Erstellt am: 4. 1. 2015 - 13:35 Uhr
Party in Australia: Falls Festival
I won't lie, the Falls Festival was in some respects a very ruinous experience. The changing temperatures provoked by very fast weather systems passing over Tasmania all the time, meant that you often had zero idea how to dress to keep yourself neither too warm nor too freezing cold.
Secondly, summer festivals like these are in most cases fully exhausting experiences, wherever in the world you happen to be; add to that the madness connected to celebrating New Year's Eve, and you find yourself one of many party people going all-out in every possible way.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
To put it another way: as a person who has been to many festivals, I am probably a little less impressed about the prospect of seeing bands on a big stage than the average spectator; I might be (generally speaking) a little more conservative where sleeping in a tent or rushing off to catch that headliner (or whatnot) is usually concerned... But, then, when you add to that the fact of 2014 ending RIGHT NOW and the excitement in the air which that provokes, you can throw my usual level of reservation right out the window and put me on the same boat as any other festival-goer.
So, now it is the 4th of January and I am still absolutely ruined, destroyed post-festival wreckage, much like my last glimpse of our campsite as we were driving away on the afternoon of the first day of 2015 (see below).
Johnny Bliss, 2015
(1) - the Tasmanian edition, that is. The other two are on slightly different schedules, with Lorne starting on December 28th and Byron Bay ending as late as January 3rd!
(2) - although people start showing up already at Tasmania's Marion Bay location as early as December 27th.
(3) - from then on, the whole open camping area becomes a desolate wasteland, populated only by staff, volunteers and hung-over 2014 zombies.
The festival(1) runs from the 29th of December(2) through to the very early morning of New Year's Day(3). It actually takes place in three different locations around Australia, two of which are on the mainland east coast. For me, there was no question of which Falls to attend; this is partly owing to the somewhat cooler climate, as well as the sheer natural beauty of Marion Bay (the location of the festival is surrounded by mountains and water), and of course my very large community of Tasmanian friends.
One very interesting point is that a lot of the bands, especially the established and well-known ones like Alt-J, the Black Lips, Cold War Kids, and Empire of the Sun, perform at all three festivals each year, meaning that they literally are flying from location-to-location at a hectic pace. This works out great for all of us spectators, but I wouldn't want to be them.
#gladImnotarockstar #srsly #thatsoundshorrible
And now, for lack of a better format, I'm going to provide a day-to-day rundown of my festival experience.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
29th December, 2014
The first night is a bit quieter, with only one stage (not even the main one) really open for business, but that should by no means be interpreted as it is a "chill out" day, where you unpack your tents and meet your friends and prepare yourselves for the next few days of hardcore-ness. As nice as that sounds, at the Falls Festival, you pretty much hit the ground running.
We arrived and got our accreditation sorted out pretty late in the afternoon, owing to a rather long (3 hr+) drive from the other side of the island. It was approaching six in the evening as we finally made our way to the Field Stage, where a Canadian band(!) named Badbadnotgood were opening up the whole festival to an insanely eager crowd, who were dancing, jumping, going crazy like this was the headlining band of the entire festival.
Johnny Bliss, 2014
We were all pretty sober and tired from the drive and setting up the camp and so on, which resulted in us feeling a little bit out of place at this mad off-the-charts dance party, at least to begin with.
I'd never heard of them before, but Badbadnotgood are in fact not only good, but quite a great funk-hiphop-jazz trio, taking familiar hiphop rhythms and songs, and mixing them into whole soaring crescendos of instrumental groove. They were a very pleasant surprise to open the festival with. It was only a shame that we arrived so late into their short set.
The next band was a group I had already heard of, and been looking forward to, and they did not disappoint: Client Liaison, out of Melbourne, who have put a lot of effort into transforming themselves into walking, dancing stereotypes of just about any tacky musician in the 1980s. This is complete with horrible hair and embarrassing track suits and ridiculous dancing. Their sound fits their look, and perhaps what is most impressive about these guys is that they do not break the fourth wall, like ever.
I could post a crappy picture from their concert, but to give you a better idea of their concept, I have decided it makes much more sense to simply attach one of their amazing and absurd video clips below. Enjoy!
After the set, we abandoned the main stage altogether in favour of the much smaller "Village" area, where local and lesser-known bands & DJs were playing late into the night.
One particular highlight was Chupacabra (below), Mexican-influenced world music straight out of Tasmania, playing all kinds of instruments from accordians to trumpets. They'd painted their faces as Day of the Dead-style skeletons, and kept the groove going nicely.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
Jake Mulligan, 2014
The Village area was actually quite a nice one, featuring several different stages for music and theatre, as well as a tent for cheap haircuts, and other activities ranging from yoga to cult cinema film screenings to face painting workshops and other equally unusual stuff; the only problem really was that it often was unexpectedly "closed for business".
I don't know what the deal was, but just about every time I showed up during the day, I was out of luck... and it was shut and silent.
Never did get that haircut.
