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Sunset Sounds 2010

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Brisbane Botanic Gardens & The Riverstage - Wed Jan 6 & Thu Jan 7

Arriving at around 3.30pm for day one of Sunset Sounds, the sun is far from set. As an Amazonian humidity plays out its last couple of hours, the idyllic surrounds of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens prove a most pleasant place to be, particularly while being serenaded by an impressive roster of live acts.

The multi-faceted folk rock of The Middle East makes for an intriguing late afternoon treat at the Gardens Stage. A building crowd is swaying approvingly with the band’s superb blend of guitars, keys, drums, mandolin, banjo, xylophone, accordion and even bottle-top percussion. The multiple vocalist format provides a pleasing variety of shade and character to their songs. As a fittingly rousing finale, they storm through their own epic Arcade Fire moment, Blood.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Only a bevy of New York hipsters could try to force space grooves on a crowd at the Garden Stage with mostly positive results, and that’s exactly what The Phenomenal Handclap Band do. Their freakout disco keep the crowd moving, but it’s clear that a majority of the bobbing heads are sticking around purely to hear radio staple 15 To 20.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Although she’s best known as a Goddess Of Guitars, Kaki King quickly makes sure nobody’s expecting any pretentious finger wizardry that the tech fans will lap up and leave everyone else cold on the Hibiscus Stage. She’s as approachable and self-deprecating as anyone you know, playing a mix of rocky soundscapes and Tegan & Sara style pop songs as just another part of her full backing band. It’s no showcase, but it’s all the more fun for it.

Despite the overcast weather dampening the sunset, London’s Jamie T fills the grounds of The Riverstage with the sweet sounds of 368, a perfect way to complement the crowd’s relaxed mood. Jamie notices the smoking area and gives it straight: “That’s a bit weird. Aren’t we already outside?”

Photo: Aaron Sammut

The quiet melodicism of Emiliana Torrini resonates throughout the large Gardens Stage crowd more effectively than I expected. Shoeless and dressed in a colourful kaftan-like outfit, Torrini has a likeable, smiling persona on stage, with a voice every bit as sweet as you’d imagine. From the beautiful Sunny Road to the ubiquitous faux-tribal thump of Jungle Drum, Torrini enchants the masses.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

You know when you see some old, grizzled, absolutely rad dude and think ‘God I hope I’m like that at his age’? That dude IS Seasick Steve at the Hibiscus Stage. Reeling off a never-ending scroll of penniless, Deep South stories and, with his equally life-experienced drummer, making a filthy blues ruckus like The Mess Hall in 40 years, Steve plays a bunch of homemade box-and-string instruments. Surprisingly, the one-trick-pony aspect becomes a consideration before his hour is up, but Steve’s still an entertaining act.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

If you ask random people to sum up Sydney’s Art Vs Science in three words, you’d swear you were talking to a tourist: “Parlez Vous Francais?” We hear multiple punters talking up their biggest hit (and singing it off-key), so it’s no surprise to learn the Gardens Stage goes a little crazy during it.

With the crowd primed after a dose of west coast hip hop, it’s time for the Hilltop Hoods to send their message to the top of the hill from The Riverstage. The grooves of The Hard Road and The Nosebleed Section get the audience swaying back and forth.

A Mexican-based duo that play Latin acoustic music at breakneck speeds – having been raised on a healthy diet of heavy metal – hold one of the largest crowds thus far and close the Gardens Stage for the first night. It’s hard to clap and cheer and stand there in jaw-dropped awe at the same time. Rodrigo Y Gabriela like to give their audiences a challenge.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

The Riverstage swells as Moby arrives with full band and starts knocking out hits like Bodyrock, Go and We Are All Made Of Stars. His obsession with the vocal levels dampens tracks like Porcelain slightly, but as a treat, he busts out the 45-second Wonderbread written with ‘80s hardcore outfit Vatican Commandos, and a cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire – trumpet solo completed by the audience.

And so the first day at Sunset Sounds has come to a close. The fairy lights, smoke machines and backlit trees are all nice touches to the Botanical Gardens, and the crowd have thoroughly enjoyed things so far. Will the vibe continue tomorrow? Will the Rave team eat more satay chicken sticks? Read on for the answer to the first; for the second, it’s ‘probably’.

Can we please have a little less sun and humidity and a bit more cloud cover and generally a lot less sweatiness for the start of the second day of Sunset Sounds? No? You want to give us more of the same, but with even fewer prospects for rain alleviating the swampy air? Oh well, can’t blame a crowd for asking.

McKisko’s off-kilter diction and wine and sympathy and darkness songs aren’t the best choice to welcome the trickling crowd at the Hibiscus Stage, especially when her banter went for the awkward angle when people wanted approachable. However, the sitting room only crowd expectedly responds well to one heck of a pair of vocal chords and subtly intricate arrangements.

