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GreazeFest 2007 Review (Page 1)
 

Words by Lori Lee
Pix by Pete

GreazeFest Arrives

I was grabbing some lunch on the Thursday before GreazeFest and couldn’t help but notice all the rockabilly cats walking around West End. They must have been the earlybirds and those who secured the closest motels, killing time while waiting for the weekend to begin. I stopped in to the local fish’n’chip and was surprised to hear the girl behind the counter ask if I was going to GreazeFest that weekend, prompted no doubt by my GreazeFest tshirt. Then the cookie stopped frying fish for a few minutes to add he intended to go to the GF hot rod show. Jeez, I thought to myself, even the local fishos are going to GreazeFest, the weekend is going to be bigger than I thought.

What started as an underground festival, privy only to those with insider knowledge, the GreazeFest has since grown roots and flourished into a colourful and unique weekender with an easy-going vibe that larger festivals can only dream about.

The weekend attracted thousands of people from all walks of life. The core crowd came from all over Australia, including Tasmania and Perth, as well as New Zealand, America, England and Japan. It’s exciting to meet these people at GreazeFest and to discover the common threads linking our scene together. Kustom kulture disciples are a committed and active crowd. They make a huge effort in how they dress, they drive extraordinary cars, they decorate their bodies in sensational tattoos and they support and enjoy loud and live music!

Pre Party

The Thursday night pre-party was a great way to meet everyone before the big weekend. Ric’s Bar is a cozy venue and the intimate setting was packed wall to wall with greazers and glamour kittens. The bulk of the crowd spilled out into the beer garden, making a visual feast and turning a few heads in the usually drab Valley mall.

The Throttle Zombies welcomed everyone to GreazeFest 2007 and launched into a Cramps-infused set of garage rockabilly. The crowd shook their hips and squealed in delight. The trio is fronted by local lead-foot Jimbo, who tonight paid homage to Lux Interior by wearing six inch stiletto heels and snake skin trousers! Up next was local hillbilly act, Corn Liquor, who pushed the already excited crowd to new heights and had everyone bopping on the spot to their galloping moonshine tunes.

Friday Night

The Sinners Ball on Friday arrived quickly and hundreds of psychobilly cats and kittens donned their most wicked outfits for a long night of top notch rockabilly. As I walked around the crowd at The Sinners Ball, I dug the fact that GreazeFest has grown its own legs, with many of the sinners attending GreazeFest for the very first time. Brisbane’s warmer weather opened the door for the tattooed types to flaunt their stunning skin art and everyone was looking sharp. It was an exciting audience and they were ready to party. 

It takes talent and bravado to be first band up on Friday night at the GreazeFest. The Ten Fours took the bull by the horns and tore through a tough as nails set of rockabilly and rhythm’n’blues. Standout tunes were their take on The Sonics ‘Have Love Will Travel’ and their crowd pleasing closer ‘Midnight Mover’.

The No Nos were one of the surprise acts of the weekend. Coming all the way from Tasmania, this trio was almost unknown to the GreazeFest crowd, but when they started playing their Cramps-meets-Link Wray-meets Johnny Cash twang, the sinners became drawn to them like bees to honey.  

Halfway through their set, a younger member of the crowd jumped onto the stage and commenced a spontaneous striptease. ‘Nude Boy’ as he is now known, teased the crowd with glimpses of skin and by the time I made it to the front of the room, had his strides around his ankles and was doing the snake dance while The No Nos played on unfazed. Nude Boy brought a smile to everyone’s lips (had me smiling for hours) and he received resounding applause at the end of the song, when he was dutifully whisked off stage by security. I remarked to a pal afterwards, “it would have taken a lot of guts to do that”, to which he added “yeah, and a lot of beer…!”.

Next were The Nervous Wreckers who put in a solid set of rockabilly delivered with polish and pizzazz. This rockin’ Sydney trio gets better every time I see them and tonight it was great to enjoy them playing for a large and receptive crowd, who by now were partying in full swing. The dance floor was understandably bouncing when they covered the Go Cat Go classic ‘Please Mama Please’. If the space was too packed to jive, you just bopped on the spot. Rockabilly bliss!  

