Boasting an exhausted capacity, some of the best acts locally and nationally, that Newcastle and Australia have to offer, and toilet lines whose length were only surpassed by the astronomical length of the bar lines, Groovin The Moo’s crowd was as diverse as its line up.
I’m not quite sure what it is about a festival that possesses people to dress so uniquely. Perhaps it’s got something to do with knowing that everyone attending are there to celebrate and enjoy the triumphs of their favourite artists. However I think its got more to do with knowing that by the end of the evening, everyone there will be too pissed to notice the herds of people dressed as cows or that one cow girl who had somehow managed to lose her horse as well as her marbles.
My day kicked off with Newcastle’s own and freshly signed, Indie / Rock threesome Lover playing in the King Street Hotel tent, where the entertainment level was surpassed only by the several “dancing” and wasted girls who, I was sure, would be throwing up their stomach contents within the hour.
Melbourne rockers Trial Kennedy never fail to impress, they’re currently recording their first record. Meanwhile I spent the majority of their set trying to work out whether or not front man Tim Morrison was always that attractive, and if he has been, why is it I’ve only seen them three times?!
From old school ska punk rockers The Porkers, who are celebrating twenty years together at the Cambridge Hotel in August, to the beautifully mellow tunes of Mia Dyson and hard hitting Melbourne rock gods Airbourne, who were joined by very special guests ‘Drunk groupies at the front of the mosh pit’, those who were there only to see headlining bands such as You Am I, The Presets and Silverchair had plenty to listen to whilst they were killing time.
You had no hope what so ever of getting anywhere near the Drum Media stage as soon as electro geniuses The Presets hit the stage, and if by chance you were lucky to enough to be anywhere near the front of the stage, there’s no doubt in my mind that you would’ve ended up like my workmate who is now sporting severely bruised ribs and a freshly broken pair of glasses. From what I saw however, they were defiantly worth being without eyesight for a little while.
Skip to The Black Keys, who were delayed almost half an hour due to the fact that the barrier was broken (completely the fault of Presets fans’ I might add). Don’t get me wrong I love The Black Keys, I think that the complexity of their music is brilliant for two old guys with only a drum kit, guitar and a voice, but all I wanted to do was see Silverchair, and lets face it 2-3 songs would have given everybody more that a lovely taste of the blues and roots duo.
Finally Newcastle’s own, internationally successful Silverchair exploded onto the Triple J stage and performed one of the most amazing gigs I’ve ever seen them play, so brilliant in fact that I’ll non ashamedly admit that I actually shed a few tears during their time on stage. It was the perfect mix of tracks from their brand new record ‘Young Modern’ and a combination of older songs from records ‘Diorama’, ‘Neon Ballroom’ and ‘Freak Show’. Seeing their performance left me buzzing well into Sunday.
Cattleyard Promotions did a magnificent job of coordinating this years ‘Groovin The Moo’, even down to the smallest details such as managing to convince the dirty grey storm clouds to not burst over Maitland.
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