Johnny Bliss, 2014
The last thing of note that I remember from the first night is the headlining act: Salt-n-Pepa. You will know them from cheesy but likeable hiphop in the 1980s and 1990s, including some instantly-recognizable songs like "Push It" and "Let's Talk About Sex". They're also known for being one of the first all-female rap groups, and the fact they still exist at all, let alone get to headline at major alternative festivals like Falls, is pretty impressive.
Unfortunately, the show itself pretty much sucked. I remember a lot of playback on the music (ie. it seemed like a DJ was just pressing a button and that was all that was going on) and there were dancers too, including break dancers, and the MC shouting out cringe-worthy questions like "Where my people born in the 1970s at?!", the answer to which of course being resounding silence, at a festival where the average audience member had been actually born up to two decades later.
Oh well. Still kinda cool to have seen them, I guess. Also, it was only the first night of the festival! Can only get better from here, right?
December 30th, 2014
* And if we're being completely honest, that's Austria too.
I woke up to the sound of rain beating down on my tent; it was very windy, to the point that I was awakened as much as anything else by the walls of my tent constantly whacking me. Stepping outside it was really cold; maybe not Austrian winter cold, but certainly 12 to 13 degrees and windy. Not what you'd expect at a summer festival, but that's Tasmania for you*.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
Anyway, I bundled up in all the warm clothing I'd brought "in case of emergency", and when the rain chilled out for a bit, I slipped over to the main Valley Stage just in time for the first band, the Violet Swells.
Full disclosure: I already knew these guys as people rather than musicians, thanks to a chance encounter with guitarist Luke Middleton all the way back in 2011. So, on one hand, of course I was naturally inclined to already like these guys, but on the other hand, with a friend's band there is always the fear, "What if they suck? What if I don't like their music?".
Fortunately, in this case, any such fears would prove unfounded.
* maybe that's part of why I don't do much music journalism in recent years?
I'm miserably bad at labelling or describing music*, but when I later interviewed the Band, we came to the conclusion that a description of the music we could all agree on is "spacey sunshine psych-pop".
Just for kicks, I'll also throw out the words retro-futurism, shoe-gaze, and duck-billed platypus. So if any of these words grab you, just click on them to actually hear some of the music itself.
Here's a link to our interview after the fact, where we discussed the show, the lead singer's untied shoelace (thank goodness for shoe-gazing!), and the duck-billed platypus which inexplicably attacked them on-stage:
Actually, they lucked out tremendously, the Violet Swells did, because shortly before their set began, the rain stopped, and it only pissed down a little during the set, before becoming a full-blown monsoon mere minutes after their set concluded. I escaped to the VIP tent in the media/backstage area, and spent much of the afternoon watching despondently as the weather steadfastly refused to improve.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
On a couple of occasions, it did seem as if the sun were coming out. I remember running back to my campsite to try and go get a rain jacket, getting soaked along the way by a sudden surge in the weather, and arriving at my campsite just in time for the sun to come out bright and hot, to the point that I left again without the rain jacket, only to get smashed by more Weather as soon as I got back to the stage area.
Acts of God aside, I did occasionally see some bands; one highlight was Oxford-based indie rock group Glass Animals; I didn't know their work at all beforehand, and really, I still don't, but I used their music as an excuse to dance frenetically and thus fend off the hypothermia.
Johnny Bliss, 2014
Later on, at the same Valley Stage, I watched American electronic & IDM producer Tycho performing live with an actual touring band, with real-life instruments and all (if only more electronic artists could be coaxed into doing this, electronic music festivals might not be nearly so dull!).
Both groups rocked it out pretty good despite the weather, and there was a sizeable crowd for them.
* Or maybe it is merely a testament to the power of people not wanting to catch pneumonia and die.
Even if nearly everybody looked miserably under-dressed and not one bit happy about it, it is a testament to the sheer power of music that most people stayed and danced anyway*.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
As the night progressed, the weather did slowly improve, as the high winds died down and it did eventually stop raining; patches of blue sky increasingly overwhelmed what had previously been a sealed rooftop of grey. By the time it got dark, it had been at least an hour since I'd remembered to shiver and hold myself.
I can only really remember one more band of the night; The Temper Trap, the one and only band at the festival who I've listened to enough that I actually know most of their songs. According to the internet, they're "Indie Rock", but that's not really what I would describe them as... They're a bit more in this Radiohead or Sofa Surfers direction, with a really lovely soft voice stretching out like a cat over a dark groovy musical backdrop.
Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my cameraman Jake Mulligan, in the photo pit, taking pictures. No, not the guy with the big professional camera. He's the one with the mobile phone; they also have a cameras, you know!
December 31st, 2014
I almost couldn't believe it. I was neither awoken by the sound of wind and rain smashing my tent, nor by drunken people outside screaming at the top of their lungs. Instead, the culprit was sunlight, and my own sweatiness.
A step outside confirmed my suspicions. All the clouds had fled and what confronted us was a genuinely nice day, with the kinds of soaring summer temperatures we had been promised.
This had the cumulative effect of putting just everyone in a better mood, and when people were in a better mood, the funny (and revealing) costumes started coming out.
