Mistletone Records hosted a great festival entitled Summertones at the Esplanade Hotel on Saturday. A celebration of both their own artists, plus the greatness of local music in general, the ten hour event was a big success, with a fantastic crowd, atmosphere and lineup – that is a rare thing for the Espy.

Going to St Kilda’s Espy at 4 o’clock in the afternoon is a weird feeling, especially for someone who really only ventures down to see music there in the middle of the night. The warm afternoon had early comers in high spirits, though, and those who arrived at the beginning were treated to some goodies and a kind of ‘battle for best harmonies’.

The three contenders in this “competition” were Dick Diver, Treetops and The Smallgoods. With little music to explore online for the first of the three, Dick Diver were a big surprise. Without a clear front person, the band delivered some straight-up, folky rock music with the boys up front sharing the duties of some inspiring harmonies. Walking out to the front bar upon their conclusion, Treetops – who haven’t played a show in a substantial while – set their goofy haircuts to the task of one-upping the festival’s opener. For a band that haven’t played in a long time, they sounded very tight and well practiced, as the crowd was again given a taste of some genuine summer tones.

The final contender to have its boys all sing along in the hope to impress was the delightful Smallgoods. Gus let rip on the drums for half a minute to begin with – getting the attention of the crowd and then it was time for Lachlan, Ben and Gus to sing with very little to no instrumentation their proper opener – a faultless tri-voiced love song that alone let this band win the little fictional competition. These Melbourne lads know how to form a good set, too, with the slowest songs opening and a gradual increase in energy and sound. Traipse Through The Valley was an obvious standout, but then again, nothing really wasn’t.

Back out to the front bar – the casual wandering around the Espy from one room to the next seemed too easy. After the sweet high of the Smallgoods, it seemed the Ned Collette Band might be a little bit of a downer. Ned looked like he’d jumped straight out of colonial Australia as his glumness played away. But just when you thought you’d been let down, out came a screeching guitar break and all of a sudden Ned had brought some excitement back into the Espy. The heavy distortion of such a break in Ned’s final number, Just Another God Dammed Amusement Park was a great way to finish up.

Seems it doesn’t take long to be proven wrong about moving around easily. It also seemed that there was a hell of a lot of people here to catch Mountains In The Sky. The trio’s experimental pop soared from the moment it began, with the first three tracks blending into one another effortlessly. In stretches like this, the three members communicated with only glances and impressively their timing was impeccable. It’s hard to try and pinpoint what MITS are trying to portray in their music as it jumps from dark and moody one moment to happy and danceable the next. But one thing is clear – as I’m sure the nicely filled out Gershwin Room would agree – they blew our minds.

By this stage of the early evening, the Espy had finally gathered a substantial crowd and Kes Band had pulled a very strong contingent of punters to the front bar for their folk rock jamming. Of course, the real crowd would come later in the evening with a token American guest, but in the mean time Kes Band entertained with the mixture of long instrumentals and quirky songs.

Sticking his musical fingers in many pies, Gus Franklin reappeared on stage alongside Ryan McPhun for a turn playing with The Ruby Suns. The pair spent about 10 minutes “sound checking” as the delivered some great percussion heavy tunes for the crowd to dance away to. Now that the Espy was nice and dark, the venue could show off its little light installations around the front bar stage, which whilst minimal, did add to the dance feel of the Ruby Suns a little more than the standard lighting would have. Demanding no white lights, Ryan and Gus partied on, inviting some mates to the stage for an extended jam to round things off.

In the meantime, two bands were doing it for the girls in the Gershwin room, with the all-female Beaches pulling a strong crowd and the all-female Diamond Sea doing their best to follow suit. The latter was in very high spirits despite the massive gap at the front of the room and their much heavier breed of rock emerged viciously. The wordless Prairie Bomb was thrashed about and demonstrated the amount of volume that could come out of Gershwin Room – a slight shock considering the tamer sounds that the afternoon had produced.

Then there was Dan… “The world needs no more camera phone photos of me pressing buttons,” resounded an American accent, somewhere on the floor of the front bar beneath an illuminated skull. The stage had been overrun by punters and the front bar was packed by those attempting to get a look at Dan Deacon, who played his set from the middle of the crowd. In a demonstration of the future of music, Dan had the entire front bar follow his every instruction (and readers, feel free to go along with this): “Put your hand in the air. Next, make a fist. Next, raise your index finger to point to the heavens. Now tilt your wrist forward so your finger points ahead of you. Put your right foot slightly in front of your left. Now start bobbing up and down…” Sure enough, the whole front bar became a flock of bobbing emu/flamingo impersonators. Dan continued to ramble for quite a while longer and eventually unleashed his electronic sounds – ordering that anyone within his near vicinity must dance.

From comedic electronica to arty experimental, a big crowd gathered following Dan Deacon to see Pivot and, amazingly, the music was still running to correct time – something that any frequent Espy visitor would know is very rare. Starting things off with a disheveled number, it was clear to anyone unfamiliar with Pivot what they were about – a celebration of sounds. Like Mountains in the Sky earlier, Pivot have the ability to really impress and this show was no exception, with the highest levels of energy from all three members. Getting hassled by “the man with the paper” as to when they should finish didn’t go down very well though, but despite fears of being cut off early Pivot got to finish their best-part-of-an-hour set.

Finalising the festival for the big room, Witch Hats took to the stage a little late to yell their way into the wee hours. Rejoicing at the fact they now had the crowd from The Stabs, the Melbourne lads demonstrated their breed of grime that would be well suited as the soundtrack to an asylum horror movie. A bubble machine was the last thing anyone would have expected, but sure enough they thrashed about amongst the bubbles to super heavy numbers like Can’t Stay At Home.

The usual lateness of the Espy finally kicked in properly in anticipation for a certain Melbourne act’s return to the stage. A good half-hour passed and songs were being crossed off the set list, but within seconds of the seven guys walking on stage and starting the blistering Hope St, one thing was clear – Ground Components were back in business. Joe McGuigan was at his screaming best for the band’s second gig back in a very long while. The crowd had thinned out considerably but the devoted group of fans hadn’t lost their energy, shaking their heads and singing along. On Your Living Room Floor rounded out the set and declared the band to be back in full swing.

Mistletone’s Summertones Festival was a big success. The exceptional lineup didn’t disappoint and Melbourne was certainly lucky to get the biggest of the Mistletone events, so here’s to the festival returning for another round next year.

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