After yet anthother epic day of waves, blue skies, and sunshine in a special place called Byron Bay, I was anticipating a magical evening of music at the 2004 Blues and Roots Music Festival. Stoked to see my first Indident of 2004, I made the pilgrimage up front to soak it all in...
`Black Clouds` opener showcased The bands` classic funky style of bluegrass to many first-time listeners in the crowd, and it was a raging rendition. The boys seemed to be pumped up and eager to let loose in front of the capacity crowd under the Mojo Tent. `Lost` was tight, not a personal favorite of mine, but I was getting off on the tremendous energy building underneath the huge tent at this point. First time I`ve heard `Valley of the Jig` played live and everyone was going mental. Xavier Rudd and Michael Franti certainly stole the show with this one; Xavier plays the didg like a magician and Michael Franti displayed his sick freestyling abilities. `Sirens` was definitely a stand-out tune for me at Sunday`s Incident; The Cheese were sending out so many good vibrations during this one it was hard for me to keep my composure. `Desert Dawn` is hands down my favorite Kang song and it will always remind me of magical moments on NYE in the Bill Graham Auditorium; certainly the tune that makes me get down like no other. Lots` of tension in the jamming and Kang was just raging the vocals with such passion. `Little Hands` always provides a really nice vibe of tranquility and mellowness to a show; Great positioning after a pleasantly chaotic `Desert Dawn`. A really soothing version of this tune, with beautiful vocals and all of the instrumention blended in very well together. As soon as K-DUB took the stage I was crossing my fingers for `Best Feeling`, but how fitting to play a classic Aussie rock anthem like `Hells Bells`. As always, Keller provided mesmerizing guitar work, and I always love to hear two acousic guitars in the mix. Definitely played in a similar fashion as `Walk This Way`, playing verses in a Bluegrass style and ripping the chorus in an epic rock anthem kind of way. `Search` was a pleasant way to end the evening; great drumz sections to the tune and Billy was super tight. I didn`t expect the set to end after `Search` as I felt like The Cheese were holding something back during this one. Apparantly they were holding something back, as I would eventually find out....
Lots` of love and positive vibrations from the great white north...
Gregi
