Groovin The Moo @ University of Canberra, Canberra (27/04/2014)
Ah, Groovin the Moo.
Since Foreshore so abruptly departed the ACT some years ago nearby music enthusiasts, “shredded muzzas” and crop-top wearing fifteen-year-old’s have had little to no option but to venture to warmer, larger and (admittedly) easier to navigate cities in search of festival funs. Save the one chilly day per year when the Moo comes to town – and boy did 2014 go off with an almighty roar.
On first arriving it was clear there were more people about early in the day than the previous year (a testament to the calibre of acts, no doubt). At 12:30 the grounds were well and truly bustling, yet we barely had to pause in line to get in. Bravo.
The University of Canberra have top facilities for festival hosting. It’s not crammed, there’s a nifty hill to claim territory and gaze upon the two outdoor stages, plenty of room to guzzle Smirnoff’s in the licensed area and the whole event is just pretty darn smooth.
Andy Bull kicked things off for me in the Moolin Rouge tent and when the humble crowd twirled and chimed along for Bull’s popular cover ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ (the first of a number of covers whipped out during the day) you couldn’t escape the certainty that you were in for a cracker of a festival.
Things got a little awkward however when Bull attempted a sing-a-long for his emphatic ‘Keep On Running’. While half the crowd (namely me) nailed the “and I keep on running” chorus line, the other struggled to keep time with the “I swim in a sea of approval I will.” In Bull’s own words… “We’ll work on it, Canberra.”
In what was my favourite performance of the day, the crowd swelled and surged for Aussie hip-hop trailblazer Allday – who was added to the line-up by popular demand after Action Bronson pulled the pin.
If you want a picture of someone with a bizarre fan base demographic, Tom Gaynor (aka Allday) will provide. Fans young, old, boys and girls rammed the barrier as he kicked off with popular track ‘Eyes On The Road’.
In his too-short 45 minute set he fit in seven of his best tracks including his latest ‘Right Now’, fan-favourite ‘Girl In the Sun’, ‘Sick Sad World’, ‘You & Me’ , ‘Claude Monet’ and debut ‘So Good’. He also managed to work Nelly’s ‘Ride Wit Me’, Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Hypnotise’ and Outkast’s ‘Ms Jackson’ into a saucy mashup with one of his earlier works ‘Nearly Famous’.
If the crowd was lacking in lyric enthusiasm just 45 minutes earlier for Andy Bull, they certainly picked up their game here and there was not a frown in sight. The young-gun worked the stage like it was nobody’s business with comrade and beat-maker Mikey Hundred keeping the crowd amped.
Fellow Melbournians Loon Lake took to the stage soon afterwards as the hip hop crowd were slowly replaced by rock fans. The indie-rock piece (complete with three guitarists, a bassist and drummer) were intensely entertaining and brought the best of their catchy-catalogue with a few surprise extras.
Feet were shaking and hips swayin’ for ‘Cherry Lips’ before the boys turned it up a notch in search of some Parkway enthusiasm with a cover of The Darkness’ ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’. It was one of my favourite moments of the entire day. Their fiery rendition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Trouble’ also has to be noted.
From there I hopped, skipped and jumped over to the bar to sit upon the hill and gaze over the outdoor stages where Robert DeLong was clanging away, desperate to evacuate before Parkway Drive were thrown into motion.
Next on my list was Vance Joy on the Channel V stage and while I’ve always been a fan of Vance I couldn’t help but feel that he was little swamped by the big outdoor setting and would have been more suited to the tent. Ofcourse, ‘Riptide’ brought the goods in the end. I actually saw people run from across the grounds into the crowd to catch a bit of that action.
From there it was back to the tent (now brimming) for one of the most eagerly-awaited sets of the day in Violent Soho. There’s only one word to describe the performance, and that’s ‘epic’. The alt-rock quartet pleased eager fans with some incredible hair flicks and a blend of tracks spanning their decade long history.
‘Dope Calypso’ opened the set with bellows that no doubt travelled across the meadow, where Cults were hypnotising the outdoor crowd.
The whole set was a fast-paced echoed blur of screams, jumping and flashing lights. The crowd was nuts. If the band weren’t sure of an amped atmosphere for ‘Covered In Chrome’ they sure got things going with a swift “F U” to the PM.
As the sun slunk away and bodies began shivering in the cool Canberran air, the acts in the tent kept things warm I’d made the tough decision earlier that day to sacrifice seeing Karnivool, The Naked and Famous and The Jezabels for the ‘tent’ experience, and while I have no regrets about that, it did have its limitations that just don’t exist near the outdoor stages… room to move, for one.
