Parklife @ Riverstage &Botanic Gardens, Brisbane(26/09/2009)

Tue 29th Sep, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Parklife 2009. Yes!? Ah sorry, NO. Firstly, and I am unconventionally starting this review with the end of the night, I would like to say I am rather pissed off. Consider thousands of people packed into a venue where roughly half of them are unable to see any acts at the Riverstage from 3pm to 9pm as it was fully blocked off by security. Poor form Parklife. If you can’t handle the punters make the festival a little smaller, or get another patch of green to blare your electro.

Okay, now that I’ve released my perturbation, I can get down to the more positive stuff: the music, the crowd, the atmosphere and the, err, lots of beer.

Walking to the Botanic Gardens, I am swimming in a haze of tie dye and American-Indian chieftain headdresses ( Empire of the Sun fever?), this year’s latest fad which has thankfully taken over the Kanye West shades and fluoro trend of last year. There are some shockers though. Girls always like to go in themed gaggles, a past time dating back to grade 8 school dances. Nothing much has changed since then. Add some poorly applied inch-thick make-up, fake tan and a few millimetres of lycra and my eyeballs are assaulted with bulging cleavage popping out of pink shirts home printed with – œPoppin’ Our Cherry’. Oh the class. I am then trapped behind a swathe of topless men with their Oroton and CK undies showing from their tiny, tiny shorts. But that’s okay, fashion wrongs aside, we’re all drunk here, and everyone’s nice enough.

Arriving at 1pm there is a massive bottle neck to get into the venue. With one entrance only, this is to be expected. With the masses unable to be processed quickly enough, the festival kicks off to a very slow start. This is very unfortunate for the very talented first act of the day, Triple J Unearthed winners, Laneous & the Family Yah. This funky hip-hop outfit played to a pitiful crowd, which was unrepresentative of the kudos they deserved for such a solid set. Nevertheless, the punters that managed to break through the front gates to see the set were enthusiastic and appreciative of the band’s performance, particularly enjoying a punked up version of the popular track Searing Life. Even frontman Laneous joined in on the Pocahontas theme, choosing to sport a dashing red-feathered head piece.

Fans DJs ain’t suited to this festival. Their remixes of classic rock tunes and very, very recent underground indie songs do not go down well with the crowd, who are more acquainted with the Family night club DJs playing their stuff over at the Jager Cube. Needless to say, there is a dismal turn-out for their set. With the recent hype and the very successful monthly Fans events they run, I’m sure their egos aren’t bruised too badly.

Over at the Woods Stage is Dubmarine, another great local act. As their name suggests, they’re into dub, but appeal to the electro Parklife punters by amping up their set a little. MC Kaz Man is a good hype man. He’s constantly strutting up and down the stage, despite the intense heat, working the crowd with his fast lyrics. His voice is very distinct, with a reggae rapping influence. He almost sounds like an Aussie Shaggy in parts. Almost.

Art vs Science at the Air Stage pull a huge crowd for an early afternoon set. Not only does the house music crowd love them, but the indie rockers are into them as well. Despite the bad sound quality the boys still pull off an energetic set which emanates into the crowd. Soon everyone is dancing to the highly rotated track Flippers, a rather comical song that sees the singers noting in a nerdy observational tone: – œoh yes, I see you clapping with your flippers. Hmm, I see you swimming with your flippers.’ Everyone enjoys this simple, yet so infectious, tune, especially the ones up front spazzing out on pingers. The set finishes with a very well received cover of Basement Jaxx’s Where’s Your Head At? I didn’t think the crowd could get any rowdier after Flippers, but the Jaxx remastered into electric language has everyone thoroughly tuned in to the Art vs Science wavelength.

The Cool Kids – a hip hip duo hailing from Deee-troit and Chicago have a name that describes them perfectly. With a DJ running the beats, and the boys, Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish, up front shooting out their smooth US raps, the girls in the crowd and MC-wannabes go crazy for them. There is a good mix between cruisey MF Doom-inspired tracks and harder, blinged-up songs. The boys engage the crowd with regular interaction and back and forth rapping. The crowd bounces and for a minute I forget I’m at a predominantly electro-oriented festival, and instead am transported to a small bar in downtown Detroit, watching a small crew pump out some great rhymes.

