Review: WOMADELAIDE 2021 at King Rodney Park/Ityamai-itpina

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Friday 5th to Monday 8th March 2021.

WOMADelaide 2021 was a very different event from previous World of Music and Dance festivals, courtesy of COVID-19. A fully seated affair, with carefully spaced chairs arranged in three separate zones, arced before the single stage. COVID-careful ushers, with torches, directed audience members to their individually numbered seats.

There were no pass-outs so, once admitted to King Rodney Park/Ityamai-itpina, we were unable to leave. There were no chipped wristbands, only daily tickets bearing the assigned seat number. Mixing with groups of friends was not possible, other than in the lines of people waiting for food or drinks, although impromptu gatherings did occur at the few seated tables close to the food vendors.

The large stage dominated the environment and, unlike the traditional multi-stage festivals of the past, there was simply no escaping from the front of house sound, no matter where in the park one found oneself, and there were times when I really wanted to escape.

Large video screens at each side of the structure, fed by multiple cameras, allowed close, intimate glimpses of the performers to the stationary crowd, who were unable to press forward to the front of the stage as they would in less restrictive times. Dancing was allowed, but the revellers were obliged to keep their physical appreciation of the music within the 1.5 metres directly in front of their seats.

There were a great many Covid marshalls acting as ushers, helping people to find their seats in the cordoned-off seating zones, and gently reminding us to stay within the boundaries of our allocated areas. There was quite a lot of grumbling from some members of the crowd, as the inconvenient but necessary restrictions limited their movements, but most us were just delighted to be 'let out' again to witness some live music.

The opening act was the iconic singer, songwriter, social advocate and First Nations leader, 'Uncle' Archie Roach, who took to the WOMADelaide stage, for the last time, with an array of highly skilled musicians, to present many of the songs from Charcoal Lane. "I have a lot of fond memories of Adelaide. It was here all those years ago that I met Ruby Hunter, and for that reason alone it's why I love this place." He spoke of his own history, his extraordinary journey as a member of the stolen generation, through his battles with alcoholism and racism, and into storytelling through music and songwriting. "... I found music as a way of healing, to fill the void of abstinence."

The power that emanates from the man is palpable. His presence filled the stage and went well beyond, into the surrounding parkland, through the trees, his voice heralding the flight of the waking flying foxes in the twilight. His accompanying players were understated and supportive, the respect for Roach visible on their faces, as they seemed to desperately try to keep their emotions in check. The honour of performing with Archie Roach, possibly for the last time, was not lost on any of them, and the honour of witnessing it was not lost on any of us either.

The performance ended with the song The Summer of My Life, although Roach had hoped to perform one more piece, his performance time had run out. "... that's because I talk too much" he quipped. It would have saved more time to let him sing one more song, as the standing ovation, and shouts of love and appreciation that followed his show continued for several minutes, as the legendary 'Uncle' Archie Roach left the WOMADelaide stage for the last time, and we were allowed to be there to thank him for everything that he has given us over decades of work.

Lior and Westlake's work, Compassion, was presented with a 54 piece Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The seven-part song cycle for orchestra and solo voice, in Hebrew and Arabic, washed over the park like a warm breeze but, as beautiful as it was, it did not seem to engage the attention of many audience members, who appeared to treat it as a background soundscape. Their attention was recaptured, though, when Lior took up acoustic guitar and began This Old Love. There were many people quietly singing along.

Sarah Blascoe ended the first night with a presentation of her 2009 release, As Day Follows Night, with a small, but fluent outfit of bass, piano and percussion. It was a very tightly rehearsed and arranged performance, with Blasko making use of a variety of microphones with slightly different audio parameters, allowing subtle and effective variations of her breathy and earnest voice.

It was an unusual and rather brave programming choice, to place Blasko's performance as the final offering after such a deeply emotive evening of music, but it paid off beautifully and suited the quieter and more restrained atmosphere. Not exactly a dance mix of songs, but there were still plenty of people standing and swaying in front of their seats taking advantage of the slight lift in dancing restrictions.

Day Two was opened by Marlon Motlop and Rulla Kelly-Mansel, otherwise known as MRLN x RKM. Motlop is of Aboriginal Larrakia, Kungarrakany and Thursday Island heritage, and Kelly-Mansell, is a Tulampunga Pakana man from Kooparoona Niara, Lutruwita (Tasmania). They presented a mixture of rap and story-telling against Motlop's unhurried guitar work, and this performance was before their largest audience to date. The next generation of First Nations musicians and songwriters making their first appearance on a major stage, the day after their hero Archie Roach made his final WOMADelaide performance. The symbolism was not lost on us.

