Were you one of the gorgeous faces in the crowd? Have a look in mojojay’s gallery

Rock-it returned to Joondalup Arena in all its underage glory after a 3 year absence from the Perth festival circuit. Much had been made in the pre-festival hype about the trial of drug amnesty bins that would be making their first appearance at an Australian festival. Lines of punters strode past the drug bins with a cheeky giggle, some even had photos with the bins. Punters were stood in line while the cute labrador with the drug-detecting nose ran up and down the queues, next they were patted down by door staff before being allowed into the cauldron of decadence.

On stage, Sparkadia were strumming out their lovable inoffensive brand of guitar pop -a very pleasant way to start the day.

Canadian pop-rockers The Stills were up next and their melodic and catchy tracks like Don’t Talk Down went down well, even with those who knew little about the band.

Following The Stills were two bonafide workhorses of the Aussie scene; Faker and Birds of Tokyo. Faker have trodden a longer and more windy path than Birds, until their breakthrough LP Addicted Romantic in 2005. Second album Be The Twilight brought them to the mainstream and with hooks aplenty littering their set, it’s no wonder the Sydney boys have taken off. Newer favourites such as Sleepwalking and This Heart Attack, sat comfortably next to older singles like Hurricane and Bodies.

The crowd was in full voice for Birds of Tokyo’s Wayside and recent single Wild Eyed Boy. One must feel for members of Ian Kenny’s other band Karnivool. Despite slogging it out since 1996, they have not scratched the commercial success that Birds of Tokyo have. One might also think that if it weren’t for Kenny’s prodigious vocal talents, Birds would not be where they are today.

Playing their last Perth show at the 2005 Big Day Out, The Music had their requisite member-to-detox/rehab period and emerged unscathed on the other side with a new album to boot. Strength In Numbers was the first piece of new material released in three years and it showed the band has lost none of their knack for writing balls-out, hands-in-the-air anthems. Frontman Robert Harvey was thrashing around to their hits like Welcome to the North and The People and by the end of the set had the crowd emulating his epileptic style dance moves.

Glaswegian punk-popabillys The Fratellis had the task of keeping the crowd interested before the headliners arrived. They had to contend with people going to perform last minute acts -like buy alcohol. There certainly seemed to be more than the average number of filthily boozed-up bogans stumbling around. Coincidence? Legal drugs over illegal ones? Perhaps an argument for another day. Others ran off to charge their mobiles to record Sex On Fire later in the evening.

Flathead made an early appearance along with Costello Music though the, by now massive, crowd seemed a little disinterested even when recent single Mistress Mabel blared out. Like their namesake gangsters in The Goonies, they didn’t really capture the kids -or the freaks, despite their best attempts.

Secrets are never as cool when everyone else knows them.

When Youth & Young Manhood first entered the musical universe, it was a breath of magical air that took guitar rock back from the likes of Creed and Nickelback -who had been steering the ship straight into the iceberg. Fast-forward six years and Kings of Leon have become a household name, up there with Coldplay and U2. While their early releases had a raw edge that separated them from the bunch, their more recent albums see less experimentation, and their sound buffed up to a Ferrari-like sheen.

Opening Rock-it’s hundred minute set was Only By The Night’s Crawl which was followed by a healthy mixture of older and newer tracks including Molly’s Chambers from their debut LP. The Hottest 100 winner made a relatively early appearance, with a ridiculous sea of mobile phone lights making for quite an amazing sight from the raised section of the hill. Taper Jean Girl came and went as did the always amazing Milk, The anthem sing-along Use Somebody had the crowd in full voice and On Call provoked a similar response.

Rock-it smashed back into the festival season to close out another summer, albeit with an extra half dozen shows to compete with since its last outing. Its sold-out status confirmed that the kids still have the money to buy tickets, even in ‘these depressing times’ and with the over-saturation of the festival market. Fun in the sun is all they need, and of course four scrumptious boys from Nashville.

Hopefully it won’t be another 3 years until the next edition.

Were you one of the gorgeous faces in the crowd? Have a look in mojojay’s gallery