The Falls Festival is in a unique position. While it offers up artists that would be more than at home on the larger corporate festival circuit it still captures the essence of what made it such a great little festival to begin with.
Even with the Festival’s expansion to Marion Bay, Tasmania, the boutique vibe is still strong. The Festival seems to be plotting a careful course between the extremes of keeping it small to protect the atmosphere, and doing things on a large enough scale to provide the complete festival experience.
And so it was that the fifth instalment of the Falls Festival at Marion Bay
was in most regards the best yet. Over previous years, the line up has, on occasion, lacked the element of balance. However this year it was impeccable. There was never a sense that it was just a roll-call of artists releasing albums into the Christmas market. It seemed more like an exquisite mix tape, covering familiar elements and incorporating brilliant surprises and left-field diversity. It’s a testament to those responsible that they managed to give the 15,000 people gathered a musical education as well as thoroughly entertain them.
Amongst the generally outstanding artists there were a few absolute highlights. Firstly, Neville Staple deserves a special mention (pun intended). The man is as dynamic as ever, and was evidently in the best shape of his life. Three songs in, he removed his shirt and had a six pack that put many of the pouting bronzed 20-somethings to shame.
Fashion notes aside, the Specials’ music is as relevant and enjoyable as ever. The pointed social commentary of songs like Too Much, Too Young really cut through. Staple was one of the few acts that on sheer personality, charisma and presence could engage the entire audience for the entirety of the set. Staple was joined by fellow two tone ska legend, Ranking Roger from The Beat for renditions of Mirror in the Bathroom and Tears of a Clown.
Built to Spill, while equally as good, came from a completely different tangent. While their performance itself was a bit static, the way they crafted their soaring, swirling crescendos to their songs was mesmerising. It was the sort of performance where the audience could be completely still, yet completely drawn into what was happening on stage. The only disappointment was that there were not more people there to enjoy it.
The reason for the smaller than expected turnout was that local giant-killers, The Scientists of Modern Music, were blitzing a huge crowd at the smaller Field Stage. Perhaps next year they will finally get a spot on the main Valley Stage, because they are quickly becoming the highlight of any Tasmanian festival. In recognition of this, Lorne was also given a burst of their aural warfare early in the evening of New Year’s Eve.
The Whiskey Go-Gos deserve an honourable mention for a cracking set and even more so for the antics of singer/guitarist Matt Hutchinson, who like a few brave performers in previous years, put his body on the line and climbed the stage scaffolding.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club performed a set that was impossible to ignore. Their trance-inducing take on bluesy rock and roll was persuasive, visceral and full of swagger. It took them a couple of songs to wake up/warm up, but by the time they worked their way into their current hit, Weapon Of Choice, they’d found their mark.
They smashed through an awesome set with barely a word spoken between songs. They seem to capture the true rock and roll aura that has been missing for a few years. Their songs have a huge, inescapable momentum and by the time they played Whatever Happened To My Rock and Roll, Robert Levon Been had jumped into the crowd, bringing the set to an unpredictable and chaotic end.
Perhaps the only slight let down was the Kings of Leon failing to live up to the impossibly high expectations. Their set featured some truly exceptional songs, but they seemed to struggle to get into gear. While the crowd genuinely enjoyed it, it would have been nice to see them feed more off the crowd’s enthusiasm and challenge themselves to take some of their songs into different directions. However, having said that, it was a real thrill to hear them perform and it was quite surprising to realise that they have such an amazing cannon of songs.
Speaking of being spoiled for choice, Paul Kelly adapted a superb set from his weighty back catalogue. The early part of the set lent heavily on the 1987 album Under the Sun and from there he incorporated tracks from each of his different musical incarnations, including a couple of tunes from his latest, Stolen Apples. Kelly produced the call of the Festival, by referring to lead guitarist Ash Naylor (of Even and Grapes fame) as “the Bjorn Borg of the guitar”.
A depleted line-up of Blackalicious brought in the New Year to resounding cheers. MC Gift of Gab freestyled superbly while the main screen counted down the remaining seconds of 2007. Unfortunately, Chief Xcel was missing, which left a gap that Gift of Gab worked hard to fill. His busy, staccato style was well balanced with some excellent grooves.
And with that, 2008 emerged as the crowd settled in for one last effort before the inevitable log-jam motorcade snaked its way out of Marion Bay.
While the Falls Festival will never reach the Woodstock proportions of the bigger festivals, the 2007-08 effort will ensure that it has a lasting impact as a true event that combines a sensational location with environmentally sound facilities and a line-up that goes a long way to restoring one’s faith in the international, national and local music scene.