Vika and Linda Bull took to the stage at 7.15 pm. The Tongan sisters, who gained fame as backing vocalists for the Black Sorrows, have worked with many Australian and overseas artists who are household names, but their 2020 release, Akilotoa - Anthology 1994-2006, went straight to number one on the Australian charts, and deservedly so; an achievement that is a first for an Australian female duo.

Their show was tight and well-rehearsed, but I found the number of straight blues and soft rock covers a little disappointing, and I wasn't alone. The superb harmonies of the two sisters were still strongly featured but, as one audience member remarked to me, "I didn't come to WOMAD to hear blues covers".

Midnight Oil headlined Day Two, and the excited audience was very keen to see them. I have to confess that I have never been a great fan of the band, but even my relatively low expectations were not met.

The drummer, Rob Hirst was unbelievably physical in his playing, and his drumming was relentless and precise but the rest of the band seemed less than comfortable. Peter Garrett's singing was a little off-key, and the sound from the stage in general was not quite what one might expect from such an experienced and professional band. I felt the need to leave before their 120-minute set had concluded, and I was not alone.

A fellow musician, who was also making his escape, suggested that perhaps the band was experiencing monitor problems and were having difficulty hearing each other. I am totally convinced that everyone heard Hirst's drumming though. The man is an absolute machine!

Day Three saw the evening opened by Pitjantjatjara/Torres Strait Islander woman, Miiesha, with a voice so strong and confident that it belied her youth. The 20-year-old from Central Queensland opened her set with her single, Drowning, which featured a recording of the infamous statement from our own onion chomping, ex-Prime Minister as he shrugged off the decision to close 150 Western Australian remote Indigenous communities by saying, "...it's not the job of the taxpayer to subsidise lifestyle choices...". An extraordinary statement from "The Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs".

I had never heard Miiesha's work before, but after that first song, I found myself listening very carefully indeed. I was reminded of Michael Franti and Spearhead. The songwriter's lyrics are intelligent, articulate, beautifully crafted, and often very politically pointed. Supported by her band, loops, effects, and two backing vocalists, her messages of fear and hope, her call for "education over incarceration", and her deeply personal revelations about life and relationships, rang clearly across the park like a call to arms, but the arms she calls for are open, rather than martial. Much of the material she presented is yet to be released, and I will be keeping an eye open for her next albums. She received the second standing ovation of the weekend, and she had earned it.

Papua New Guinea born Kaiit is another young artist, and at the age of 23 has gained more awards and laurels, and played more prestigious shows than other songwriters twice her age. She presented an eclectic mix of soul/blues, jazz, and rhyme, including her hit, Natural Woman, backed by an extraordinary small band featuring guitar, percussion, bass, and a one-person trumpet and keyboards combo.

The sound they produce is huge, as they sit like a club band behind Kaiit as she struts her stuff in front. They are all superb players, and each one is featured as the set progresses, but seeing a person with trumpet in the right hand while playing keyboards with the left was a pretty impressive sight.

Tash Sultana is a multi-instrumental, gender fluid, atomic bomb! Appearing on stage to headline Day Three, on a drum riser, surrounded by a mind-boggling array of instruments and electronics, Sultana dedicated their show in honour of the late Paul Gudinski, and burst into action without a moment's hesitation. Looping drum beats and guitar licks, layering on some bass, cymbal splashes, and hand percussion, add a tenor saxophone line and some trumpet stabs, and THEN start to play!

Playing an electric guitar laid out flat on the stage, like Adrian Belew in Laurie Anderson's 1986 film, Home of the Brave, before taking off to the side stage to trigger more loops and sing in the most beautiful and fragile voice. With an impish grin, they said, "I feel like I'm just playing in my room!"

An absolute expert in flamboyant gestures, fully aware of the huge video screens allowing the audience to see facial close-ups, leaping from one instrument to the next, running across the stage to a distant set of audio triggers, laughing and grinning like a loon, strained 'guitar faces' giving way to cheeky winks, both their hands were full, and in the third hand, they held the audience like a toy.

What appeared to be random instrument selections and improvised riffs, gelled into complex layered, textured soundscapes, carved and moulded in moving air, forming complex backdrops for virtuosic playing and that soaring, ethereal voice. Where did that mandolin come from? How are they playing a native American flute as a breath-driven percussion instrument? What the Hell are they doing now?

