Good Vibes 2010

A cold and rainy forecast for a very muddy centennial park. A festival in the pouring rain, a mixed blessing.

This was my first time going to a music festival and I was so excited to go. Busta Rhymes, Gym Class Heroes, Kid Cudi, Naughty by Nature, Salt N Pepa....awesome. The Killers were meant to headline but a close family member became very ill causing them to pull out of the Sydney and Perth shows. This meant that Basement Jaxx were the final artists to play.

The park is flooded by the keen masses of Urban and Dance music fans. I went with my friends Daniel and Zarah and the first thing we do..... hit the bar. A prerequisite to a thing like this. We decided that we would see 'Kid Cudi' first, so we shuffle into the crowd of "Roots" tent. Surrounded by the smells of body sweat and alcohol we await the nu-skool rapper to take the stage. Playing songs like the David Guetta infused "Memories", "Made Her Say" with the Lady Gaga hook and the 2009 party anthem "Day 'n' Night". He surprised me, because he was much better than I was expecting. I don't know if it was the people around me or not but he was fun to watch.

Next, we get to the front of the mosh for the New York band 'Gym Class Heroes'. These guys were my favourite act of the day. The main singer Travis McCoy has such an alluring quality while he's on stage. He's got a great stage personality, making it easy for him to hype the crowd up. I guess you could describe his segues into the songs a little corny, but whatever. After watching this amazing set by this live, alternative Hip-Hop band, i bought their 2008 album "The Quilt". I dunno why, but there's something about hip hop acts that play with a live bands, that i find really enjoyable. Snoop Dogg did this too in 2008 for his 'Smoked Out' tour (awesome gig btw) but with DJ decks on the side. With that being said, decks are such a huge part of Hip-Hop culture that it's almost blasphemous not have them. The guitarist had a wailing solo or two and the bass player got to have a jump around while the back up rapper waved a Gym Class Heroes flag around the stage. They played the Supertramp inspired "Cupid's Chokehold", the incarceration contemplation "Guilty as Charged" and Radio Killahh, Killah "Cookie Jar" [such a cool song!].

After this we saw the end part of the 90's classic Hip-Hop group 'Naughty by Nature'. They did the 'old skool' section of the festival getting everyone to show their inner 90's gangsta playing songs like Snoop's "Gin and Juice", 2Pac's classics "Hail Mary" and "California Love" and other assorted famous songs of rap's golden era. The mosh was packed, so we had to stand just outside the tent in the sprinkling rain, that left little droplets on our clothes. They finished off their set with their first major hit "O.P.P.".

Once this finished we bummed around the Main Stage area with Armen Van Helden playing before we went to go see Busta Rhymes. Busta to some people's surprise, actually has a lot old school respect in the rap game. He made his name in the mid 90's with rap classics like "Woo Hah!!, Got You All in Check", "Turn it Up (Remix)/Fire It Up" and "What's it Gonna Be". He played all of these for the "fans from '92". He got become more commercially famous for songs like "Break Ya Neck" (My fav of his), "I Know What You Want [Feat. Mariah Carey]" and "Touch It". Now, this rep that he's built made me really eager to see him perform. However, I found his set only mediocre and irritating. For those who don't know, Busta does speed rap which, like Twista, has been his gimmick since he started. He played a lot to that, and as you would expect, ran out of breath because of the blurted syllables. So he kept stopping and starting as well as rapping really softly and getting louder as he went along, for 'tension'. He re-started "Break Ya Neck" 4 times, because after his verse he wouldn't be able to do the chorus. It was such a bummer.

To finish of the night, we wonder towards the flashing lights of the Good Vibes Main Stage for Basement Jaxx. The rain was pouring, making every last cm of clothing drenched with water. By now we'd been standing, dancing and jumping for 6 hours straight. Dead tired but it was great fun. Admittedly, i didn't really know any of their songs except for "Where's Your Head At?" but it was still a fun way to finish it off.

I really liked this festival, it's the only one I've ever really considered going to (Maybe 'Days Like This') because Big Day Out isn't really my sort of thing and neither is 'Homebake'.

If the US Hip-Hop tour 'Rock the Bells' ever came to Australia that would be the ultimate festival to go to for Hip-Hop Lovers. It'd be a dream come true.

Check out what the 2009 line-up was:

Wu-Tang Clan

Nas

Common

Ice Cube

The Roots

Big Boi (Outkast)

KRS-One

Mos Def

Charlie 2na 

MC Supernat

Styles P

Slick Rick

Cypress Hill