Sarah Pfeiffer is currently studying on exchange for a semester at the University of Newcastle. In the past Sarah has worked as a Marketing Intern at the 9:30 Club, a “rock & roll” club in Washington DC. Sarah submitted the following article about her first Groovin’ The Moo experience.
Disclaimer:
Because I am American, and have only been in Australia for a few short months, the devotion to Australian heartthrobs and local bands doesn’t resonate with me quite as deeply as it would to a local, which in turn may have severely skewed my lineup choices and opinion on some of the following acts.
Let me also note that I consider seeing live music, especially bands I have never heard of, one of my favorite past times. I love to dance, head bob, throw my hands up, and watch a huge crowd react to the positive energy radiating off a stage. I love a good build-up in a set list, and I love hearing bands do covers live, especially if they are a band with only one or two hits.
Music for me, equals happiness. Festivals are oh so lovely because of the happiness you can find at them. Everyone has a huge smile on their face, people are dancing around the grounds, stomping to the beat, and have on outfits that could kill the style of New York Fashion Week.
It may have been because this was not my first festival rodeo, but I was notably disappointed with the layout and some points of execution of the festival. There were small tweaks fixes that could have changed my perspective on the festival dramatically.
- There were two ATM Machines in the entire 18+ grounds, which caused me to wait in line and miss almost all of Jarryd James set. Only one was working, and there wasn’t even a member of the event staff there to help regulate the line. People were cutting the line in groups of 5 or more making the line move slower than a snail. Thankfully a girl came up to me and directed me toward the 18 and Under ATM machine that had no line, or I would’ve missed Jarryd’s James’ entire set. This dilemma could have been easily fixed by the addition of credit card acceptance at all vendors or simply the addition of more ATM machines on the premises. It has been proven in many cases that people spend more when they are able to buy with credit card.
- I had a VIP wristband, went in to the VIP Bar to buy drinks, ended up buying one for my friend, and then was told I was not able to take drinks out of the VIP Section even though the area outside of VIP was 18+. The staff told me it was because they were selling high alcohol content drinks inside VIP but there was no signage to point that out to me before I bought two drinks.
PHOTO:Sarah Pfeiffer.The Triple J and Channel [v] side-by-side stages (pictured above) were a great idea in theory, but their poor execution made the shows suffer. The combination of stellar acts, small stages, and poorly planned sound checks caused for major disappointment in my eyes. The small stages were set up side-by-side for the main purpose of one act beginning minutes after the other finished, while keeping the same crowd. I understand management wanted to shorten time between shows in order to fit all performances in one day, but I am not so sure if overlapping sound check and ongoing performances was the way to do it.The acts scheduled to play on either stage were so well-known, they inevitably brought enormous crowds with them. If you were standing in front of the left stage, closer to the left side, when the next act came on the right stage, you could barely see the show and were forced to watch from a screen set up on the dark stage in front of you, or take your chances with trying to push your way to the right through a tightly packed crowd. Even though a screen might have been a good idea in theory, the band next in the lineup was also doing their sound check making it difficult to comprehend which sound was coming from where. The sound of tuning instruments and an ongoing performance do not mesh well together. The quick fix to this problem would have been to move the stages a simple 100 meters from each other. Yes, it would create a mass movement of people from stage to stage in between sets, but it would not damage the sound, and the sound is what we call came for, right?
- It wasn’t until late in the game that I figured out what The Plot was. There were absolutely no signs to describing what or where it was, but the names of the artists were included on the lineup. I have a very adventurous soul, so I took a friend with me to go check it where I thought the entrance to the stage was. When we got there, we weren’t surprised to find any more than 40 people there. Turns out, it was basically a rave cave half way around the show ground. The music was great and the DJs were people who you’d think Groovin would take the time to market for. If more people had known about this stage, I think it would have been much more of a success. Without good marketing before and inside the show ground, the stage became expendable.
So in total only I only have four tips: get more ATMs or accept credit card, change around the dynamic and signage inside of the VIP section, move the dueling stages apart a couple meters, and make sure to heavily market all your entities.
I will hand it them though, for a one-day festival in the grass, Groovin the Moo’s lineup was pure gold. There were so many shows to choose from that the show decisions you made were crucial to how your personal line-up would play out.
My Personal Groovin Lineup:
13:55 DZ DEATHRAYS
When we arrived to the the show, DZ Deathrays had just taken the stage. They were a little too heavy metal rock for my own taste, but they sure knew how to rev up a crowd! They did a fantastic cover of the song Woo Hoo by Blur that rocked my socks, and everyone else’s too!
