Project Description
A DAY ON THE GREEN
@ Bimbadgen 24/02/18
(Live Review)
by Alec Smart
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The A Day On The Green touring music festival took place in scorching heat in the Bimbadgen Winery in Pokolbin, near Newcastle on the NSW Central Coast.
A crowd of thousands endured the 36 degrees heat that saw four Australian bands – The Living End, Spiderbait, Tumbleweed and The Fauves – and two American bands – Veruca Salt and The Lemonheads – take to the stage, with an eccentric DJ – Grand Master Baitz – playing tracks between the acts.
Bimbadgen Estate concerts take place on a large sloping grass field in a natural amphitheatre, surrounded by vineyards of ripening grapes. Many punters brought their own seating, and despite the excessive heat, a crowd of revellers swarmed the front of stage area to dance, lubricated by cooling beverages.
First band onstage early afternoon was The Fauves, a four-piece from Melbourne who have been performing for 40 years. Their name derives from Fauvism, a French art style that was popular for a few years at the start of the 20th century, of which Henry Matisse is its most famous progenitor. Les fauves means ‘wild beasts’ in French; seemingly wild brushwork and bold colours characterized the paintings of the Fauves art movement.
‘Wild’ doesn’t describe The Fauves band, but they’re known for their pop-punk music and witty, often surreal lyrics with titles like I’ll Work When I’m Dead, Celebrate The Failure and Don’t Get Death Threats Any More.
The band are infamous for their song, Dogs Are The Best People – with which they rounded off their Bimbadgen set – and absurd stunts, like a 1992 gig at The Annandale Hotel in Sydney when the drummer washed the guitarist’s hair with shampoo and vegemite, while the other two musicians made improvised noise.
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DJ Grand Master Baitz, Bimbadgen Winery, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Saturday 24 February 2018
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Unfortunately, after plodding through traffic-clogged roads departing Sydney, and further delays queuing for security bag-check at the Bimbadgen entrance gate, I was unable to photograph The Fauves, and could only listen from afar.
DJ Grand Master Baitz is an amusing character and obviously popular in this region as he is often utilised as a crowd-pleaser, filling-in between bands at the Hunter Valley winery concerts.
He is an amusing fellow, strutting and pouting comically assuming different guises and characters with varying head attire. These range from a tennis pro – complete with Rod Stewart wig, sweatband, and tennis racket played like a mock guitar – to a Roman Emperor in a golden helmet resplendent with red Mohawk quills.
The dominant live music for this festival was heavy – hard rock, grunge and power-pop – and Baitz’s DJ set reflected that slant, interspersed with popular radio hits from Australia’s yesteryear.
Tumbleweed hail from Wollongong, from where a legion of loyal fans travelled to support them.
It seemed apparent that ‘a day on the green’ for them meant the kind of green that comes in leaf form, which you dry, ignite and inhale to relax (like former US President Bill Clinton famously didn’t), if songs like Mary Jane and Why Don’t You All Get Stoned are anything to go by.
Beards and long hair accentuated their heavy, riff-laden stoner-rock, which bring to mind Stooges-era Detroit rock meets Seattle’s Nirvana-esque grunge.
The Lemonheads reformed in 2005 after a nine-year hiatus in a new incarnation centred on iconic, albeit laid-back, front man Evan Dando.
Dando has since worked with floating line-ups including Ryan Adams, Juliana Hatfield and melodic punk pioneers The Descendents’ two primary songwriters, Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson.
Dando’s quirky songs belie his slacker-culture association, with titles like Rudderless, Mark My Path and My Drug Buddy.
Dando received the New Musical Express 2008 Classic Album award for The Lemonheads’ 1992 breakthrough album, It’s A Shame About Ray, but, in an indicator of his rejection of pop star values, soon after the U.S.A. awards’ night he reportedly consigned the medal to the trash.
Evidently a reluctant messiah, Dando nowadays resembles bearded, straggly-haired Charles Manson rather than the pretty, troubled poet whose poster adorned the walls of many teenage girls during the band’s heyday in the 90s.
Dando started the set solo, but a technical problem with his acoustic guitar saw him unplug it from the amplifier mid-song and hold it up to the vocal microphone while he sang. Thereafter he continued on an electric guitar, accompanied by three musicians.
