BIGSOUND Live - We Review Night Two

With our hangovers almost forgotten we again hit the Brissie streets to do it all again. Here's a wrap up of what we saw.

GOOCH PALMS - RIC'S

Early start, so keen are the Newcastle duo to fuck things up. Gold hotpants, full frontal (and back, lotsa back) male nudity, Theremin thrashing - nothing is left off the cards in a blasted performance that throws BIGSOUND straight into the deep end. The best thing? The shenanigans never gets in the way of the tunes, a heady mix of Ramones, trashcan gauche and, surprisingly, soul. Fucking electric.

- Brendan Telford

SPLIT SECONDS - MAGIC CITY

Split Seconds draw quite the crowd to Magic City, and do not disappoint with their manly brand of folk-rock. Guitars ring out through the levels of the venue cleanly and flawlessly. As the show progresses, the rock gets rockier and the fringes get sweatier. Draped in the flag of Sussex, the nord gets a workout, chiming along behind the vocal harmonies. The hip are kept happy when Split Seconds pull out an anthem to sewing your own clothes and in turn being a good man. When they announce their set is ending, members of the audience are audibly devastated. Ending with their punchiest song yet, about leaving your keys in a bowl, they could do no wrong.

- Eleanor Houghton

THE CAIROS - QMUSIC STAGE

The Cairos are tight as hell performance-wise and sound on-point from the moment they kick into fun-time anthem Shame. It's uncertain if drummer BC is keeping beat from the bounce of Reuben Schafer's mass of locks or if the hair is simply getting pushed around by the tight fills - either way the rhythm section is sounding all kinds of awesome tonight. Brand new track Nothing's Impossible has a dark Cure-ish feel to it before exploding out during the chorus, and the quartet get epic during closer We All Buy Stars. It's still a mystery why these guys remain somewhat under the radar. Fuck it though, from a punter's perspective, we might as well enjoy these more intimate shows while we can.

- Ben Doyle

MOSMAN ALDER - AHLAMBRA LOUNGE

After the long, hard partying of last night's event, there are few finer ways to ease oneself into night two of BIGSOUND Live than with Brisbane's own Mosman Alder, who kick things off with a one-two punch of God Is Pissing On You and new track He Died For Our Olives. The latter is a driven, slightly airy affair that sets bodies in motion, albeit that restrained, folded-arms and chilled head-bobbing kind of hipster motion. But the vocal response suggests the crowd is emotionally moved in a way that surpasses their physical reaction. Given time, though, everybody - band members and punters alike - loosens up a little and truly starts to enjoy themselves. People are singing along and a small group are jiving as though they'll never jive again, while vocalist/guitarist Valdis Valodze possesses a wonderfully baritone croon - such a rarity these days amid the hordes of clean, high-voiced pubescents to which we are so accustomed. He utterly shines in their third song, the title of which is lengthy and sounds French, so you'll have to forgive the failure to replicate it here. But it's an upbeat, catchy composition that precedes recent single Raisin Heart, which further demonstrates this talented sextet's ability to ably bridge the chasm between infectious pop and considered, slightly esoteric indie rock. And, if nothing else, they have to be admired for the presence of violinist Robyn Dawson, since it was kind of assumed Yellowcard had ruined that whole thing for everybody years ago. Glad to be mistaken, in this case. A thoroughly strong showing from a polished, creative and justifiably hyped local band. The bar is set, BIGSOUND... let's see what else you've got.

- Mitch Knox

LOON LAKE - QMUSIC STAGE

Loon Lake just seem like a bunch of knockabout guys playing cute, skewed indie pop. There's a lot of guts in their songs that set them apart from the influx of cutesy indie fare currently dominating the Australian scene.

The Q Music stage is at full capacity with a line stretching out the gate when they play tonight. It's so pleasing that these guys' songwriting is being appreciated, it's unique and modern but has touches of great indie rock from years past. There's something very endearing about their demeanour too, typically Aussie you couldn't imagine them coming from anywhere else.

Before the excellent Bad To Me they lament their 6am flight to Perth the next day, threatening that they'll find a new manager while here at BIGSOUND. We're bummed too, they seem like blokes you'd like to have a beer with.

Cherry Lips gets a huge response; the crowd dances terribly and sings along worse; it's bloody beautiful.

- Dan Condon

STRAIGHT ARROWS - ELECTRIC PLAYGROUND

Do these guys ever NOT slay? The Sydney four-piece bash through a set that electrified the audience. Mind Control is an early highlight, while It Happened Again provides the sloppy dirge. Owen & co give a shout out to the Brisbane Bullets basketball team, and Campbell Newman "you disgusting fucking pig", they know what they are doing. Upper echelon of Aussie garage rock, proving most others are pretenders.

