Live Review: State Of The Art Festival

With winter nowhere to be seen, the sun was out for Western Australia Day, bringing in swarms of people and their families to Elizabeth Quay to enjoy the food trucks, free kids entertainment and amazing Perth acts to celebrate what WA has to offer.

Goldfields' The China Blue Experiment graced the stage at noon as a mix of different people gathered in curiosity to see the beginning of the State Of The Art Festival. Young families, teenagers and some older people tentatively gathered round China Blue as they treated us to their brand of Aussie pop-folk music. Frontman Darren Forster's husky vocals — in part enforced by a cold — were the centrepiece of a taut set as they signed off to ska sounding Hey Sun, which had the now onboard crowd bopping their heads along.

MCs wasted no time in transitioning the slowly filling crowd to the left stage to see Fremantle native Elli Schoen — and her largely leather-clad band — fill the tent with their sparse melodies and Schoen's powerful, echoing voice. By the early afternoon, non-alcohol fuelled punters were starting to find their groove (perhaps urged on by some enthusiastic band relatives) as the snowballing sound of Gold Mess washed over, and enthusiasm was definitely piqued by an eerie cover of INXS' Never Tear Us Apart.

As the crowds grew, The Money War killed it with their chilled '70s indie Fleetwood Mac vibes paired with Carmen Pepper's hypnotic vocals in Give It Time and Recall. Dylan Ollivierre didn't disappoint as he brought The Beatles to life with folk guitars and a dreamy vocal in Stars. They're a duo that knows how to please a hungry crowd, even though Pepper was still recovering from a rolled ankle.

Ziggy and his band The Love turned the energy up as soon as he hit the stage with his infectious presence. It didn't stop there — his cutthroat lyrics in Black Face and Black Thoughts about Indigenous issues was blunt but refreshing. Joining him on stage, 15-year-old Mali freestyle rapped with Ziggy, and the two were a match made in heaven with soulful hip hop beats on April 25 and new single Same Script to get the crowd grooving.

Mid-afternoon saw post-punk band Rag N' Bone, who evoked thoughts of The Cranberries with their punk sensibilities, and Kierra Owen's soaring, wailing, ever-so-slightly unsettling vocals. (As well as a haircut which screamed Dolores O'Riordan.) Punters' wild dancing attempted to match the frenetic million miles an hour Pissy Flow and Memory's Cenotaph, egged on by suitably named guitarist Axel Carrington who, with Stetson hat and slightly dodgy moustache, looked like the villain in a Clint Eastwood film as he haphazardly frog-marched his guitar in all directions.

As Rag N' Bone's set came to an end, POW! Negro had already entered the stage and stood calmly, not foreshadowing in the slightest, the storm that was to come. The signature jazz and hip hop fusion inevitably came hitting the audience full force — necessitating the throwing of some equally frenetic shapes, none coming close, of course, to frontman Nelson Mondlane, who lets every beat and every rhythm move him on stage. POW! Negro are quickly becoming known for these mental live shows and did not disappoint today, finishing off the set by inviting Ziggy back on stage for the wild sax-driven Hidle Ho, driving Ziggy and Mondlane into a jazz-driven frenzy as they each feed off each other's immense energy.

Gracing the stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar and harmonica, Bob Evans getting the crowd into Happy Tears with his attempts to whistle which weren't too successful. This year, SOTA had only one stage, split into two separate stages that made it easy to go from one artist to another. The downside of this was sound check, especially during Evan's performance when the crowd could hear Abbe May's music playing during her sound check. However, Evans was unfazed as he changed guitars before getting into Friend. Ignoring the time-up signal, Evans cheekily smashed out his hit Don't You Think It's Time, his rule breaking evidently worth it as the crowd sung along to every single word, clearly bringing Evans joy as his eyes lit up.

Abbe May's hypnotic sounds of TROUBLE echoed in the tent as the crowd grew by the minute. The electric guitars and synths in Karmageddon produced an infectious beat while new single Doomsday Clock brought out the rock, with May's edgy vocals. The heat was turned up with the playful track, Are We Flirting? and her famous cover of Ginuwine's Pony which was a clear crowdpleaser. Even the new Abbe May listeners were singing to the raunchy lyrics and dancing before May pointed her guitar at the audience and used her signature gun move as she walked off the stage.

The tent had started to swell to capacity as synth-rockers Crooked Colours made their way on to get the audience swaying, with their seductive beat-driven synth sound. Crooked Colours were a somewhat calming influence on proceedings compared to some of the heavier rock acts of the night. Punters grooved on, unassumingly getting a breather in, as they were serenaded by purring vocals and expertly produced melodies.

As the sun began to set, Little Birdy's Katy Steele — dressed in black glasses and a black and gold jacket — dove into Everywhere With You and Diamonds with her signature killer vocals acing every lyric. "Shut up over there Tired Lion," Steele said, as she was annoyed with how disruptive the sound check was to her performance. Where's The Laughter was the shining light; the indie synths got the crowd singing and grooving, a nice change from the moody set of songs like I Need A Rescue Boat and No Slave.

After the lengthy soundcheck, Tired Lion wasted no time in quenching the grunge thirsts of the baying punters. Figurine raised the expectations, and crowd favourite Not My Friends started the inevitable moshing as punters crashed haphazardly with one another yelling hoarsely along. At one point a circle of death opened up to the bemusement of vocalist Sophie Hopes, who hit the now dizzy crowd with Agoraphobia and ended the set with new single Cinderella Dracula.

Gyroscope launched into Beware Wolf with guitars blazing as the crowd became a sea of moving bodies before 1981 got hearts racing with its infectious beats. With his messy hair draped over his face and no shirt in sight, frontman Daniel Sanders seemed like he was struggling vocally as the singing became screams, like a cat having its tail pulled. Apart from vocals, the band didn't skip a beat as they smashed out hits like Doctor Doctor and Baby I'm Gettin' Better before Snakeskin finished off the messy set.

Event co-headliner Drapht entered after the carnage of Gyroscope filtered over to the right-hand stage, as he kicked things off with Sound Man getting the crowd moving. What followed was expert crowd control, as nearly every single punter sung back every lyric and followed every prompt to create a sea of hands in the air. A highlight was Drapht's Hilltop Hoods collaboration Don Quixote with a boppy beat and filthy riff, as well as the obligatory crowd favourite Jimmy Recard, which had everyone jumping and doing their best to keep pace with Drapht's rapping, but to no avail. Drapht finished with a flourish as the twangy riff of Rapunzel sounded across the tent. It's safe to say punters let their hair down.

The wait was finally over as Karnivool erupted onto stage with Goliath, Ian Kenny swaying to the beat of the drums and the guitar licks. "It's been a while since I saw you all, I've been so lonely," Kenny explained as he ran his hands through his hair before rocketing into We Are. Karnivool treated the crowd to two new title-less songs both delightfully heavier, almost on par to Themata but with more explosive heavy metal guitar solos than ever. The crowd got insane to the final song of the set New Day, as they became a violent moving mass, jumping with hands in the air, crowd surfing to get a better glimpse of Kenny's silhouette as he danced in the smoky haze. They begged for an encore that never came. The SOTA crew pulled off an amazing WA day with many incredible live acts to keep everyone satisfied and dancing until next year.