Sunset Sounds 2010!

With my fake wayfarers and novelty boosh badges attached, the trip to the Brisbane river stage for the Sunset Sounds Festival 2010 involved a feeling similar to that time you almost caught that butterfly at age 4...almost wetting yourself with excitement! Giggling excitedly I was a little dumbfounded at the mass cue of weedy white people with similar expressions already lining up before the music even began. With Brisbane's finest boutique independent music festival drawing over 10'000 people early, I got my British on and cued skillfully in the 30+ degre getting in just as the openers began.

Day 1

Townsville product The Middle East kicked off proceedings at the garden stage with their usual blend of folk/pop which seemed to go down well with the crowd. After already enjoying the likable bunch 4 times this summer it is a sure testament to the group that they can continue to draw such big crowds and deliver great performances time and time again. Hottest 100 success story "blood" encouraged a huge crowd sing-a-long and provided an early highlight for the entire festival.

Still unsure as to why the crowd are all here so early a swift jog over to the River stage allowed front row viewing for the British pranksters Datarock. The overly relaxed crowd suddenly found some rhythm with the opener "Sex me Up" as the band thrived performing in front of the huge crowd. Drummer Ade Meehan joked about a broken leg front a stage whilst delivering his thick and driving drum lines keeping the crowd moving throughout the provocative set. Some jazzy saxophone coupled with outrageous dance moves and a killer rendition of "fa-fa-fa" left both Datarock and the crowd wanting more...unfortunately being cut short by festival organizers.

Something a little strange happened to the crowd post Datarock..... a surge of pasty white, horribly dressed lads forwarded to the front of the stage. Be it not for the overwhelming majority of horrid haircuts and bad teeth I wouldn't have guessed that a British poster boy was about to hit the main stage. Jamie T did not disappoint, infarct his set was rated by many as the highlight of the entire festival. Getting the crowd bouncing with "368", Jamie and his 4 piece band kept up the intensity dropping some lyrical bombs during "Kings and Queens" and "Man's Machine". With English flags waving and ugly people making out all over the place his set drew to a close with the sluggishly dull rendition of "sheila" however judging by a punter behind me... the performance was good enough to wet yourself...seriously.

There is nothing like a good festival being ruined by assholes wearing fluro. Like seriously... why come to a festival just to be loud and drink too much? Abuse women and get on peoples shoulders...? WHY I ASK WHY?! Well the entire asshole population seemed to dwell over at the Art Vs Science set. If a grenade went off mid set in the middle of the mosh a good deed would have been done as the horribly wasted boys and girls jumped up and down to the childish electro beating out of the Garden Stage. If in a 6 song period only the words "use your flippers to get down" and some french mumbo jumbo gets uttered... I feel something is seriously lacking in a bands catalog... and this is the case for Art Vs Science.

After some stellar reviews on pitchfork for their live show Rodrigo y Gabriella won the tough choice over Moby to play out the rest of my fun jumunji style day at Sunset Sounds. With a storm rolling over the garden stage my game card stating 'don't be scared it is not thunder, staying put will be a blunder' was proven wrong as the crowd lit up at the sight of the Spanish guitar virtuosos. What was surely the most talented performance thus far in Sunset Sounds history saw the dueling guitars battle out some stunning tunes as the crowd turned from a wet mob until an uncontrollable rave. The metal underpinnings of the band seep through into their work covering Metallica's "Orien" and shredding an acoustic guitar in a way I'd never seen before. Gabriella's tapping, which made John Butler look like a rookie, was epitomized during hit of the 2009 release 11:11, "Busta Voodoo" and amped the crowd up for a few final numbers rto send them off.



In what was a kind of relaxed day with only a hand-full of acts performing the overall vibe of the festival only added to the excitement for the day 2 shenanigans to follow.

Day 2

In the faithful words of the Fresh Prince.... let's kick it! Day 2 of Sunset Sounds 2010 was where it was at... no silly electro pop, no half cocked indie wannabe's..... it was all class as the finest alternative products from around the world were on show.

