Tumbleweed - Meredith Music Festival

In spectacular fashion, Tumbleweed transported us back to the glory days of Meredith in the early 1990s, when flanny shirts ruled the fashion stakes, dogs would chase each other around the amphitheatre and Hare Krishna food was about the only thing edible.

Tumbleweed, then as now, were the essence of bong-smoking, ’60s-loving outlaw grunge. The fact that they made it big (by Australian standards, at least) was down to their ability to write insanely catchy songs such as ‘Daddy Long Legs’ without compromising their dirty guitar attack. They might have faltered towards the end of their first incarnation and lost the hunger for the big riff, but on stage at Meredith for the first time (amazingly), they made up for lost time with a set that was more focused, more fuzzed out and harder hitting than one could reasonably expect from a bunch of reunited rock veterans.

The hair was pure vintage grunge, as were the stances of guitarists Lenny Curley and Paul Hausmeister, who hunched over their instruments with one foot planted firmly on the overdrive pedal. Singer Richie Lewis had lost none of his manic energy, looking as always like he was auditioning for a job as go-go dancer on Ready Steady Go!, or a cartoon version of The Seeds. It appears that a soup-bowl haircut, striped T-shirt and burgundy velvet jacket can still make both hipster boys and girls swoon, as a constantly swelling moshpit attested to. The Meredith security crew certainly had their hands full, signaling crowd surfers to desist and wrestling as many as they could catch over the crash barrier.

For many rock fans of a certain vintage, and a healthy number of newcomers as well, Tumbleweed were among the highlights of this year’s festival. Along with Texan garage rockers Thee Oh Sees and local heroes Eddy Current Suppression Ring, they managed to inject some real excitement into an event somewhat marred by too many bands that didn’t believe in such old-fashioned concepts as passion and vigour on stage.

by René Schaefer