14:40 DRAPHT
Paul Reid, better known for this stage name Drapht, was a force to be reckoned with. His act was one that pleasantly surprised me. Going in I did not know a single one of his songs, but Drapht you have definitely gained a new fan. His song Jimmy Recard was stuck in my head for the rest of the day, and still continues to be a day later. His songs have catchy, easy choruses to sing along with, heavy rap stories that intrigue the listener, similar to that of Eminem, and rocking tunes to back up the rap that make you immediately want to move your body. As far as Australians artists go, I would put Drapht in the hip-hop genre alongside great artists like Seth Sentry and Illy.
15:25 MS MR
I was very excited to see MS MR, and they killed it for America just like I thought they would. The lead singer attracted attention with her bright red hair, leopard jumpsuit and killer dance moves. However, their poppy sound did not immediately go over well with the crowd that seemed to only be waiting for SAFIA to come on afterwards. Nevertheless, MS MR was able to draw in the attention they deserved with songs like Hurricane and Criminals that got the crowd singing along.
16:10 SAFIA
The crowd pushed forward and went crazy when these three members came on stage. Before their show, I had only heard their song, Listen to Soul, Listen to Blues, and was very excited to see what else they had to offer and just how well they would perform. I was waiting for a high-hype song to come on, but after looking around at the crowd dance and stare in awe of their performance, I began to understand the reason they liked SAFIA. They were chill, they were relaxing, and their performance consumed of creative beats, and lovely vocals.
16:55 JARRYD JAMES
I’m so sorry Jarryd, you did phenomenally from what I heard in the line for the ATM. Do You Remember was stunning even from a distance.
17:40 TWENTY ONE PILOTS
This was my third time seeing Twenty One Pilots, and I was just as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. The crowd went wild during their set, and especially when they put their drum set on a board on top of the crowd. How insane, right? I was so happy the crowd went just as crazy for them as they would in America. However, this is where the dual stage bit Groovin in the butt. During their set, the music went from loud of quiet quickly, and when Tyler Joseph was trying to speak to the crowd, he was abruptly interrupted by the drummer from the Rubens warming up. Oh, and you bet Tyler called him out. Tyler said something along the lines of, ‘thank you to all the fans and thank you to that band over there for ruining our set’. Twenty One Pilots is so big in America now they would be headlining a festival like this. It was surprising to see them so early in the evening, but they did phenomenally, and I cannot wait to see how they do in Australia in the future.
18:30 THE RUBENS
The Rubens and Twenty One Pilots were number one and two on my list of people to see at Groovin the Moo. We stood to the left of the crowd for Twenty One Pilots so we could get the best of both shows and in turn be in the very front for the Rubens. After Twenty One Pilots created such a hype in the crowd, it was hard to tone back down to enjoy the Rubens, but enjoy them we did. The lead singer came out in a white and black button down that had a 50s/Elvis vibe going on. Hoops, Hallelujah, and My Gun were crowd favorites, and they definitely held up their own against the previous crowd-winners, Twenty One Pilots.
19:20 DANNY BROWN
Danny Brown and his hype man tore it up. I do not know a single one of his songs, but I had a complete blast. His set was accompanied by some trippy, digital, Sims-like graphics that I could not, for some reason, take my eyes off of. I danced my hardest to the song Dip, and I assure you, Danny Brown put the entire crowd into a coma, a Kush Coma, to be exact.
20:30 ILLY
The second I heard Illy’s voice, I could not get it out of my head that he was the perfect Australian combination of Mac Miller and G-Eazy. His set was another one I was surprisingly impressed by. Tightrope was so great live, as well as his song Cigarettes. WARNING: Get ready for him to release new music that will immediately top the Australian charts. He performed a few songs from his unreleased album, and they were great. So get ready, he said they will be released soon!
There comes a point in a music festival goer’s day where the body is just tired. Whereas some people sit on the lawn and regain energy for the later acts (Boy & Bear, Alison Wonderland, Ratatat etc,) my group decided to push on. Our favorite acts performed from 5PM to 7PM and after that we found ourselves almost too exhausted to continue, but boy did we want to. Half of me wanted to push into the mosh and dance the night away, and the other half was begging for my bed.
When I got home, I got a stern lecture from my roommate on why I was stupid to leave before Alison Wonderland. I know I could have stayed longer but I would have been a zombie bobbing in the crowd instead of actually enjoying myself. Maybe I just needed a RedBull, but either way I can still listen to Alison Wonderland, Odesza, Ratatat, and Boy & Bear thanks to the greatness of Spotify.
Thank you Groovin the Moo, I surely grooved till I couldn’t groove no more.
With love,
SP
PHOTOS: Swamp House Photography
