Day number two at WOMADelaide.. today I had buddies =D not from the beginning and I thought I was destined to spend the next two days in an atmosphere of complete fun without people to share it with. Arriving semi-late in the afternoon and heading straight to the food court I had uncovered an unknown addiction to Mango Lassi. To substitute my morning coffee with something fruity is really alien, but new worlds were being uncovered.
…Second day in and I’m feeling a lot more blended into the crowd. But nearly every single girl aged 13 to 16 is wearing the same pair of printed harem pants, I’m wondering if they keep them in storage for the other 364 days of the year. It’s interesting to try to see who actually lives this lifestyle and who is just playing hippie dress-ups. Bit of a late start today with the first show I see being the Jay Hoad Band at 3pm, everybody is sitting down for this one and I think ‘cool, easy start to the day’…
…Jay being called a multi-instrumentalist is no overstatement as the announcer jokes that the roadie’s are sweating as they’ve had to sound check over 25 instruments. Starting with ‘Home is where the heart is’, this crowd aren’t shy with everyone jumping up second song in and getting into it. With Celtic, Latin, and reggae musical influences and so many instruments onstage it was a good, tight set…
I think WOMAD is fantastic in that it is one of the minimal festivals that encourage and incorporate kids into the music scene without the adults having to miss out on any fun. You expose young minds to fantastic music, exotic food and have them be in an environment that can educate, inspire creativity, promote divirsity and eliminate prejudice.
Though it is my idea of hell being at such an awesome place and having to stay in the kiddie corner
And yet you still had people complaining about the jacked up prices for using the ATM’s, don’t know about you but I’d rather pay Sea Shepherd than the banks.
THEM: “f*cking hell 4 f*cking dollars to take out cash”
ME: “At least your supporting something, seriously what can you buy of worth for 4 dollars these days?”
THEM: “……..(silence)……………. f*cking hell 4 f*cking dollars”
…Wandering off I manage to catch a little bit of passionate and raw West African singer Dobet Gnahore, who was tribal dancing in the most mesmerising way, her long braids swinging…
SUCCESS… standing in the mainly seated crowd, waiting for the next great act to come on I look to my left and I see a familiar face 50 feet away. With giddy excitement I rush over thinking if I waste anymore time they might run away and yes, I now belong to a small wolfpack of three.
…I didn’t know what to expect going to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, but I didn’t expect pure awesomeness that’s for sure. All eight of them dressed nicely in standard orchestra attire, tiny little ukulele’s and a great, entertaining funny set of songs and puns. Glad to have company today my friend observed to my amusement that the Ukulele was a male dominated instrument with only two female members in the band. And you have to love a band that is cheeky enough to start the set with “hello New Zealand we are really happy to be here, we’ll be playing in Australia soon and they’re a really difficult crowd”. Songs like ‘Anarchy in the UK’, ‘Teenage Dirt bag’, the ‘Shaft’ theme song and ‘Life on Mars’ just sounded so cool on the Ukulele but hilarious at the same time. You just can’t take it seriously and they were having a lot of fun onstage. Dick Dale & The Deltones ‘Miserlou’ was absolutely AMAZING stripped down and played slow but beautifully and Ennio Morricone’s ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ was impressive. They had great harmonies and I think the Ukulele is in for a comeback, this is the second time I’ve been impressed by a Ukulele this year (GROUPLOVE was the first)…
Seriously loving this look…
..but honestly where do these boys hang out I have never seen anyone looking like this around Adelaide. Embroidered vest with nothing on underneath? I don’t know whether to take this seriously do people have a designated WOMADelaide section in their closet where they keep awesome pieces like this counting down until the next year?
