- 2017’s New Years Eve found me falling off a roof. How fitting that my introduction to 2018 would be at Byron Bay’s leg of The Falls Music and Arts Festival. Sharing the site and programmers of bigger sister festival Splendour In The Grass, Falls is provides a lush, green, safe haven for music lovers to ring in the new year with 16,000 of their closest friends.
Strolling down to The Valley Stage (The Amphitheater for all you Splendourheads playing at home) I found myself in Byron’s largest and most densely populated pub. The sun beat down as the ex-Sherbet front man, Daryl Braithwaite bounced on stage, not skipping a beat and stressing patience when a ‘Horses’ chant rang out two songs into the 45 minutes set. Daz and his band serenaded the healthy crowd with ‘Howzat’ and a Ryan Adams cover ‘Do You Still Love Me’, before capping off the impressive set with everyone’s favourite karaoke song to sing when they’re several Milton Mangoes deep: ‘Horses’ - repeating that famous chorus no less than a dozen times. Ahhh, euphoric.
Falls Festival showed lots of love for Brisbane music this year, including indie darlings The Jungle Giants on their New Years Eve line up. They opened with On Your Way Down which threw the crowd into fits of excitement as the sun dipped behind the hill at the amphitheatre. Sound problems plagued the set however, as their Quiet Ferocity, became well, just quiet.
The stand out of Sunday’s musical offering was Foster The People. Having fallen out of touch with their music, and not really bothering to give much time to the new record Sacred Hearts Club, had me feeling a bit bashful as frontman James Foster (who was giving off serious Charlie’s Angels sexy villain Eric Knox vibes) wooed the bulging Valley Stage. Closing with a cut off the new record Loyal Like Sid and Nancy, instead of notable favourite Pumped Up Kicks raised a few eyebrows toward an otherwise faultless set.
Geeze, I feel like I’m the only one in Australia who doesn’t get Flume. Pulling a massive crowd is a cakewalk for the young electronic phenom, making him a no-brainer booking for the midnight set, but beautiful, geometric lighting props, dramatic curtain drops and confetti cannons only held my interest for so long. I’ve well and truly missed the boat on ‘Skin’ and his New Year’s Eve’s set provided no motivation to climb aboard.
Day two had me up and at em’ early to catch local legends Bugs. The Brisbane threesome have been enjoying a well deserved wave of success off the back of latest single ‘Neighbourhood’. Bringing their specific brand of Aus-pop enthusiasm and energy to The Forest Stage, the crowd lapped it up their all too short set and delighted in bangers ‘Best Friend’ and ‘Instant Coffee’. Props to front man Connor Brooker’s graceful recovery and his ‘sweaty feet’ after a mid song tumble. Having voted for Bugs in the Zed Hot 100, my advice would be to keep a close eye on these boys - they’re my next-big-thing pick for 2018.
Anticipating crowd numbers for festivals can be dicey, sure. Organisers can occasionally get it wrong, either getting way too ambitious about an artist’s pull, or in Camp Cope’s case, wildly underestimating it. I turned up only two minutes late to The Galaxy Stage (a tent no bigger than the Live Room at The Brightside) to see the femme-punk trio, and the crowd was already spilling way out past the tent ropes, blocking the thoroughfare to The Valley Stage. The irony was certainly not lost on me, nor lost on the band as lead singer Georgia Maq vented her disdain during their performance of single ‘The Opener’. A song which directly addresses the lack of gender diversity in the Australian music scene, changing the lyrics to “It’s another man telling us we can’t fill up a tent, it’s another fucking festival booking only nine women.”
Billing Seattle darlings Fleet Foxes after the sweaty cacophonous energy of Glass Animals slowed the pace of the evening to a crawl. Their beautiful folk music would have been more suited to a more intimate tent, instead of the cavernous, half empty amphitheatre. Diehards stayed, misty eyed and word perfect but I found myself traipsing off to bed three quarters of the way through their set.
