It’s that time of year again where Brisbane plays host to Australia’s finest musical talents, cramming them into the numerous Fortitude Valley venues to let them do what they do best.
The delegates are done with their nattering or conventioning, or whatever it is they do in the daytime, and the evening hours are left to let the music do the talking.
Image © Stephen SloggettBrisbane is the perfect city for this event, with its plethora of live music venues cramped into such a small space. Being from the UK and this being my first Bigsound, the lack of queuing and short walks between venues already had me at hello.
Such is the way with festivals, there’s always a risk that you’ll peak too soon and the evening with an exploded head. I decided to play it safe and start with Luke Howard’s ambient compositions at The Press Club. Ludovico Einaudi takes the format of classical music and applies it to modern rock/ pop song structures. Post-rock takes the instrumentation of rock and pop and uses them to explore classical song structure arcs that don’t follow a linear path. Luke Howard’s latest compositions embrace it all, somewhere in the middle, his melodic-piano centrepieces given a burst of grandiosity from his accompanying musicians. While The Press Club may be the worst laid-out musical venue ever made, Luke still manages to silence and entrance the room with his confident soundscapes. The synth driven new material brings to mind the jazzy genre bending of Portico Quartet, GoGo Penguin or BadBadNotGood. I am excited.
Killing time before GRRL PAL, I decide to check Anthonie Tonnon at Black Bear Lodge, and I’m glad I did. The one man whirlwind ventured between balladeering, Smiths-esque swooning and kitsch theatrics in just a few minutes. You couldn’t help but smile during his closing number as his piano-solo intro was joined by a full-band backing track giving Anthonie a chance to lead the crowd in a handclap before grabbing his guitar to bust out a solo. He’s a man possessed.
Inevitable scheduling problems were already in progress at the Woolly Mammoth’s Mane Stage as I inadvertently caught the last couple of songs from BUOY. Their downtempo trap-infused instrumentation contrasted with the delicate vocals of Charmian Kingston brought to mind a grimier version of Purity Ring, which was enough to make me happy.
GRRL PAL are an intriguing act on recording, writing wonky electro-pop in a more palatable manner to BUOY who proceeded them. The sound wasn’t great for their set which may have been due to a rushed soundcheck and it became hard to lose yourself in the music. As they kicked into a faithful cover of ‘Wildfire’ by SBTRKT, which added little to the original, I decided to cut my losses and head back to The Press Club.
Life Is Better Blonde were one of the highlights of the night. Melancholy-glitch electronics applied to soulful melodies. One of the things which makes it work so well is the strength of the songwriting which underlies it. The music is undoubtedly influenced by the minimal-bass driven R&B of James Blake, but has enough uniqueness to make me eager to hear more from this Melbourne-based virtuoso.
I took a minute to check out Hoodlem while Sex On Toast soundcheck downstairs at the Woolly Mammoth, but was too distracted by my excitement for the Toast to get my head around more downbeat electronics, so headed downstairs.
As the name alone suggests, Sex On Toast are not ones for subtlety. This is a band whose most popular song to date, ‘Hold My Love’, has the dubious badge of honour of reminding you of Phil Collins’ ‘Sussudio’. Sex On Toast don’t give a shit about your cynicism, they instead dazzle with incredible showmanship and an ear for a hook that gets songs like ‘Oh Loretta’ stuck in your head for days on end. Beneath the theatrics, they write some damn fine music that manages to transcend their vapid, larger-than-life '80s influences and can be filed alongside Chromeo as ones who got it right. If you haven’t had the chance yet, you need to see this band live. They put the fun in funk.
On my way to the next venue I poke my head in to catch a little of Sahara Beck’s set at Black Bear Lodge serenading the crowd with her Nashville-fused delta blues/ gypsy jazz that reminded me of that brief moment in the early 2000s where bands like the Squirrel Nut Zippers were suddenly chic. I mean this as a compliment. Alas I don’t stay long because I want to catch the intriguing NGAIIRE at The Foundry.
NGAIIRE specialises in bold, stripped-back soul that seem to look back at the early 2000s days of garage and two-step from a different angle to acts like Disclosure. The songs are centred on the powerful voice of NGAIIRE whose commanding delivery demands attention. There’s a contagious enthusiasm among the whole band as the backing singers keep cracking each other up between loosely choreographed dance routines. NGAIIRE’s alternative take on R&B is like nothing you’ve heard before and I mean that in the most positive way possible.
