REVIEW: Wireless Fest, Powderfinger/Counting Crows [Festival Fever]

REVIEW: Wireless Fest, Powderfinger/Counting Crows

Posted on July 7, 2008 4:46 PM
1 comment

Fingering the Counting Crows
02 Wireless Festival
Hyde Park
Sunday, July 6 2008

Review by Tim Kernutt

On a day at the Hyde Park 02 Wireless Festival 2008 in which the Counting Crows was featured as the headline act, it was the Australian band Powderfinger that out-rocked all acts. On a rainy day in which Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, the Goo Goo Dolls, the Delays and Eddy Grant also played, punters may have gone home wet but would have been hard-pressed to be disappointed at the variety of bands on offer.

Arguably Powderfinger had the enviable task of following on from the tepid, but crowd-pleasing, Goo Goo Dolls. Led by lead-singer Bernard Fanning, Powderfinger has now been playing for nearly two decades having been initially formed in 1991. Yet so fresh is the new material from their latest albums, it is almost as if they are a new band. Having had a hiatus in 2005 when band-members decided to temporarily pursue solo interests, Powderfinger came back with a vengeance in 2007 with the release of 'Dream Days at the Hotel Existence'. Funnily enough, it was probably only the Australian and New Zealand contingent in the crowd (which was actually a significant number) that knew of the band before they entered stage right, however by the end of the performance in which hits such as 'Love Your Way', 'My Kinda Scene', 'Since You've Been Gone', 'Who Really Cares', and 'Baby I've Got You On My Mind' were blasted out across Hyde Park, everyone had the band's name on their lips.

It came as a surprise not to hear some of the band's older hits such as 'These Days' (from the hit Australian movie 'Two Hands' which starred the late Heath Ledger), however little did it matter especially with Bernard Fanning mixing up his performance with humorous comments to the crowd such as, "It's so nice to be here in the balmy English summer. You people must really suffer... with the heat!"

Ben Harper and his band the Innocent Criminals immediately followed Powderfinger, and Ben arrived to a cacophony of screaming female friends who were intent on letting him know how much they loved his way. Although playing a chilled-out set more fitting for a beach-festival than a rock-festival, the crowd were kept entertained with a diverse selection of the band's back catalogue including 'Excuse Me Mr', 'Gold to Me', and 'Steal My Kisses'. There is no questioning that Ben Harper is one talented guy, and he intersperses his rousing vocals with impressive guitar-playing. Although now approaching forty years old, Ben Harper shows no signs of losing his passion for performing, which can only be good news for his large fan-base.

Counting Crows started off their performance in a mild-panic no doubt induced by the talent that had gone before them, however soon settled in with particularly popular renditions of their hit singles 'Mr Jones' and 'Colourblind', a song featured on the film Cruel Intentions. Meanwhile, Galactic with Lyrics Born and Boots Riley managed to induce dance-floor fever nearby (on the grass at least) with a fun collection of tunes.

And so the festival drew to a close which perhaps was metaphorically music to the ears of those exhausted fans who had braved going to multiple days to watch a plethora of star-acts ranging from Jay Z to Mark Ronson to Fat-Boy Slim. How can the festival-organisers possibly top that stellar list next year?!

Highlights:

- The sun bursting through the clouds after rain had persistently irritated the crowd for an hour, shining immediately after lead-singer of Powderfinger Bernard Fanning had mentioned Spain.
- The charisma of Ben Harper.
- The Australian pie shop.

Comments (1)

Erika
I agree with Tim. Powder Finger definitely got the crowd screaming. I am expecting a mega stellar line up for next years festival!
Posted on July 8, 2008 4:30 PM