Photos from Sunset Sounds Day 1 here

Photos from Sunset Sounds Day 2 here

Day 1

The FasterLouder troupes arrive at a cloudy, slightly muggy, but beautiful Botanical Gardens to find ourselves in a crowd awash with singlets, bandanas and skinny legs Vince Noir would kill for. There’s an eclectic line-up assembled for the Queensland sibling of Falls Festival, with many big names and critical darlings on show over the next two days.

The kinetic energy and unbridled enthusiasm of Dappled Cities is a perfect start to the day with heaps of exuberance and mighty synth fun. Dappled Cities come across like a mix of Bowie and Sleepy Jackson and a killer version of The Price captivates all. The lead guitarist is all smiles too as he announces the live debut of a guitar he had picked up that very day, regaling us with how it already sounds like Brisbane to him. In this case, Brissy sounds just fine.

With less handclaps than chicks and tambourines it’s apparent The Phenomenal Handclap Band are here to start the party. The seven member group kick off with a Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You riff and segue quickly enough into bona fide Earth Wind & Fire territory. Their catchier tune is a blatant rip of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and the crowd thins out halfway through their set.

Kaki King – the black-clad New Yorker jumps right into her set, combining her fingerpicking ferocity with intense grooves. Her unique guitar skills are stuff of legend and don’t disappoint. She cops a phantom rush of smoke which initially scares her into thinking she’s on fire but all is handled with aplomb. She endears herself to the crowd claiming Brisbane has great dancers, much preferred to New Yorkers’ still-standing ways. An especially caustic version of Pull Me Out Alive wins new fans but there are just as many already singing along.

Emiliana Torrini ’s moody set comes to life in the Gardens Stage surrounds, her voice as warm and charming as she is gorgeous. Jungle Drum, Sunny Road and Gun are seared into memory as Day 1 highlights.

Jamie T draws a packed out crowd to the River Stage who are clearly lapping up the Wimbledon bard’s work. If You Got The Money goes down a treat with the assembled throng.

The ragged blues bearded glory of Seasick Steve is next and the hobo superstar rips it up from the start with a blistering two-piece attack. He’s all skronk fury with his Animal-esque drummer, brutal sincerity and pure entertainment. It’s easy to drift away, lost on the delta as his combination of hot blues licks and personal vignettes hit the mark. Quick shout out to the awesome couple air-guitaring to many of Steve’s walking solos. Commiserations also to the girl who was brought up on stage from the crowd and who looked extremely awkward being serenaded by Steve, funny stuff.

Art Vs. Science open with new track Magic Fountain and offer a welcome electro kick to the otherwise folkier offerings of Day 1 on the Gardens Stage. They’re head to head with Hilltop Hoods but the band and their inflatable animals pull a mammoth crowd. Parlez Vous Francais and Flippers are standouts of a non-stop party.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela, much like Torrini’s earlier set, are a refreshingly cathartic festival addition. The Mexican duo could easily hit the academic trail with their outstanding technical proficiency, but the interplay between the two onstage draw even the rowdiest punter to a quiet moment, or Moby.

Moby ’s set is approached with slightly reluctant trepidation. Having not seen him since the late nineties, this reviewer is pleasantly surprised. He commands the stage from the get-go, ably backed up by his hot all-girl band and male drummer. Extreme Ways (aka the song from the Bourne Identity movies) is fantastic and the rave spirit of the nineties can be felt in the eager crowd. Not surprisingly the more familiar Play tunes go down best with Moby throwing in some nice touches with Nirvana’s All Apologies intro for an epic Porcelain and a Doobie Brother’s Long Train Runnin’ intro later on. Bodyrock gets the bowl absolutely slamming before he has the whole crowd mouth-trumpeting to Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire.