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The Living End, Bimbadgen Winery, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Saturday 24 February 2018
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Later, legendary Australian bassist Bill Gibson, known for his tenancy in a variety of iconic Aussie bands including New Christs, Lime Spiders and ill-fated power-pop trio The Eastern Dark, joined them onstage for a song. Gibson was, of course, a one-time member of The Lemonheads, appearing on their 1996 album Car Button Cloth.
Veruca Salt’s past was characterised by two hit albums with visually stunning music videos, followed by rumoured band tensions and multiple line-up changes. However, the fractious era was laid to rest as the rejuvenated grunge rockers from Chicago, USA, reformed their original quartet in 2013.
Centred around the dynamics of the two female guitarist-singer-songwriters, Louise Post and Nina Gordon, with edgy, bittersweet anthems like Seether, Shimmer Like A Girl, Volcano Girls and Shutterbug, the band are evocative onstage, oozing sexy self-confidence.
Veruca Salt recently released a new album, Ghost Notes, their fifth, from which they highlighted several tracks during their A Day On The Green appearances and solo shows around Australia, including the punchy single, Laughing In The Sugar Bowl.
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Spiderbait ascended the stage as the searing sun prepared to abate, with the drummer spraying liquid from his water bottle. This provoked a safety-conscious stagehand to rush out with a mop while the band plugged in their instruments.
A three-piece, with the drummer assuming lead vocal duties, their songs are straightforward anthemic rock with more emphasis on riffs than lyrics, ranging in style from old-school metal in the vein of Black Sabbath, to bluesy rock, to a more up-beat funk and power-pop, and even electro-dance.
Mark Maher, the aforementioned drummer, is the life and soul of the band; as a party starter he has few peers, and his enthusiastic cajoling incited large swathes of the appreciative crowd to abandon their seating and take to their feet.
Highlights of Spiderbait’s set included Fucken Awesome, Out Of My Head, Calypso, and a spontaneously-written acoustic song criticising people who interfere with others.
A cover of 1983 pop classic 99 Red Balloons had bassist Janet English singing in flawless German like the original version recorded by Nena, 99 Luftballons.
Incidentally, the original German version was written as a protest song against the Cold War, nuclear missiles and the Berlin Wall, and artist Nena still refuses to sing the English-language version, which diluted criticism of nuclear madness.
Spiderbait have won two Aria awards, from an incredible 19 nominations, and in a 26-year career (albeit with several on hiatus), they’ve released eight studio albums, although the last release was 2013’s eponymous Spiderbait.
They are perhaps best known for their 2004 single Black Betty, a cover of an old 1930s blues classic by guitar maestro Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly. Their extended performance of this foot-stomper reenergised the crowd and prepared them for the night’s headliners as the scorching sun sank over the horizon.
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Tumbleweed, Bimbadgen Winery, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, NSW, Australia. Photo: Alec Smart, Saturday 24 February 2018
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The festival’s finalists, The Living End, never fail to satisfy and their uplifting, well-crafted rock ballads and rockabilly riffs place them in Australia’s premier league of deserving headliner bands. They’ve been nominated for an astonishing 27 Aria Music Awards, and taken home six – not surprising considering their thoughtful lyrics and catchy choruses.
In addition, the gutsy trio holds the record for the most consecutive entries in Triple J Radio’s Hottest 100, charting every year between 1997 and 2006. They have certainly come a long way from their humble beginnings as a Melbourne-based rockabilly covers band known as The Runaway Boys, featuring two primary school pals, Chris Cheney and Scott Owen, playing songs by Stray Cats and The Clash.
The Living End’s breakout from rockabilly revival came in 1995, after they sent a T-shirt and demo tape to singer-songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong of US punk trio Green Day – to whom they bare some resemblance – which landed them the support spot on Green Day’s subsequent Australian tour.
Fast-forward 22 years and they continue to impress, with a dynamic live show at Bimbadgen reprising hits like White Noise, All Torn Down, and a rousing Hold Up, which included a few mid-song pauses for amusing anecdotes.
They also revealed a new number, Drop The Needle, from an album currently in production.
The Living End launched a lively ending, with a twin attack featuring their debut 1997 chartbusters, Second Solution and Prisoner Of Society, whilst double bassist Scott Owen perched atop his instrument. Their fiery festival finale rounded off a superb day, proving alternative, punk-inspired rock can attract as large and enthusiastic crowds as less challenging (and frequently bland) mainstream music.
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Alec Smart’s gallery of images from the festival can be found HERE.
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