…Jinja Safari were eager to please coming onstage to a mocked crowd from the announcer ‘So you guys must listen to Triple J, how many of you are over twenty?’ Small sound issues plagued the set, too much feedback coming through the speakers during ‘Moonchild’, Marcus’s mic not working sporadically throughout but it was still great being with all the under twenties and I am pretty sure I was witness to some boy’s first time on another’s shoulders from how overexcited he was, bless…
If I’m quiet honest they seemed a little bit out of their depth in the beginning. Although it was a good performance they seemed nervous, especially Marcus who repeated the same joke he told me when I interviewed him – didn’t flow as smoothly. I’ve heard their live gigs are something to behold but WOMAD left me disappointed. The only guy who seemed to let go and was extremely captivating was ‘Nugget’…
…this guy
…All the favourites were played ‘Hiccups’, ‘Peter Pan’, the sitar was brought out for ‘Scarecrow’ and Cameron joked with the crowd that he shouldn’t be playing the keytar at WOMAD. Alistair the percussionist was incredible the whole time, the most energetic out of the lot who climbed the speakers towards the end and gyrated like a man possessed, along with Cameron who did the same and tried to outdo him by climbing a tree, before changing his mind. Highlight was ‘Stepping Stones’ which had the most amazing vocal crescendo and you’ve gotta love a xylophone solo…
A moment chilling with good company and Tereré
…Dinner time was around six and probably the worst idea ever, as the lines were crazy. The shortest line got my vote and Lebanese food it was… again. The crowd was huge for Melbourne Ska Orchestra and ready and roaring to dance. The tiny stage was filled with a 26 piece ensemble including the energetic Nicky Bomba from John Butler Trio, young and old all had their shoes off, dancing joyously barefoot…
Notice anything?.. ^^^
Barefoot.. at last
…Paying homage to the Ska movement, Skatalites, British two-tone Madness and guaranteed crowd pleaser ‘A message to you’ by The Specials this was a super fun show. Looking around everyone was having a ball, a man with a beard so long it was dreading was Ska-ing and it felt great being in that energy. Nicky Bomba gave an impressive drum solo and singer Rebecca Ari a newbie on the singing scene came onstage to sing a few songs including ‘My Boy Lollipop’…
…Taking some time to chill out and have a smoke, rebel-fighter Malian band from the Western Sahara; Tinariwen were playing just the right groove when we re-joined the masses. Another band that have come from desperate situations, two of the band members couldn’t make it safely out of war-torn Mali to join the band on tour, stuck in refugee camps caught between the cross-fire of the ongoing battle between the Malian Army and the MLNA (Mouvement de Liberation National Azaward) rebels…
…The music was an extremely hypnotizing and a smooth electric blues, really influenced by their Touareg nomadic culture, the intoxicating tende drumming throughout was powerful as the lonely four dressed in traditional covered dress played on. Two members from the French band Lo’Jo came onstage for a few songs in amazing showmanship and joined the band filling in for the moncord violin and banging on percussion. What made me laugh was one of the Lo’Jo members had thrown a large silver scarf around his neck in an effort to blend in. It was a mesmerizing and beautiful performance…
…Trip Hop UK legend Bonobo had a massive crowd and this was the only time over the weekend where the crowd was annoyingly pushy. It’s funny though how used to rudeness we are when we go to festivals, it’s only coming to WOMAD and (here comes the inner hippie) that you realise it doesn’t have to be that way. WOMAD has ruined me…
…This was also one of the most extreme encores and cheers at the end of a set. Bonobo had his signature set-up of electronics with a live band and he had brought along singer songwriter Andreya Triana (who contributed many songs on Bonobo’s Black Sands album) which the set just wouldn’t have been the same without supplying her amazing vocals. It was also her last performance with Bonobo and she took out her camera, taking a picture of the cheering crowd…
…To try and explain the magnificence and utter insanity of the Dirty Three’s front man and violinist extraordinaire Warren Ellis is impossible in one paragraph. Because I could fill that with all the insane yet profound wisdom* that he shared onstage like;
- “This song is about that feeling you get like if God was farting in your stomach and lighting it”
- “Have fun, one day the bread baskets will be empty so make the most of it”
- “You blow my mind… there is hope in the youth, ladies and gentlemen”
And my personal favourite; ‘‘When the moon is chilly like this, take your clothes off and start making babies, we’d love to watch just bear with us if we have technical problems… and please dance”.
…If Meatloaf is Rock Opera than Dirty Three is Rock Symphony, correction; psychedelic-punk-rock-symphony. People like to call them folk-rock but that would be purely because they have a violin in the band, they played about six songs the entire hour and a half set each one was intense and experimental with epic violin, drum and piano solos throughout, to put it into perspective Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free bird’ just doesn’t compare. Their music is so powerful and so transcendent(ly awesome) you could tell who was high or stoned as the crowd was full when the gig started and then people just started dropping off because it was so penetrating and full-on…
The following photos are blurry and raw and totally describe (visually) the vibe, the intensity, the ferocious movement and vivacity of his performance. Plus it’s as blurry as everything was to me at that exact point in time and so freaking fantastic.
…Minds were literally being blown, I actually had to turn away a few times and focus on something else for a few minutes to cope with what I was feeling, all my senses being assaulted at once. Dirty Three are the coolest thing I have ever seen, Ellis playing the violin with veracious and ferocious alegria, rocking the guitar power-stance violin style, side kicking sporadically, so bad ass, so punk-rock!…
…To take a classical instrument and truly make amazing rock-symphony music he was like Beethoven’s great-great-great-great-great- punk-rocker grandson thrusting his thin frame forwards, head thrown back shaking his long hair, long beard and arms flailing, getting off on the music. HE PLAYED THE VIOLIN WITH HIS TEETH!!…
And this was that glorious moment ^^^^^^^ … this guy is the don!
…Their music certainly isn’t for everyone but if you get the chance to see them live and take in Ellis’s crazy/genius/… you’ll be stepping into the rabbit hole…
Hilariously juvenile, big Cheshire cat smiling everytime I heard them shout out “LSD for Jim, Extra strong LSD for Margot”
…To finish the night – our minds completely blown – we all got Chai Lattes to try and regain our sanity and chill out.
Bring on Sunday.
*The Wisdom of Warren Ellis – “if Oprah and Bono gave all their money there would be no poor”, “Share the love, but not in the hippie way, but spread it around”, “A lake… with no water… the swans” (!!??), “I’ve been a boil on Gina Rinehart’s bum and this song is about being in places weirder than that”
I’ve never been so in love with a festival before