The Voodoo Kreepers were our special guests of the night, having flown over from New Zealand for their first ever visit to Australia. The trio encountered a few challenges in the lead up to GreazeFest, resulting in two hospital visits for their drummer Julian followed by a bureaucratic bungle at the airport in NZ. It was a relief to finally see them arrive at GreazeFest that evening, even though Julian was still on crutches. Read their story on their myspace site here: www.myspace.com/thevoodookreepers  

The Voodoo Kreepers cd release ‘Fistful of Voodoo’ was on high rotation on Brisbane radio and on myspace, so when they hit the stage, the audience already knew their songs and were singing along to originals such as ‘Baby Been Shooting’, ‘Blood Brothers’ and ‘Getaway Deuce’.  On stage, the Kreepers were a sight to see. Geoff, the dreadlocked bass player, was throwing around his ‘Jack Daniels’ bull fiddle like it was a ukulele and Julian’s drum set up was unusual to say the least (check the pix).  

Sometimes when bands aren’t purely rockabilly or if they dare to be different, the crowd gets opinionated. I clearly recall Gentle Ben’s performance in 2003 – all the rockers at the bar bagged Ben until Big Sandy piped up and declared he was good and they promptly changed their opinion!!.

The smoking punters who were outdoors on the smoking deck were quick to judge the Kreepers by their song choices, as they weren’t watching the whole package. Singer Ricki’s vocal talent was indisputable when they covered Chris Isaac’s ‘Wicked Game’ and hit every high note perfectly, leaving most sinners and musos with their jaws dropped in awe, but left the smokers confused at letting “that kind of song in under the radar”!  But, it’s a minor point in my view; the Voodoo Kreepers have earned themselves scores of new friends and fans and will undoubtedly be back to Australia for more fun in the future.

It was hard bringing the Friday night Sinners Ball to a close. The company was so good and everyone was having such a great time, it was tough to kick you all out. But you can’t stop the hands on the clock spinning around, so we had to pull the pin until the following day.
 

The Ten Fours ...                             click on image to enlarge

The Nervous Wreckers...

The No Nos ...

Saturday

Saturday saw the welcome return of the GreazeFest Street Cruise, organised by long time GreazeFest supporters, The Eliminators. Thank you Eliminators! Around thirty hot rods and classic cars rolled into the Eliminators Clubhouse to shoot the breeze before hitting the highway for a cruise around the southside.

The cars rolled into Souths in the early evening and we chilled out with a steakburger or two, before the Greazers Ball that night. With the advance tickets selling out in advance, it was expected to be a big night and it was with a HUGE crowd rocking up. Many people have remarked that this Greazers Ball was the best night GreazeFest has ever experienced.  

DJ Mike da Moocha and his vast range of rockabilly was in his element, spinning songs to keep the greazers dancing and ensuring the party stayed in full swing for the entire night.   

First band of the night, West Texas Crude set the standard early. Andy Dashwood led the trio through a scorching set of Sun era rockabilly. Bass player Jon Flynn declared the goal of the night in their final song - the sizzling ‘Let’s Rock Tonight’, sparking on the already energized crowd.  

Up next were The Lucky Shots, a new country band featuring Pat Capocci on lead guitar, Dave Bean on flaming green bull fiddle and cowboy Matt Hull on vocals. These lucksters put in a fine set of honky tonk beer drinking music with a nice rockabilly edge, with tunes such as Junior Browns ‘Highway Patrol’ and ‘Hung It Up’. They sure kept the dance floor swinging to their fine western tunes.  

The Flattrakkers were next on stage and they pulled out all stops with a scorching set of hot rod rockabilly, great tunes and killer licks. Some greazers are saying they were the ‘best’ band of the weekend, but choosing one band out of nineteen is not in the GreazeFest game plan. What I can say is that they ROCKED and looked the part too with their pinstriped Gretsch and Coop devils head bass! These guys are have got this hot rod rockabilly sound nailed.  

Star attraction of the night was Wes Pudsey & The Sonic Aces in their first ever performance at GreazeFest and they worked it like they’ve been saving all their energy for this show. Wes and the Aces did what they do best, and that is pure and authentic rockabilly played with fire and passion. Guitarist Rob Taylor was on the money with every rockabilly lick from both his Gibson and his Danelectro, Wes was in top form, drummer Bruce was laying it down and newcomer Dean Upston slapped that bass like a veteran. The dance floor was packed with rockers and everyone in the room was on their feet. If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.

These rockabilly cats are where it’s at for real rockabilly and they ended the Greazers Ball on an absolute high.

West Texas Crude ...

The Lucky Shots ...

The Flattrakkers ...

Wes & the Sonic Aces ...