Groovin' The Moo Maitland 27/4/13 - Festival Review

On April 27th, with the blessing of sunshine and a stunning blue sky, 16,000 punters wreaked havoc upon the Maitland Showground for the annual Groovin’ The Moo. After navigating through the traffic and oceans of twelvies, I made it to grounds of this glorious festival. The bag checks and ticketing were surprisingly efficient, and even the wristbands were cool.

The sold out festival was host to some incredible international names, Tegan and Sara (Canada), The Bronx (US), Yacht (US), The Kooks (UK) and many more, as well as some fresh bands, new and old, from our musically rich homeland.

An 8-piece from Newcastle kicked off festivities. Galleri brought their unique brand of nostalgic music to the early crowds of GTM. A rich, full-bodied sound, complete with a brass section, they won over plenty of fans with their happy, cheerful music. Perfectly suited to festival vibes, Galleri scored a home run at Groovin.

Another group of local cutie pies, The Owls have been grooving since 2008. Their opulent sound got the crowd dancing, and within the confines of a 20 minute set, they still managed to dazzle audiences.

Goldsmith took to the Triple J stage, looking absolutely wonderful and sounding even better! Another early morning band to rep the vintage pop feel, their sounds were reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac (particularly their song ‘Henry VIII’ which you can listen to herehttp://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=40705) and Dire Straits. This up and coming band have a bright future, and their pop tunes have the strength to go somewhere.

I have to commend Groovin’ on the smaller bands that played, Galleri, The Owls and Goldsmith, all hail from Newcastle, the organisers at Groovin did a top notch job of choosing promising local bands that perfectly showcased the talent that, past the Southern Cross tattoos and Nickelback fans, hides in pockets throughout this wonderful country.

Last Dinosaurs zoomed onto the Channel V stage, ready to captivate thousands of people with their shining melodies, and charming live performance. Sean Caskey, Lachlan Caskey, Sam Gethin-Jones and Dan Koyama are the indie rock darlings that make up the band. Since their inception in 2008, Last Dinosaurs have soared through the Aussie indie scene. Their colourful live sound enthralled the crowd at GTM, but sadly, I personally did not see their set to the end because of a tragic clash with Hungry Kids Of Hungry.

The Moolin Rouge, a big, beautiful, blue circus tent, was filled with the Hungry Kids Of Hungary’s extraordinary pop. This consistently brilliant band have released 2 albums and 2 EPS, all of which are easy to fall in love with. The Hungry Kids’ magnetism and diversity perfectly transferred over to their live performance, and they certainly arrested hearts. Sadly, for hardcore fans of HKOH, 40 minutes isn’t nearly enough time to cover all of their brilliant material, so some old favourites were missed, but tracks from their latest album, Twin Cities, were superb. The lighting was fantastic, and overall, Hungry Kids Of Hungary conjured up the most exciting 40 minutes of the day.

Matt and Kim are a duo (as described by Matt, ‘partners in sex and music) from the faraway lands of Brooklyn New York who worked the Channel V stage like you could never imagine. Confetti sticks, remarkable showmanship and funny banter between songs, was a sweet concotion, that culminated in a pretty darn awesome set.

Seth Sentry, another Australian musician to go radically Global, won over legions of fans with his performance on the Jimmy Kimmel show in the US. Another wizard of crowd participation, he kept the audience under his thumb throughout the whole performance. His witty, intelligent music created a perfect festival buzz. A spectacular performer, and a international ambassador of true Aussie talent.

Alpine have been roaring through the scene for the past year, with an outstanding criticaly acclaimed debut, and an Aria nomination, they’ve been carving out a homely spot on the face of Aussie music. Though they added diversity in style to the Groovin’ line up, their indie lullabies aren’t perfectly suited to a festival crowd.

Although I was personally unaccustomed with their music, Frightened Rabbit still blew me away. Despite the fact that their performance didn’t inspire a festival frenzy like many of the other acts, their musical artistry stood out on the line up. Their sound is a melting pot of influences, alike to Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire. They weave stories through their lyrics and melodies that will warm your heart and sing to your soul. Even in the harsh afternoon sun, the pale Scotts still put everything into their performance, the drummers face, twisting and contorting in riveting expressions of passion. A 10 out of 10 act, Frightened Rabbit are an exquisite band.

Tame Impala was definitely the most interesting act of the day. Fueled by the musical genius of Kevin Parker, this Perth outfit have taken the world by storm with their tales of isolation and weed. Their trippy neo-psychedelia has attracted an army of fans (most of whom wear tie dye 60% of the time). Their mystery has provoked international hype, and the re-emergence of psychedelic music. Sadly, their performance at GTM had some issues. Kevin Parker had a sore throat, the poor thing, and his vocal performance was really shocking. The fact that he still got up and performed even with such a bad illness, was admirable because it’s always better to get up and give an okay performance, than to leave eager fans with nothing at all. Kevin struggled during higher songs, letting the crowd sing the choruses to Feels Like We Only Go Backwards for him, but instrumentally, the band was exceptional. The weakness of his voice, has lead people to doubting the band as performers, and Kevin’s ability to deliver as a lead singer. Parker isn’t particularly energetic onstage, but that suits his persona, and the lyrical content of his music. Jay and Dom and Julian (not so much Nick) are all incredibly vibrant, and kind of make up for Kevin’s lackluster energy. For artists like Matt and Kim, and Seth Sentry, crowd involvement and extravagant showmanship suits their genre and style of performance. That kind of crowd involvement would not suit a Tame Impala show. Kevin doesn’t have the personality or skills to be able to pull it off, and their happy-trippy crowds are more suited to concert-goers than the short-spanned-attention of the average Festival attendee. A major facet of the hype surrounding Tame Impala, is the atmosphere of their shows. As perfectly put by Georgia Ashworth: “That’s why Tame Impala concerts are significantly better than their festival appearances. It’s not the band, it’s the crowd. They’re not the kind of band you’d come across at a festival and be all excited over their cute onstage personas and catchy lyrics, they’re a band that you have to be into, and ‘get’, I think. Hence the masses of children leaving the Tame Impala stage when the instrumental lasted longer than… 20 secs.” In summation, poor Kevin Parker has a terrible sore throat, and his showmanship could use some improvement, but their musicality and instrumental talent is irresistible.

British rockers, The Kooks, were magical. Technical hiccups had them leave the stage after the first song, for quite a long wait. But as soon as they re-emerged they were greeted with screams of delight, and they sure did deliver. Luke Pritchard’s electric performance was absolutely hypnotic, and their live sound was even better than their records.

Traveling to Groovin’ by public transport was really difficult, it’d be great if in the future, GTM could work with Cityrail to organise more trains to cater to the ridiculous amount of people heading up for the festival. The merchandise was affordable and varied (bracelets might be a good idea for the future) and the grounds were fairly easy to navigate. The majorly negative thing was the trail of litter and destruction that the fest-goers left in their wake (more bins maybe?).

A sensational day, with phenomenal weather and great music, Groovin’ The Moo was unforgettable, and is arguably the best all ages festival in Australia.

Photos and review by Geneva Walker

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