Groovin the moo - my take.

It’s been a while since I have been to a music festival. The last one I went to was ‘A day on the green’ a few years back. So I was delighted when I saw the line up for Bendigo Groovin The Moo this year. I didn’t know what to expect and all I had to compare it to was Melbourne’s Big Day Out. It was much the same set as Big Day Out – 2 main stages and one large circus tent adorned the Bendigo showgrounds. It had an over 18 area with a bar and several strips of food venders and a market stall space, oh and lets not forget the merch stand!

We started the day watching several local acts one in which was Goldfields they were amazing. So much so, I couldn’t believe they were from Ballarat. They had the crowd pumped – people dancing and singing along. It really set the bar for the rest of the day. We also caught the end of Mutemath who crowd surfed on an air mattress complete with disco lighting around the outside. He also got the crowd to hold his drum kit up while he played it sitting on a crowd member’s shoulders. We only stumbled across Mutemath because we left Matt Corby’s set. Although Mr Corby has much respect from us, we found his music to be a bit boring and not really festival orientated – he would be much better in an intimate venue. We spent our time between bands queuing for drinks, food and the toilet - literally at least an hour and a half of our day was taken up by this. That I suppose was the point where I began to feel old. By this time there were lots of drunk young girls and boys running amuck. Most of which (girls) were throwing themselves at Matt Corby.

By far one of the most entertaining people we saw that day was 360. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand. We danced, we sang and had a great time. He is a true entertainer and someone who is going to go really far. I would go see 360 again in a heartbeat. The other stand out ‘dance my arse off’ band was definitely Hermitude. They had me entranced by their addictive beats and reverberation of bass through my chest – oh and of course their song Speak of the Devil.

While bands such as Parkwaydrive, San Cisco, Big Scary, Ball Park Music and The Getaway Plan catered for the teen pop generation and acted as fillers the band we really came to see was City and Colour. While we waited for them to come on we were inundated by young girls who had no idea who the band was and persisted on trying to get past us by crawling between our legs – needless to say they didn’t get far and ended up with very sore fingers. Yes, I still have my ‘live music demeanour’ after all this time. City and Colour didn’t disappoint, playing a range of their old stuff and their new stuff. By far the best song they played was Grand Optimist. While the young girls behind us pushed and danced as if they were listening to completely different music than us, we drowned them out with our singing and admiration for Canada’s best export.

Let us not forget Public Enemy who sound tested their set the whole way through City and colours acoustic pieces – but no one was game enough to tell them to shut up. The band of twenty five years service to their fans brought it! They entertained the crowd with Americana rap at its best. Flava Flave got down and shook the crowds hand’s all the while his over sized clock dangling between his ribs – dressed completely in red while his bouncers wore their signature army camouflage get up. I can’t say I was  ever a fan of their music but I can proudly say I was witness to some amazing rap that night.

Of course my favourite by far - Kimbra - she was amazing! I don’t think I can honestly say I have ever seen another entertainer with her amount of energy. She sang with the most amazing improvisation in some parts of her songs. She also wore the cutest outfit – a rara skirt, sequined top and little red riding hoodesque cape.

Our night ended with a fun set from Australia’s favourite hip hop band Hilltop Hoods. They demanded crowd participation which saw everyone take of one item of clothing and wave it in the air in unison. They know how to work a crowd all right. Everyone sang and danced along to their old and new stuff. It was a great way to end the night.

We had a ball. But, ask me if I would go again and I may screw my nose up at you. It was a fun time but there were ridiculous lines for everything and no bins to put rubbish in which meant by night time lighting was minimal I twisted my ankle several times on discarded bottles – not to mention the people I nearly stepped on. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention was that Andrew WK one man party tour was unsettling and disturbing. Imagine a guy from New York getting on stage drunk playing a little bit of keyboard to a backing track and yelling and screaming into the mike. Imagine people booing him and him reacting by telling them to f'off and saying he is from New York and they are nothing. Imagine the crowd throwing bottles at him, and him encouraging it! It was disgusting. In fact I was embarrassed - why didn't someone pull the pin? Why didn't anyone take the mike off the guy? For further info on it all check out the Bendigo advertiser - he made the papers!

 By all means it’s a worthwhile experience but next time I will stick to smaller gigs. x