This then put everybody in an even better mood, and then everyone danced harder at the festival too, which made the bands happier, and when the bands were happier, the shows were better, which made the audience happier, and they spent more money on stuff, which made the people running the food, drink and merchandise booths happier.
It even made my radio coverage (and therefore this web story) better, because the increased enthusiasm and positivity of everyone inspired me to do another Falls-related interview.
This time I targeted a cute couple I'd met from Sydney, pictured below.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
Adam and Beth were only here as spectators, rather than participants, so I thought their review from this festival would be a bit more objective than mine, or that of a festival staff person, or another band.
Now, what about actual music and performances that day? A bit of a mixed bag, really. The Kite String Tangle, who I saw in the late morning, had some really great dark & moody electro-pop ballads, but also some rather dissonant forays into mainstream pop-sounding songs, that didn't really fit with the rest of his image. When he was just doing his thing, he was great, but sometimes I got the feeling he was also trying to be commercial, essentially be all things for all people, and that was where he floundered.
Johnny Bliss, 2014
Next up, there was Adelaide-based rapper Tkay Maidza, who had a great on-stage presence, fantastic energy, and some pretty good beats. On the other hand, she tended to rap in a sloppy enough way that I got none of the words of any verse ever, and had no idea what any song was about.
That's not a problem exclusive to her, of course; it's a problem present in a lot of hiphop, especially live. Perhaps it is better in her studio recordings.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
* Although, if you insist, here is their website.
Anyway, after that we caught the Black Lips, who I'd seen before in the context of one or the other Austrian festival; it was nice to see them again, they were in good form, and I doubt I need to really tell you about the Black Lips*. The only shame is that there weren't very many people there for their set, and they were on one of the smaller stages, which surprised me.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
It just goes to show that what is popular on one side of the earth might not have such a large fan base on the other side. (Just speculating here.)
* Other people clearly had, judging from the massive audience turn-out.
The same goes the other way. The next band I saw was quite possibly the best show I'd seen, not only at the festival but maybe during all of 2014, and probably even made it into my top five performances ever, although I'd never heard of them before*.
Jagwar Ma pretty much were the most compelling "headliner act" ever, despite being on at only something like 6pm. I kept thinking someone should tell them that it's not midnight, this is not the countdown, they should tone down the awesome because it's unfair to the next band; no one is going to be able to follow that.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
* Or maybe all this says about me is that when I like "electronic" music, it's usually when it's not pure electronic music at all, but rather other music with electronic elements...
What can I say, I do appreciate watching [Live] artists do something other than press the "Play" button or fiddle with knobs that every DJ knows don't actually do anything.
They do psychedelic-dance music; that's what the internet calls it. The psychedelic part of the description surprised me, but listening to their clips on Youtube, I suppose I can see that. What I remember I would rather call the best electronic dance music with a LIVE BAND I have seen in a month of Sundays. Again, many electronic acts could learn a lot from these guys*, what with guitars and synths and effect pedals, and of course, live vocals.
Seriously, stop what you're doing right now, and listen to this clip. The concert was, with no competition whatsoever, the highlight of the festival.
In fact, with all due respect to Empire of the Sun, who actually did the headline show ending at midnight (and some sort of weird half-hearted countdown), if it were me, I would reverse their roles in a heartbeat.
Empire of the Sun do what they do passably well, I can find no complaint about their live show or even the songs themselves, but while I stood there with an open drink and enjoyed their technical prowess and musicianship, for Jagwar Ma I would have hurled my drink to the ground and brought in the New Year shaking that thang like there was no tomorrow.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
January 1st, 2015
Ten hours before my Austrians, and a full nineteen hours before all my friends in my original home city of Vancouver would get around to celebrating New Year's Eve, 2014 passed in front of me with very little fanfare. Until I checked with a friend, I wasn't even sure Empire of the Sun had counted down at all; I vaguely remember something, but the expectant silence, the anticipation, the giant cheer reverberating across the known world as the seconds ticked away to zero... From my perspective, there was none of that. Apparently a bunch of white streamers got fired from the stage in all directions before Empire of the Sun abruptly fled with not one word more, and I am sure some people cheered but the moment passed and life continued, and we were aware of being in a new year, whatever that's worth. I entered into 2015 at a party not unlike our Frequency festival, wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and a goofy penguin hat.
You know what else is interesting? No fireworks. This time last year, I remember getting into an animated discussion with some other travelophile friends in Vienna about whether it was possible to go anywhere in the world where lots of lots of other people are and not get confronted with a ton of fireworks on New Year's Eve. We'd concluded that it probably wasn't, that this artificial multi-coloured gunfight was ubiquitous, even in countries with other cultural traditions, and simply could not be avoided.
We were wrong. Thanks (I think) to the ever-present threat of bush fires, I can report that fireworks are Not a Thing at the Falls Festival.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. The celebrations were de-contextualized, and experienced as if for the first time, in a different way. Not only did I have an amazing experience, I simultaneously managed to avoid the cultural expectations and unlikely resolutions, the fuss, and the bad champagne, however not the drunkenness, and definitely not the 2015.
Jake Mulligan, 2014
Happy new year?!