Stuck against the back soundcheck area, you couldn’t really manoeuvre anywhere in the tent without copping seven glares from any direction. Yes I know… how dare I try and get a better view. The Kite String Tangle was mesmerising and pulled a pretty big crowd. More so than debut track 'Given The Chance,' the big win of the set was his cover of Lorde’s ‘Tennis Court’. Cue sing-a-long!
Peking Duk was pretty stock standard for a night-time dance act. They dropped some Lion King (please people can we stop doing this now?), had fellow ACT EDM crew Safia on stage for a track and had everyone trying to hit the big notes with latest single 'High.'
In hindsight they were really the calm before the storm because electro-wonder kid Tom Purcell (aka Wave Racer) absolutely killed it. Talk about a crowd-pleaser. I have FOMO just thinking about it.
Back over to the outdoor stage and people were shoulder to shoulder as far as you could see for a little hit of Dizzee Rascal. The Brit superstar brought his A-Game. We heard ‘Flex’, bounced along to ‘Holiday’, chanted “Dirty Stinking Bass” and were eagerly awaiting our time to get bonkers, when things turned sour. The Rascal said a simple thankyou and walked off stage before getting to the really good stuff. My heart dropped amid flashbacks of Azealia Banks at Listen Out just the year prior – surely this couldn’t happen again. The crowd was filthy with him. After a stone-cold minute in darkness a fellow just next to me took it upon himself to start up a ‘Bonkers’ clap and chant, which spread like wildfire through the sea of fans. It was like a scene out of a 90’s movie.
So, as you would expect, Diz reappeared with a smug look about playing tricks and launches into ‘Dirty Love’, before finishing with ‘Bonkers’. There was a big round of applause before everyone legged it back to the tent for Disclosure.
Having seen Disclosure previously it was disappointing that there wasn’t any significant change up to their setlist. It was all very mellow after a day of raging highs, as the tent was cramped, clammy and you couldn’t see a thing. A big let-down.
As I bid farewell to another year at GTM the crowd screamed along to ‘Latch’ just behind me - all the battles and bruises earned from the day forgotten in that moment of synchronised euphoria.
Brittany Murphy
Since Foreshore so abruptly departed the ACT some years ago nearby music enthusiasts, “shredded muzzas” and crop-top wearing fifteen-year-old’s have had little to no option but to venture to warmer, larger and (admittedly) easier to navigate cities in search of festival funs. Save the one chilly day per year when the Moo comes to town – and boy did 2014 go off with an almighty roar.
On first arriving it was clear there were more people about early in the day than the previous year (a testament to the calibre of acts, no doubt). At 12:30 the grounds were well and truly bustling, yet we barely had to pause in line to get in. Bravo.
The University of Canberra have top facilities for festival hosting. It’s not crammed, there’s a nifty hill to claim territory and gaze upon the two outdoor stages, plenty of room to guzzle Smirnoff’s in the licensed area and the whole event is just pretty darn smooth.
Andy Bull kicked things off for me in the Moolin Rouge tent and when the humble crowd twirled and chimed along for Bull’s popular cover ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ (the first of a number of covers whipped out during the day) you couldn’t escape the certainty that you were in for a cracker of a festival.
Things got a little awkward however when Bull attempted a sing-a-long for his emphatic ‘Keep On Running’. While half the crowd (namely me) nailed the “and I keep on running” chorus line, the other struggled to keep time with the “I swim in a sea of approval I will.” In Bull’s own words… “We’ll work on it, Canberra.”
In what was my favourite performance of the day, the crowd swelled and surged for Aussie hip-hop trailblazer Allday – who was added to the line-up by popular demand after Action Bronson pulled the pin.
If you want a picture of someone with a bizarre fan base demographic, Tom Gaynor (aka Allday) will provide. Fans young, old, boys and girls rammed the barrier as he kicked off with popular track ‘Eyes On The Road’.
In his too-short 45 minute set he fit in seven of his best tracks including his latest ‘Right Now’, fan-favourite ‘Girl In the Sun’, ‘Sick Sad World’, ‘You & Me’ , ‘Claude Monet’ and debut ‘So Good’. He also managed to work Nelly’s ‘Ride Wit Me’, Notorious B.I.G’s ‘Hypnotise’ and Outkast’s ‘Ms Jackson’ into a saucy mashup with one of his earlier works ‘Nearly Famous’.
