This was the second Handpicked festival held on the idyllic gumtree-lined grassy oval that backs on to Lake Breeze Winery (14 November) at Langhorne Creek.
Many winery-based music festivals have the usual food trucks and market stalls. Lake Breeze’s point of difference though is featuring Australian/ Australasian acts, with a great cross section of local, indie, emerging and contemporary acts.
This clever marketing to different age demographics saw an audience of sub teens, tweenies, Gen X/Y, millennials, Baby Boomers and more than one set of grandparents across the close to 4,000 crowd.
Starting events was local singer/ guitarist Paige Renee Court, her voice a pleasant blend of Higgins and Blasko with a smidge of Courtney Barnett. Highlights of her laidback 30-minute set were 'Bitter' and 'Dreary Heart', while her cover of 'Hit The Road Jack' received a positive response from the early birds.
Image © Jay Wennington
Adelaide Hills-based five-piece rock outfit Indiago were next, their brand of hi-energy garage rock certainly had their fans up, and the guys delivered. Highlights were 'Save Me', the funk of 'Been So Long' and the great rock of 'Pretty Little Bitch'.
The penultimate local and emerging act The Germein Sisters trio were next. Pleasantly mid-tempo and middle of the road is a succinct way of describing their sound, a sound that has improved since first seeing them several years ago, no doubt due to some overseas tours and an album or two. A safe bet for the younger crowd, the highlights were 'First Plane Home' and current single 'Golden', tunes that went down well with the crowd.
Timberwolf - Image © Jay Wennington
Local singer/ guitarist Christopher Panousakis performs under the moniker of Timberwolf. His intuitive performance of roots/ blues/ rock was simply outstanding, proving that less is more – just him and a drummer, his organic, heartfelt songs washing over the crowd. It’s a pity that he didn’t introduce the songs, but they were all excellent, and the pick of local acts.
The sole legacy act, Dragon with founding and only original member Todd Hunter on bass and Mark 'Show No Mercy' Williams on vocals were next. 'Are You Old Enough', 'Still In Love', 'Speak No Evil', an excellent 'O Zambezi', 'Young Years', 'Age Of Reason' (yes kids, Todd Hunter wrote this huge Farnesy hit) and 'Celebration' were let loose on the crowd, all staples on classic hits radio stations.
Williams’ vocals coped with the big notes well and is a good showman adding his own style, with great guitar licks. The opening chords of THAT hit 'April Sun In Cuba' saw the moshpit increase ten-fold to about 1,000 people with an elongated version performed with numerous calls and responses, the crowd mostly out of tune – it being close to 6pm and several beverages past the yard arm the prime reason. Dragon kicked arse and were a good choice appealing to a broad cross section. But guys, smile when you are on stage. You are still alive.
Dan Sultan - Image © Jay Wennington
Melbourne singer Clare Bowditch labelled Dan Sultan the black Elvis in 2008, and judging by the numerous female fans in the pit, it’s a fair call. He’s good looking, has the right moves, plays a very mean guitar and can sing. I hate him. And someone threw their blue bra on stage, genuinely surprising him!
Opening solo with the excellent 'Nobody Knows', Sultan set the scene for 45 minutes of sheer quality. His ability to tap into country Australia with a solid rock feel is amazing and for mine is a very much underrated performer.
Dan Sultan - Image © Jay Wennington
There were no lowlights in his set tonight, his three-piece backing band being brilliant, especially on the rock out 'Under Your Skin' and the beauty and subtleness of 'Kimberley Calling'. Five new (unannounced) songs from his next album were worth the admission price alone especially one that might have been called 'Never Coming Back'; your typical Sultan love-lost song. Brilliant set.
Australian Conrad Sewell apparently didn’t make it to the audition stage in 2004’s 'Australian Idol'. This has not ruined his music career, and is now based in LA writing with all sorts of music types, most recently supporting Ed Sheeran’s Australia tour. The pre-tweenies and tweenies were in full voice and force for Sewell and his band screaming at every possible moment. Did I mention that he is also apparently cute?
Image © Conrad Sewell
His brand of R&B/ funk/ pop is not dissimilar to that one might hear on Australia’s 'Got X Idol' and to be honest there were three tracks from the 60-minute set that made an impression on me, these being: '21 Questions', 'Beautiful Life' and 'Who You Lovin’. Better than I thought he would be, but will await to hear the difficult second album (the first is yet to be released).
Headline act was Birds Of Tokyo. I saw them at a V8 Supercar race gig several years ago, and although it was energetic it didn’t work for me. Tonight though it clicked. The opener 'Weight Of The World' set the scene, before 'Ode To Death' ramped things up, Ian Kenny commanding the stage and audience.
'Plant' saw the crowd go wild leading into a big run home of 'Wild At Heart', the slow and sublime 'Anchor', 'Lanterns' and finally 'This Fire'. These guys know how to work and win a festival crowd and tonight they delivered in spades.
Birds Of Tokyo - Image © Jay Wennington
A BIG eight-hour day of entertainment, in great surrounds and top class beverages, with great acts for less than $100 is excellent value for money.
The acts du jour for mine were simple; Timberwolf and Dragon both excellent. Non-synth assisted Dan Sultan; simply superb. Synth assisted Birds Of Tokyo converted me this time 'round.
See you there next year.
