Well, this was my first time at Good Vibrations and also my first time at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. I arrived at around 2:30pm, and not surprisingly there weren’t many empty car spaces near the venue. I ended up parking about 20 minutes walk away. Luckily the weather was good, it wasn’t raining, and things remained the same for the rest of the day to follow (if anything it got a little chilly as the day progressed).

Once I was inside I took a quick walk around the place to orientate myself. There were 4 stages: Main, Roots, Good Vibrations, and the Cocktail stage. At this point the Main stage had the biggest crowd, with only a handful of others loitering in front of the other stages.

On the Main stage Crazy Penis were rocking the crowd to a blend of very funky soulful vocal house. I hadn’t heard of these guys before, but I was really impressed with what I heard. After a short break, Freeland were up next. Freeland are a live band put together by UK dj Adam Freeland – a pioneer in the breakbeat movement. The band consists of a couple of guitarists, a drummer, an mc, a vocalist, and Adam on decks and fx. After Crazy Penis’ performance the crowd on the Main stage had emptied, and Freeland were playing to a small bunch when they started off. In a nutshell, I thought the Freeland sound was very “rock” and aggressive – I’ve never been a huge fan of the dance/rock crossover sound, but to be honest, hearing this perfomed live for the first time, and seeing them pull it off succesfully has changed my opinion. If anything, it could bring an even greater audience to the breakbeat sound. Freeland even played a remix of an old Nirvana song, which some love and some hate! The highlight of their performance was hearing “We want your soul” and seeing Adam Freeland don a mask of George Bush, then ending the song with a middle-fingered salute to the crowd.

Next up, a brief glimpse of Soul II Soul ending their performance to a massive crowd in front of the Roots stage, and then right back again to the Main stage for Nitin Sawhney – where local DJ Ransom was filling in time while the band were setting up. Once they got things going (15 minutes late) the crowd were treated to a very unique blend of eastern and western music, for which Sawhney is famous for. Angelic vocals from a stunning Indian beauty were combined brilliantly with African-American diva-styled vocals, amongst others. The feel of the music was very mellow and laid back to begin with, but gradually got a lot more groovy. Overall, the crowd responded really well to a sound that I can’t say we hear much of, or anywhere near enough of, hear in Australia. Sawhney was brilliant.

I left the Main stage in time to catch the Asian Dub Foundation doing a DJ set. For the short time that I was there the stuff they were playing was mostly drum&bass. They did have an mc, but it would’ve been good to see them do a proper live performance, maybe next time. I then headed off to the Good Vibrations stage which by now was fully packed, where one Miguel Migs (who I haven’t seen before) was supposed to be playing. I then weaved through the crowd to get to the Cocktail stage. They’re weren’t a lot of people there, but there wasn’t very much room anyway, most people seemed quite content to sit around on the tables that were dispersed around the area.

Back to the Main stage, where Tom Middleton was up next for a dj set. Interestingly, Tom unplugged and removed the Technics turntables from the mixer and then proceeded to mix entirely on CDs, using the Pioneer CDJ1000’s that were already there. As a result, a lot of what he played was very upfront. Unfortunately the vibe was pretty dead, so I went back to the Roots stage to see Blackalicious. Once again the crowd in front of the Roots stage was absolutely huge! It’s really great to see local hip-hop fans come out in such numbers to support this event.

Next up was Moloko on the Main stage. This is what I came to see, and I wasn’t disappointed. The stage was racked up with about 10 synthesizers, a Moog, a Korg, and a couple Of Nord Leads among them. By this time the sun had well and truly gone down and the lights added to the mood and excitement of the night. Moloko’s vocalist – Roison Murphy, was eccentric, theatrical, raunchy, and for me, the stand out performer of the entire event. The duo, who were accompanied by a drummer and some guitarists, and another keyboard player, played all their big hits – “The time is now” a personal favourite, saw Roison get up close to the crowd (flanked by body guards) with the crowd singing the words to the chorus for her. Every single song was given an enormous ovation. The crowd cheered Roison on as she continued her antics – military style marching across the stage, wrapping herself in a rope of coloured lights, the glasses, the head gear, the boots – all done in a short skirt and fishnet stockings. You really had to be there, she is a great performer, with an equally brilliant voice – best heard when she goes acapella and isn’t drowned out by everything else around her.

As much as I hated leaving Moloko, I had to check out what was happening elsewhere. So, back to the Roots stage where Gangstarr, in front of another huge crowd, had everyone light their cigarette lighters during a tribute to artists/rappers that have passed away in recent years (Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, etc…). Then, back to the Good Vibrations stage where the night was well and truly over. And finally to the Cocktail stage where another Uk breaks DJ (Tayo) was on the decks in front of a small crowd. Unfortunately, I didn’t last long while I was there, the pull to see Moloko finish off their performance was too great. So back I went, but to my dismay they had just left the stage. But in a matter of minutes they were back for an encore performance! This time the Moloko front man left his rack of synthesizers and danced in front of the crowd in a way that only he could! The crowd loved it.

Good Vibrations 2004 was excellent. I’ve never really been into live performances (although – I haven’t exactly been to many), but seeing Moloko proved to me just how much more exciting it is to see a live performance that it is so stand around and watch a DJ. Nice one.

9/10