I almost missed Jaala’s set at Ric’s Bar but managed to catch a few songs to draw the night to a close. Their odd, time signature-infused indie-art rock brings to mind art-pop royalty like Deerhoof or Jeff Buckley, captivating you in a way that is impossible to get boring. ‘Hard Hold’ alone was enough to make me want to catch these guys and if this set was anything to go by, Jaala will be a name to remember.
Day two is going to have to pull something pretty incredible out of the bag to keep up with day one. The future is bright, the future is Australian.
Steve Morgan
Bigsound? More like bloody massive sound. Whatever the next level up from ‘embarrassment of riches’ is, QMusic have pulled it out of the bag in 2015.
With 150 bands on 15 stages over two nights, Bigsound Live is the metaphorical all-you-can-eat buffet of emerging Australian musical talent. The only problem with having so many options is the effort it takes to suppress your FOMO when working out a schedule for the evening.
The first stop for this reviewer also proved to be perhaps the most brutal of the night at Crowbar. “We’re Jack The Stripper,” announced frontman Luke Frizon amid a barrage of machine-gun kick drums and savage riffs, before scrambling over the railing and getting among his audience, which has doubled in size in the space of a minute, as his band’s guitarist spits beer over everything within a few metres radius. The quintet’s brand of merciless metal blows the cobwebs away and puts the eardrums on edge for the night ahead.
Jack The Stripper - Image © Stephen SloggettOver at The Zoo, Sydney’s Big White are equally impressive, albeit in a more jangly, indie-pop way. Their guitar-pop is innocent but intense, and laced with melodies to die for.
Tucked away in Winn Lane, there is a palpable buzz in the air as well as in the name of the largely unknown, but most exciting act of the night so far, Green Buzzard. With the floppiest of hair and finest of equipment the quintet give a first impression of being like Peace but with talent, and frontman Patrick Harrowsmith has undoubted shades of Tim Burgess and Ian Brown. “This is pretty cool for a Tuesday, no – Wednesday,” says their bass player to an audience too laidback to get into it. Expect big things from these lads.
Back at The Elephant, Melbourne’s Pearls are handing out a lesson in cool to a large and eager audience. A final flourish with their single ‘Big Shot’ is an excellent way to go out with a bang, before Perth’s Methyl Ethyl enjoy a similar helping of adulation before a smoke-hazed crowd.
As the air chills and the evening is well and truly broken in, Ella Thompson takes to the stage at The Brightside’s outdoor area with the voice of the night, hell; the voice of ANY night. The first of two performances from the talented Melburnian over two nights, prior to Dorsal Fins’ Thursday showcase, this over-too-soon set only reinforces the fact Thompson possesses one of the best and most soulful-pop voices in the country. Songs from her debut album 'Janus', including second track ‘Drift’ sound, quite simply, divine.
Ella Thompson - image © Stephen SloggettThe atmosphere at Ric's is thick with hype and brooding talent as Melbourne quartet Gold Class put in a masterclass of post-punk intensity and smart rock. With an unmistakeable whiff of Joy Division and a Soviet-era fashion sense, the band put in the best performance of the evening to surely win many new fans and mark themselves as serious new contenders.
Not-so-new contenders Cosmic Psychos, meanwhile, are putting smiles on the faces of everyone watching their cheerfully raucous garage and punk show at the New Globe. As an inflatable doll is thrown around the front rows and Ross Knight announces: “It’s a Wednesday – every day is a good day to go to the pub,” the band kick into ‘Nice Day To Go To The Pub’, and a mighty climax is reached for many punters’ first night of Bigsound.
Cosmic Psychos - image © Stephen SloggettOne last showcase can be fitted in for this reviewer, however, and it comes in the form of Le Pie at The Press Club. With a head adorned with flowers and socks pulled to knee height, the diminutive singer and her band find it hard to fill a 30-minute set, but with toes dipped in pop, punk and soul, the Newtown singer shows enough talent and promise to earn a rousing and well-deserved reception from a grateful audience.
As usual, Bigsound Live has delivered; most especially in the form of standouts Ella Thompson and Gold Class. May the hangover gods spare our souls as we aim to do it all again tonight.
Paul McBride
