REVIEW: Large And Recharged - Recharge 2020 Festival Brought The Goods

Presented by Delivered, Live in partnership with the Victorian Government, the inaugural Recharge 2020 Festival is a socially distanced, livestreaming festival that also celebrates the launch of the Victorian Country Market. While watching the awesome array of musical acts throughout the day, viewers are encouraged to visit the Victorian Country Market website to browse the virtual farmers market that features 200-plus vendors and hopefully purchase some local produce, which will then be delivered by festival and gig crew that have found themselves out of work due to the cancellation of festivals and just live shows in general. 

Recharge host Myf Warhurst kicks it all off with a Welcome To Country, seated beside co-host Henry Wagons in front of the (solar-operated) Delicious Delights coffee van: Henry gets a long black, Myf opts for almond milk in her coffee.

What makes Recharge Festival so special is the fact that once it's streamed live, that's it! There will be no other opportunities to watch this selection of full sets by primo Australian talent. Not to mention, it's the only gig in town at the moment and a chance for artists to perform what feels like a normal show with full lighting and PA.

Henry Wagons and Myf Warhurst.

As far as our new COVID-19 reality goes, livestreams are a thing that we’ve gotten used to. Thousands of artists have been doing livingroom and Instagram shows, as well as Twitch streams, YouTube concerts - the lot.

What Recharge Festival offers, however, is the complete festival aesthetic - including a main stage, a side stage, full production, professional sound, food stalls, community initiative, etc - but accessed through the comfort of a tablet or computer screen at home.

Gone is the five to ten-hour road trip to get to the festival site. Gone is obsessing over what kind of costume to wear, pitching tents, braving the portaloos and paying exorbitant amounts of money for a piece of gozleme. This is a music festival Netflix style - and, boy, is it nice.

The first set to be beamed live from Delivered, Live Studios is the Zimbabwean-born, Melbourne-based vocal powerhouse that is Thando. Accompanied by guitarist Cristian Barbieri, she delivers a spiritual Sunday service where viewers basically worship at the altar of her voice! Thando's attention to diction effortlessly lures us into the worlds vividly captured within her songs and it seems singing comes as naturally as breathing to this astoundingly accomplished artist. "We been fightin' day and night, day and night/Still can't get it quite right" - she opens with Gag Order. 

Thando's next song is about "finding your way back" from a relationship that took a wayward detour, she enlightens, and this really is modern soul/R&B at its finest. "I really love writing sad songs," she confesses. Thando regularly bigs-up Barbieri, revealing she co-wrote the next couple of songs with him. She then thanks Recharge Festival for providing this opportunity for artists to perform and encourages anyone who is a position where they can to dig deep and buy a ticket.

Something, from Thando's debut Digital Love Letters EP, boasts a funkier beat and goes out to those among us who may be feeling uninspired or in a funk: "Why don't you do something, that makes you feel something/Before you slip awa-a-a-ay!" We're told closer Naked is about "being honest and vulnerable and raw" and Thando encourages us to sing along in our homes ("I wanna see ya naked/ SING!" [pause 'cause it's our turn]).  

Thando has a luminous, joyous presence and that infectious giggle destroys us. Way to set the bar, Thando! Bravo.

Thando.

Despite the early slot, Bendigo local Sherri Parry delivers her empowering and quirky acoustic tunes from the Paddock Stage at Theatre Royal in Castlemaine to a livestream that was already pushing past 150 people.

Hannah Blackburn has a similar response, with a steadily growing number of viewers tuning in for her slot on the Main Stage. She sounds beautiful even through the speakers of a laptop, her full band helping to bring her dynamic alt-rock arrangements to life, and the harmonies with All Our Exes Live In Texas member Katie Wighton are absolutely breathtaking. True, each song is greeted with the echoey applause of the limited camera and sound crew in attendance, but there is a continued sense that finally, here is a glimmer of hope for live music.

Hannah Blackburn.

Coming to us from the Paddock Stage, Nancie Schipper is a one-woman band, accompanying herself on guitar today and opening with her latest single Take Out The Trash. "This is probably the weirdest live gig I've ever played and I'm so happy to be doing it," Schipper enthuses. Introducing her excellent, pared-back cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know (during which she "Oh-oh-oh"s one of the synth melodies), Schipper explains this song was popular when she was "in about ninth grade".

A slower number, Concrete, follows and here Schipper showcases her impressive and affecting upper register. "Everyone is walking around this venue with masks and gloves on," Schipper observes of the precautions that are being taken to ensure the safety of all crew and performers before closing with When You Get Home. Can't wait to catch this little ripper IRL on the other side.

Nancie Schipper.

We head back over to the Main Stage (without even getting off the couch) where Ainslie Wills is seated at a keyboard, her backing vocalist Nat Lewis appropriately social distancing and sitting on a stool on the other side of the stage. The pair open with Clear Air After A Storm, which Wills informs is a song about conflict resolution following a lovers' quarrel. After discussing the fact that many of us have experienced changes to our sleeping patterns while in lockdown, Wills performs Mountains - a song she reveals was written during a bout of insomnia. 

