Bimbadgen Estate. Hunter Valley
Saturday March 5, 2016 :
You couldn’t have picked a more glorious day for a visit to the Hunter Valley. The sun was bathing Bimbadgen Estate, and a crowd of 10000 were in for eight hours of live music that ticked all of the nostalgia buttons.
Ratcat opened the day with a sizeable crowd already staking out the best spots in the GA section. Simon Day and his band hold a significant spot in the development of the Australian Music landscape, with their Tingles EP, Blind Love album and single ‘Don’t Go Now’ all reaching the top of the ARIA charts, essentially driven by public demand rather than the industry. In hindsight, the early ’90s changed a lot in what was considered popular music. On stage today, the band were quite business-like, though chatty and relaxed. Scanning the crowd you could see the lyrics being sung by those who were touched by the band’s music some 25 years ago.
The charismatic vocalist of Died Pretty, Ron Peno, reminded my of why I was so enthralled by this band during the early ’90s. Peno stalked the stage, thrusting, gyrating, bellowing his broken vocals. When you add the quality of songwriting to his stage presence, you have a performance that I would go and see again next week. This is the same feeling I have always had about this band, and it was a joy to hear the hypnotic ‘Mirror Blues’ closing out their set.
Sunnyboys are also a band that I embraced during the ‘80s, having seen them numerous times back in the day. This is the third time I have caught them live since they reunited in 2012, and it is always a pleasure to hear the Sunnyboys brand of power pop. Both Peter Oxley and Richard Burgman threw themselves into the performance, with Jeremy Oxley being his cheeky self. I loved their set though I am a bit biased.
To be honest, I did not know what to expect from Violent Femmes. Apart from ‘Blister in the Sun’, the band and their music totally slipped by me during the ‘80s but tonight they were the big surprise. As the sun slipped behind the Hunter Valley hills, Violent Femmes put on the best twilight party, and the crowd simply lapped it up. Opening with ‘Blister in the Sun’, and a few bass technical issues, it was an hour that made me realise that I actually knew many of the songs. ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ in particular was delivered with a force that surprised me. A great show, totally blew away the ‘one-hit wonder’ tag that I had placed on them, and has had me playing VF Youtube clips all week.
Hoodoo Gurus are verging on iconic status in this fine country, and the way the crowd threw themselves into the headliner’s powerful set only confirmed this. The Gurus were never a band that I embraced during the ’80s with my preference being Chisel and the Oils, and I have always put that down to the ‘pop’ leaning to their songwriting. What I have come to realise though is once you put the Gurus on stage, those pop elements are hidden under some harder rock. They are really a different beast live – abrasive, aggressive and they rock damn hard. Their setlist tonight was everything you wanted to hear. By the time the Gurus were closing the night with ‘Like Wow, Wipeout’, each one of the 10000 punters had enjoyed a step back into the music that they hold dear to them. It was a wonderful lineup, and a concept that I believe the 35-50 year old music lover will embrace. Well done Day On The Green, and let’s see Icehouse involved in the next one.
Reviewer and Photographer : Kevin Bull
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