Good Vibrations Festival, Perth February 14, and Melbourne February 21, 2010.

It has been far too long in the run of Australian summer dance festivals since a party of this high a quality was thrown down. Even with cancellations – The Killers cancelled Perth and Friendly Fires reduced to a DJ set – Good Vibrations had enough variety, flavour, and leg burning energy to keep everyone with stupid grins on their faces for the whole day.

Through a strange synergy in logistical shenanigans, I arrived at both the Perth and Melbourne festivals just in time to hear Art vs Science getting into their major hit “Parle Vous Francais”. Art vs Science have a great energy on stage which infected the now swelling crowd gathered around their stage. Even their new stuff, little known by most punters, still kept everyone jumping. In Perth AvS had flippers thrown at them, while in Melbourne shoulder siting girls gleefully bopped around topless.

Next up was probably the most highly anticipated act of Good Vibrations; Salt ‘N’ Pepa. Such was the buzz that there were constant conversations between strangers asking each other if they were ready to “push it real good”. And for one of the few times, the reality exceeded the hype. Even though old enough to be the mothers of at least half of the festival attendees, Salt, Pepa, and DJ Spinerella can still bust it out with the best of them. Classics like ‘Push It’ and ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ were played to raucous applause, and their set included a slightly cheesy, yet oh-so fun sing-along mash-up.

Another of the old school hip hop acts to grace Good Vibrations was Naughty by Nature. Although I missed them in Perth, they blew me away enough for two festivals in Melbourne, dropping favourites like OPP and Hip Hop Holiday, through to new tracks ready for release this year. The Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! chants were odd at first, but certainly got the massive throng in to the spirit of chanting along with these impeccably talented artists. The crowd was also treated to a guest appearance by Salt N Pepa for the finale, who inadvertently broke into an encore rendition of Push It, much to all of our noisy delight.

Busta Rhymes followed on from Naughty by Nature, and although I missed seeing the man himself on both ocassions, he was by all accounts, a little average. It has been reported though, that he was accompanied on stage by Salt n Pepa and Naughty by Nature at the Melbourne show, which I’m sure was a whole lot of fun!
In the Laundry tent, old school techno stalwart Dave Seaman did a great job at building up the sweaty rave vibe, and when Craze took the decks after him the tent was simply set ablaze with massive drops, huge bass lines, and masterful mixing skills. In Perth the bulging crowd was at this point was turned into a seething, writhing mass of jumping, bouncing, grooving and fist pumping maniacs, while in Melbourne the initially small gathering quickly grew to fill the tent.

Back to the main stage and The Gossip also ripped it up, with the incredible stage presence of front woman Beth Ditto. She’s a big girl, but she’s nowhere near the size of her fabulously entertaining personality.  Following The Gossip was the living legend that is Armand Van Helden (on the Perth schedule) who also managed to keep the fires of the punters burning fiercely. A fantastic blend of dark and dirty, and cheerfully commercial, complemented of course one pair of the best mixing hands in the business today. AVH managed to stay o true to his New York house roots, and yet played so current to what the dancefloors of today want. He is truly the consummate professional.

Possibly the only down act of the day were the Plump DJ’s. Basic and unchanging breakbeat just didn’t seem to carry the energy the crowd demanded, and it wasn’t long before many of us returned to finish grooving to the other acts on show. For some reason, the Plump DJ’s kill it with their studio releases, but when it comes to actual live DJing, they have disappointed me on more than one occasion.

After Armand Van Helden we waited by the main stage to catch the start of the Basement Jaxx show, which opened with one of their commercially loved songs ‘Good Luck’. While the set was well polished and sounded the way it should, there were more exciting things to see over at the Roots stage…

Chase and Status, have managed to take the massive, dark-yet-beautiful sounds of their drum ‘n’ bass and dubstep to the live arena. Now standing alongside acts such as Shapeshifter and Roni Size Reprazent as the premier live dnb performers on the planet – and showing Pendulum how the transition from DJing should have been handled. Chase and Status, accompanied by an MC, a drummer, and a singer, were totally and utterly epic. Even with such hype around the old school appearances earlier in the day, nothing stood up to Chase and Status’ dance floor smashing performances. The highlight track of Good Vibrations Perth 2010 goes to Chase and Status’ huge remix of Heartbeat, which absolutely tore the house down, and sent me, along with many others, home with big smiles after a fabulous day at Good Vibrations Festival 2010.