REVIEW: Campus A Low Hum 2011 In An Explore More Van

Since it's inception in 2007, Camp A Low Hum has gained a reputation for being an elite music festivals. The line up is kept top secret until the festival gates open and Blink (the organiser) deliberately avoids publicity. This makes for a very exciting buzz ahead of the festival and lots of speculation about what bands may be playing.

It's a bit of a struggle to remember everything that happened from Thursday 11th to Sunday 12th February because of the relentless pace of activity. It was literally non-stop live music from about 10am to 3am each day.

We travelled down to the festival site near Bulls in a Rotavegas Campervan, kindly provided by the generous folks at Explore More. Our classy black van was called Yoda. It drove like a dream with its V6 engine and was really comfortable to sleep in. I've never had the privilege of sleeping in a camper-van at a festival before, and this van seemed like pure luxury.  Had really good sleeps and plenty of room to chuck all our stuff in there and hit the road. The wooden platform for the bed slid out easily over our bags and it was nice to have a proper changing room and chill out space with an electric sun roof in the car park!

Overview

Camp A Low Hum is: chaos, randomness, a chilling spree, beach time, and a full timetable of endless new musical experiences, some hits, some misses, but many brilliant things to be discovered.

There were many things to be discovered at my first CALH. Firstly, 10.30am to 3am is a looooong day. I only made it to 2am myself. Just. There are around 70 bands packed into this three day festival but you don't have to try and see everything, in fact you can't! With half hour sets running back to back for the whole day, it can get pretty tiring! Also, many of the bands play twice during the weekend, giving them a chance to play on both indoor and outdoor stages. International bands may play one hour sets later in the evening, so an afternoon nap and/or swim are recommended if you want to recharge and stay up til the wee crazy hours.

The Beach - The beach was less than 10 minutes drive away, and was an absolute godsend in that scorching heat. When we got there, there was nothing for miles but a gorgeous greeny-blue ocean, driftwood and rolling sand dunes. Stunning. It really felt like you were on holiday, watching people play beach cricket with stumps made of driftwood and someone even made a bow and arrow out of some wood and shells. It was a little escape within an escape. When we were done, it was back to the fun at the indie hipster village..

The Renegade Room - this was a great idea, and resulted in many beautiful handmade posters appearing around the site, advertising impromptu sets from anyone who wanted to play. It did result in one timetable clash though! (not bad, only one major clash all weekend) which forced us to choose between Parking Lot Experiments' Pool stage set, and The Cosbys in the Renegade Room. Both were meltingly hot sweaty indoor stages, and both sets were totally amazing. We saw The Cosbys. They were amaaaazing.

The Best Bands - are the ones you've never heard of before - the best bits of any festival are often the sweet surprises you find whilst wandering freely from stage to stage. That idea seems magnified here at CALH, where you're at an abandoned school near Bulls, soaking up Blink's personally curated line-up. Falling in love with new bands you've never heard of before within the space of a 30 minute set is a heady experience. CALH is like an intensive crash course in every kind of music, and there's so much to see it can all pass by in a blur. You're left thinking - I loved that band but I can't remember how any of the songs went! But it's okay, there'll always be a few clips on youtube to refresh your memory.

The schedule isn't completely random, some thought definitely went into putting the lovely mellow bands on in the morning to ease you in. The gentle tunes of Great Earthquake, Freddy Fuddpucker and Hold Dear were all great ways to start your day. Familiar and reliable local bands The Drab Doo-Riffs and Lawrence Arabia were put in primetime 8pm slots to warm us up for the evening's partying.

Other great memories I have are of discovering the gym, shooting hoops in my purple sequinned party dress, and strolling through the art exhibition after sitting inside Golden Axe's glittery cardboard igloo. Squeezing into the squash courts and watching trippy projections on the wall during a guerilla gig. Lying around in the Chilling Spree tent, which served both as part the art exhibition and a great place to have a nap. The randomness of these secret worlds within CALH are something that keeps people coming back I think.