Kicking off the day was Canadian wonder boy Patrick Watson. With recent success in a collaboration with talented instrumentalists Cinematic Orchestra, Watson drew a reasonable crowd for an opening time slot. In a word his music is.... harmless. Some beautiful harmonies backed up with impressive piano and some good band backing showcased some dam fine alternative ballads which had the crowd swaying. Adding to his performance was the fact Watson seemed genuinely happy to be performing and was loving the crowd banter and that of his band. Finishing on new material which broke right down to a reggae style jape-off even the security guard cracked a smile at the fun-loving, scooby-snack antics up on stage.

Making sure my cohort and I were front of house, the hopes of us all were sky high as we waited for mastermind Andrew Bird to take stage. Hearing all about his breath-taking performance at the Sydney Opera House earlier in the week it became quickly evident that this grassy patch in front of a tiny, poor quality stage was indeed not.... the Opera House. Taking nothing away from his magical performance, (please note; using the adjective 'magical' is something I would have never done before witnessing what Bird does...) the seemless blending on Violin, Xylophone and some envyable whistling skills got lost in bad sound quality and leveling. It really hurt watching a man I so much adore, a man with so much talent, but was held back by his venue and this was the case with Andrew Bird's performance at Sunset Sounds 2010.



Editors are just shite. They steal, rape and pillage Interpol songs and still manage to somehow get that formula wrong. Over at the River Stage I decided to sit back, relax and close my eyes and pretend Interpol were on the main stage. This was going swimmingly for me until they played some material off their new album. Similar to giving a 6-year-old a synthesizer for the first time, the band painfully showcased songs off the 2009 release "In this Light and on this Evening" only saved by a good performance of "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" which did make me sway for a moment then snap back into reality.

God bless Lisa Mitchell. It's nice when a little known Australian Idol failure makes it good as every yelling girl at the festival flocked over to see her strut her stuff. For me, her Feist/Kate Miller Heidke/Sarah Blasko style act was nice enough but not world-beating however.... golly the girl does have talent. In what was probably the funniest crowd reaction I have seen in my time, during her hit "the $1 dollar song" the crowd began pelting coins at the stage hitting her and the ladies who cued for hours to be front row in a barrage of metally justice. After her pleading t stop the coins stop flying and the set got a little less interesting.

In what was surely the primary reason most indie types forked out the money for the festival, the wait for Brooklyn poster boys Grizzly Bear was unbearable... (ha) The surprisingly small crowd made up for it with sheer enthusiasm and excitement as the lads entered on stage to rapturous applause and white boy whaling. The intricate experimental pop/rock stylings of the band, which became so instantly addictive to many around the globe, could have easily been lost in distortion in a rabble on stage....but this was far from the case. An extremely tight performance with the Bear's pitch perfect harmonies and delicious guitar strokes entertained the goosebump laidened crowd. The choir boys sure did cement themselves as one of the most talented bunch's around with beautiful performances of "Two Weeks' early and "The Knife" surpassing all expectation. The set hit fever pitch with "While you wait for the others" as a poor man finally got to show off his Grizzly Bear outfit on my shoulders which he wore through the 30 + degree heat. Grizzly Bear left the crowd a little speechless and made the ticket price worth while for the handful of punters who stuck around the whole set.



I have never been so proud of my crowd maneuvering as was the case weaving towards the riverstage for headliners the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. Managing to get about 8 rows back, thick in the mosh, possibly impregnating a few people on the way, the excitment of a close up view of Indie goddess Karen O was unable to be retained. Shaking my moneymaker to a great pre-set rave of Rock Lobster and Vampire Weekend, by the time the YYY's hit the stage the crowd was pumped for an amazing night.... and that it was. There were really two ways you could experience this gig. One was to dance like crazy to the especially impressive new material off 2009 release "It's Blitz" as the incredibly enormous yet clean sound blared across the river stage. The second was to stop and admire the beauty of the spinning Karen O as she launched through her hit-laiden set. I did a little of both but the uncontrollable urge to jump around during "Heads will roll" and "Zero" seemed to win out. If there was to be a dampener on the performance apart from Karen O being clothed, a slightly slowed down and lackluster performance of favorite "Maps" left a little to be desired, but the 3 song encore left a smile on everyone's faces.



Sunset Sounds 2010 yet again proves that there is indeed a market for big alternative music festivals in Brisbane and with good management and some great performances, Sunset Sounds is pretty hard to beat for one of the best festivals in Australia.