Do the five-day grind once more

Yes I've been to Womadelaide again (almost two weeks ago)!

Tank and the Bangas

After getting in to the festival on Friday afternoon, establishing camp and meeting up with friends, we wandered along to the stage part way through this set. Straight away I wished I had been there the whole time. Tank and the Bangas are from New Orleans. Lead singer Tank is a slam poet as well as a singer. She was an energetic bundle of feel-good charm and charisma. I'm not exaggerating.


Anoushka Shankar

I didn't get up close for photos but I really enjoyed this set. I hadn't listened to Anoushka's music (Land of Gold is now on its way to me) but I do remember when she played Womadelaide in 2010 with her famous father Ravi Shankar. That was a quiet, meditative, classical show. I remember an incredible shared mood in the huge, quiet, seated crowd stretching way back from the main stage. This was quite different - with a lot more varied and modern/western influences. I was mesmerised by her fast playing and the rapid bouncing her thumb had to do, anchored on the top of the neck of the sitar while the rest of fingers were strumming. It looked like it would be hard on the thumb joint.



Rodrigo y Gabriela

I had vaguely heard of this duo but don't think I'd really heard them before. (They've been big for a decade; I'm just slow.) They got their start in a metal band in Mexico, and went on to play as a duo in seaside resorts. I gather these jobs were about providing 'authentic Mexican atmosphere' but in an interview they said they didn't have a lot of suitable repertoire so they adapted a lot of metal and rock material to play in a Latin style. At some point they moved to Ireland, had to start out busking because Irish hotels tended to hire Irish folk musicians, but quickly gained a following as their own distinctive rock/metal/folk acoustic guitar style emerged.

 

I was interested in how they do all they do with nylon strings, and this article about the guitars was pretty interesting.

After a delay getting started (while a Tool track played - something you'd expect at a stadium gig but no one wastes that sort of time with a 1-hour festival set) the performance was absolutely worth waiting for. These two love to play and clearly love to play together. I was fascinated with Gabriela's style in particular - she's kind of a one-woman rhythm/bass section, with some kind of flicking strumming movement and plenty of knocking and tapping on the guitar body - and she really played to the crowd as well. I'll be listening to them more .