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C W Stoneking led the charge at the Garden stage, with his take on the ol’ rhythm and blues. Armed initially with a banjo that sounded like a mandolin, then swapping to a steel guitar, C W was joined by his band mates with a variety of instruments, including drums, tuba, double bass, trumpet and trombone, who go by the name of The Primitive Horn Orchestra. It was thigh-slapping, Hokum (look it up, it’s some kind of sexual innuendo take on blues apparently) music that was a great way to start the day. Swampy music suits Brisbane’s steamy summer days, as attested by the crowd imbibing in both music and beverage.

Melbourne alt-country pop kids, Skipping Girl Vinegar provided a short, but very sweet, set of acoustic-guitar driven tunes at the Hibiscus stage. With a couple of songs garnering them some attention of late, it seems that these folk are on the verge of becoming a mainstay on the touring circuit, which would be nice because they are a lot of fun. Joking that they couldn’t afford a horn section and instead brought cardboard cut-outs, singer Mark Lang asked the crowd to provide the “badada’s” in place of the horn lines in the chorus of Sift The Noise, which we were only too happy to oblige.

Roots stalwart, Ash Grunwald took to the Garden stage armed with his gravelly voice, guitar and kick drum before bringing on the band for a set of judiciously chosen tunes from his extensive catalogue. A consummate player on the old steel guitar, Ash kept it laid back and easy-vibed, inviting several clap-alongs that would begin mellow and eventually raise to fever pitch. The highlight was when an extra batch of drums was brought onstage for the rousing Fish Out Of Water.

Heralding their arrival on the Hibiscus stage with a flourish of snake charmer clarinet, Melbourne gypsy punk rockers Barons of Tang added some middle eastern frivolity and merry making to the evening. Alive with clarinet, sax, double bass, guitar, piano accordion and two drummers, the accelerated punk tempo, rockabilly thump and jack-in-the-box popping melodies had the small but enthusiastic crowd dancing wildly until mournful la la la’s signalled the close of the set and promises were made to return to Brisbane very soon.

It seemed like Santogold was never going to actually make an appearance at the Riverstage, as her DJ started off solo, playing a 25 minute set of standard club pumpers and classics such as The Police’s Roxanne. Just as the crowd really began to get restless and wondering if she would show at all, onstage she strode with 2 backup singers/dancers and proceeded to play a short, yet very zesty set of tunes taken mostly from her debut eponymous record, including radio hits, Creator and Lights Out. With a strong reggae influence and hints of 80’s pop in the mix, it was impossible to keep the jiggling feet from letting loose and dancing all over the place. Next time however, hopefully she plays for her whole set slot, rather than only pulling half a real set.

While Patience from The Grates recently sprained her foot at Perth’s Southbound festival, needing crutches to get onto stage and then sitting down for the duration of the set, the band did their best to counteract the absence of her usual feverish bouncing around by dressing the set. Large toy soldiers, spinning glitter stars, barber shop poles and a red throne adorned the stage, while Patience looked like Snow White in her blue top with white frills and yellow dress. To complete this surreal picture, out came dancing animals including (and some of these might be wrong, it was hard to tell them all!) a cow, a shark, a rooster and Death with a scythe. While the visual extravaganza nearly covered for the lack of usual jumping, it still felt like a diminished version of The Grates. Get better soon, Patience, so we can enjoy your relentless enthusiastic energy on stage again soon!

Regardless if you’re ambivalent, have a little award-winner apathy or are an avid long-time fan, there is simply no denying; The Boat People consistently deliver great live performances. Opening with tracks from their debut yesyesyesyesyes, Tell Someone Who Cares and Unsettle My Heart , they filled half an hour with tracks so polished they gleamed bright like Batman’s signal in the sky; beckoning more and more people to the stage to sing along. Gem upon gem from last year’s Chandeliers sparkled with crowd participation; Panic, As If I Could and Awkward Orchid Orchard rounding out the set on a high of unison singing and face-splitting smiles.

It’s been a long time between drinks with Franz Ferdinand, both in terms of touring down under, and record releases. With a record due in the next couple of weeks, it seems a strange time to actually come out for festival headline slots, when the furore of 2004’s Franz Ferdinand and 2005’s You Could Have It So Much Better has well and truly died down. Despite this lag, Franz provided a solid, if not completely inspiring, hour long set of crowd pleasers and teasers from the new record.

They started off with the irrepressible Do You Want To, and went from there with a swag of tunes, including The Dark Of The Matinee, Walk Away, I’m your Villain and Come On Home. Crowd thrilling megahit and sing-a-long, Take Me Out was followed by Ulysses, the vanguard single from forthcoming record, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

Exiting in the usual fashion and then coming back on stage for the obligatory encore set, Franz kicked straight into a zesty version of Michael, followed by a lengthy instrumental that involved the entire band beating the crap out of the drum kit like a primordial beast, and finally finishing off the festivities of Sunset Sounds with a rousing and anthemic take on This Fire.

By Stewart Riddle aka stewr and Shan Welham aka queennahs