Then there was the ever present figure of Blink, calmly cycling around the site, surveying his kingdom. Occasionally you'd see him using his walkie talkie to the few security guards present, making sure everything was cool.

CALH 2011 Day Zero, Thursday 11th February

Street Chant and Wilberforces kick started the festival in the Barn, very late on Thursday night. Both bands (featuring Emily Litter on guitar and vocals) sounded great and was an exciting teaser as to what was to come over the next three days.

CALH 2011 Day One, Friday 12th February

St Rupertsberg - the charming sisters of St Rupertsberg arrived wearing a colourful array of flowing mumus which looked very comfortable to perform in. They had a trombone and trumpet, and lots of cute choreographed moves adding extra charm to their songs.

Rat Vs Possum - were recommended to me on Day 1 when Dave spotted them on the programme. But when I saw them on the outdoor Assembly stage I wasn't quite prepared for how good they really were. Retro marimba sounds in their upbeat songs made for an unbeatable and uplifting set. Had the best dance to these guys.

Parking Lot Experiments - adorably and infectiously happy. They're from Melbourne but their accents sound a bit American, apparently they get told that a lot! They were so much fun with their hyper and uplifting electro pop songs. And they came down for an extra special dance off in the crowd to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 'Murder On The Dancefloor'.

In the Renegade Room I managed to catch the end of Frankenbear, some Light and Blind, and DotEyes. All of whom were really good, and of the electro-fiddling variety as far as I can recall.

We saw so many other great bands on the first day too including Great Earthquake, Wet Wings, The Ocean Floor, Tiger Choir, Pikachunes, Pond, Royal Headache, Toro Y Moi. Not to mention the awesome DIY Noisemaking Electronics Workshop, giving people an introduction to building a synthesizer.

Went to bed around 12.45 kinda wish I'd seen Delaney Davidson.

CALH 2011 Day Two, Saturday 13th February

Started off with Freddy Fudd Pucker, a great way to start the day with gently delivered lyrics about less than delicate topics.. e.g. drunkenness, being broke, living in a van as a band on tour.

Heart Attack Alley played an awesome set in the shades. I went to the beach on the bus, tt was a bit late picking us up so only ended up with about half an hour in the water but oh what an amazing half hour that was. I'll take a refreshing plunge in the sea over queuing for cold showers any day.

Wet Wings, caught the end of this set at the steaming hot Pool stage.

Mothers of Darkness - much more impressive once I dragged myself out of the Chilling Spree area and had a proper look.

In The Renegade Room

Bitch Please - with a name like that I was expecting some screamy young punks obliterating my eardrums with an explosive punk rock set. I must admit, the name hooked me in so I went along out of curiosity and also to check out what this 'Renegade Room' was all about. What greeted me when I arrived was actually a trio of young men singing lush three part harmonies. Two of them - the drummer and frontman - looked like they were brothers. They had some really nice songs, and it was a pretty accomplished and pleasant set, including a slightly unexpected cover of Bjork's 'Hyperballad'.

Grass Vaults  -This was the first set in the Renegade Room where I walked in and the audience were all standing. There was an unexpected end to the set when frontman Alex decided to leave the stage early and go sit outside on the deck, head in hands. I thought it was just one of those cool 'I'm done now and I don't give a shit' endings, but the rest of the band looked confused. I almost felt sorry for them.

The Cosbys - it was Daves first time seeing The Cosbys and he was pretty blown away. It was hilarious enough watching the soundcheck when Matthew Crawley kept singing the line 'I wanna know what love is...' over and over again. He was wearing a rasta style beanie with fake dreadlocks flowing out of it. When he took his shirt off revealing a fake plastic pair of pecs and a six-pack, he had that crowd in the palm of his hand. The music can only be described as a red-hot party with extra funk that's good for your soul. And it was hot as hell in there too.

Also caught a red hot set from The Drab Doo-Riffs who tore up the Barn stage just as you'd expect them to, and did us Aucklanders proud.. oooh mammy.

