The sun shone over the skies in Caloundra for another brilliant year of local and international music, proving once again that the Sunshine Coast can bring it as good as any other city when it comes to live music.
A record almost 30,000 strong spent 4 days and nights being entertained to the core at the Caloundra Music Festival.
Day 1
The Surf stage was kicked-off by the All-Stars show band, with the ‘Dave’-loving The Dave Sunder Band opening the 2014-added Sand stage; Zac Gunthorpe was over at the Songwriters stage and The Flip Flop Movement — who only formed this year to be part of the CMF ‘Battle Of The Bands’ — opened on the Sun stage. Jess Harlen realised her dream of returning to the festival with her own band and her cool, soulful sound opened the Soul stage.Novacastrians Benjalu got crowds moving with a sound that just makes you smile and want to dance. There were two insane performance by nine-piece (plus MC) brass funksters, Bullhorn. The guys tore up the main stage then crammed the tiny Sand stage to blow the roof off later in the evening. The addition of MC Roman Albert (who freestyles using words on the punters t-shirts) to their line-up makes for an even more entertaining set.
The Bamboos (who have just been nominated for an ARIA) took the main stage afternoon slot in the first of two performances by the band.Skunkhour came out of hibernation for one of their few gigs to remind us that Aussie music from the ‘90s was pretty damn good, knocking out hits from their four studio albums like ‘Weightlessness’, ‘Kick In The Door’ and ‘Up To Our Necks In It’. Most of the crowd were taken back 20 years.
Not being a particular fan of Pete Murray (don’t shoot me) I thought he delivered a performance his fans would’ve found great, but didn’t hold my interest so I headed down to catch Ball Park Music absolutely killing it in front of a packed-out crowd on the Surf stage. The band, on their ‘Trippin’ The Light Fantastic’ tour, had me wishing that I’d caught them from the start instead of hanging out with Pete.
Day 2
Indie band Belle Roscoe returned to this year’s festival, starting proceedings on Saturday to a slow crowd, which probably would’ve been better except for the lack of shade around the Soul stage. Nevertheless, the band performed beautifully and were very enjoyable to watch. Spreading their time between Australia and Europe means they don’t perform too many shows in Australia, but I recommend catching them.Chance Waters was a great choice for the afternoon slot and having Stonefield rock us into the early evening was another good choice in timetabling. A dud, vocal mix spoilt Stonefield’s performance with sound too loud for the powerful vocals of Amy Findlay. The vocal mix was significantly better when Amy was on the drums. They were still impressive and the sound was totally not their fault — speaking to punters, it was pretty unanimous that these girls rocked it.
Stonefield
John Butler… what can I say??? Amazing? Yeah, that will do it! Bass player Byron Luiters caused major disappointment to the early festival ticket buyers by breaking his wrist snowboarding therefore removing the band from the headline act on Saturday.
Luckily, JB didn’t let them down and changed slots to perform an epic, solo gig that didn’t make me miss the rest of the band (sorry guys). As one friend put it: “a lot of thought seemed to go into JB’s performance”. It seemed that every ticket holder was in the park for the show and I doubt you’d find anyone that wasn’t blown away by the effort of Butler’s performance.
John Butler Trio
Recently reformed after a split in 2012, The Beautiful Girls were up next and they delivered an impressive set as part of their ‘Dancehall Days’ tour. Dancing was a must to the new, but different sound of the band and I for one am glad that their split wasn’t permanent.
The Beautiful Girls
Megan Washington ended the evening stepping into the position of headline act after John Butler Trio had to go sans Trio and into a different slot. While I like Washington’s sound and think her performance was great, I don’t think that JB needed to change from the headline. The crowd enjoyed her and so did I, she sounds amazing and it doesn’t hurt that she’s super cute too.
A little gem from the day was Sunshine Coast teenager Sally Skelton who performed beautifully on the Sand stage. Skelton, an up-and-coming singer/ songwriter performed both songs she’s penned herself along with a few covers including a soulful, folky rendition of ‘You’re The One That I Want’. Watch this space for more on this talented, young girl.
Day 3
The day was again kicked off by the allstar show band. Last year this showcase of young musicians played with Melbourne Ska Orchestra while Adelaide’s Bearded Gypsy Band, fresh from an overseas tour, took to the main stage in the first slot of what was another beautiful day. The band were a fabulous way to open the day… who doesn’t love a fiddle at lunchtime on a Sunday (alright it’s a violin but that doesn’t sound nearly as funny).Of The Nations were another Sunshine Coast gem rocking the Sun stage. The four-piece indie/ rock outfit were really tight with their performance, and once they get a good online marketing thing happening I think these boys are going to do really well.
