Tuesday morning began with plenty of Falls’ happier stylings. Whilst Dash And Will bribed the first “tent crowd” of the festival with lollies (an energy hit that many hung over punters may have appreciated), The John Steel Singers were thriving on the main stage. The pop sensibilities of both acts made either a worthy choice to begin the day with, though the latter act inviting members of The Vasco Era, The City Riots, Tame Impala and Art V Science onto the stage for a giant final number certainly took the cake.

Coming out on their own accord following their cameo, Tame Impala continued their fan-gaining-run by delivering yet another solid set of their progressive rock. The Perth trio seems to have a supernatural ability to entrance crowds and Falls was no exception. As far as drawing crowds goes, however, French singer songwriter Soko managed to completely pack the tent at the top of the hill for her set, and considering the girl hasn’t released an CDs here, this seemed a mighty feat. Dressing up for songs like I’m A Tiger and swapping between instruments, Soko won over the crowd – the majority of which couldn’t even see her – with ease. The quirky pop number, I’ll Kill Her, received as big a reaction as those “one offs” of the Monday bands, though surely Soko will grow far beyond a one hit wonder – here’s hoping her release is out as promised in February.

From one kind of packed to another, TZU were causing a mass movement of punters back down at the main stage. It seemed that the rare dose of hip hop at the festival was embraced as much as possible, with a unified jump spanning from the stage most of the way up the hill. The awesome security guards were in full flight again as well, standing up against the barrier and waving their hands to the sky to encourage the bouncing.

The Drones followed, but unfortunately didn’t have the same pulling power. Sure, Gareth Liddiard sounds like he eats soup with a knife, but the band are amazing live, and with plenty of variety in their set – including the spectacular Shark Fin Blues and The Minotaur – not to mention the quartet’s intense stage presence (which includes Liddiard’s lurching over his guitar like some kind of dinosaur), the dwindled crowd was indeed a sorry sight. “Happy new year ya fucking bogans” – Right on Mr Luscombe!

“Where the fuck is summer?” Canada’s Tegan and Sara were a much greater success later in the afternoon. Acoustic based pop and a fair wit in their banter meant that the twins were worth standing in the downpour for 20 minutes leading to their set. “We wanted to come here in summer, but winter will do,” proclaimed the twins, which might have hit a nerve with some in the crowd. The songs went in the right direction though, with mass sing alongs during Walking With A Ghost and Back In Your Head. Whilst Tegan and Sara may have been a little more humble in their show, the rest of the acts that followed on the main stage were certainly more extraverted. Local boys Faker delivered their standard show full of Nathan Hudson’s usual energetic running around. Yet again, the crowd were sparked by the “big hit”, and closing track, This Heart Attack went off.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings took the crowd away from the rock with their soulful show. Master of ceremonies, Binky Griptite did his best job of riling up the already dancing crowd as the Dap Kings jammed away in preparation for Jones’ arrival. It took little time for Jones to prove herself to be the best frontwoman of the festival by miles, though. With her skillful showmanship, strutting like Tina Turner, invitations for multiple dancers to join her on stage and by singing all of her banter, she had little trouble encouraging the crowd to participate.

The Kooks proved to be pretty impressive too, and showed why they have such pulling power in Australia (with two sell out tours here in less than a year). Luke Pritchard, despite naturally sounding a bit out of it between songs (must be a British thing), was spot on with his delivery – both vocally and physically – and whilst boy bands died out at the end of the 90s, he and his company certainly received what could be described as a “boy band reception” from the ladies. The Kooks set delivered a healthy dose of both of their albums, though Naïve, Ooh La and the closing Sofa Song (all “oldies”) got the biggest, and highest pitched, screams.

Returning to the stage following an eight month hiatus, The Cat Empire reminded Falls why they’re such a strong addition to any festival lineup. Whilst a few of their numbers were drawn out with jamming, leaving less time for more actual songs, most of the favourites were still there – The Car Song and closer Two Shoes. A very Cat Empire rendition of Hotel California was beautifully woven in during The Chariot (the song being an obvious sing along favourite) and the inclusion of Paul Kelly’s Dumb Things couldn’t have gone down better. With the set came the rain, which began to pour down and brought the devastating realisation of just how cold it was, but people weren’t deterring from still having fun.

“You and me Falls Festival, we’re gonna have a love child!” Whilst Sharon Jones was the best frontwoman at Falls, the award for best frontman had to go to Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. These Swedes play arrogant to the nth degree and they do it incredibly well. Almqvist spent every second he wasn’t singing telling the crowd how they should love his band or how he had them in the palm of his hand. He wasn’t far off – when he said clap there was mass clapping and when he wanted a cheer he didn’t stop asking until he had it.

It was the Hives return to the Falls stage after eight years, and growing to become a headline act has sure increased the size and intensity of their show. Guitarist Nicholaus Arson was particularly crazy – jerking about and at one point almost knocking his head off whilst flinging his guitar over the shoulder – whilst Almqvist took every chance to do splits in the air and jump from the drum kit. Almqvist “called bullshit” on the fact it was 45 degrees last year, and out in the freezing rain it wasn’t hard to see why. The cold wasn’t the only thing getting to him either – he asked that if anyone saw someone throw something at him, to “please punch them in the face.” (It seemed that throwing bottles was “the cool thing to do” at this festival and if not it was to have a three person tower of shoulder sitters.)

Hate To Say I Told You So and Tick Tick Boom rounded out the Hives experience with a healthy mass of delighted jumping in the crowd. Despite the onslaught of idiots throwing anything they could find and toppling off one another’s shoulders, The Hives made it pretty easy to party hard into a freezing new year’s eve early morning.