Blues & Roots

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So what have I been up to lately? Not a whole lot besides working full time at Cafe Mozart in Mt Lawley, one of the suburbs just east of Perth. I'm working as much as possible, in hopes to have the funds to travel north.

There has been the occasional evening activity, such as the night walk at Karakamia Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw lots of whoylies (kinda look like large field mice), bandicoots, tammar wallabies, black footed wallabies, and possums (which look nothing like opposums and look more like cats!). It was very interesting and quite a bit of fun to spot the animals in the dark. The Sanctuary was set up back in 1992, with the aim to keep foxes and cats out and native wildlife in by the use of fences. The project worked, and the Sanctuary is home to many animals that are threatened or endangered outside the fenced areas, such as the whorlies and numbats. I still haven't seen a numbat, which is a rare marsupial native to the Perth area. I may have to resort to going to the zoo to see this little marsupial!

Back in early March, I also saw a ballet in an old rock quarry which is now used as a mini amphitheatre, and got to see Danny Bhoy, a Scott comedian, who was absolutely hilarious!


So other than that, I've been working almost every day, including weekends. But I did take a weekend off to go to the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, held on the Esplanade in Fremantle.

The line-up included big names such as John Mayer, Ben Harper and Bo Diddley, big Aussie names such as The Cat Empire, Wolfmother, Xavier Rudd, Missy Higgins, and John Butler Trio, as well as lots of other awesome acts such as Amos Lee and Blue King Brown. My favourite acts?

Bo Diddley. He's 78 and still rockin'. And he puts on an awesome show...he blew everyone else out of the water. John Mayer can't hold a candle to Bo Diddley. He was absolutely fantastic!

My other favourite acts were Amos Lee (fantastic voice...sigh), Blue King Brown (such fun, and quite the voices too!), and the Cat Empire (yay, I've seen them twice!). I also got to meet the guys of Cat Empire (who told me Montreal rocks and they'll be there in July), and Amos Lee (he also plans to hit Montreal in the fall), as well as Eugene Hideaway Bridges, who I didn't see perform but I got his autograph anyway (and nope, no idea who he is). Seems like he'd be an entertaining fellow to watch, although I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure.
John Mayer was good, although I found his drummer much more entertaining...the guy must've gone through a pack of cigarettes during the show and through an equal number of drumsticks, as they'd keep flying out of his hands during the songs! Ben Harper was the last act, so unfortunately we didn't see much of him as we opted to catch the bus before the big rush home...but from what I did see it looked awesome. The Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars were also quite entertaining...they were hilarious! And I found Xavier Rudd's three digeridoo's fun to listen to.

The festival was heaps of fun, and I thought it was definitely worth the money. It was really well organised, and I was quite impressed by the "Green Roots" activities. The most ingenious idea was the "Green Money". In exchange for collecting a bag full of crushed cans and water bottles, a festival goer could get 5$ "green" vouchers, valid at the bar tent or at the merchandise tent. And what a fantastic idea this was. All over the festival grounds, people (including our group of course) carried yellow biodegradable bags, collecting cans and water bottles and redeeming them at the Recycling tent for the vouchers. The result? Well, there were personal benefits...such as free booze and cheaper merchandise (we ended up paying only 40$ for three t-shirts at the end of the festival, as we had collected 75$ worth of vouchers!).
Then there was the benefit for all festival goers: Clean festival grounds! We couldn't get over how CLEAN the Esplanade was, especially after the big concerts on the second day. Such a good idea...I bet it saved the festival organisers heaps of money: instead of paying people overtime hours to clean up afterwards, why not pay the people at the festival to clean up during the concerts? And we were definitely more than happy to pick up cans, especially once we figured out how quickly we could fill up a bag and get 5$! Even people who weren't collecting cans were happy to pitch in with the efforts, offering their crushed cans to whoever carried a yellow bag. It was definitely a great idea, and I hope future festivals embrace it!

So that was the crazy Blues n'Roots weekend.

This upcoming week we'll head down south to Pemberton/Walpole/Denmark/Albany. Hopefully the weather will allow some awesome photos!

Quote of the weekend: "Men, if you want your woman to treat you right, keep her supplied with Vegemite" - Bo Diddley at the Blues n'Roots.

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