If the crowd was lacking in lyric enthusiasm just 45 minutes earlier for Andy Bull, they certainly picked up their game here and there was not a frown in sight. The young-gun worked the stage like it was nobody’s business with comrade and beat-maker Mikey Hundred keeping the crowd amped.
Fellow Melbournians Loon Lake took to the stage soon afterwards as the hip hop crowd were slowly replaced by rock fans. The indie-rock piece (complete with three guitarists, a bassist and drummer) were intensely entertaining and brought the best of their catchy-catalogue with a few surprise extras.
Feet were shaking and hips swayin’ for ‘Cherry Lips’ before the boys turned it up a notch in search of some Parkway enthusiasm with a cover of The Darkness’ ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’. It was one of my favourite moments of the entire day. Their fiery rendition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Trouble’ also has to be noted.
From there I hopped, skipped and jumped over to the bar to sit upon the hill and gaze over the outdoor stages where Robert DeLong was clanging away, desperate to evacuate before Parkway Drive were thrown into motion.
Next on my list was Vance Joy on the Channel V stage and while I’ve always been a fan of Vance I couldn’t help but feel that he was little swamped by the big outdoor setting and would have been more suited to the tent. Ofcourse, ‘Riptide’ brought the goods in the end. I actually saw people run from across the grounds into the crowd to catch a bit of that action.
From there it was back to the tent (now brimming) for one of the most eagerly-awaited sets of the day in Violent Soho. There’s only one word to describe the performance, and that’s ‘epic’. The alt-rock quartet pleased eager fans with some incredible hair flicks and a blend of tracks spanning their decade long history.
‘Dope Calypso’ opened the set with bellows that no doubt travelled across the meadow, where Cults were hypnotising the outdoor crowd.
The whole set was a fast-paced echoed blur of screams, jumping and flashing lights. The crowd was nuts. If the band weren’t sure of an amped atmosphere for ‘Covered In Chrome’ they sure got things going with a swift “F U” to the PM.
As the sun slunk away and bodies began shivering in the cool Canberran air, the acts in the tent kept things warm I’d made the tough decision earlier that day to sacrifice seeing Karnivool, The Naked and Famous and The Jezabels for the ‘tent’ experience, and while I have no regrets about that, it did have its limitations that just don’t exist near the outdoor stages… room to move, for one.
Stuck against the back soundcheck area, you couldn’t really manoeuvre anywhere in the tent without copping seven glares from any direction. Yes I know… how dare I try and get a better view. The Kite String Tangle was mesmerising and pulled a pretty big crowd. More so than debut track 'Given The Chance,' the big win of the set was his cover of Lorde’s ‘Tennis Court’. Cue sing-a-long!
Peking Duk was pretty stock standard for a night-time dance act. They dropped some Lion King (please people can we stop doing this now?), had fellow ACT EDM crew Safia on stage for a track and had everyone trying to hit the big notes with latest single 'High.'
In hindsight they were really the calm before the storm because electro-wonder kid Tom Purcell (aka Wave Racer) absolutely killed it. Talk about a crowd-pleaser. I have FOMO just thinking about it.
Back over to the outdoor stage and people were shoulder to shoulder as far as you could see for a little hit of Dizzee Rascal. The Brit superstar brought his A-Game. We heard ‘Flex’, bounced along to ‘Holiday’, chanted “Dirty Stinking Bass” and were eagerly awaiting our time to get bonkers, when things turned sour. The Rascal said a simple thankyou and walked off stage before getting to the really good stuff. My heart dropped amid flashbacks of Azealia Banks at Listen Out just the year prior – surely this couldn’t happen again. The crowd was filthy with him. After a stone-cold minute in darkness a fellow just next to me took it upon himself to start up a ‘Bonkers’ clap and chant, which spread like wildfire through the sea of fans. It was like a scene out of a 90’s movie.
So, as you would expect, Diz reappeared with a smug look about playing tricks and launches into ‘Dirty Love’, before finishing with ‘Bonkers’. There was a big round of applause before everyone legged it back to the tent for Disclosure.
Having seen Disclosure previously it was disappointing that there wasn’t any significant change up to their setlist. It was all very mellow after a day of raging highs, as the tent was cramped, clammy and you couldn’t see a thing. A big let-down.
As I bid farewell to another year at GTM the crowd screamed along to ‘Latch’ just behind me - all the battles and bruises earned from the day forgotten in that moment of synchronised euphoria.
Brittany Murphy