As the old adage goes, ‘you learn something new everyday’. On Tuesday the 2nd of January 2018 it was the correct pronunciation West Thebarton (West THEB-arton, not West The-BART-on, and they dropped the ‘Brothel Party’ FYI). They’re a group of brash Adelaide garage rockers with one hell of a stage presence. Cramming their seven piece outfit onto The Galaxy Stage and leaving room for front man Reverend Ray to throw himself around was no mean feat, but bands like West Theb who are totally in sync make it look effortless. I was absolutely mesmerised by drummer Caitlin Thomas who is one of the tightest musicians I saw throughout the festival, nailing West Theb’s high energy percussive foundation without even breaking a sweat.
Switching gears, I headed over to see pocket sized songstress Wafia and was delighted to see The Forest Stage bulging with an enthused crowd. Even in the 30+ degree heat Wafia made light work of covering me head to toe in goose bumps with her soaring vocals and R&B tinged pop gems. She commanded the stage, leading sing alongs to singles ’83 Days’,’Love Somebody’ and even dropped in a cover of Neo’s ‘Let Me Love You’ which had the crowd enamoured. She closed out her set with most recent cut ‘Bodies’, dedicated it to her parents who were in attendance, causing the crowd to go off, drowning her out with united vocals that almost blew the roof off the tent.
The screams of anticipation emanating from The Forest Stage’s manic crowd must have cracked open the sky, because as Sydney’s smoothest, steeziest six piece took the stage, the rain came hard and fast. Winston Surfshirt have established themselves as the Summer’s hottest commodity: playing endless festivals, touring hard and releasing their critically acclaimed debut record Sponge Cake. It’s no mystery why they're so popular, either - their painstaking cohesive synergy, their fearless frontman who can incite frenzies from the crowd with a simple “Yeah Yeah” or a swig from a Sambuca bottle or simply those nasty trombone solos from The Bone.
Methyl Ethel was my most eagerly awaited act of Falls Festival, releasing my favourite record of the year ‘Everything Is Forgotten’ has only strengthened the love affair I am experiencing with music from WA. This excitement was only reinforced when I heard the boys had employed Perth native Stella Donnelly to step in on keys and guitar for their run of festival dates after Hamish Rahn injured his hand recently. Favourites ‘No. 28’, ‘Twilight Driving’ and ‘Weeds Through The Rind’ had the mosh so energised I had to excuse myself to find a more sparsely populated area at the back. Their last song ‘Ubu’ had the crowd going off like a cut snake, and their lyrics ‘Why’d you have to go and cut your hair / Why’d you cut your hair?’ ringing in my ears long after they had left the stage.
The rain drizzled down on the amphitheatre as Angus and Julia Stone took the stage. Dwarfed by a large decorative totem pole, the Aussie duo delivered dreamy renditions of their most popular songs off most recent album, including singles ‘Chateau’ and ‘Snow’ and even threw in a couple of Dope Lemon tracks ‘Marinade’ and ‘Uptown Folks’ to lift the decidedly chill, downtempo vibe A&J have built their catalogue on.
I saw Peking Duk play Falls in 2015/2016 and had a ball. Fundamentally, nothing had changed from their set I saw 2 years ago - a sensory overload of smoke, confetti, strobes and predictable drops. The crowd lapped it up but all I could think about was all the visual displays playing as a distraction from a musical experience that lacked any depth.
Closing out Falls Festival 2018 was The Kooks, English indie pop goodness that you probably remember from your high school days. The foursome curated a setlist of singalong tracks that dripped with nostalgia ‘Sway’ ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ and ‘Naive’ were notable inclusions. While 16-year-old Fiona grinned from ear to ear, I wondered if this slot could have been filled with a slightly more relevant, high energy finale? Dare I say, one featuring some badass lady talent?
Despite the oppressive heat, the torrential rain and my lack of appropriate footwear I closed 2017 out in the best possible way - (relatively) injury free and with my inner music addict satiated. I must have broken every well intentioned resolution I had to treat my mind body and soul better in 2018 just over The Falls Festival weekend, but damned if I didn’t have a terrific time doing it.
Fiona Priddey
Photo Claire Chittick