- Brendan Telford

UNDERLIGHTS - ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

No one at BIGSOUND was here specifically for Sydney's Underlights (apart from one guy), but the amount of times their crowd multiplied (there weren't many people at the start, to be honest) is testament to their absorbing nature.
A thick British influence and swirling guitars that you could lose yourself in, they held their own in an intriguing early evening showcase.
Even though they lost a member - a vocalist no less - two weeks ago, there doesn't appear to be anything missing here and a bit of nervous energy adds to the performance. They're a slow burn - and that sticks out at a showcase.

- Scott Fitzsimons

CUB SCOUTS - MAGIC CITY

It's safe to assume that when the original architects of Magic City were building their flashy temple to their God, they never foresaw the kind of unbridled sexual movements that are emanating from the hip region of Sam Netterfield, keyboardist/vocalist for local feel-good indie poppers Cub Scouts, happening inside their sanctuary's walls. Unsettling gyrations aside, though, Netterfield, vocalist/pianist Tim Nelson, guitarist Andrew Williams, bassist Zoe Davis and drummer Dan Puusaari offer a seamless stream of pleasantly surprising upbeat/catchy/harmonically infused ear worms. Naturally, their recent single, the jangly, synth-dappled Do You Hear is a standout. The band can't help from breaking into smiles, which is honestly one of the most endearing things performers can do these days - actually look like they're enjoying themselves. Of course, all this doesn't change the fact that we have reached a point where we're so good for cutesy indie pop bands that it's hard to keep justifying new ones, so whether Cub Scouts manage to truly set themselves apart in future compositions and releases, well... only God knows, and he's too busy dancing to care right now.

- Mitch Knox

HEY GERONIMO - THE ZOO

Hey Geronimo got the audience from docile to completely mental in about four seconds flat. As soon as those famous chords from that famous song (you know the one) rang out, grins spread and feet left the floor in a frenzy. People began to look concerned as what looked like the world's most obnoxious photographer invaded more and more personal space, taking crotch shots. When he climbed on stage, there was minor panic before he grabbed the mic and started rapping along. All was revealed when he tore open a striped cardigan, bald head glistening above his beard, and displayed a t-shirt with his own face on it, and the name, Blame Ringo. This duet of sorts went down ridiculously well, and he was greeted as a hero on his descent back to the mosh pit. People soon stopped rubbing his scalp, however, when Hey Geronimo reclaim the attention with their super infectious tunes that reek of fun summers.

- Eleanor Houghton

HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY - THE ZOO

Their first Brisbane show in a year, Hungry Kids Of Hungary are full of new material. It's tough to sell the new when there's legions of fans looking for familiar tracks and there's a lull for new material.
Maybe it needs more time, but tonight they're missing the soul they had not that long ago and it's a bit of an indie-pop overload tonight.

- Scott Fitzsimons

SETH SENTRY - THE TEMPO HOTEL

The rhymes and, uh, phat beats (oh God, I am so white) are coming hard and heavy up the road at the Tempo Hotel as Melburnian hip-hopper Seth Sentry ingratiates himself with his appreciative, churning audience. His expressed dismay at only having half an hour with us is clearly mutually felt from the depths of the pit, and it takes less than three songs to understand why - dude simply oozes charisma. He's confident, crisp, and clearly having the time of his life; all factors that contribute to a visually and aurally engaging performance. His pledge of a copy of his album (released tomorrow) to the "best cunt" of the night is kind of ambiguous, since how are you supposed to judge what "seriously, the best cunt" even means? But, holy shit, the way he lets the crowd carry the first verse of triple j favourite The Waitress Song is something to behold. For an outsider in this scene, it's enlightening to see how important a role the audience plays in the success of such a show, but despite the heavy involvement of everyone in the room, Sentry is clearly the man of the hour, expertly dispatching a heckler, navigating technical difficulties with some freestyle ("this is like South by Southwest, just a shittier version of it" is one memorable line), and generally embodying an archetypical showman. Besides, anyone who writes a song with a call-and-response refrain of "Where's my hoverboard?" - in total earnestness - can't be all bad. I think I understand the appeal now.

- Mitch Knox

ELIZABETH ROSE - PRESS CLUB

Elizabeth Rose makes a hell of a lot of noise for one person, but she never appears to lose control of anything - not a glitch, bass thump, or womp.
Perhaps she needs to force a little bit more emotion from listeners in certain tracks, let them in a bit more, but she's such a package right now (how's that for an industry term - 'package'?) that she's very hard to ignore. Buzz tag is justified.

