Live Review: A Day On The Green

An immense crowd has turned out early to witness a day of Oz rock in the beautiful surrounds of the Sirromet Winery in Mt Cotton, and the massive hill in front of the stage is already filled with blankets and folding chairs as Boom Crash Opera kick off proceedings with their slick brand of radio-friendly rock, tunes like Hands Up In The Air, The Best Thing and perennial favourite Onion Skin wringing out smiles and memories in equal doses.

Soon the familiar sunglasses-clad visage of James Reyne takes the stage and starts banging out the hits like he's never been away, solo staples such as Fall Of Rome and Hammerhead nestlng comfortably among Australian Crawl hits such as Beautiful People and Reckless, which is the first bona fide classic delivered today. His band is remarkably solid and the renditions sound fantastic, and when he finishes off a fine set with Errol, On No Not You Again and the ever-awesome Things Don't Seem all and sundry are happy as sops at a winery.

Next up is Baby Animals, but the whole thing just seems a touch stale and overwrought compared to what's already come before. The smoky voice of Suze DeMarchi is instantly recognisable – as are the bigger songs like Rush You and One Word – but it's all rather uninspiring, even if some people up the front seem to be getting into it big time.

Even knowing full well that it was about to happen, nothing can prepare you adequately for the strange sight of Dave Gleeson fronting The Angels – it's as if they've squished two well-known bands together, and people continually discuss the chances of them belting out their favourite tune by The Screaming Jets even as they pummel us with a stream of Angels gems such as Marseilles, No Secrets and Shadow Boxer. And watching a drunken horde of middle-aged parents scream back the bogan crowd refrain to Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again? Priceless, albeit sort of disturbing.

By now it's dark and everyone's pretty smashed, and the mood is one of joyous reverie as the familiar faces of Hoodoo Gurus enter the fray and start rather cautiously, opting for a literal interpretation of A Place In The Sun to remind people what they've been doing all day, and then following up with the one-two punch of Tojo and Right Time. Early on it's not quite the 'greatest hits' set that everyone's envisaged, songs like Out That Door and Gene Hackman causing as many furrowed brows as cheers of recognition, but they soon ramp it up and everybody is singing and dancing to a slew of classics including My Girl, Miss Freelove '69, Bittersweet, Come Anytime, What's My Scene, and I Was A Kamikaze Pilot. The encore highlights the evergreen I Want You Back and they finish with frenetic party anthem Like Wow – Wipeout, a fine end to a brilliantly fun day of music and frivolity in one of the most picturesque settings imaginable.