Thirsty Merc, like a fine wine, proved they get better with age delivering a fabulous set in the lovely mid-afternoon slot. Singing well-known favourites, they proved that good Aussie music never goes off. Youngtree did a relaxing set on the Sun stage and Tuba Skinny folked the Surf stage, impressing the crowd making the washboard a cool instrument.
Wagons were fabulous. Henry’s banter was a welcome addition to a main stage act. Great musicians and a great showman that ended in Henry launching into the crowd for a dance and to get among us. Such a good show and they are so cool their merchandise includes a tea-towel… only the uber cool could get away with that!
Henry Wagons
Great Australian drawl James Reyne belted out his hits to an appreciative crowd. He’s still hard to understand, but that’s kind of the attraction. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one singing some strange lyrics.
The strangest part of the weekend was the funny rostering of Andrew Strong and The Commitments Show and Tina Arena on the main stage and main billing over Baby Animals and Wolfmother on the much smaller Surf stage. I know I’m not alone in thinking that was the weirdest programming error of any festival EVER.
Aussie rock’s version of Peter Pan, Suze DeMarchi made every woman jealous of how freakin’ hot she still is after all these years. Baby Animals, with DeMarchi at the helm, rocked non-stop for their set and had the crowd in a rock-induced sweat.
Baby Animals
The Pierce Brothers were brilliant on the intimate Songwriters stage and made me feel so disappointed that I missed their earlier set on the Sun stage. From what I’m told they were fantastic.
Finally for the evening, the band that everyone was there to see, Wolfmother. The guys absolutely nailed their performance and the crowd went wild to the psychedelic, kick-arse rock that the guys delivered. Old favourites ‘Woman’ and ‘Joker And The Thief’ were mixed in with songs from their new album, ‘New Crown’. I’ll say it again, why the eff were they on such a small stage???
Wolfmother
Day 4
The day started with Ava Dunstan (Sun stage), Bearded Gypsy Band doing their second slot on the Surf stage, buskers on the sand stage and The Perch Creek Family Jug Band on the main stage. Teeny-tiny ball of gorgeous Cassi Hilbers was on the Songwriters stage first up, and even though I’m not a country music fan she was so beautiful that you couldn’t help but love her. I’m not sure how old she is, but she has such a bright future ahead of her.
The Perch Creek Family Jug Band
Big ‘ol Bus Band got the oldies and quite a few young ones up dancing and were such an entertaining act. Blue Shaddy had the main stage, and even though it was so hot had many up dancing. Tuba Skinny and Belle Roscoe had their second gigs of the festival and both were really enjoyable.
1927… take me back to 1988. The 12-year-old in me was disappointed. That’s all I’m going to say.
Round Mountain Girls ended the Sun stage with a bang, finishing up with a rendition of ‘Joker And The Thief’, which played with banjos in the mix — sounds pretty freakin’ cool.
The Strides were another act that shouldn’t have been missed, but being that they were on the Monday evening were missed by a lot of people. Their look, their sound… so cool.
Probably the act I’d most waited to see was a favourite of mine from last year; New Orleans funk act, Dumpstaphunk. The festival was their only Australian show, which is a shame because this band is such a good live act. They had two shows at the festival, the first being on Saturday night and the second as the act to take out the festival in funky style. A cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Ramble On’ was an interesting addition to the setlist, and proved that these funk gods can rock it with the best of them.
After the set they joined with members of The Nth Power and The Strides to finish the festival in the best way possible. If you get a chance to see any of the bands in this paragraph — GO, don’t walk, run and get tickets; you won’t be disappointed.
All in all the Caloundra Music Festival is such a fabulous event put on by the Sunshine Coast Council (I know, who would’ve thought a council could do something really great) which brings together so many different styles of music and people to four days packed full of musical goodness.
I should also mention the facilities. There were plenty of loos that meant if you had to line-up it wasn’t for long. Water bottles could be refilled for free at multiple refilling stations keeping us all hydrated without costing us a fortune (and it’s better for the environment). The food was great and available at each stage.
There is so much to say about this festival and all the good stuff about it. I’d almost forgotten to add in about the ‘Funky Forest’. The Forest is the best place for kids to hang out, make stuff, do yoga or partake in African dance classes or just jump the crap out of the jumping castle.
Honestly, I think you’d be hard pressed for anyone who went to the festival not to have enjoyed themselves. The fusion of different music and different people mixed in with well known and up and coming acts make the Caloundra Music Festival one of the best festivals going around.
