Live Review: Here's What Went Down At Bluesfest Day Four

It’s Easter Sunday and we stumble from the tent all bleary-eyed and delirious. This lack of sleep is rough on our bodies. There’s an air of family tradition though and parents set up Easter egg hunts throughout the campground and punters have foregone hats for rabbit ears.

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• All The Action From Bluesfest 2019 Day One
• All The Action From Bluesfest 2019 Day Two
• All The Action From Bluesfest 2019 Day Three
• All The Action From Bluesfest 2019 Day Four

Miss Velvet & The Blue Wolf are a band which should not be opening Bluesfest in all honesty. The people that are prepared to bust a move this early in the morning are borderline crazy. Regardless, the band waste no time jumping into a lengthy blues rock jam which hits us harder than the double shot latte we had minutes previous.

Shakey Graves plays off the Easter vibe, dedicating the set to “you and yours” marveling at the fact this is a tradition for so many. It’s a cruisey set of indie-rock tunes with a blues soul and we’re pleasantly surprised by what we see. 

If you take one thing away from today’s review, let it be this: don’t sleep on Fantastic Negrito. Hot damn. We heard the hype from the band’s previous sets and wish in retrospect we caught all three. Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz is a born storyteller, regaling the crowd with quips like “that mic stand needed viagra” and assuring us he isn’t on cocaine. Sonically, it’s tight, and we are having as much fun as the keys player’s grin suggests he is. A cover of classic folk tune In The Pines has us completely sold (as if we weren’t already). “I bet you’re wondering what is this chocolate amazement?” Dphrepaulezz asks the crowd. And coming in blind, we might have been, but by the set’s end, we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

We feel like we are at the altar of soul when The War & Treaty takes the stage. Promising healing music, we definitely need some of that with the heat reaching a new maximum on day four. We've witnessed so many legends like Mavis Staples delivering legendary sets with voices which are in the history books. The War & Treaty are an example of a fresh band making their way into the history books with unreal voices.

Australian pub-rock legend Tex Perkins then brings his swampy rock goodness to the Crossroads stage care of The Fat Rubber Band. With the same beastly rock’n’roller attitude, make no mistake, there’s an old country soul here.

Deva Mahal is an absolute queen of the stage on the Jambalaya tent. Her voice makes us cry, makes us dance and makes us believe that Ariana Grande was right when she said “God is a woman.” Closing her set by bringing out the horn section of The California Honeydrops for a huge crowd participation moment, Mahal is beaming but she is just reflecting the good vibes spilling out from the crowd.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats give off some strong “just came home from Nascar” vibes when they hit the stage, yet the boisterous voice of the frontman grips you. Crowd-pleaser SOB is a blues rock explosion to a crowd that rivals Hozier for the biggest of the festival. A fair in the crowd that were just waiting for Jack Johnson got more than they bargained for.

Melbourne Ska Orchestra PACK out the Crossroads tent and we hope the stage is reinforced - how many people are up there?! It’s a real fun time with film and TV show covers, band-audience call and response, mid-song selfies and in true orchestral style, music stand banners.

In all honesty we didn't think anyone was going into the last days of Bluesfest hoping to bawl their eyes out but Meshell Ndegeocello made it happen. Her emotional performance as an almost stilted angel on stage had us captivated and made our tear ducts lose control. The build on Fool Of Me is enough to make anyone completely change their life trajectory - it absolutely floored us.

While Ndegeocello has us in a pool of our tears, Anderson East hopes to pull us out of our stupor. Don't let the fact that this man has a track on the ‘Fifty Shades’ soundtrack distract you from the fact that his live show is one for the books. He takes every opportunity to get the crowd making noise and dust off those mud soaked dancing shoes one more time.

Jack Johnson and Bluesfest, or perhaps just Byron Bay in general, are cut from the same cloth. There’s a return to the simple things tonight; a guy and a guitar, up on stage playing music with his mates. And although Johnson may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the huge turnout singing along to his easy-breezy tunes suggests otherwise. Surprise appearances from Lukas Nelson, Gary Clark Jr and Paula Fuga add depth to the mix and Johnson takes a selfie moment with the crowd holding their reuseable drink bottles in the air; he has recently launched the BYOB campaign. Bubble Toes blends seamlessly into a cover of Steve Miller Band’s Joker and there are bulk singalongs for crowd favourites Banana Pancakes and Better Together. There’s a love affair here between Johnson and Byron so we’re fairly sure this won’t be the last time he graces this stage. 

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic end day four and what a way to end it! With the third generation of Funkadelic in tow, Clinton delivers ten fold on his final Australian shows. With two straight hours of boogieing as the collective bring out classic characters like Noso and a sea of dancers to keep our eyes overstimulated. Classic tracks such as Flashlight pop off but it's the ultimate We Got The Funk which extends into a near fifteen minute jam that turns the crowd inside out. A full tent screams as members of Funkadelic spit verses over the top of the jam, constantly reinventing the classics, all the while George Clinton as the ultimate hype man with a smile from ear to ear forces the crowd to stay on 10.