Wangaratta's Music Scene (or lack thereof) a Feature by neilfahey (Neil Fahey) Wangaratta is the most depressing place in the world for a person who depends on music for most of their fun... Wangaratta is a small town in North East Victoria. To put it bluntly, it's about the most boring place in the country. Living in Wangaratta Iíve had the opportunity to see many bands in and around the town, but very few of the gigs that I get to are successful. The problem with Wangaratta is that the majority of the youth just donít seem to be interested. Obviously in the past there has been successful gigs in the town. Years ago AC/DC played in Wangaratta, they would have to be the biggest band to ever play here and from what I hear it was very successful. These days we have events such as Party In The Park, which featured Puppetman, Meld, and Blynd. This just barely drew a crowd. More recently there was a Battle Of The Bands at the HP Barr Reserve featuring about ten bands. This drew between one and two hundred people, which was very surprising. The earliest gig I can remember in Wangaratta was The Meanies, supported by Man Or Astroman (from the USA), Cringer, Strange Neighbours, Wet Phibians and Shimmer. This was in December í95 at the town hall. Only about fifty people went to this and The Meanies were a popular band at the time. Triple J and Ausmusic presented this show. They gave up getting bands to Wangaratta for a while after that. But then sometime late in í96 they presented Moler and a couple of other bands, again at the Wangaratta town hall. A total of eight people were there this time, the bands didnít even bother to play. Iíd say Triple J and Ausmusic have given up on Wangaratta for good now. Albury/Wodonga seems to be the place now for these gigs. In the past six months, Regurgitator, The Fauves, Magic Dirt, Powderfinger and You Am I have played there, presented by Triple J, Recovery and Ausmusic. Itís a shame that if we want to see a good band, we will, most of the time, have to travel at least 45 minutes. At the pubs in Wangaratta, we rarely get mentionable bands. Apart from Muddy Puddles who play fairly regularly around pubs like The Railway, The Royal Vic, and The Vine. Last year The Vine started Live Bands on Sunday in their beer garden, which was excellent for something to do on a Sunday and drew in a few people. The bands that played there included Clumpy Bogg, Third Stone, and of course Muddy Puddles. But that all ended with summer. So a few good bands play in Wangaratta, but itís mainly the pub scene thatís successful. There are a few good young bands around town, but they rarely get the opportunity to play gigs. The best of Wangarattaís young bands are Lígomeinwiad, Crestfallen and Puppetman. L'gomeinwiad are Lachlan Routledge, Ben Hedderman, Matthew Andison, Luke Dykes, and Brendan D'amico. They are a reasonably new band and arenít big on the originals yet, they have only played one or two. They play lots of alternative/rock covers. Crestfallen is made up of Joel OíBrien, Chris Burchat, James Gross, and Brendan Díamico. They play mostly funky tunes, covering bands such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and also have some great originals. Joelís bass playing is amazing. Puppetman are Damien Shanahan, Aaron Shanahan, and someone else whoís name I canít remember. They play alternative/rock covers and excellent originals. Their favourite band to cover seems to be Smashing Pumpkins, which is fair enough because Damien has made the best attempts Iíve ever heard at the Billy Corgan scream. The main musical event every year in Wangaratta is of course, the TAC Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. This draws people from other states and even other countries to Wangaratta. The streets are always packed with people for the whole weekend. In my opinion the best feature of this festival is Blues at the Sydney. This runs on the Friday night and all day and night on the Saturday of the weekend. Last year it featured Australian and overseas talent such as The Backsliders and Johnnie Johnson. This years blues will feature The Hiphuggers and again Johnnie Johnson, this time with Joe Camilleri of The Black Sorrows. The only other musical ability that has the chance to be expressed in Wangaratta is through the few buskers we have. Of these the most regular has to be Hayden Green, he plays original songs on his acoustic guitar, usually out the front of Foxís or across the road at the bank. Hayden even released a tape of his originals in 1988 on Wangarattaís Ramac Records. But the tape doesnít even nearly live up to the sound he gets when he busks. ëI prefer to busk, that way I can gage the mood of my listeners. You have to play them like children.í Another busker that has lately been seen sitting outside the Commonwealth bank is a man with a portable cassette deck and two spoons, this man attempts to play along to a tape on his spoons but fails miserably. Morris Milarney can be seen some Sundays outside the National bank. He plays just about everything from the 50ís and 60ís up to the 90ís, for example The Violent Femmes. Apart from these three, there is a kid with a keyboard who also sometimes plays outside the National bank. What Wangaratta needs is for more people, young and old, to be interested in good music, and for the town to have more gigs where the local bands could show off their talent. Created on 00/00/00 and last modified on Sat, 25 Oct 1997.

LOUDonline - http://www.loud.net.au - Fri, 10 Apr 1998