It was exhausting to watch, and exhilarating to witness as each and every one of us became just another instrument in their hands. Tash Sultana is one of the most skilled and exciting performers that I have ever seen, and I felt superfluous. This performance was going to happen, is ALWAYS happening whether there is an audience or not, we were simply allowed to watch as Tash Sultana did what Tash Sultana does. I needed some time to recover from the experience.

Day Four was opened by very local duo, Siberian Tiger. The Adelaide pair has already won the Robert Stigwood Fellowship and the 2020 SA Music Award for Best New Artist. Bree Tranter and Chris Panousakis were joined on the WOMADelaide stage by other Adelaide players for their 'deep end' debut. Call On Me is one of their latest offerings, and is the lead single from their First Dance EP. It was great to see some familiar local faces on the stage.

The Teskey Brothers' appearance on the WOMADelaide stage was highly anticipated and their performance did not disappoint. I have long had a bee in my bonnet about Australian singers suddenly developing American accents, and I do find it very distracting and rather cringe-worthy at times, but my musical colleague, with whom I shared the event, stuck his elbow firmly in my ribs and said, "They are playing a part, so just roll with it." I rolled with it, and was absolutely delighted that I did.

This is a very tidy outfit indeed. Boasting two electric guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, trombone, trumpet (or was that a cornet?), and superb lead and harmony vocals, this band kicks bottom in an entirely authentic way. I was quickly reminded of the Grateful Dead in their heyday, and lead guitarist Sam Leskey's guitar tone on his Les Paul did not disavow me of that thought. His fluid, fluent and effortless playing style mirrored the tone and style of Jerry Garcia, as he poured his solos like warm molasses over the songs.

Brother Josh's vocals are quite brilliant, and his solid rhythm guitar playing and soaring harmonica work are so very in keeping with their material. I would have loved to have heard more from his harmonica. Liam Gough on drums and Brendon Love on bass, form a solid engine room, laying a stable slab to build the songs upon. Olaf Scott's Hammond organ playing lends yet more authenticity to the sound, and Nathaniel Sametz on trombone, and Charlie Woods on trumpet, complete the picture.

From the WOMADelaide blurb, "Their second studio album, Run Home Slow, collected three ARIA Awards in 2019 and a 2020 Grammy nomination. Their concert album, Live at The Forum (2020), which debuted at number one on the ARIA charts, the first live album to do so since AC/DC Live in 1992, also won the 2020 ARIA for Best Blues & Roots Album." I'm not in the least bit surprised.

Midnight Oil and First Nations Collaborators presented Makarrata Live as the final offering for WOMADelaide 2021, with special guests Dan Sultan, Alice Skye, Troy Cassar-Daley, Tasman Keith, Leah Flanagan, Frank Yamma, and Bunna Lawrie. The overall sound and the apparent ease of the band members was vastly better than the earlier performance.

Rob Hirst was, of course, just as physical and powerful as he always is. I can recall attending a performance of Dom Turner and the Backsliders with Ian Collard on harmonica, and wondering if eye protection might be wise, in case part of Hirst's drum hardware flew off into the audience like hand grenade fragments.

The Uluru Statement From The Heart was read in full as part of this live performance of Midnight Oil's first release of a new body of work in nearly 20 years, The Makarrata Project, and the guests list was very impressive. Gadigal Land, written by Rob Hirst, was played live with the full band, and Dan Sultan and Bunna Lawrie in a blistering performance. Alice Skye sang Terror Australia, written by Peter Garrett & Bones Hillman. "Now you can't talk about the future if you're running from the past. It's a terror in Australia, jails and guns and failure". Pitjantjatjara singer/songwriter and actual Desert Man, Frank Yamma sang Desert Man Desert Woman.

The entire show was brilliantly written and played, and very respectfully presented. It was a perfect ending to what had become something of a showcase weekend of local (in broad terms) performers and writers.

The juxtaposition of the venerable and the emerging was a wonderful and uplifting approach to this necessarily different WOMADelaide and, although there will be a number of people less than satisfied with the content and/or the format this year, I think that the WOMADelaide crew deserve credit for pushing ahead in very uncertain times to take the substantial risk to bring us four nights of great concerts.

For me, it was a pleasant change to not have to hear "Yo Adelaide are you ready?" bellowing from the main stage in Botanic Park, to the pulse of a generic drum machine, as soon as darkness falls, but rather to hear fresh young writers presenting new works on a world stage, and to have the absolute privilege of witnessing 'Uncle' Archie Roach's final farewell to his beloved WOMADelaide.

To post a comment, you must register and login.