Special Saturday

"Who's coming with me."  "Nah, We're going later."  "OK, I'll see you in there."  Clutching my roadie, I headed off to the bus so I could catch The Decemberists at Mojo.

Storm clouds had been building along with the humidity and I could feel perspiration dripping down my back.  Oregon's favourite indie folk rock band were back headed by leader Colin Meloy.  While The Decemberists figurehead mightn't exactly fit the rockstar mould, the band's popularity is hard to ignore.  So it shouldn't have been a surprise to me when the four nut cases in front of me went nuts!  Their album "The Hazards of Love" a tale of pregnancy, murder and shape shifting has occasionally accompanied a late night port by the fire, however, I wouldn't have thought it would go down so well in festive Byron.

Every Bluesfest an artist emerges that just blows you away, and at the 2016 Bluesfest that is St Paul and The Broken Bones.  Today's description, care of a tie-dyed baby boomer, was an accountant with a shoe fetish.  Around about the second song of the set that said sequinned shoe soared over the drummers' head and was soon followed by his suit jacket.  Capturing the spirit of Otis Redding they represent the new generation of blue-eyed soul.  Singer Paul Janeway channels Otis's voice and James Brown's stage presence but remains completely individual.  More please!!

Surprisingly, Saturday night wasn't the most attractive of Bluesfest's five nights, with a number of repeat performances at Mojo by D'Angelo and the hip hop crowd.  At Crossroads, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band were playing the same earlier set we had enjoyed on Friday replete with Mick's entertaining history lesson on the British Blues bands I had grown up with.  Things were going on swimmingly when crash, bang, wallop!, down came the rain.  As photographed earlier by my cousin SueEllen who resides near Lismore, the inky black clouds dumped 50ml on Tyagarah in a very short time.  Those thousands of gumboots will finally get an outing.

The previously dry and dusty grass in the 5 Seeds bar was engulfed by a tsunami causing the crowd to clump together on the bar's duckboards.  When the rain stopped, we gingerly made our way out through the sodden Bluesfest crowd in search of surer footing.  "Hey, let's go down to the Juke Joint."  "I want to check out the Residents."  "Who?" quizzed Kim and James.  "You know, that legendary avant-garde performance group who have kept their identity secret for over 40 years by hiding their true identities behind masks including giant eyeball heads, and are currently answering to Randy, Chuck and Bob."  "Oh, that Residents" they responded.  We lasted one minute.

Steve Earle and the Dukes were on again at Jambalaya, as we farewelled Alicia on her quest for the hip hop/modern jazz/urban R'n'B Nivana that was Mojo.