Wills then picks up a guitar and is upstanding to play a Tina Arena cover, Now I Can Dance. She then divulges she once performed this song at a Support Act fundraiser in the presence of Arena and was consciously trying not to make eye contact with this Australian icon. Lewis takes lead vocals to open Liquid Paper and her pure, clean vocal tone perfectly complements that of Wills. There's a wistful quality to Wills' singing, which evokes the exquisite timbre of Eva Cassidy. 

Fear Of Missing Out is an apt inclusion during this unprecedented wake-up call that's been thrust upon us and then Wills finishes with Society ("I need a break from this anxiety"), which speaks directly to our current situation. 

Ainslie Wills.

If cautious optimism is in the air, then ska-folk fusion act The Anecdote transform that to full-blown excitement with a wacky, somewhat psychedelic set that sees the trio performing arrangements featuring hand-percussion, trumpets and cello. “We encourage you to pash... With tongues for the duration of this song,” says frontman Andy Darling, before the band perform a beautiful rendition of Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer, no doubt inspiring acts of passion in living rooms around the country.

The Anecdote.

Warhurst sported an "I Love Fanny" T-shirt to support last month's Ausmusic T-shirt Day (which Fanny Lumsden responded to by posting a photo of herself sporting her own merch, customised to read "I Love Myfanwy") so she's obviously pumped for Lumsden's Recharge Festival performance. 

They've travelled down from Tooma, a tiny village in a valley on the Snowy Valleys Way, and Lumsden explains their opener Mountain Song was very much inspired by this region. This quartet - Paddy Montgomery, Lumsden's brother Tom, Lumsden and her hubby Dan Stanley Freeman - are evenly spaced across the stage and the sounds of this tight-knit family transport us to the countryside, the likes of which we can't wait to hike in now that some restrictions have lifted.

Lumsden's latest record Fallow came out on "COVID Friday", she explains. As a result, all tour dates were rescheduled to take place from November. Lumsden then fesses up that she was gobsmacked - aged 25 - by the realisation that the word February contains two 'r's. This fun fact made its way into Peed In The Pool's lyrics, which this awesome foursome perform next. "We've forgotten how to gig!" Freeman exclaims at song's close, but they could've fooled us! 

Fierce, Lumsden's love letter to all the strong women who raised her, follows. Freeman is then called upon to tell a "dad joke", which is suitably cringe. Lumsden's brother Tom - the one with the bushy beard - gets an opportunity to show off his lead vocal prowess during Fallow's second verse. Roll On, a love letter to the "red dirt road" that this ensemble regularly traverses while on one of their Country Halls Tours, follows. Lumsden and co then close with These Days, which is about how the days between Xmas and New Year turn into a blur and we tend to forget what day it is (kinda like every day at the mo'). This lot are charming beyond belief. 

Fanny Lumsden.

A large collective of nine musicians (including a three-piece horn section), The Northern Folk take Theatre Royal's stage with four members elevated on upstage rostra. They're usually a ten-piece, as a matter of fact, but we're told that missing member, trombonist Grace Hornsby, is unfortunately holed-up in Midura. The Northern Folk have been productive during lockdown, spending their time writing a new album, but today we warmly receive songs from their 2019 set, Watermark, including but not limited to the title track, Cold and Fourteen Days. 

The vocals of Paul Dyason and Georgie Currie blend into an intoxicating brew, which adds particular resonance to The Northern Folk's love songs - breathing life into both characters and supplying each with a voice.

They've run out of time, but Paddock Stage host Brett Glover asks whether The Northern Folk potentially have one more in them. Yes! Whiskey Jesus is then introduced as "a Johnny Cash rip-off that Paul wrote" and this merry encore stomper warms the cockles of our hearts. 

The Northern Folk have clocked up many regional festival appearances over the years and this results in what we experience today: a finely tuned, super-tight unit.

The Northern Folk.

Dallas Frasca and her band have bursting energy about their set - mixing southern rock riffs with blues, soul and attitude - which included Flying-V-sporting guitarist Jeff Curran take a backseat for a beautiful acapella interlude. Blues and dirty rock and roll are meant to be enjoyed up-close and sweaty, but it works incredibly well on a livestream too.

Dallas Frasca.

Between sets, there is plenty of variety to enjoy as well. Cubby House Rock sees some of the festival's biggest acts' biggest hits broken down into children's music lessons (why not learn Dance Monkey with your four-year-old?), while multiple cooking lessons with La Luna's Adrian Richardson replace the dreaded food truck cues that are usually the bane of music festivals.

The convenience of having the acts streamed live also means that you can just get up and put the washing or the kettle on and come back to a beautiful set by Archie Roach - singing songs of both beauty and tragedy, all firmly rooted in First Nations culture and experience. He shares incredible stories about his life and music between songs - watching Roach from the comfort of the couch is therapeutic beyond belief.

Archie Roach.

