Live Review: Groovin' The Moo

The traffic congestion down Bendigo's main drag makes the annual Groovin' The Moo festival impossible to ignore. Sharp-dressed tourists hang outside motor inns and it's immediately clear there will be many young 'ladies' wearing casual layers, but with makeup and hair fit for a prom, onsite today. Leading up to the festival entrance there's some amateur graf decorating partitions, which suggests a community initiative. A thorough bag search sees a fella ask the question, “Any pens?” as he peers inside. Pity the old-school pen and paper reviewers!

While hasty animal onesie purchases are finalised (cows are still the most popular, for obvious reasons), Hungry Kids Of Hungary warm up the Moolin Rouge tent, setting a high standard from the get-go (it's just past midday). Old favourites such as Let You Down sit proudly alongside excellent new song When Yesterday's Gone and hearing the strength of this band's live set two albums into their musical career illustrates their on-the-mark songwriting. The Bris Vegas four-piece warm dancing bodies right up and many revellers get an early start with the festival ground already nearing capacity. The ground is littered with those plastic Smirnoff hipflasks (already drained), a coupla movie tickets and (seriously) a pack of contraceptive pills (thankfully only the sugar pills remain).

Urthboy brings the early b-b-bounce to the outdoor triple j stage with a medley that includes Blur's Song 2 (“WHOO-Hoo!”). His own The Signal (featuring the sweet, “Please come home,” sample) turns the paddock into a trampoline. Jane Tyrrell singing the hooks live really gives the Urthboy live experience a winning edge. Matt & Kim up the ante bringing party-rockin' vibes to the adjoining Channel [V] stage. Kim Schifino drums like a demon and her impressive guns prove she spends a lot of time pummelling her kit. Matt Johnson throws confetti into the crowd and it spreads so far that he must've been a javelin champion at college. When multi-coloured balloons are thrown into the crowd for the punters to blow up and brandish, the effect is spectacular. They are the cool LMFAO.

When Seth Sentry arrives on the adjacent stage, it's a bit of a case of: 'Where's the balloons?' His underdog hip hop is well received – especially The Waitress Song and My Scene – but we've already seen so many bells and whistles today that we're ready for pyros.

Making the pilgrimage back to Moolin Rouge, and warmth, The Amity Affliction pull a massive crowd of fanatics who belt out every lyric with appropriately emotive facial expressions. They may be from Gympie, Queensland, but they perform like international heavyweights and are received as such. The alternating vocals of Joel Birch and bassist Ahren Stringer sees each strive for a better crowd reaction when it comes to their respective part and this one-upmanship adds to the electrifying atmosphere. A Pikachu onesie-wearing bloke crowd-surfs and this fittingly illustrates the looseness this band have encouraged throughout their stellar set. 

Back out to the brrreezy conditions (those Groovin' The Moo printed tights must be raking in the dough at the merch) and Alpine are bringing their breathy harmonics to the [V] stage. Co-frontladies Phoebe Baker and Lou James compete for the unhinged dancing title and if you shut your eyes, Alpine's music really does conjure mountainous vistas. Far from just supplying music that's pleasant to do the spring cleaning to, Alpine are a more danceable concern live as best demonstrated by Gasoline.

Most females in attendance sport unflattering, high-waisted Lycra disco pants and then there's that gurner whose embroidered beanie reads “Comme de Fuckdown”. YACHT play a phenomenal upbeat set in Moolin Rouge, injecting some class into proceedings. Frontvixen Claire L Evans looks smokin' in a long white lace dress with visible short black slip underneath and Second Summer is like a call to the wild with its video game blips and cheeky lyrics “…Can you stand by your man?/After shit, shit hits the fan.”

Next up on this stage is Pez, who labels the Bendigo massive “bendies”. Seth Sentry gets up for a feat and leads a Happy Birthday sing-along for Pez, later revealing it was actually the rapper's birthday yesterday. The Festival Song was always gonna be today's festival game-changer and it's time for some after-five fun and frivolity.

Wandering past a “No Horses Beyond This Point” (really!) sign and back out into the open, They Might Be Giants are owning the triple j stage. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) makes us wish we'd headed out here sooner for more of their quirky steez.

From the moment Tame Impala step onto the [V] stage, the punters are in raptures. Frontman Kevin Parker's trademark beseeching lyrics in opener Solitude Is Bliss – “You will never come close to how I FEE-eel” – speak to many teens experiencing that painful rite of passage: unrequited lovesickness. The Perth multi-instrumentalist virtuosos play their 'what just happened?' version of Elephant straight into Feels Like We Only Go Backwards and the Bendigo Groovin' The Moo massive are rendered powerless. Even if you've seen this outfit gazillion times, you'll eagerly await every twist and turn of their set. Their riffs are the musical equivalent of a bargepole manned by six burly Scotsman bursting unexpectedly through your front door.

Canadian indie rockers Tegan & Sara are up next on the triple j stage and suffer by comparison. Walking With A Ghost rouses some excitement but the glowsticks and hands in the air over yonder in Moolin Rouge beckon. Oh, of course! It's Flume o'clock. And what an amazing year and a half this young producer, Harley Streten, has had, with four songs listed in the latest triple j Hottest 100. The standard 'How much is he actually doing up there and how much is it just press play, dance and tweet' beefs apply. Sure, there are impressive visuals to look at if you're up close enough (or on shoulders) and Holdin' On (“HIP-shakin' mumma I love you”) would make a statue dance. Flume closing with his take on Hermitude's HyperParadise is also a stroke of brilliance.

There's a much needed lift back to Melbourne to catch and so we say adieu to Bendigo for another year. But not before loitering at the signing tent to watch Tame Impala, pens poised (how did these get smuggled in past security?). Seeing the faces on the kids as they walk away from Kevin Parker and Co, clutching their freshly signed items, is heartwarming and yet another reason why this festival rules. Next year, freshly polished black biker boots will be traded in for gum boots. And maybe an overnight stay can be booked in the night prior to capitalise on that $16.95 all-you-can-eat buffet at the local Pizza Hut.