- Scott Fitzsimons

BATTLESHIPS - MAGIC CITY

Pounding toms and an ambient roll herald the arrival of Sydneysider indie-rock quartet Battleships, who quickly affirm themselves as one of the festival's standout acts. The tom work of drummer Dan McMurray is truly beautiful, and a nice shift away from the traditional reliance on snares for accentuation that we see so often these days. Vocalist/guitarist Jordan Sturdee's mildly androgynous voice work is sublime, demonstrating deep comfort and ability within both middle and upper registers, while bassist Johnathan Bowden lets his inner multi-instrumentalist out to play by intermittently and very ably taking to a keyboard in lieu of a traditional bottom end. But damn, it works. Your Words simply shines, McMurray's percussion work once again proving too good to ignore. In their compositions, also, the foursome, rounded out by guitarist Nato Hannaford, demonstrate a fearlessness when it comes to changing up the predictable, with tempo switches, shifting feels, and general fluidity of songwriting permeating throughout their set. There is an unexpected level of diversity and depth to this band, one not easily seen from fleeting moments in the airplay spotlight, in the way they've taken the indie-rock paradigm and given it their own distinctly individual spin. These guys could do really well from here, and you know what? You should all hope they do.

- Mitch Knox

SUPER WILD HORSES - RIC'S

Rics has seen its fare share of great bands tonight, and Melbourne duo Super Wild Horses muscle their way onto the best of list with a exuberant set filled with finely calibrated tension. The tiny venue is rammed to see Amy and Hayley tighten the screws, offering coiled serpents of tracks that cut through. The efficiency brings to mind Sleater Kinney at their most kinetic, with "epic" guitar, pummeling drums and those haunting yet barbed harmonies. An intense, metronomic, insistent pill of a set, fuck the come down.

- Brendan Telford

SASKWATCH - QMUSIC STAGE

Completely owning the stage probably doesn't sound that difficult for a nine-piece band, but every member of Saskwatch has enough stage presence in their little fingers to command the stage solo. They own it. The audience, unsure what to expect, are hesitant at first. The blasting horns and classic Bond-esque quickly change this. The finishing touch is bringing the lead singer, the sole female member, on stage. Her voice is the stuff legends are made of. She has the moves of Josephine Baker, and the voicebox of Aretha Franklin. The '60s are alive and kicking arse in a Brisbane carpark, reincarnated in the musical monster that is Saskwatch.

- Eleanor Houghton

CLARE BOWDITCH - ALLAHMBRA LOUNGE

The most huggable musician in Australia is roused in blue light, her hair flipping ethereally in the wind. Being super humble and lovely, Clare Bowditch laughs it off, playing it up and saying she feels 'Florencey'. Her songs are the sort that fix people and lift up girls' faltering confidences, so the largely female audience look up at her endearingly. They follow her every word, and she banter with them accordingly, telling tales of how the songs were inspired and a pretty fantastic story about a tantric singing lesson. Her voice us close to perfect, any wobbles due to the simple fact that she is having a fun, relaxed time and not taking herself too seriously. She is lovely, as always.

- Eleanor Houghton

NEW NAVY - ALHAMBRA LOUNGE

New Navy's lightly funk fueled indie makes you ache for a new album from The Holidays. But one song into their set and the venue is filling out. So maybe there's room for both these bands. Most members fancy themselves as part-time percussionists and it's good to hear a band not afraid to put some cowbells into the mix so soon after the last cowbell fad. At times the over-annunciated vocals can get too much (especially once the percussion pulls back to just standard club rock groove) but the cowbell does returns to save the day sporadically.

- Andrew Mast

ARGENTINA - OH HELLO

They come in with a lot of bravado, but there's a few rehashed post-punk ideas here that stops this indie-circling band from being a stand out. It's instantly accessible and danceable, but not your favourite band.
And probably a bitch to Google, too.

- Scott Fitzsimons

STRANGE TALK - BAKERY LANE

The peroxide blonde coiffure of Strange Talk's frontman bobs in time to an electronic and synth-heavy beat. These guys are a bit like the rich man's Potbelleez, with songs that are familiar from the media world and easy to dance to. A bit of harmless dance now-with-added-guitars goes down a treat with an audience that have filled Bakery Lane to its edges.