We're reminded of the most annoying side effect of multi-stage festivals (clashes!) while rocking out to The Black Sorrows on Main Stage - the seven-piece band of virtuosos fronted by Joe Camilleri - only to remember it's Adalita o'clock over on Paddock Stage! (Mind you, we promise never to complain about clashes again once festivals are up and running - we miss them so bloody much! Waaaaaaah!)

True to form, Adalita owns the stage like the absolute boss that she is, wearing a simple red flanno and trademark heavy black eye makeup while Hot Air echoes through Theatre Royal - mesmerising. Adalita tells us she last graced this Castlemaine stage on Australia Day of this year, for a special gig with Cosmic Psychos. She then says she's been working on a new album in iso - oh, man! The quality output we've got to look forward to as a result of artists having this unexpected 'time off'! Adalita then welcomes Amaya Laucirica to the stage and introduces an oldie that she hasn't performed in a while: Perfection. Adalita fans-out over Laucirica, encouraging us to listen to her latest album, 2018's Rituals, and then confessing she actually first met Laucirica after hearing what she was working on through the studio walls, which inspired her to rush over, knock on the door and introduce herself hoping to find out more about the artist behind the music. The pair perform Good Girl and then a cover, Your Ghost by Kristin Hersh, which Adalita informs she first heard Laucirica play at a Vic Market gig. 

Performing solo, Adalita then cranks up the reverb to maximise the quiet-loud dynamics of Heavy Cut. Once Amaya returns to the stage, the duo close out with a Neil Young cover, Barstool Blues, and we're totally here for this musical partnership.

Adalita.

Having enjoyed Hayley Mary's Delivered, Live set about a month ago, we eagerly anticipate The Jezabels' set over on the Main Stage. Drummer Nik Kaloper blows us away just as much as we remember and Heather Shannon's work on keys is heart-flutteringly delicious! Easy To Love always reminds us of that ace series Dance Academy (this song was used for Sammy Lieberman's Prix de Fonteyn dance during a pivotal scene of this show and never fails to raise goosebumps). 

As images of galaxies and brightly coloured, billowing smoke grace the giant screen tiles behind the band, bare-minimum banter allows for us to be fully captived by The Jezabels' sonic spell. "When I go to bed and I've had so much alcohol I'm a lost soul..." - hang on, has Mary been spying on us during lockdown? (Um, no, The Others came out in 2017.) Those galloping drum patterns pummel our emotions during Hurt Me as we await Mary's spectacular octave climb toward song's close: "HURT ME, HURT ME, HURT ME!" - ouch, there it is! And we're crushed. Then in comes Mace Spray - oh, man! The primal, emotional heft of The Jezabels knows no bounds. Dim the lights, light a candle and bawl your eyes out about the state of our planet while listening to The Jezabels; that's just the kind of sound therapy we all need right now. 

The Jezabels.

Despite some initial awkwardness Tones & I is able to really bring it home, beginning with a stunning cover of Flume and Chet Faker's Drop The Game. There’s no denying that she’s more than a one-hit-wonder - especially if some of her new and unreleased music (which was given a preview) is anything to go by - and her cover of Forever Young by Youth Group was a nostalgic but welcome rendition. A few tweaks to the live show and she’ll be a true force to be reckoned with.

Tones & I.

In front of an illuminated red "MISSY" backdrop, Missy Higgins opens her set with Sugarcane, accompanying herself on piano. She then stands up and moves over to the microphone stand and performs a song she wrote for her husband. Matty Green plays guitar and Higgins performs some self-described awkward dancing.

Higgins then returns to the piano to play a song written by Tim Minchin for his Foxtel series Upright and given that Carry You is a song about holding someone in your heart that you can't be with physically, she recognises it's a fitting song to include in tonight's setlist. Next up, Higgins performs a song on ukulele: Song For Sammy, which she wrote about her son, and a false start reminds us this is all going down live. She then explains her pregnant stomach came in handy as a shelf for her ukulele. Higgins tells us her mum often requests Going North ('cause it's her favourite), adding that this song was written about a trip she took to Broome after things got a bit crazy following the success of her first album, 2004's The Sound Of White. "What have you learnt that you're going to try to hold on to?" Higgins puts out there, encouraging us to pose the question. Higgins then admits there are some permanent changes she hopes to hold onto - in terms of the way she lives her life, day to day - on the other side of these pandemic response strategies. She closes with Everyone's Waiting and the understated beauty of what Higgins brings truly is a gift.

Missy Higgins.

Pierce Brothers bust out a scorching set to bring proceedings to a close. Jack and Patrick Pierce are mesmerising, their energy overflowing, and an attempted "hey!" chant demanded of all the people still tuned in across the country is a real highlight. The two prove that they were a cut above your average percussion/guitar folk duo, resulting in a raucous Sunday session.

Conclusion: Although we definitely ache for the return of actual IRL festivals, we'll take Recharge 2020 Festival in the interim. Furthermore, we certainly don't miss queuing for buses or trying to wait-out outlandish rideshare surges. Time to brush the fangs and go nigh-nigh while still riding this music-induced high.

Recharge 2020 Festival was executive produced by Leigh & Craig Treweek, owners of Handshake Media, publishers of theMusic.com.au