Melody Pool was a festival highlight. Photo: Lyn Taylor.
The lineup was packed with some of Australian music’s most prolific artists of the last two decades including the likes of the John Butler Trio, and festival debutantes Spiderbait and the Living End, who were matched in equal talent and promise by newer faces such as Saskwatch, Dallas Frasca, Melody Pool, and Yirrimal and the Yolngu Boys, to name but a few.
After navigating the Friday night fun-times of the Westgate Bridge and M1, Queenscliff offered up an elixir of 70-plus artists to replenish our sound stores and soothe our city-weary souls. While Blue King Brown on the Lighthouse Stage grounded the audience in messages of freedom, the Living End followed up with a straight-up set packed with turn-of-the-millennium rebellion anthems that had the crowd chanting, proving the act to be as sharp as the day they first graced the airwaves with hits like ‘Second Solution’, ‘Who’s Gonna Save Us?’ and ‘Prisoner of Society’.
Saturday was a ‘tough’ day at the QMF with so many acts to choose from and not nearly enough time, but fortunately the Hesse Street venues are all within strolling distance of each other, alongside the town’s substantial food and beverage offerings, and the festival precinct on the foreshore.
The church known as Stoked on Hesse was this year QMF’s unplugged venue. There you could enjoy the Nick Drake inspired folk styling’s of Leeroy Lee, including an aptly name ‘Morning Ballad’ (his self-professed lazy song) and other tunes that would have benefited from amplification and, in an unfortunate loss of memory, a little extra rehearsal, yet overall his wistful strumming, gentle vocals and coy charms warmed the audience. Later on the widely adored Ginger & Tonic a cappella quartet performed an eclectic mix of repertoire walking a lyrical and comedic line somewhere between the darkness of a femme fatale and the desperation of Bridget Jones, with the well received ‘Love Tattoo’, a standout parody performance of Beyonce’s ‘Halo’, and a questionably risqué ‘Blame it on the Booger’. The lady love continued with Melody Pool’s invitation to “witness the misery”: crowned Best Songwriter at the 2013 Tamworth’s Telstra Road To Discovery, her recognition was evidently deserved. Pool performed a Downton Abbey inspired ballad, ‘Royal Queen (Mary)’, and a heartbroken love song ‘Richard’ among the set list and for me she was a QMF 2013 highlight, gifting the audience with melancholic musings beyond her years, an arresting presence, and vocals which convincingly soared above the unplugged, acoustic challenges.
If you were in the mood for something more electric then back at the precinct the Hussy Hicks gals, in their festival debut, delivered a sultry country/blues/gypsy sound with Julz Parker’s criminal guitar skills matched in equal measure by Leesa Gentz’s soul-quaking vocals. But if brass was more your thing, then The Brow Horn Orchestra feed up some trippy bass and beats that, were it not for the early 1pm slot, would have had the masses pumping and heaving. If the dance groove was what you yearned, then 9-piece band Saskwatch was your one-stop indie-pop. Scheduled for the biggest of the festival venues, the Lighthouse Stage almost shrunk in the presence of the big band’s beats and Nkechi Anele’s bodacious lead in tunes like ‘Don’t Wanna Try’ and a super fun instrumental of Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue’s ‘Kids’.
A little joie de vivre more your style? Baby et Lulu could have partnered you away to Paris with a waltz and a little Bastille aesthetic, courtesy of songstresses Abby Dobson and Lara Goodridge. Together they had the overflowing Vue Grand Hotel ballroom in rapture with their consummate harmonies, dramatic story telling and a convincing foray into French song writing with ‘When I think of you I want to make love’ and a French rendition of Leonardo’s Bride hit, ‘Even When I’m Sleeping’.
In the packed Pavilion late Saturday afternoon, in a room full of love, Arnhem Land artists Yirrimal and the Yolngu Boys raised the roof with tradition Yolngu ceremonial songs and contemporary stories. Frontman Yirrimal’s ‘Sunset Feeling’ and rousing rendition of his Grandfather’s Yothu Yindi hit, ‘Djapana’, confirmed the gift of his pedigree, which partnered with endearing banter and messages of inspiration for ‘a new generation’, guaranteeing the group a bright future.
After the sunset, song morphed into roar: Spiderbait, whose return from a near-10-year hiatus couldn’t have been better put than by singer-drummer Mark Maher – almost channelling The Muppet’s beloved Animal character – who yelled at the crowd between ‘Black Betty’ and other hits, ‘This is f**king great’. Also returning to the circuit with a new album, was The John Butler Trio, whom I serendipitously saw at the 2000 QMF just before their very first release and in terms of musicianship, live performance commitment and audience appreciation, JB is as humble as ever and his famed slide-guitar solos more than stack-up, as do replays of old favourites ‘Betterman’, ‘Better Than’, and new tunes of polity like ‘How You Sleep at Night’ from the forthcoming 2014 release, Flesh & Blood.
Worthy mentions for Sunday included adorable, two-vox-in-a-pod husband and wife pop/love/folk duo Microwave Jenny, who skilfully revived revellers from their Sunday morning stupor with happy tunes such as ‘You Me Backseat’, ‘The New Boy in Town’, and a most epic mash-up featuring hooks from commercial releases of Lana Del Ray, Youth Group, Adele, Gotye, Katy Perry, and Temper Trap, among many others. PEZ had all the ingredients of a great all ages hip-hop gig, with smooth rhymes, charismatic DJ Benny and wicked vocalist Hayley, however failed to recognise the youthful 12.45pm crowd and their language sensitivities by dropping the F-bomb and others frequently. Dallas Frasca scored several home-runs and schooled the Pelican Bar audience in the importance of active, up-right standing festival etiquette. Who were we not to listen to this flaming cherry-coloured haired rock’n’roll goddess, who’s Paris born jetlag was all but a delusion as she expertly careered through the super tight set including ‘All My Love’, ‘Coming Home’, and ‘Anything Left to Wonder’.
A little bit of a letdown, but well-enough received by the masses of fans gathered at the Lighthouse stage, was San Cisco, who performed in a cool, calm, collected, but sounds- a-little-bit-like-a-recording, sort of way. This may come down to fact that the previous 36 hours were jammed packed with artists who, stomped, sweated, and stormed up stages till their last breath, and thus the relatively youthful WA band’s efforts seemed to fall short of the high-set QMF bar.
All in all, the QMF does much to make your festival experience smooth. You know all is well in Festival Land when your only dilemma is coordinating your schedule which is now easier than ever with the highly functional, cleanly designed QMF mobile app. I managed to pre-schedule a couple of dozen acts and found that 5 minutes prior to each show’s commencement an alarm would trigger: brilliant! And the VIP lounge experience provided comfortable and convenient moments of respite for fans and artists alike, making it quite an attractive option for QMF diehards.
Retrospectively, considering the ease and safety of camping which we enjoyed, the calibre and sheer number of performances, impressive front of house and behind the scenes efforts of staff and volunteers, it’s hard to go past the Queenscliff Music Festival for a quality of experience. And this year with the John Butler Trio, who together with the Screaming Jets, the Living End and Spiderbait rounded out an impressive display by Australian Music Industry icons, along with the comprehensive line-up, cement Queenscliff as our nation’s truly home-grown and proud festival, running not-for-profit, and for the benefit of artists and those that love to listen and watch them.
Queenscliff Music Festival
22-24 November 2013
