Kendall Elise’s Bluesfest Report: Day 2

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Acclaimed Kiwi recording artist Kendall Elise and her drumming partner Chris Kemp are spending the holiday weekend in Australia, attending the Byron Bay Bluesfest.

Fortunately for us, she’s sending The 13th Floor daily reports. Here’s what she has to say about Day 2:

Day two was pure anticipation for the one act that I have been excited to see since he was announced, Iggy Pop.

During the day we bumped around from stage to stage trying to find something to entertain us while we waited for 10 PM to roll around but we found ourselves slightly disappointed.

There were frequent downpours that forced people to scramble into tents they didn’t want to be in. During quieter acts I found the sound to be lacking in volume and clarity, although that was probably due in part to the volume of people squashed in and the sound of the monsoonal rain.

A prime example was at Norah Jones. She performed some of her well known tracks as well as new. A rearranged version of Don’t Know Why threw the audience, but people still cheerfully tried to sing along.

The crowd that was listening were appreciative but unfortunately due to the sheer number of people talking, bodies squeezing in and out of the tent and issues with Norah’s microphone feeding back I feel the experience would have been tainted for those that were there to see her.

When 9 PM rolled around we went to catch the end of Hozier before squeezing into the Crossroads tent to get a good view for Iggy.

Iggy fucking Pop, what more can I say. We had high expectations and he over-delivered, a true legend feeding off the massive energy of the crowd. Chris’s top song picks were ‘Repo Man’ and ‘Some Weird Sin‘. It was pretty cool to hear him play ‘Jean Genie ‘as well as the classic Stooges tracks ‘1969′ and ‘No Fun’. If that was the end of the festival I would go home happy.

But as I write this I can hear Ben Harper sound checking. Roll on Day 3!

Kendall Elise

Click on any image to view a photo gallery of Day 2 Bluesfest:

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