GONE SOUTH
Inveresk Railyards, Launceston, TAS
4 December 1999
by Bob (aka Adam Child)

Tasmania doesn't get many national artists throughout the year, just the rare band that is on a national album tour or the like. But Launceston got its own mini-Homebake for the live music starved Tasmanians. Major bands playing were silverchair, Powderfinger, Grinspoon, Paul Kelly, Alex Lloyd and Killing Heidi. There were also 10 local original Tassie bands playing support.

The day started at 10am and the 10 locals played first up until about 3:30pm. I missd most of these because of how blody early it was and that we had to have some alcohol before we went in otherwise we would be pretty poor - as everyone who has been to any big event knows, they love to bump the prices up a bit.. well actually, A LOT!

Killing Heidi were the first 'known' band to grace the stage and everyone were up the front going sick. It didn't bother the eager crowd that they didn't know the first few songs, it was the fact that Killing Heidi's addictive sound got the punters pumped and moshing their heads off! When KH played their radio hits, "Mascara" and "Weir", the crowd went absolutely off as predicted! All of the band members seemed to love the fact that they were playing to the big crowd of 12,000 rocking Tassie people. A major talking point of the males in the crowd was how 'hot' Ella Hooper is, and one crowd member broke through the punter-barrier, past the security and up on stage to tell Ella that he had something for her - he then put his hands down his pants and was about to pull his cock out until the sucurity got him! An absolute legendary moment!!

After the 50 action packed minutes of Killing Heidi, Alex Lloyd graced the stage to perform his electronic pop sounds to the ausience. I only knew Alex Lloyd from the singles played on the J's (as with 99% of the crowd I'm sure) and the crowd really didn't get into him at all. Lloyd's set ended up being a sit down affair for the majority of the crowd as only a few people were up the front 'dancing'. I didn't mind Alex Lloyds music, but I came to the conclusion that he wasn't really a festival artist, maybe someone you would more likely see at a pub or club. Towards the end of his set, the crowd started chanting 'Grinspoon, Grinspoon, Grinspoon' as the Sydney rockers were up next.

Grinspoon were very close to being my highlight of the day. They came up on stage and played three songs off the new album, "Easy" - and really got the crowd going. Phil just said 'cheers' at the end of each song and then said heres a love song for the Lonny crowd - the boppy and extremely popular "Just Ace" was played much to the crowd's delight. I was up the frontline for most of the 'Spoons performance and I have never seen a crowd love one song so much - the crowd nearly drowned out the band! It was great. Other Grinners classics were played: "More Than You Are", "Champion" and "DCX3" were definate crowd favs. The last song was the new single "Ready 1", and it equaled the "Just Ace" crowd reaction. It was awesome as me and a few mates were being saturated by the hose while moshing out to the great sound! An absolutely classic band live, you should see them if they come around to a town near you!

Ahh, now the moment that I was really looking foward to, POWDERFINGER. Right at the front I was for the 'Finger, and I am so glad I was, because the crowd was so big and so pumped after Grinspoon! Powderfinger kicked off with some great well known tunes such as "DAF", "Already Gone" and " I Don't Want to be Left Out" which had the crowd hyped. They played a new song which went down a treat. This was a great set as the majority of the crowd knew almost every song and were dancing along the the great pop-rock sound. A highlight of mine was "These Days" - the JJJ fav., it went off. Powderfinger would have to be one of Australia's best bands - the sound, the hits and the was the band grace the stage from the funny Cogsy to the Mr. Cool Bernard Fanning. A definate live must!

Paul Kelly was next, a great relief I am sure for the worn out moshers! I was worried about the crowd reaction to Paul Kelly being on a festival like this, playing before silverchair, and the youth of the crowd. But I was happy to see that there werea heap of people up there dancing and generally loving Kelly's Australian sound. I realy love Paul Kelly, "Songs From The South" is one of my all-time fav cds and Kelly is, in my opinion, the voice of Australian music. His songwriting is awesome and is an Oz music legend! I was happy to hear a lot of his classics. Kelly started off his set with an accoustic version of the popular "Dumb Things". It was different but really good. Other classics he played were: "To Her Door", "Careless", "When I First Met Your Ma" and my all-time fav PK song, "How To Make Gravy" which lived up to my expectations live! Loved it! Thrown in were the new songs off hit new cd with Uncle Bill. These were pretty good, but I think everyone wanted the good old classics! Paul Kelly came across really well, I was happy with him because he played a great variety of songs, and won over a crowd which I thought would have been quite hard!

The band most of the people there wanted to see the most were up now, and that was the Newcastle rockers, silverchair. I am not the biggest fan of their new album, and was thinking I wouldn't like them live on the night because they probably wouldn't play much of their older stuff. Oh I was wrong, thankfully!! The first track was "Pure Massacre" and I got a second wind after being stuffed from rocking out to the previous bands on the day. Their set was pretty good, playing a really good mix of old and new. I don't rate Daniel Johns too highly for his on stage presence, I don't know, I think he was just trying too hard. But I guess the 11-15 year olds would have loved him talking about Satan and swearing a lot. Hmm, not really my sort of lead vocalist - I think Johns has too many issues he needs to deal with, but I will leave that there! "The Door", "Freak" and "Israel Son" went off so much! I was waiting for them to start playing "Tomorrow"!! Well, I was happy with the 'Chair mainly because of the way Chris and Ben went off on their instruments... they were great! I have a bit more respect for silverchair now, but Daniel has dropped down in the rankings after his try hard big rock star thing rubbed me the wrong way!!

What a great day for Tassie people to see some top quality Australian bands. Noone would have been disapointed and hopefully we will get these sort of events more often!

Check out Bob's Area 7 page - www.area7.live.com.au