark on the
music scene, but giving credit where it is due Unidiversity showed a lot of promise, and hey, in
Canberra we really can’t afford to not give it a go.