Headed to the Gym for F In Covers then managed (only just) to make it to The Sneaks 2am set in the Renegade Room. Dunno how I stayed awake, but also no idea how I could let my tipsiness after drinking that much cider at a steady rate make me feel sleepy in a room that Hot and Loud. Went to bed with my ears fucking ringing.

Note to self - must purchase some earplugs from the merch room tomorrow.

CALH 2011 Day Three, Sunday 14th February

Hold Dear - being jaded and underslept also suits them apparently. Delicate songs delivered in a delicate state makes the music that much more real. Nice one guys, another beautiful way to start the day.

Then it was off to the beach! Dave dropped me off and I got to spend way longer there this time. Pure bliss. Another scorcher of a day so those swims were truly needed.

Renegade Room:  At one point around 3.20ish I wander back through the carpark after my bit of beach time and heard the most unholy racket coming from the RR space.. I think it was Food Fighters. My God, they actually managed to sound worse.

10K Free Men was Dave's favourite performance of the whole festival. All the way from Sydney, Tom Gilmore appeared on stage with only an original 1980's gameboy. He started by explaining that his songs are very short so he would do a lot of talking. His songs sound like retro computer game music with Tom adding some nice singing over the top. Although occasionally he does slip in to some death metal style screaming down the microphone. Like in his song Too Many Times about bad management and his boss (who was watching). It was too loud for Dedee and made her jump. You can download some 10k Free Men music for free from his official website.

Bachelorette   - watched at the Pool stage while munching on some damn good corn on the cob. Her new songs are a satisfying mix of well crafted beats and melodies, not too hard, not too soft, but as always - just right.

Thundercub - watched from atop a pile of firewood in the Barn stage, they reminded us of a lighter version of Three Trapped Tigers, with some clever math-rock sounds and pretty tight songs.

Lawrence Arabia - melodious harmonies and golden summer good vibes on the Assembly stage. Can never get enough of these guys, they hit the spot every time.

Spring Break!!!! These guys have amazing energy. Their music is a celebration of camp 80s dance culture cranked up to 12. A snapshot of their glorious set on the Pool stage made me think of the days of Wham!, except they bring party even more. There was enough voguing and bouncy beach balls to keep us happy for days on end. I even saw someone try and crowd surf on an inflatable pink lilo.

Orchestra of Spheres - trippy, but that's why I love them. There were some great vocal acrobatics where the two singers traded notes and shrieks at such a speed you'd think they were using proper witchcraft and telepathy, also the handclaps on and off the beat was mental.

Leno Lovecraft - as they say, the meek shall inherit the earth and it's all true y'know. Who would've thought some small skinny ginger guy could heat up the Pool stage even more. Apparently he's not very talkative in interviews, but on the stage tonight those short shorts showing off his pale hairy legs speak volumes. Wielding his guitar and striking sexy poses all over the place, this guy exudes confidence. The crowd could not get enough of him.

Caribou  - great fun. He aced it. Everyone jumped in and danced when he saved his big hit Odessa for the end and it was a proper memorable party moment.

Four Tet  - This was very much a 'clubby repetitive beats' kinda set. I kept going outside to get breaks for fresh air, but stood just by the door way so I could watch the whole thing descend and develop into one big stage invasion. Admittedly, if I hadn't been finishing off every last drop of alcohol I had I may not have lasted as long. Dave got bored after one song, the second track was just the same beat for at least 10 minutes apparently! Whoa.

I tripped my way over (causing a small but gnarly injury to my big toe on the way) to the Karaoke truck... and what should they be singing to salute the man himself but Blink 182 that is, and a good round of 'Say It Ain't So'. This was followed up by a merry chorus of 'Perfect Gentlemen' by Wyclef Jean. Then when some guy got up to sing 'Purple Rain' I knew it was time for bed.

Well done CALH, you rocked my world in more ways than one, taught me a thing or two about festival stamina.

Have a look at our Campus A Low Hum 2011 photo gallery.

Review by Dedee W & David Apple.