HARVEST ROCK II - Day 2
Written by: Bec Scheucher | Sunday 29th October 2023
Photos by: Bronwen Caple >> VIEW GALLERY
After JAMIROQAUI hitting it out of the park for Saturday’s festivities, I was expecting nothing less than amazing for day two as I hobbled in on my gimpy leg and made a beeline straight past BABE RAINBOW on the Vines stage saying something about day drinking before a loud energetic psychedelic rock track to catch CHET FAKER take the Harvest Stage for his incredible hypnotic set.
Pictured: JAMIROQUAI
Confessing that he had produced his show for nighttime, the glaring sunlight took nothing from his amazing performance as he coordinated a one-man busker show moving between his soundboard, keys and mic for his special brand of thumping electronic tracks matched with soulful vocals. Dropping hits such as The Trouble With Us, Drop the Game and Talk is Cheap as well as his banging rendition of No Diggity the tracks bled into each other maintaining that energetic groove and getting everyone well and truly into festival mode again while his flawless performance was encompassed by a smoky haze onstage.
Pictured: CHET FAKER
VERA BLUE kicked off her set straight after and I suddenly realised that day two was back-to-back performances and far more demanding than day one, with no breaks between sets and a few small clashes. Fast paced synths broke out to pop banger Lethal while she bopped around the stage with peak princess energy, swishing her Rapunzel hair and floaty floral dress. Speaking of hair, VERA BLUE went full windmill for powerful track Private and did it far better than any Metalhead could hope to. Just when I thought she could not get any more extra, she covered ENYA’S Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) and out of nowhere, grew massive black feather wings. Apart from the entertaining stage theatrics, her vocals were perfection. As she was holding the last high notes of Mended a young girl walked past me gushing ‘She is a Goddess!’ Finishing off with a good selection of boppy tracks Feel Better, Regular Touch and Rushing Back everyone was well and truly blown away by her stunning high energy performance.
Pictured: VERA BLUE
BAKER BOY had started up on the Harvest stage and the crowd was in full formation and at peak energy. Accompanied by a full band and back up dancers, BAKER BOY delivered one hell of a jam session mixing his original tracks with some thick instrumentals and finishing with a cover of Song 2 while he rocked out with his digeridoo and rapping to lend his unique flavour to the classic 90s grunge hit. SANTIGOLD was yelling ‘Everybody make some noise’ from the Vines stage as I rushed back to catch their set which they started with electro indie pop hit Hold The Line. There was some weird culty performance art happening onstage with the back up dancers who were dressed like a cross between 2019 horror film ‘Midsommer’ and a German synth wave duo album cover- do with that what you will. Things got sillier when the crowd were invited onstage to dance to Creator including a random realistic looking Pirate that made the spectacle all the more endearing. The stage was packed with so many happy people having an absolute time and SANTIGOLD put on an incredibly engaging show.
Pictured: BAKER BOY
Pictured: SANTIGOLD
SPARKS flew when they erupted with a loud magical Disney-esque track, coming out in full force with their extremely buoyant theatrical art pop that commanded the entire festival crowd. Appropriately opening with So May We Start, the merry punchy tracks kept rolling, holding that same sparkling high the entire set. The real banger for the night was This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us from 1974 proving that their sound is absolutely timeless.
Pictured: SPARKS
PAUL KELLY had started over on the Harvest stage and was in fine form, giving the fans what they came for. Poetically, I got there in time for Love Never Runs On Time and got a good spot to hear him tell everyone about his mum before My Mother’s Voice carried across the park hauntingly with some mighty fine harmonies and acoustic guitars. After a ‘Giddy-Up beat’ from Dan Kelly also on mandolin for the set, everyone got an impassioned sing along to To Her Door before praise the festival gods my favourite Dumb Things got everyone dancing and singing before I had to run back to the Vines stage.
Pictured: PAUL KELLY
TASH SULTANA, playing one of their last shows before ‘taking a break’ gave it everything plus some for their mind-blowing set which, as usual featured a stacked set up of instruments, all of which they pick up and rock out on throughout their whirlwind show. To be fair, they do bring out additional musicians during the set but that is purely to amplify an already rich sound. The whole audio-visual experience was sublime with the entire audience in the flow, cheering at the onstage antics of TASH rushing between instruments from various platforms (saxophone is always played on the left platform) TASH is a natural performer, and has that same Mary Poppins busking energy that brought them to the world festival stage. Always one to experiment with their music and make it bigger and oftentimes more outlandish, there was a severe use of autotune for the harmonisation of Notion which was a pleasing surprise. Jungle went out with a bang as it always does because let’s face it, you can’t help but not groove and bop to it at the same time.
Pictured: TASH SULTANA
I rushed in to catch the last of BECK knowing full well the rarity of seeing him, his prestige and vast catalogue. Also, he was great in ‘Futurama’. Naturally I got there for his smooth witty improvisational poetry, and we are at Bed Bath and Beyond with Beck and “all the candles and potpourri” while smooth jazz intro to Debra trails behind him. As I had expected by this grand final home stretch of the night, it was a massive crowd and impressive production. BECK and band stood in all their grandeur on a multilevel stage backed by a picturesque sunset over mountains like some kind of JOHNNY CASH television appearance except it’s heart tugging tracks Golden Age followed by Lost Cause playing and we are in some melancholic time warp. Just as I felt the wave of lull and thinking bed is so close now, he swooped into Loser and E-Pro for some hectic dancing.
Pictured: BECK
It was all could have imagined his show to be like and more, and there were some real diehard fans there for his only Australian show knowing full well it was going to be spectacular. Quality musicianship once again dominated the closing act as world class artists grooved and jammed their way through a lot of hits, hitting those nostalgia endorphin points for everyone. I admitted defeat, again poetically to One Foot In The Grave providing my exit soundtrack, which just put the cherry on the weekend of surreal moments only really possible at festivals. Tired, but carried on a high that I wasn’t expecting. I was genuinely blown away for someone that goes to a lot of these events. A flawless execution, with the weather gods behaving this time. It is going to be a hard weekend to top.
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