Sweaty Palms – The Entrance Leagues Club, Bateau Bay 19/03/16

The Entrance Leagues Club was transformed into a palm tree jungle for the one-of-a-kind Groovin’ The Moo warm-up festival Sweaty Palms, and herds of party animals from across the Central Coast and beyond flocked to attend.

Ordinarily populated by the odd handful of grizzled tradies having a weekend punt on the dogs, the Enny was full to bursting with 800 trendy young music fans, many of whom took full advantage of the event’s adorably avant-garde palm-tree-for-free-entry policy (much to the hilarious bemusement of the aforementioned tradies).

True to its name, the air at Sweaty Palms was perfumed with an alluring mishmash of leafy summer palm fronds and fresh sweat with notes of Hahn Superdry spilling from plastic cups as 22 diverse acts kept punters moving across two pumping stages for a solid 12 hour stint.

From the heavy-riffing hard rock of local lads Screaming Eagle, to the hip-hop soul vibes of Bootleg Rascal, the rampaging surf-rock of The Goons Of Doom, the dub-reggae fun of Ocean Alley, the alternative electro-pop of Elaskia, the howling blues rock of Man To Moon, the raw two-piece surf-punk of Bleach Girls, the good time alt-rock of IVY and the high-voltage grunge party that was Tired Lion‘s set, there was something to tickle the pickles of any and all species of music fan.

Headliners Kingswood were the kings of the palm tree jungle, fronting up on the leafy Pilerats stage just days after announcing the departure of their bassist Jeremy ‘Mango’ Hunter. Filling out their lineup with a stand-in bass slinger, the band shook the trees like a motherfucking T-Rex, cranking out all their biggest hits without missing a beat.

The good vibes of the whole event were jungle-fever infectious, and reached their zenith during Bootleg Rascal’s set when one punter was so enthused by the whole thing that he (successfully) attempted to scale a vertical gutter like King freakin’ Kong yelling “Woooo yeahhhhhh!” amidst a sea of crowd-surfing pot plants.

Even the organisers were having an unashamed blast, with one of the event’s masterminds popping a celebratory shoey onstage during Tired Lion’s set to toast a dynamite festival, before a fleet of chartered courtesy buses ferried punters off to the official afterparty at Proud Mary’s (which had been appropriately renamed “Proud Locals” for the night).

Music events like Sweaty Palms are a rarity on the sleepy retiree-laden Central Coast, and the roaring success of this national-standard mini-festival is a testament to the hard work and passion of everyone involved.

Would happily get our palms sweaty and lose ourselves in the music again #MomsSpaghetti