Live Review: BIGSOUND Festival 2017: Night Three Live Reviews

In the line out the front of the venue, a guy is questioning his friend about why they were lining up when there’s other places to go. His friend responded with “because they’re a good band,” and to be honest, he pretty much nailed it. ELKI and her sunny soulful four-piece bring the energy from the first song and continue to roll it through the remainder of their set.

It’s barely 8pm down at the 256 Wickham and the venue’s already completely full for Ocean Alley to begin the final night of music for BIGSOUND 2017. Yet full is an understatement, before the band begin with fan fave Overgrown, there’s no space for even the oxygen within the venue. Playing both Yellow Mellow and brand-new hit single The Comedown, the entirety of the 256 is clearly having a wonderful time catching this six-piece absolutely shred into the grooviest set of BIGSOUND so far.

Opening The Elephant stage is Melburnian singer-songwriter Alexander Biggs. It’s the perfect way to start the night on day three of BIGSOUND, with his dreamy voice floating out to fill the venue, and everyone seems content. He grins out at the smallish crowd there to see him, and captivates us with his emotionally fuelled songs.

Upstairs at the Woolly Mammoth, OKBadlands treat their early crowd to an outstandingly executed set of soulful, ever-so-slightly jazzy, sample-flecked electro-pop. The group's members are firing on all cylinders tonight, despite minimal banter between songs ("I don't have anything witty to say, keyboardist/vocalist Kate Gurren remarks), with every time change, speed-up, slow-down and crescendo pulled off with purpose and precision. Bassist Sally Latter's mic seems to be so low in the overall mix as to make her voice practically imperceptible in the midst of their songs, though she wrangles her four-string with considerable dexterity, ensuring the entire piece is underscored with hold-the-fort reliability; the fundamental glue pulling together the band's complex, shifting rhythms and wandering melodies. The rest of tonight's acts can consider the bar well and truly set, and set high.

Back at BIGSOUND after last year's remarkable performance, Braille Face has returned with new songs, new collaborators and a few new tricks to win us over completely all over again. His wide-ranging set runs the gamut from introspective delicacy and devastating beauty — the evergreen Because a particularly brilliant example of his ability to do so, so much with relatively little — to seamlessly blending the organic and mechanical with frighteningly natural ability, a trick that he first introduced in debut single Glow (an early standout in this evening's set), permeating his catalogue right through to his latest gem, Run For Your Life (which is, interestingly, omitted from the performance tonight). He's joined by violinist Mara for a stripped-back rendition of Tear, another highlight in what is effectively a sea of highlights. And, god, that voice. You could melt the polar ice caps with it. It's the kind of sweet yet powerful sound that would make angels jealous, and then they'd get kicked out of heaven for feeling such deep envy. Honestly, Braille Face can do no wrong. Do yourself a favour and join the ever-growing congregation.

There are not really enough nice words to say about Mama Kin Spender. Their set at Black Bear Lodge is a big one, with a packed room and a very engaged crowd. "Who had a stinking hangover this morning?" asks Danielle Caruana, AKA Mama Kin. Only a few among the crowd raise their hand. "Only three people? Bullshit!" she laughs. There’s a few stories told, including one that ends with the life lesson that "tequila and cameras don’t mix". To close, Mama Kin and Spender — and their accompanying choir — jump down into the crowd and play totally unplugged. If you have a chance to go and see this excellent duo, it will be well worth your time.

TBC Club has had a pretty solid line-up of acts for the entirety of the festival, but probably one of the more underrated acts has to be Adelaide producer Matthew Khabbaz and Sydney producer Jesse Porsches, more commonly known as SUPER CRUEL. There’s a decent throng of people dancing away, and it’s easy to lose yourself to the eclectic and electrifying beats the duo keep pumping out.

As the night drags itself on, it’s time to run back down to Crowbar to catch AlithiA beginning their set. It’s an odd mix of both psychedelic blends with heavier core music. However, this band manage to bring these two genres together to create something that almost seems well-balanced and psychic. While this set may have been competing between the likes of other bands on the same slot, attending this act was quite a unique experience.

Powerful lyrics, slick bars, eclectic beats and an unbelievable amount of natural magnetism — Ziggy Ramo and his band are a simply phenomenal sight to behold, and he has the packed-out space at Ric's Big Backyard absolutely hanging on his every word. From canvassing his own struggles with mental illness and identity to delivering hard, emotional truths about the historically abysmal treatment of Indigenous people alongside significant crowd work and possessing a level of physical animation unparalleled anywhere else at this festival, Ramo is a one-of-a-kind performer. As much a serious conversation starter as an entertainer, his show can be intense, but it's a vital intensity that ensnares the crowd on an emotional roller-coaster and hopefully has the majority in attendance leaving with a renewed perspective and something to think about. It's rare to see bands at BIGSOUND earn calls for an encore, but Ziggy Ramo — and The Motherfucking Love, as he introduces his players — is anything but run-of-the-mill. His set finishes with an ebullient, eminently danceable effort dedicated to the memory of young Elijah Doughty and all the dances he'll never get to have, the crowd following Ramo's directive to get down low before exploding skyward in a spectacular display of release. Keep your eyes intently on this guy and his crew, because he's about to break down the goddamn fence. 

