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Can this really work? The idea is brilliant: You take three bands, bands that probably never met each other before because they make totally different kinds of music, and you let them play together because of the simple reason that they all come from the same county, that is  Australia.

Not three rock bands, not three songwriters, not three pop-groups, but one out of every genre.

The courage to do something like this is not easy to find, but Steve Iorio had it. Under the name “Great Australian Wave” he organized a new music-event to take the place of the cancelled event Popkomm.

The same man, Steve Iorio, gave ozmusic.de the chance to follow the entire story, and in that way left the doors open for us, meaning: we were present by the sound check, all through trip and also after the shows, this gave us the opportunity to get a good picture of how the bands played but also how they interacted with each other afterwards.
The last mentioned was especially interesting in our German eyes: Every musician was open for the music of the other. Also when said “this not necessarily the music I have to listen to every day” The people all agreed that there was no question about it, this was really good music, every single one of the three bands.

Mijo Biscan was the one to start this colorful mix off. Mijo does leading vocals for the band Lamplight, at least that´s what I thought when I met him, but in the interview he made it clear to me that Lamplight is a band with a slightly unclear future.
The singer wants to spend at least a part of the year in Berlin; also he is in the process of writing a lot of new songs.

The question that interested me the most was if it really is possible for Mijo alone, to create the same musical feeling he does with his entire band, with only an acoustic guitar. He tells me it’s enough to write the songs but that it often results in the songs being worked over pretty much later on with the band.
The week before, Mijo toured Germany as opening act for the, in Australia famous, Clare Bowditch. He got used to performing without a band, and according to himself, learned a lot from Clare.

He surprised with a missing beard and a new haircut. All in all it gave a fresh impression which matched well with the music. You could really see it on him that he enjoyed telling his stories, or rather singing them. It is thoughtful and deep-going music, lifted up by the impressive voice of this young Man from Melbourne (and Berlin).
A couple of songs that stick out are “ship in a bottle” and “A sun that will not rise”, both known from the Lamplight-album. The last mentioned song takes care of the subject casting shows a la “Deutschland sucht den superstar” (Germanys Idol) or “Australian Idol”. Never does the text get mean in any way or bash the subject , no, it’s the middle tones that make it interesting, foremost the musical ones. Off course they come to light better with the band backing the song up, but Mijo Biscan succeeds in presenting the song in a impressive way.

That you can await new music from him is something the song  ”I don’t want to miss you” proofed, a love song that obviously touched many people in the audience.
As opening act it can be hard to get the audience to really listen. But it wasn’t a problem for Mijo Biscan because the songs were interesting. Songs where it’s really worth to listen to the words being sung.

After a short break to change equipment Worldfly came onto the stage.??Worldfly are often filled with surprises because they can play with a constantly changing band on stage: you’ll  see them in a trio with acoustic  guitar, cello and drums. Then suddenly electric guitar and bass guitar might join, and if the mood is right maybe even some percussion. Every formation creates its own mood and has its own arrangements to make sure that a show with  Worldfly never sounds the same as the last one.

In Berlin you could witness Worldfly  live with all of the bands six members, including percussion. The applauding when the band entered the stage made it  clear that most people were foremost there to see Worldfly live, end they didn’t go home disappointed.
Almost the entire Album “it’s too late for turning back” was presented, and already with the opening song you knew where this trip was going: It was perfect, emotional pop-music with a meaningful message.
To see the cooperation of the six people on stage was impressive. Even if the drums were a bit too loud sometimes or the guitar could have needed a bit more room, Worldfly managed to pull the audience with them.
You could witness the people either dancing along or just being purely amazed by the wonderful melodies delivered by Worldfly. Unlike many other “our-music-has-an-important-message-bands” Worldfly knows how not to bore the audience. The dynamic of the songs it constantly changing together with the instrumental part, this makes even an entire hour with Worldfly seem as if it passed too fast.
The show is rounded up to the stories behind the songs by Michael. He tells them in a mix of German and English, and is probably positively surprised himself by how many people from the audience who really do pay attention.
Musically, Worldfly were perfect. They showed that pop-music doesn’t automatically have to be flat and without any deeper message. Songs like “Someone special”, “A small boat” or “Beautiful place” has real single-potential and could, without a doubt be rotating around 70% of all German radio stations.
It was not to be mistaken: On the stage are people who ”want”. They want to show their music. They want to be played in the radio. They want up on the bigger stages. And everyone in the audience will be sure, that after a show like this, it is exactly what they will succeed with. The show they played will in a short time make people who were there say: “Worldfly? Yeah, I know them since those times they still used to play in small bars”

Then everything became loud.

Tracer entered the stage and the dreamy flower-power feeling was kicked out.?To me Tracer was the biggest surprise of the evening. Don’t get me wrong, the other two acts were amazing. But that’s also what you could expect from Mijo Biscan after listening through the album from Lamplight once. Also when it comes to Worldfly it’s no surprise that they’re really good live.

My personal attitude towards Tracer was more like this: “Ok, another three guys in the age of 20-something who want to be loud and noisy, Yeah, thanks been there done that” I was positive that it would take 20-something seconds before Tracer made me want to leave the room.

So much for my prejudices. I stayed because Tracer are unbelievable.

Something is happening between the first and second step in the stairs to the stage, something is being installed, or changed. The three friendly, polite and almost shy young men turn into wild music-animals whose level of adrenalin is almost hitting the roof of the room. There is energy pure from first to last note, they do their thing so good it’s practically impossible not to go along with it. Drummer Andre plays his drums as if it’s not that important that they are still functional the next day. Bass player Leigh hammers the bass so hard it fills the entire room and you find yourself asking why this young man isn’t constantly running around with bandages on his fingers. Michael, the singer is in full control of all kinds of emotional displays, he whispers, sings, shouts and screams and on top of that he just “happens” to be playing the guitar.

And it is not at all the kind of “wall” of eardrum-blowing noise I had been expecting. This is music and Tracer knows what they are doing, the songs are well-structured and pure. Grunge-rock meets rock from the 70’s and they even throw in a hint of Blues. The label Stoner-Rock that this colorful mix got, doesn’t really give it what it deserves.

Tracer offers us songs from their Album “L.A.?”  All of the songs are delivered with much more energy and power than on the Album. They also play some new songs. When you for example hear “Voice in the rain” you realize that these young gentlemen from Adelaide still have a lot of gunpowder to shoot with.

After more than three hours the concert is over that took me on a trip through all kinds of different styles of music. Three acts and every single one of them found their own way to spellbound the audience. This concert showed what a high-quality and variation there is to get from the Australian music-scene. Most of the people will leave and ask themselves why we don´t get to hear more of this kind of music here. We will wish for it, and we will definitely wish for mijo Biscan, Worldfly and Tracer.