Bay Wave Youth Festival @ LotaSkate Park, Brisbane(17/05/08)

Sun 18th May, 2008 in Gig Reviews

The Bay Wave Youth Festival had something for everyone – young or old – belly dancing workshops, skate competitions, a break dancing demo performed by Fre Agentz, laser skirmish, drumming workshops, rock climbing, bike competitions, hair braiding and beading, candle making, beat boxing, live music, laughter and good fun.

The ambience of the festival was amazing. The atmosphere built from live music drifted over the park while skaters grazed knees, dancers busted their moves and girls had their hair braided. The main stage was the definite focal point of the day from which the music pumped loudly and impressively.

Local garage band Grazed were a fantastic opener to the day’s events, they provided the forming crowd with rock tainted grunge. There was lots of guitar movement, extremely easy listening and a great lead vocalist, Colin, who sounded very similar to Eddie Vedder. Their songs So Far Beyond and The Dark were sweet and familiar.

Upbeat and happy, Gold Coast boys Cardboard Castle bounced around the stage with their fine tuned songs – Drama Queen Extraordinary and I’m not Angry I’m just Done – sounding somewhat similar to Kisschasey with even better tempo. Cardboard Castle are a band with great vibes, they drew you in with their defiant on-stage charisma.

Dream Result opened with two guys and two guitars. I Don’t Want To is a beautiful love song that any girl would like sung to her. The rest of Dream Result appeared on-stage for their fast paced and solid melodies; percussionist Alex rumbled his drums with vigour and determination that held a firm background for the guitarists.There was also some very nice work from the guitarists who joined the crowd while playing. Lead vocalist Cory provided a perfect dreamy accompaniment that layered over the percussion and strings.

Completely different, Wasted Virtues had heaps of guitar slides and distortion. They opened with Thanks of Nothing and it sounded like a Sex Pistols song. Even through the noise, distortion, metal and punky sounds, the lyrics sung by Mitch were coherent. My hat goes off to these guys because they allowed two little boys – Dylan and Jai – to interact on stage when they rocked their stuff, really bringing the theme of youth to Wasted Virtues music.

Established band Don’t Tempt Thieves were playful, good looking and fully into their own music. You could see that they were truly doing what they adore and their performance shined because of this adoration. Kwibarshi and One Man Army expressed the bands abilities of clean, sharp rocking music. Even drumming and tempo, great rhythm and quite an unusual sounding lead vocalist provided by Matty make for uniqueness that help these guys get ahead.

Sometimes beautiful and sometimes not, the metal loving band from Logan Hallows End gave it all they had. The aesthetically pleasing lead vocalist Brendon was definitely into his groove with one foot on an amp and one foot firmly on the floor. The band was tight, loud and fast and you couldn’t help but head bang along, if you like melodic metal then you will love Hallows End.

The last band on the bill were local boys Blue Skies Fall, a quality band that lost most of the audience due to the festival winding down. Bassist Reece pulled the typical animated rock moves while Shayne ’s almost effeminate voice goes well with their raw sound. Shayne finally found his mojo with the last song Lock n Load, which was dedicated to everyone. It is rumoured these guys are breaking up and it’s a damn shame.

All over, the Bay Wave Youth Festival was a great success and all the bands put on a fantastic show.