Point Nepean Music Festival 2007

Overall the festival was very enjoyable, great weather, even better artists and a spectacular location all combined to be something that was very memorable to the point that I might consider going again next year but there are a few reasons why I would seriously re-consider going again.

I bought tickets for the festival sometime in December, besides the bungle that caused the tickets to arrive 2 months after the state delivery date, ticket blamed it something about parking pass components – which turned out to be irreverent as I will explain later.

I like saying that the best way to judge the value of a band is to see how they play live, it is the reason why I like seeing live music.

The line up was little too extensive for me to see all that I wanted to see but I did get to see a good number:

Saturday 7th April
The Vasco Era were loud and proud, they were great and nothing quite like what I expected but it was still good.
The Audreys were a little slow to start off with which is annoying but their set got better as time went along, that being said I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, not that they were bad but not my type of music.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars where something different that I had only heard of by name but by the size of the crowd that stood in front of the stage by the time they had started they are obviously popular. Their set was different to any others that I had seen which was good that so many people enjoyed culturally diverse music.
Terrance Simien I had never heard of before but proved to be quite good with the danceable tunes
Taj Mahal I had again never heard of but this time the music didn’t quite strike the same cord with me, while it was good it wasn’t something that I am prepared to listen to again.
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals where continually advertised as just ‘Ben Harper’ which isn’t necessarly the case and I would have been a little annoyed if I were the Innocent Criminals. There just doesn’t seem to be a hit or miss with Ben Harper, the group are always on target it was the same story when I saw them last and this time was no different, even though they played for 2 hours exactly it was all the hits and played with the same passion and excitement that could be expected of him and the innocent criminals.

Sunday 8th April
Dallas Frasca
I had no idea who these people were but the singer (Dallas) turned out to be quite good and I found my self stomping my feet be the start of the first song, funnily enough they are aussie. Check out the youtube video
Iain Archer
Iain was a little different to the other acts where as they were more blues/roots his I felt was more pop, which was a nice light change for the start of the day. The sun was bright and up and I enjoyed the banter that he had going plus the effort that he put into his act considering the size of the stage, the number of people sitting down and the fact that he had only been in the country about a week. According to Wikipedia he has a few accomplishments under his belt.
Ozomatli
By far up there for the most entertaining act of the day, while later acts where much bigger crowd draws and probably the reason the Sunday was sold out instead of the Saturday. Ozomatli had the crowd jumping before they even got on stage. They act was energetic and different (as was the theme of the day). While being a numerous band played in their favour because they were able to produce different sounds from different people which kept the crowd moving. But the most outstanding thing about Ozomatli is the when their time on the set was up instead of leaving they got into the crowd and continued to play. Yep, they launched themselves into the mass festival gooers and continued the party and everyone loved it, you could tell where they were because they was a mass of jumping people around them, it was a good 40 minutes before the left the crowd and even that was a hard slog they continued to play at the exit just to the right of the stage. We didn’t have to wait very long for the next act to come on because Ozomatli had kept everyone entertained why the roadies kept working on the stage.
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
No vocals really, but some absolutely impressive instrumentals, at one moment one of the band members decided that he would play a tenor and alto saxophone at the same time, which the crowd loved of course. Throughly enjoyable, and probably would consider buying the album.
The Waifs
Big draw card for the crowd and people where standing before they came on stage, not really my kind of music but I can understand everyone enjoying it. You can’t really fault the Waifs on much, they talked to each other as much to the crowd and the people just off the shore watching in their boats. A highlight was when of their toddlers come on stage with a tambourine and started playing along with the band. I had wondered off half why through to try to get some dinner and catch a bit of Amos Lee
Amos Lee
I only got to see 2 songs and he seemed OK, probably because I didn’t see the whole set I didn’t get a great impression of him but I didn’t go away liking him. He said that he would be playing at Manchester Lane in a week, so I checked out the tickets and they were $45, I wasn’t sure that I liked him that much.
Missy Higgins
The obious draw card, not having toured much since the last album release and defiently having more confidence since I saw her at The Palace St. Kilda. Not much to say here, bit crowd favorite, looked and sounded more confident than before – although the sound adjustment problems kept distracting me. While I enjoyed her first album for the first time and there is not doubt in her talent, I didn’t really come to see Missy the girlfriend did, I was more interested in John Mayer
John Mayer
A lot more impressive than I thought he would be, I only knew the most popular songs. He had a hell of a lot of equipment and heaps of guitars. The perforamce was great and he sounded live, I’m not sure that everyone was there for him but they cheered loud enough. He seemed to enjoy himself because they came on for a two song encore which was great but we had left already to go and see Ben Kweller
Ben Kweller
If I could give out any advice would be to start your set with off with a few good/popular songs, not covers or experimental stuff, if they like what they hear at the start there is more chance that they will stay for the whole set. This was not the case with Ben, while I had heard that he quite good, he didn’t start off that way, it had been a long day and although we did want to see him it was just too late and he wasn’t producing the goods. As we would find out later from the car, he got better later on in the night.

Negatives
We managed to get some ridiculously over-priced accommodation at a motel which I might add I didn’t organise otherwise it would have been different but I didn’t have the time.
On arrival we decided that we should travel by the festival organised shuttle bus which was picking up people from Rosebud onwards to the festival. Little did we realise that when we arrived at our pick up point in Sorrento that we would have to wait 2 hours and miss 6 buses before we found another way to the Festival.

On the second day we ended up driving there which was good and bad because firstly we were able to get a good spot but getting out was hell, in fact it took us over an hour to get out on to the open road to start driving at a constant speed.

The MC one the first night we believe was Michael Chugg, who I think was rather drunk to the point that he started abusing the crowd, although the MC on the second night who was Glenn Wheatley was much more composed and consequently everyone seemed to listen to him.

Positives
It didn’t advertise its self as a blue & roots festival but the majority of the genre was from the blues & roots. Toilets where easy (as they are normally for guys) but my g/f said that they weren’t too bad either. Food was easy to access and there was a decent choice, but the price wasn’t great (but I wasn’t expecting anything less) Transport wasn’t too bad.
Location, Location, Location
Music, Music, Music !!!

Conclusion
It was great despite any short comings it was really enjoyable and something that I would seriously consider going again next year.