Starting feet and arses moving on The Riverstage, locals The John Steel Singers draw a respectable early crowd with a hits-laden set. Current fave Masochist makes an early appearance, but it’s the punchy finale of Rainbow Kraut and Evolution, complete with an army of dancers in glitter capes and rubber horse-heads, that turns a fun set into a lose-your-shit party.

A small but enraptured crowd at the Gardens Stage is seduced by the exotic sounds of Patrick Watson, the man and band. Whether seated at his Yamaha electric piano or using a megaphone to emulate the sounds of a muted trumpet, Watson never fails to entertain with his folksy art-rock. Enhanced by an amazing drummer/percussionist, even the security guard is tapping his fingers to the Brechtian psychedelia of Where The Wild Things Are.

One of the few local bands that evoke crowd sing-a-longs is Hungry Kids Of Hungary, whose catchy choruses and sunny demeanour on the Hibiscus Stage make them a Summer festival delight. Girls want to be seen with them, and boys secretly wish they could play piano and hit the high notes with as much gusto as this quartet.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Backing band The Shrines, replete with trumpets, saxophones, drums and any other instrument you ever wished you played, may feature players who have worked with greats like Stevie Wonder and Ike & Tina ... but that don’t mean a thing once the caped, crowned, shirtless and beer-gutted King Khan emerges like a male, Indian, Sharon Jones understudy on The Riverstage. With every eye following his party moves in songs like the punk-R&B I Wanna Be A Girl, the perfect storm climax is a cover of The Saints’ Know Your Product (featuring the JSS horse-dancers in an encore).

Photo: Aaron Sammut

In many ways a thematic follow-up to his Garden Stage predecessor, Patrick Watson, Andrew Bird is a singer, violinist and guitarist with a grandiose and textured take on American folk rock. This is certainly illustrated in a performance that blends Bird’s soaring, occasionally Jeff Buckley-esque vocals, and arrangements that draw seamlessly from rock, folk and classical sources. Ultimately not as jaw-dropping as Watson, Bird still finds his share of sweeping highs.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

In the comfortable surrounds of the Hibiscus Stage, Oh Mercy play their blue-sky style pop from recently released on Privileged Woes; Alexander Gow looks equally comfortable behind the mic with his inverted right-handed Strat, maintaining relative self control to the rest of the band moving about the stage.

Dear Lisa Mitchell, The extensive throng obviously appreciates your cute acoustic guitar pop on the Gardens Stage, and your voice is intriguing, all at once demure and sultry. I play your album in my car quite a bit. But even with crowd-winners Coin Laundry and Neapolitan Dreams up your sleeve, you need to do more than look to the ground and coyly sway to keep us engaged. We already have one Blasko, and god knows she wouldn’t be headlining tonight if she’d stayed so very socially awkward. Sincerely, Anonymous Reviewer.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Yves Klein Blue continue to impress those they play to with a great set at the Hibiscus Stage. Maybe it’s just the way the keyboard’s being attacked, but seeing Tomlinson up front performing Make Up Your Mind can’t help but bring visions flooding forward of The Whitlams in their heyday.

Of all the traits a group could have, the inability to put on a bad show would have to be one of the best. This is The Temper Trap’s superpower on display at The Riverstage, chronicled tonight with emotive anthems and a greater sense of a band rather than four (and touring guitarist) individuals. It’s still very much Dougy Mandagi’s band, but the others have a piece now too.

Photo: Aaron Sammut

Enough people leave The Riverstage for The Temper Trap to make a very comfortable and calm setting for Brisbane’s introduction to Brooklyn’s hottest quiet rockers Grizzly Bear at the Gardens Stage. Although the band features the standard three guitarists and a drummer, Ed Droste and cohorts leave no doubt that even if a saboteur flicked the power switch, they could keep us mesmerised with their innate harmonies alone. Drawing primarily from Veckatimest, Two Weeks is almost supplanted by penultimate song While You Wait For The Others as crowd favourite. (And shame on whoever teased us with a Doobie Bros riff during soundcheck, only not to break out the yacht...)

Photo: Aaron Sammut

From New York art-rock cultists to glittery leftfield pop stars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ unprecedented popularity is illustrated by the swarms of people gathered at The Riverstage. The electro-pulse of Zero (one of THE pop songs of 2009) goes down a treat, as do vintage faves Y Control and the still-stunning Maps. Although this is the most enjoyable set I’ve seen them play (Karen O has mercifully toned down the wildcat shrieking), they still don’t reach the transcendence I know they’re capable of.

As the lights dim on Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ giant eyeball prop, another Sunset Sounds comes to an end. Ultimately, the two days prove massively successful, the picturesque location and sensible crowd number making the situation far more tolerable than many festival experiences. With an impressive and diverse array of bands, we return to reality dazed but satisfied.

SIMON TOPPER, MATT THROWER, MITCH ALEXANDER & SCOTT HARMS

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