Gig Reviews

Blues and Roots Festival-Byron Bay

Sun Apr 3 2005

With a line up including REM, Dave Matthew’s Band, George Clinton, Jack Johnson, G-Love, Michael Franti, Roy Ayres, Bright Eyes, The Frames, The Cat Empire and The Wailers, I was quite happy to dig out the $315 for a 5 day ticket and prolong my summer in Byron Bay over the Easter long weekend.

Red Devil Park in Byron is home to the Blues and Roots Festival which turned 16 this year. [A proud Mr Chugg-was a highlight of the whole festival]

The first band off the mark was Joel Turner and his Modern Day Poets. Not exactly sure what he was doing on the bill-but none the less I didn’t last long after he played 4 cover songs. It goes without saying day one belonged to the world’s greatest touring band – The Dave Matthew’s band. An overwhelmed Dave Matthew’s graced the stage for a 3 hour stint at the Mojo tent. Startled at the crowds welcoming response his band brought the house down with what can be described as a musical masterpiece. [There is a whole review just in this performance]

A mystery musician who calls himself ‘That one guy’ - caught the eye of many punters on the APRA stage. Playing his magical pipe [a hand made 3 metre metal pipe wired and rigged through pedals/samples and his own boots] his quirky persona and unique musical style got the intrigue of everyone.

The best thing about the Blue and Roots is that everything is easy to get to, the people are ultra nice and getting food or beverages is a walk in the park [literally].

Across the days some stand out performancs included George Clinton and his showcase of musicians from Parliament and Funkadelic-a show which I swear had at one time, 30 people on stage. Franti, a familiar face at the Blues and Roots gave a meaningful set which showed video footage of his experiences in Iraq 2004. The Cat Empire gave a high energy set, playing new tracks of the 2nd album-and a great cover of Paul Kelly’s ‘In the middle’. Jack Johnson brought out his mate Xavier Rudd and G-Love [who did a epic set night 2], Roy Ayres can still make people dance [and dance we did], The Waifs did their last performance in Australia for the rest of the year and Michael Stipe form REM closed the festival wearing a painted blue eye mask with staging great model poses that would put the best on the cat walk to shame.

To fit 5 days of music into a coherent and flowing review would take longer than the trip to Byron from Sydney. Next Easter, no matter what the line up is-treat yourself to a wonderful music festival experience. Thank you Chuggy.

mondo 4/4/05