Review: WOMADELAIDE 2017: DAY 4 at Botanic Park

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Monday 13th March 2017.

Day 4 of the WOMADelaide Festival and it was easy to see which of the punters strolling around the park had been here all weekend. There was a kind of weary joyousness about them as they doggedly shouldered their bags, gathered up their folding chairs, and headed back towards Foundation Stage where the Korean Drummers of Tago were beating drums of every shape and size imaginable. Their thunderous drumming and crazy martial arts like moves were far too much for me on a Monday lunchtime so I headed off to the relative calm of the Novatech Stage.

The Australian folk/rock artist, William Crighton, took to the stage, accompanied by his wife, his brother, and two of his mates. My first impression was one of authenticity. He looks and sounds like a man from the bush. A tall, muscular man in his prime with a shock of curly hair and a thick black beard framing dark eyes that seemed to be focussed on distant horizons. The voice is deep, slow, considered and very Australian.

He began his set playing ukelele, which worried me somewhat but, when he played, it had more the sound a koto than the usual brittle toneless chording that I was expecting. Supported by bass, percussion, and electric guitar, the resonant voice of the man from the Riverina beguiled his audience with songs of hope, despair, faith and anger.

The set became rockier as Crighton picked up an electric guitar, but the songs remained steadfastly folk-orientated, with complex well- written lyrics, and backing vocals from wife Jules, whose voice reminded me of Grace Slick.

Crighton would occasionally move off the microphone to sing to the audience without amplification and, while he has a powerful voice, it was nowhere near powerful enough to reach to the back of the generous crowd sitting beneath the fruitbat laden trees. The power of the move came from the intimacy that it offered as he discarded any pretence of "performance" and offered himself to the audience in honest and personal conversation.

It was very refreshing to see and hear such an unashamedly Australian performer presenting intelligent and thought provoking material inspired by his travels across the continent.

"Would I change anything? I don't know. Water in the river runs where the river goes."

Fuel Fandango played the Foundation Stage.

The choreographed performance of rock-fuelled flamenco blended with electronica captivated the enormous crowd of dancing spectators as Nita danced, and sang in Spanish and English.
The showmanship was spectacular visually but was easily matched by superb singing and musicianship.

L-Fresh the Lion on Stage 3 provided a very tight and well-rehearsed performance of a blend of hip hop and 90s rap. I was strongly reminded of Michael Franti and Spearhead by the band's melodic rapping and strong backing vocals. Layers of countermelodies added a complexity that was punctuated by the drumming and subtly accented by electric guitar and keyboards.

Turkish psychedelic rock outfit BaBa Zula took to the Foundation Stage with their bizarre mixture of influences. Oriental Dub, which seems to be a standard requirement for WOMADelaide acts these days, was mixed with Turkish traditional music and 60s rock and roll.

The electric Saz and electric Oud rang out over the heavy percussion as the players stomped across the stage from side to side, looking rather grumpy in their lavish and colourful costumes. A lot of people danced, so that's alright.

Stage 3 hosted jazz improvisation group, Tangents, and they could not have selected a better name for themselves. The instrumentation featured a synthesiser, Fender Rhodes electric piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, cello, drums/percussion and a laptop computer. It became evident early in the performance that these were jazz players of a very high order as they began the first very experimental piece.

The Telecaster guitar was played with mallets and a bow, and the cello squealed harmonics', as we were led into a shifting soundscape that was harsh and grating until it dropped into swelling synthesised beds sliced by razor-sharp guitar chords surrounded by sparks and lights from the drum kit.

The work was all improvised The only guarantees were the samples and loops coming from the laptop. Everything else was being formed live. There seemed to be no theme or riff to hang onto, it was a flight into darkness, free-form jazz, collaborative and egoless, each player feeding from the other.

"We're gonna play .................. we're just gonna play another piece of music." announced the wielder of the laptop, and the vibes howled as they were bowed, the electric guitar grunted as the soft mallets hit it, a ticking rhythm started from the computer, and the drummer, as a clockwork odyssey, began. The audience thinned rapidly.

WOMADelaide is not just a feast of music, dance, art, and food it is also a festival of ideas and the venue known as Speakers' Corner is host to many interactive discussions in its "Artists in Conversation" presentations.

Archie Roach and Uncle Jack Charles spoke intimately and openly about their lives growing up in Melbourne and their long friendship. They met in a pub. A young Archie Roach approached the unfamiliar Jack Charles to start a conversation and share a yarn or two with the newcomer.
"G'day mate. Where you from and what do you do?" inquired a teenage Archie. " Me? I'm a professional mate; a professional cat burglar."

Both survivors of the Stolen Generation, they recounted their journeys together and apart, searching for family members and trying to put their shattered lives back together. Boys' homes and prisons, pseudonyms to avoid the law, drugs and crime, the life on the streets that young, dispossessed Aboriginal people faced every day in a racist and intolerant Victoria.

They offered great hope, though, for a new Australia, an Australia where young indigenous people could be offered guidance and support from the Elders in their communities, sanctioned and supported by state and federal governments, a dream and a project that has driven these two men for decades.

Questions from the audience were posed and answered, Uncle Jack's twinkly-eyed grin and humour lightening even the gravest of concerns raised, including the "Recognise Campaign", which both of these Elders dismissed as "too political to discuss here" as there are more important things to consider.

They finished by singing a song together, but not before one questioner asked of Archie Roach, "what do you think you would have done if you hadn't begun writing and playing songs?" Archie was thrown for a moment by such a bold question, but answered, "I always liked to draw. I still like to draw. I like drawing clothes, so I reckon I might have been a fashion designer."

WOMADelaide is always surprising.

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