- Eleanor Houghton

WE ALL WANT TO - BLACK BEAR LODGE

The good vibes are plentiful and free-flowing at the Black Bear Lodge as local jangle-rock quintet We All Want To take to the stage. The tandem vocals of guitarist Tim Steward and tambourine...ist (tambouriner? Tambourine player? Whatever) Skye Staniford are a paradox unto themselves: they blend so well and yet remain palpably separate, like listening to warring guitars panned to opposite extremes through headphones. The set is largely dedicated to material from new album Come Up Invisible, including the Staniford-led We're Not Perfect before plunging into the sweet discord of Firefighter. Although the stage-whisper interlude ("ffffffire...") in the latter mightn't translate as well in the live arena as they probably hoped, it's not a total misstep. Album opener Ramp Up the Bleeding, a driven yet somewhat relaxed and rolling tune, follows in flawless style. In fact, the worst part of the entire set isn't even anything to do with the band; it is the lady who thinks it's funny to cover people's iPhone screens with her monstrous hands while they're trying to review the show. You know, actually, this has happened enough at shows and festivals to warrant a mention - if you see someone at a show furiously typing on a phone or tablet or scribbling into a notepad, LEAVE THEM ALONE. They're either working or drunkenly fighting with someone (or themselves) and, either way, anything you do to get between them and that is not going to be as hilarious as you think. But I digress - Staniford has moved on to bass guitar for a doubled-up bottom end in the subdued Shine, which culminates in an explosion of sound and one of the finest live handlings of dynamic extremes and crescendo this side of Mogwai. Their album might be titled otherwise, but We All Want To have come up anything BUT invisible tonight. Grand stuff.

- Mitch Knox

TIN SPARROW - MUSTANG BAR

Walking straight into a very mellow alt.country tune that is more alt than it is country, it takes a while to calm the fuck down and get on their level. When they turn the amps up it's a whole different vibe, which may be a shame considering the acoustic restraint was so engrossing.

- Scott Fitzsimons

ART OF SLEEPING - OH HELLO

Oh, man. Seconds before local indie quintet the Art Of Sleeping start their set at the popcorn-scented Oh Hello!, someone makes a comparison to Boy & Bear, and now it's impossible not to hear it. The acoustic/electric, ambience/rock mash-up of it all, vocalist Caleb Hodges' similar phrasing and intonation, the backing harmonies; it's just... there. It's inescapable. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a pretty successful formula, really, and the longer you watch them, the clearer it becomes that, despite some common ground, Art Of Sleeping pretty vehemently steer away from the folk side of things anyway, occupying instead a washy, reverb-laced locale in the dreamiest end of the indie rock soundscape. Showing no signs of stage discomfort whatsoever, they treat us to a fair whack of new material, such as the slow-burning, sporadically dirty Voodoo and recent single Above The Water, as well as some other cuts from their impending EP, all of which are devoured with glee by the elbows-to-elbows packed crowd. You know what? Maybe the Boy & Bear comparison is a little unfair. Peers, sure, but a carbon copy? Not even close. Art Of Sleeping well and truly stand tall on their own ten legs. Hopefully the other venues have had as solid a finish to tonight's live goodness as we have here.

- Mitch Knox

THE BEARDS - QMUSIC STAGE

You know what's funny about The Beards? The fact that they fucking rule. Who the hell told four blokes with rogue facial hair that they could write catchy-as-hell tunes, encourage the adulation of a whole carpark AND play their instruments like demons? Well, whoever it was, they need to be applauded. Frontman Johann Beardraven is dead set Zach Galifianakis and just as entertaining, informing the crowd that You Should Have Sex With A Bearded Man while strapped in with a Keytar, before inciting a mass sing-a-long (No beards included) with Born With A Beard. Something as ridiculous as this always has the potential to get lost in translation, but even the hairless non-believers can't deny the power of the bearded four.

- Ben Doyle

MIA DYSON – MUSTANG BAR

Mia Dyson's voice is a bit like Scotch, in the fact that it gets better with age (Editor's note: That statement is not always true, younger-matured whisky can be just as good). She is husky in all the right ways, and her songs instantly connect with a crowd that seem really chuffed to have her back. There is one strange moment, as two girls with Smirnoff pre-mixers and too much make-up jump on stage to get their photo taken (not with Dyson, just... on a stage... apparently) by a friend. Ever the champion, Mia Dyson just smiles and keeps playing until the duck-faces have been pulled. The audience hits the highs and lows with the band, as Dyson's songwriting proves poignant and beautiful, taking us from tales of giving up babies to uplifting songs of love and lust. The Mustang Bar dancefloor gets a bit of a workout.

- Eleanor Houghton

BIGSOUND Live - We Review Night Two

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