ANZ Stadium, Sydney
20 – 21 April, 2013 :
DAY ONE: Saturday April 20, 2013
It looked good on paper, a two-day music festival celebrating music, life & freedom with a line-up that would consist of some of the biggest international artists that the world has ever produced. The inaugural Stone Music Festival, held at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, was surely going to make its mark on the Australian festival scene with acts like Aerosmith, Van Halen and Billy Joel headlining the bill.
Those that paid top dollar for their tickets were pelted with rainy and wet conditions as they stood in front of the stage all day while the people with the cheaper tickets sat in allocated seating, protected from the rain by the stadiums roof. Day one saw an attendance of around 6,000 people and everyone else seemed to be as puzzled as I was at the low crowd numbers. I can only imagine that the reason for such a small crowd was due to a lack of marketing and promotion.
On the main stage Richie Ramone (former drummer for The Ramones) made an absolute fool of himself and many wondered why this guy was given a microphone. His arrogance and punk attitude didn’t do him any favours in front of a crowd of only a few hundred. He finished off the set by playing the worst cover of INXS’s ‘Don’t Change’ I’ve ever heard.
Buckcherry followed soon after and delivered a powerful set for the early and slowly building crowd. They entertained with their no holds barred rock and roll, as lead singer, Josh Todd, stripped down to reveal the tattooed canvas that is his upper body.
Next up was Noiseworks who received a modest applause, belting out aussie classics such as ‘Take Me Back’, ‘No Lies’ and ‘Hot Chilli Woman’ before The Living End took centre stage and shifted the spirit of the crowd up a gear. Even though their set was stopped by what seemed to be a power outage, they played a captivating performance. At one point guitarist and lead singer, Chris Cheney, played a guitar solo with a bottle of VB, showing off his freakish, and innovative, guitar ability.
Kings of Chaos were relatively unknown to the punters; this was before they took to the stage. It was soon realised that these guys were a supergroup comprised of rock and roll hall of famers that included Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), Matt Sorum, Gilbey Clarke and Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), and Joe Elliott (Def Leppard). The performance that these guys delivered left everyone absolutely amazed. Their set list was full of cover songs from their respected bands, and some might even say that their versions were better than the originals. The vocalists shared their duties and at times sang in unison to create one hell of a rock performance. ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Paradise City’ were among the crowd pleasers.
Jimmy Barnes would soon follow to perform his set but I feel that the beginning of the show lacked the intensity of the band previous. Barnesy played a number of new songs to start with, which left the crowd twiddling thumbs as they eagerly anticipated the work he’d done with Cold Chisel – which of course, was left for the end.
Co-headliners, Aerosmith, burst onstage and were on-song right from the get go. Vocalist, Steven Tyler, is one of the most electrifying front men in the music business and dictates the crowd like he’s in charge. At 65, Tyler dances, flicks his hair, sways his hips and pleases the pants off every girl, woman and lady in the audience. ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’, ‘Dude (Looks Like A Lady)’ and ‘Walk This Way’ were played before Tyler came back out for the encore to finish up with ‘Sweet Emotion’ on a white grand piano.
Van Halen were the final act of the first day and it felt as though the power of this performance was lacking due to a bad sound mix. I moved around the stadium from front of stage, to the middle seated level, and eventually to the upper level seating to see if it was just bad positioning but I was right, the mix wasn’t perfect and the speakers seemed to give out a very low pitch sound. The onstage performance was great to watch, but seeing the crowd continue to vanish gave me the indication that maybe Aerosmith may have been able to hold the crowd a bit better this late in the night.
DAY TWO: Sunday April 21, 2013
Day two of the festival kicked off a little later than the day before, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it lacked the talent of Saturday’s lineup. With Lifehouse pulling out of the festival just a few days before the show, it was left up to Billy Joel and a bill that consisted of mainly Australian artists to pull the numbers.
But if the crowd seemed tiny on Saturday, on Sunday afternoon it could’ve been pronounced dead. Diesel, Mark Seymour and Shannon Noll played early, making the most of the deserted ANZ Stadium and as the sun went down, Guy Sebastian, made his way out onto the stage. Sebastian put on a great show, proving that he is a capable and talented performer – not just a winner of some crappy TV show for pop singers – he stands out from those that have crashed and burned on their way to stardom and is still the cream of the crop. Sebastian interacts well with the small audience in front of him and delivers each song with perfect pitch.
Icehouse were the second last act of the evening, and despite having to take the position that was originally meant for the now absent Lifehouse, these guys pulled it off brilliantly. Icehouse have been one of Australia’s household names since the late 70’s and produced a greatest hits set that had the audience singing every line to popular hits such as ‘Great Southern Land’, ‘Hey Little Girl’ and ‘We Can Get Together’.
Thankfully by the time that Billy Joel walked out to the stage he was greeted with a decent sized crowd. By now, it looked as if the majority of the seats were filled and I’m sure that this would have given the promoter something to smile about.
The soul pleasing piano intro of ‘Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)’ was heard and the stadium erupted. It’s been seven years since Billy last played in Australia and with rumours that he may be calling it quits very shortly, there was no hesitation from the audience to begin singing from the very first line. After a slight hiccup on the intro to his fourth song ‘Pressure’, Billy makes humour of the situation and says “this is an authentic rock and roll fuck up” and restarts the song. His voice is as crisp as it’s ever been and every note he sings is as flawless as the last.
Unashamedly, he tells the audience that most of these songs are about his ex-wives and jokes about how many of them he’s had. Towards the backend of the show we were treated to a version of ‘Highway To Hell’, with Billy on electric guitar and Noiseworks vocalist, John Stevens brought onstage to belt out the classic.
Billy seems to be a much more humble man than the once energetic and out of control Billy Joel of the 70’s. Whether he’s playing piano, guitar, the harmonica or telling a short story about one of his many classic hits, it’s hard not to admire, appreciate and be captivated by what an incredible talent and seasoned performer he is.
The show ends with no encore, just him at his piano, harmonica strapped around his neck, as he breathes out the tune to ‘Piano Man’, bringing the crowd to ecstasy. And as quick as the final applause begins, Billy is whisked away on a golf cart, leaving many to wonder… is this the last time that Australia will see one of the world’s most iconic rock and roll legends?
Reviewer: Sean Frazer
Photographer (Day 1): Kevin Bull
Photographer (Day 2): Louis Abigail
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