Tempest Rising have the riffs, the pipes and the hair but, sadly, what they don’t have is the crowd. They start their set at Crowbar with a few fewer than 15 in the crowd and it doesn’t grow much past the 40 mark. They're high energy and struggle with being contained to the stage area. Eventually, they do break into the crowd, only after telling them to sit down and not get up for the entirety of the song; an interesting end to an interesting performance.

As synthetics begin to roll in accompanied by a menacingly gorgeous bass-line, Bespin begin to take the indoor Brightside stage as their own. Pulling off a nicely structured progressive rock set, it’s depressing to see The Brightside so empty. However, credit must be given to the lighting techniques displayed by the Brightside. While it’s often impossible to get away with strobe effects to an empty venue, the lighting display perfectly accompanied the band’s total aura and perspective.

Nice Biscuit is already in full swing when we enter the packed-out Empire Hotel, with the dreamy psych pop group swaying and singing like a dream. There’s a massive crowd already, with other artists and festival goers drinking and laughing and dancing the night away to one of Brisbane’s finest (in this writer’s eyes) bands. 

Washington chooses to spend the time before her set sitting at the front of the stage, chatting with the earlier arrivers. When the time does roll around, she sits at her piano and asks the crowd to quiet down a little. Unfortunately, they’re actually so loud you can barely hear what she’s saying. Washington presses on regardless, explaining to the group that the show would consist of entirely new songs and "if you came for the greatest hits, fuck off", laughing.

The line to get into Oh Hello! spans down the entire length of the building and nearly overflows into the next venue. It’s reached capacity, and it’s 10 minutes before they let anyone into the venue to see Sydney artist Alex The Astronaut. When we finally make it in, we’re surprised to see she hasn’t brought the band with her; instead, it’s just her up on stage with her guitar, crooning popular hit Rockstar City. There’s so many people crowded into the venue, we can’t get very close, but we’re happy to have a dance at the back before heading off to see our next artist. 

As live music enthusiasts begin to pack out the downstairs area of Crowbar yet again, The Beautiful Monument take to the stage to set the bar high for the final few hours of BIGSOUND festivities. Balancing both raw energy and an impressive stage presence, the Melbourne band dig deep into tracks off their recent album I’m The Sin. Yet again, another band leaves the Crowbar stage with its audience impressed, ready for the next band to take their stage.

Clea set is a little slow to begin with but the crowd seem to drawn in anyway. They offer a blend of folk and indie that those closer to the stage swaying along, but the soft-spoken approach between songs unfortunately doesn’t quite hold the attention of the crowd.

The line for The Elephant Hotel is huge, with hundreds of people trying to get in, wristband or not, to see surf rock idols Hockey Dad. We find a spot right at the back, where surprisingly, it’s easier to get a glimpse of the two-piece rocking out on stage. It’s hard to even hear them though, with die-hard fans both here and upstairs in sister venue The Foundry all shouting every word and jumping about like mad. A killer vibe, and a fantastic way to end the night. 

After Amyl & The Sniffers unfortunately pulled out of their Thursday night set due to uncontrollable circumstances, it seemed almost completely bizarre for Heaps Good Friends to fill the shoes of the '70s-style punk band. However, playing to a packed out Heya Bar, this set was both gloriously fun and an absolute gorgeous riot. There’s crowd-goers dancing around everywhere, and it feels so amazing finishing off BIGSOUND shenanigans on such an upbeat and fun vibe.

Five years ago, sleepmakeswaves were playing the Jubilee Hotel; now they're headlining the Brightside Carpark stage at BIGSOUND, a testament to the hard-working Sydney instrumental rockers and their indomitable spirit and consummate professionalism. Opening with the expansive adventure of Tundra, sleepmakeswaves deliver a note-perfect, transcendent half-hour of furious, frenetic, thoughtful and emotive music that says more without a single vocal utterance than some of the wordiest acts here could ever hope to. Their cover of Robert Miles' Children — introduced with a joking, 'We're Alien Ant Farm, and this is Smooth Criminal' by bassist Alex Wilson — sends their thriving audience into a frenzy, though, in fairness, the rest of their set is equally well-received. Stalwart crowd (and band) favourite Great Northern is a late-stage highlight, the evening's penultimate song, and by the time the band are waving goodbye, there are calls for an encore. Sadly, they're unanswered — not remotely the band's fault; that's just the reality of BIGSOUND scheduling — but at least we have this monumental performance to punctuate and crystallise the brilliance of the past three nights of live music. We couldn't have asked for a better memento. Thanks for everything, BIGSOUND.