After a bad start to her festival circuit in Australia – having been fined $400 for spitting in a bouncer’s face, and for general drunken disorder at The Beat the evening before, Lady Sovereign makes it to the stage after being locked up for the night and, regardless of all happenings, puts on a performance to be reckoned with. The pint-sized Londoner is anything but fragile. She swaggers on stage with a rapper’s limp in her baseball cap, lime green sunnies, skater pants and skate shoes. and pumps out hit after hit, standing as close to the crowd- on the PA – as she can. There are not many white female rappers around, so it is good to see one who can really do it well. She doesn’t falter on the extremely tongue tying Public Warning – her accent thick but her music transcending any translational hurdles. Her latest track So Human uses The Cure’s Close To Me, remastering it to a street genre. The best song of the afternoon is Love Me or Hate Me, a singalong that has everyone screaming – œif you love me then thank youuuu. If you hate me then fuck yoouuuu’. Good, harmless, non-assault-charges-related, old-fashioned fun.

Next on the Fire Stage is local record spinner Sampology. This boy is very into his mixing. He pleases the crowd with obvious enthusiasm for his job, spinning tracks such as Tequila with a disco house twist. The Cure is getting some great coverage today, with Sampology also choosing Close To Me to cover.

Metronomy!!! Wow. Pretty good for a few dudes that look like they’ve come straight from a university IT lab, borrowed some hazard lights from construction workers to strap to their bodies and somehow ended up on stage. With matching white pants and black shirt combo, and a singular round light taped to their chests, these London boys (and a sexy lady drummer) wowed the crowd with their playful electronic pop. All three boys have very high-pitched voices. I cannot help but observe the role reversal of a lady beating the crap out the drum skins at the back, and three men singing in soprano unison prancing out front. Think Bowie and Kraftwerk, and you have a bit of an idea of their sound. Saxophone and trumpet make an appearance while the expert lighting keeps us in clubbing mode. There are some die-hard fans in the crowd who cannot restrain their glee, especially when the poppy Thing For Me cranks up. Metronomy are certainly one of the highlights of this year’s festival.

The act I have most been looking forward to appears on the Air Stage at 6:30pm, just as a dust storm also decides to make an appearance, adorning the night sky with a haze of yellow. The crowd is mental for Toronto’s Crystal Castles. The venue is absolutely chock-a-bloc with sweaty eyes, bodies jostling, and the eager anticipation of the crowd results in violent screams, chants, and many bodies grappling to get out of the mosh for fresh air. The mass hysteria is completely warranted. Singer Alice Glass is a babe, especially when she is screaming her lungs out on the mike, jumping on the drum kit, lying all over the stage, and encouraging the cacophony by standing on the crowd barriers, almost being engulfed by the delirious crowd. No one can understand a word she is saying over the wall of sound created by the blaring, and extremely tinny, ah, noise being made by multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath. I describe it, however, as a welcome assault on my ears. The crowd is captivated with the glitchy, razor-sharp electro pumping from the very loud sound system. Alice carries a portable strobe light, which searches into the crowd and then shines back onto her face- like at school camp telling ghost stories. Alice manages to be sultry and completely nuts at the same time. She says with a low, sexy voice as she walks on, – œ5…4…3…2…1…party…’, then the next second she is losing her shit, running around with the mike, tossing her black hairdo and causing her heavy black eye make up to run with her rock and roll writhing. One punter makes it on stage, has a look around, takes photos and finally gets bumped off by security.

My night finishes with local band The Cairos, as I am unable to make it through to the blocked-off Riverstage for Empire of the Sun. This rock band is an interesting choice for this festival. No doubt, there is not a very big turn-out, with most people off to see the big crowd puller Metric. Nevertheless, the band deliver a good set, and get 50 or so people more than enthusiastically dancing to their beats. Punters are tired and welcome the extra room for a proper boogy, while the rest sweat it out, or vainly attempt to make it into the Riverstage. The atmosphere is relaxed and winding down, perfect for a post-bedlam chill out and one last beer.

As the dust storm creeps over the city, there is more than a few leaving for the gates already. Yes, at 8pm. No doubt many punters are disappointed with the organisation of the event. With this being Luke Steele ’s first ever show for Empire of the Sun, bound to be a sound, lighting, costume and dancer extravaganza, and the biggest pull of the festival, it is interesting to note that more than half the people attending were unable to even glimpse the show. Not even televisions were set up to view the Riverstage from another setting. This is indeed the main let-down of the festival. I hope organisers next year are able to somehow alleviate the problem, and general end-of-night dissatisfaction of their punters, next year.

As a relatively young festival, Parklife still has some work to do. However, it has filled a niche in Brisbane as the premier electro-house festival in Queensland, and pulling some truly great international acts. Regardless of logistical cock-ups, it seems most punters thought they got their money’s worth and as far as festival’s go, this has one of the most enthusiastic, excitable crowds I’ve ever seen. If everyone’s having fun, isn’t that the main thing?