Live Review: Falls Festival Byron Bay: Day 3

Brisbane songstress Wafia welcomed in an absolutely massive crowd to begin the last day of Falls Byron. The sizeable Forest Stage was almost full as the adorable singer/songwriter filled it with her smooth-as-silk vocals. A treat for anyone that can remember the early 2000's R'n'B renaissance came in the form a stellar cover of Mario's Let Me Love You, props to Wafia for not changing the pronouns. Triple j favourite Bodies closed out the set, Wafia rapturous with praise for the crowd as she gushed that it contained her very proud parents.

If you've not before, do yourself a favour and see Melbourne's Ecca Vandal live. Easily the most unique artist in Australia at the moment,  her set oscillates wildly from punk to electronica to heavy rock to pop and back again with barely enough time to catch your breath. As a live performer she is extremely involved, she cares about her crowd and will go to extreme lengths to ensure that they're having a good time. Despite the horrific heat, she used every inch of the stage; her cover of Rihanna's Bitch Better Have My Money exploded the audience but not as much as recent single Future Heroine.

As the rain poured down and the ponchos came out, Sydney via UK collective Winston Surfshirt appeared onstage ready to reap the rewards of debut album Sponge Cake. Even though we were in a tent that was quickly filling up with mud, one could be forgiven for thinking we were in a smoky jazz club as the band grooved through tracks like Same Same and Ease Brusily. Two shout outs need to be made, first to the band's trombonist who slayed every single solo and just generally funked up the place and second to frontman, Winston, for slugging from a bottle of white Sambuca the whole time and then proceeding to share it with the audience.

Festival favourites The Smith Street Band continued their reign as the most endearing band in Australian rock as they grinned over the filling amphitheatre. Frontman Wil Wagner could not be more charming as he joked with the crowd and refused to do a shoey because "this isn't 2014". Their cover of The Killers When You Were Young added some golden nostalgia to the set but the biggest response came from closing track Death To The Lads with thousands of people lending their voices to the group singalong.

read more

• FALLS FESTIVAL BYRON BAY — DAY 1

• FALLS FESTIVAL BYRON BAY — DAY 2

• FALLS FESTIVAL BYRON BAY — DAY 3

A drizzly afternoon made for a mixed bag of Angus and Julia Stone's quasi-comeback set, the sibling duo cutting a familiar figure in front of a large and largely superfluous totem pole. A&J showed off that they still got it, delivering a pitch perfect rendition of recent single Chateau but there was something a little lackluster about the performance. Julia proved her talent by switching from guitar to bass to trumpet and back again while Angus held up his end by providing two Dope Lemon songs, Marinade and Uptown Folks. An enjoyable set but the jury's still out if it was worth standing in the rain for.

There was buzz for what notorious grump, Liam Gallagher would pull out for his set but the biggest surprise of all was that he was actually very well behaved. Praising the festival and playing tracks off his new album As You Were, the closest thing to an upset came when either sound issues or general forgetfulness forced him to stop a track half way through only to pick up and entirely different song a moment later. Wonderwall closed out the set, probably knocking off entries from quite a few bucket lists

It's easy to dismiss bro-ish duo Peking Duk but even the most cynical of music lovers couldn't deny that the boys pulled out all the stops for their penultimate Falls set. Smoke, streamers and confetti rained on the hyped crowd as the pair smashed through their myriad of hit singles, bringing out not one but two guest vocalists. The only thing that almost ruined it was when Adam Hyde boomed the sentence "Shout out to all the girls showing us their boobies", leaving a sour taste for what has been such an encouragingly progressive festival.

After three days of bubblegum pop, jazz rock fusion and hardcore rap it was lovely to round out the festival with the straightforward indie rock of The Kooks. The boys were delightful, running through older tracks like Ooh La and Naïve. Blessing the crowd with the easy sing-a-long of new single Be Who You Are, the sense of community shined bright in the crowd, providing a sterling end to a stunning festival.