Recently I had the privilege of attending Good Vibrations, one of Australia’s largest touring music festivals, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. Being that it was my first music festival experience and that I was there for over six hours I had to get used to the combined aromas of sweat, weed, and kittens (okay, maybe I made the last one up).
Unfortunately I missed two of the earlier Hip Hop acts, Pigeon John and Diafrix, as I arrived at the venue a couple of hours after the event began, while I attempted to recover from events from the night before.
Luckily I was able to catch most of the set from Canadian genre-bender K-Os, who delivered an entertaining set, as he rocked the crowd with his Hip Hop, Jazz and Rock fusion style.
As I scanned around for a timetable to find when all of the acts were scheduled, I ventured from the Roots stage (Hip Hop, R&B, Funk) and over to the main stage, witnessing the last five minutes of some skinny alternative rock dudes, who I later found out were called The Rapture. It truly dawned on me then, how massive this festival was and how impossible it would be to meet up with people, unless you chose a very specific meeting point.
After making my way through the inebriated masses to a good view point of the stage and seeing a Kanye look alike (complete with silly Venetian blind sunglasses and bear mascot shirt) it was almost time for the highly anticipated performance of Pharoahe Monch.
The crowd grew antsy as the former half of Organized Konfusion came out almost twenty minutes late, as the events MC, Lyrics Born, braced the fans for his presence. Once he hit the stage it wasn’t all smooth sailing though, as the microphone wasn’t able to adapt to Pharoah’s nimble flow. Three songs into his one hour set, it took some prompting by Monch himself to get his mic level turned up.
Joined by two singers, a guitarist, a drummer and a DJ, he went through several tracks from his latest solo set Desire, including When The Gun Draws, Pushin’, Body Baby and the title track. Both singers, Showtime and Mela Machinko, were given a chance to showcase their considerable talents throughout the set. Showtime particularly impressed with his energetic performance of the hook on Desire.
While he found time to deliver anti-Bush sentiments and express his appreciation for Melbourne, unfortunately he didn’t perform anything from his Organized Konfusion days or much from his debut Internal Affairs for that matter. It also seemed that some of the performance was lost on a few people as they were hanging to hear the Godzilla-sampling strains of Simon Says. Once the track hit it was pandemonium with fans chanting along to every verse and the now infamous chorus. Overall, Monch wound up being the personal highlight for me, delivering a world class performance.
Sydney’s A-Love and Australian DMC Champion DJ Perplex capably held things down on the Roots stage in between Pharoahe and production extraordinaire Katalyst. The crowd was diminished during this set, as many were off buying $6 Red Bull’s.
As is the case with any musical festival that has multiple stages there can be more than one act performing at the same time. In this instance it was Cypress Hill on the main stage and Katalyst on the Roots stage. I decided to roam around, moving between both stages. Because Cypress Hill were performing on the main stage, with its large arena-styled environment, it was difficult to get close enough to the stage to truly appreciate the performance.
I got by with some help from the two large screens placed on both sides of the stage. Seeing the giant Buddha statue with a chronic leaf on it that accompanied Cypress on stage was definitely a sight to behold and it was exciting to see B-Real, Sen Dog and Julio G (in place of DJ Muggs) live.
Although the crowd over at the Roots stage was smaller, everyone there enjoyed getting down to the funky sounds of Katalyst, who was joined by Melbourne’s Ru-CL and Hau from the ARIA-winning Koolism. Both performances were enjoyable, but it still would have been better if they weren’t scheduled at the same time.
With so much going on at the festival there definitely wasn’t a dull moment. In addition to the performance stages there was also the Bacardi Live room with regular sets from DJs including Kanye’s A-Trak. The highlight for me was a mash-up set, which included Run-DMC’s Its Tricky being blended with Metallica’s Enter Sandman.
Typical of an international superstar, Kanye West certainly took his time making it on stage, as the crowd was at a fever pitch for the festival’s headlining act. No matter how different the musical tastes of all the attendees, everyone converged to the main stage ready to see a memorable performance.
From the word go Kanye’s set was a well orchestrated theatrical event and certainly made for a unique experience. Not holding back on the extravangance, Kanyeezy was joined on stage by DJ A-Trak, two singers, a violinist, a drummer and a keyboardist.
Once again though, my appreciation for the performance was somewhat hindered by the large distance between us and the stage, making it difficult to hear some of Kanye’s vocals.
With no wasted motion, the Louis Vuitton Don breezed through his catalogue of commercial hits (Touch The Sky, Can’t Tell Me Nothing, Through The Wire etc.) as well as fan favourite album cuts, including the majority of the Graduation album.
He also found time to multi-task, jumping behind the keyboard for an extended rendition of my personal favourite I Wonder. In one of the night’s main highlights, Kanye operated a remote control female robot during the otherwise forgettable Drunk and Hot Girls.
Throughout his hour-plus set Kanye had at least five wardrobe changes, including a jacket with a collar that lit up. As expected, he took some time out to celebrate the memory of his late mother, Dr. Donda West, with an emotional performance of Hey Mama.
During the extended rendition he spoke about how much his mother supported him and his ambitions, including when he bumrushed the stage at the MTV Europe awards in 2005 in protest of not winning for Best Video.
Then, out of the blue Kanye’s makeshift orchestra performed Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing (with vocoder), made famous to a new generation after appearing in the Sopranos finale. Undoubtedly the song is an arena rock classic, however it struck myself and others as odd in the context of the performance. If an artist like, say, Nas, attempted a stunt like that during one of his shows he would be branded pretentious, however due to Kanye’s stature it’s looked at as business as usual.
While the atmosphere was electric and I think it’s something that Kanye fans should experience at least once, it felt like he was going through the motions, as if he thought that his mere superstar presence was enough.
The lack of interaction Kanye had towards the fans also affected the overall quality of it, as he was seemingly caught up with himself. While he did stop to say how much he enjoyed being in Melbourne, something tells me that the fans in Sydney and Perth heard the same thing.
On a positive note, it was truly surreal to hear the crowd recite all of the lyrics and choruses to every song Kanye performed, which is truly an indication of what a unique performer Kanye is; able to bridge the gap between avant garde experimentalism and commercial ear candy. As a collective audience we certainly did nothing to deflate Kanye’s elephant sized ego; it was almost as if he was an Evangelical Christian minister and we were his loyal followers, amen!
The intensity and level of excitement was maintained throughout, however it truly reached its peak with the show closing Stronger, as ‘Ye donned his illuminated sunglasses. While it didn’t reach my high level of expectations, Kanye’s performance certainly left an impression and was enjoyable overall, more so because of the atmosphere than anything else.
With that said, I will give the Good Vibrations festival for 2008 two definitive thumbs up. With an excitable crowd and a powerful line-up of acts, which in my opinion eclipsed the recent Big Day Out line-up, it was a memorable and entertaining experience, but it sure as hell was good to get some peace and quiet afterwards though (lol).
