We arrived at about 1600h and got settled with just enough time to hear the end of one of the local groups, Los Chavos and the to hear all of the next local act, Chasing Bailey. The announcers, the current Mix 106 “Feel good” station’s breakfast DJ pairing, described Chasing Bailey as having played together since they were teenagers. Was that the best that could be said about the band? As it turned out, Chasing Bailey were no more than teenagers! Though capable, and certainly better than me, there was nothing, “Wow!” about them.

Following Chasing Bailey was the first of the headline performers for the evening, Jessica Mauboy. I am told Jessica was a contestant on Australian Idol so when she came on stage, I wasn’t surprised to hear what you would expect from the Idol franchise factory – a repertoire of manufactured music that appeals to pre-pubescent girls. She really can sing though, just not my sort of music.

Kate Miller-Heidke was next on the programme. From Triple J, I had heard her name but couldn’t put a song to it so I was interested to hear her perform. Again, a really good voice (she is classically trained) but the vocal stylings sounded like she was singing scales in the middle of her songs and what seemed to be a bit of posing and hand waving like this:

and this…

some more of this kind of action…

I get the feeling she likes it like that.

All these images were taken from http://katemh.com/ and I’ll take them down if there is a problem.

Next were the headline act, the Hoodoo Gurus. The Gurus came on at about 2000h and rocked for over an hour finishing with a double encore. For the most part, the set list was a a trip down memory lane though they did play a track that I had never heard before. It was clear that they had slowed down a little bit since I’d seen them last, and I was surprised to see Dave Faulkner wearing the same vertical stripe pants he was in 1992 when I saw them while I was at Uni! None-the-less they still ROCK!

Fireworks ended what ended up the show and finishing off what was an alright afternoon and evening out.