CHECK OUT THE STUNNING PHOTO GALLERY FROM MELBOURNE V FESTIVAL HERE.
Melbourne’s V Festival proved itself as a worthy contender in the Australian big name festivals, with enough highlights to immediately rival Big Day Out. The day was all about international acts (with only four Australian acts on show) as well as running around like crazy to ensure you could feast your eyes and ears on as much as possible.
This Stage began the day with the be-bop styling of the Garage 2 V winner Little Red. A Melbourne band has won this spot on the line-up both years it has been running, sending a strong message to the rest of nation of the city’s talent. Despite patches where Dominic Byrne’s vocals sounded rather strained, Little Red didn’t disappoint in the spot either, and Taka Honda on drums worked relentlessly at getting the crowd to clap along to their super happy tracks.
Canada’s Hot Hot Heat were next on the same stage, and belted out one hell of an energetic set. Frontman Steve Bays spent the whole set bounding from each side of the stage to the next, revving the crowd up for the day ahead. “You don’t feel like a 2:30 crowd,” Bays remarked as he revelled in the praise fuelled reactions he was getting. Tracks came heavily from Elevator and didn’t slow down the entire time – Running Out of Time and the album’s title track had the heads of the crowd bouncing early. Bays’ microphone during 5 Time Out of 100 provided some laughs, as his head moved constantly up and down to level with the uncooperative, constantly moving microphone stand. Whilst the crowd had been having fun, it wasn’t until Goodnight Goodnight that a true appreciation was shown – with head-swinging all round.
Modest Mouse’s last two albums, along with the now permanent inclusion of Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, have brought enormous attention to the band, who first came to Australia only 16 months ago. Singer Isaac Brock walked onto the stage, and before beginning he started rambling something about only being one and half Princes tall, but because he was on stage he was still taller than everyone else. Clearly, Brock is a strange man. Bury Me With It came first and immediately introduced the unsuspecting to Brock’s aggressive style – manic yelling and eye popping facial expressions. The stage was alive with instrumentation and members swapped and changed their inclusions constantly – electric cello, banjo and accordion among the less common instrumentation. Brock even sung into his guitar at one stage, producing a kind of harsh, muffled fuzz of vocals that few singers would attempt to deliver. Older tracks Tiny Cities Made of Ashes and Paper Thin Walls mixed delightfully in with newies like Dashboard and of course the song that saved the band, Float On. The ten minute epic of Spitting Venom finished up though, and included a heap of jamming from Marr and Brock that left the crowd only wishing the set was longer than an hour.
Running to That Stage after Modest Mouse, Roisin Murphy was already well under way with her pop-infused dance set. The former Moloko frontwoman was in her element today and wasn’t interested in playing any older numbers from her previous trip-hop duo. Murphy was genuinely entertaining to watch as she danced around (often robotically to match her electronics) and donned a new headdress with each new song. Despite the time taken in costume changing she provided many laughs and a dance friendly atmosphere – with many on the rather open lawn dancing away to the likes of You Know Me Better and Overpowered.
Remaining at That Stage, French duo Air provided the most chilled atmosphere possible for a festival. Seeming a little out of place amongst the dance and rock acts on show, Air still managed to draw a massive crowd with their experimental electronic pop. They sounded incredible. The quirky stage presence of Nicolas Godin brought smiles about, as he thanked the crowd via vocoder in French after each track. Air’s set was a chance for festival goers to simply take in the music, with tracks like Cherry Blossom Girl hardly calling for any heavy dancing.
Photos courtesy of Anthony Smith