Day 2

Only familiar with Patrick Watson from his once omnipresent advertising hit with the Cinematic Orchestra, To Build a Home, Watson and band delivers a baroque set perfectly in tune with his mid afternoon slot. Coming off like a muppet Tom Waits at times, he employs myriad devices including a megaphone from which he emits muffled warblings and a toy organ. Add to that some fine solo work from his kickass drummer and this Montreal native leaves the crowd wanting more.

There’s some serious anticipation for the next Gardens Stage act, Andrew Bird. The tank-topped Bird and band hit the stage and his gorgeous sound takes a little while to win the crowd over. Bird’s set is plagued by baffling punter talk going on which detracts from Bird’s sublimely subtle arrangements and multi-instrumental virtuosity. Crowd rage aside, Bird is simply captivating, from Noble Beast’s Anonanimal through to the gorgeous epic gloom of Scythian Empires.

King Khan And The Shrines are touted by Falls Festival-goers to be a must see, and their recorded material suggests this to be true. Unfortunately their outlandish stage presence and trashy garb seem more suited to a smoky intimate club than the Riverstage in daylight. Land Of The Freak – œs surf-rock vibe gets people dancing, but they quickly venture on a downhill slide of dirty soul into generic funk territory, complete with slapper go-go girl, badly costumed horse-dancers and rank cliches.

Lisa Mitchell sashays onto the Gardens Stage next resplendent in a figure-hugging red dress and is quite the charismatic chanteuse as she performs hits such as So Jealous and Coin Laundry to an adoring crowd. She also finds time for a beguiling cover of Dire Straits’ Romeo & Juliet which is such a perfect fit it recalls the High Fidelity clerks’ reaction to Lisa Bonet’s version of Baby I Love Your Way.

It’s hard to describe the next act on the Garden’s Stage, but let’s give it a try. The absolute shit. Groundbreaking. Everything that is good about music at the moment. Grizzly Bear are all these and more and after some meticulous sound-checking we are joined by the Brooklyn quartet coming straight off their annus mirabilis and not surprisingly in amazing fettle. You should know the tunes by now – Two Weeks, While You Wait for The Others, Ready, Able, I Live For You, Cheerleader, Foreground, Fine For Now and On A Neck, On A Spit from Yellow House. The clarity of the visceral quiet/loud dynamic, the vocal interplay between Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen, the instinctive rhythm section of the two Chris’s Taylor and Bear, simply the songs themselves are captivating. This band currently knows no bounds and bets are on we may have already witnessed the most important band of the next decade just a week in.

Seen Editors yet? A heady combination of mid-paced synth-tinged rock (Leader Cheetah and The Killers spring to mind) iced with Tom Smith ’s rich tenor vocals, their set resonates beautifully around the Riverstage at dusk. The intensity of their light show is comical in its fight against the last flashes of sun, but their hit-filled set remains engaging throughout, with An End Has A Start an upbeat highlight.

The Temper Trap follow Editors in the same vein of festival friendly fodder, if somewhat more subdued and sans lightshow. Sweet Disposition and Fader are suitably epic and while the Riverstage is packed, their set inevitably provides the perfect background noise to the food line adventure that punters set out on before Karen O and co hit the stage in under an hour.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are easily the biggest drawcard of Sunset Sounds and from the minute Karen O hits the stage sporting a Peter Pan outfit – sans pants – punters are going nuts. They open with Heads Will Roll and stomp through a riveting set, complete with eyeball backdrop and inflatable eyes that bounce around the crowd. Skeletons, Gold Lion, Zero and Maps are delivered with gusto by the dynamite rock chanteuse and her band. It’s quite a sight looking out across the thousands of punters relishing every word that drips out of Karen O’s mouth. Only the inclusion of Phenomenon could have helped end Sunset Sounds in a finer fashion.

The two half-day festival format is one that works well at this inner city venue, and runs smoothly for punters. The ticketing fiasco of 2009 is largely avoided, food, cash bar and toilet queue times are minimal and best of all, those who don’t like camping get a taste of the extraordinary Falls Festival, right on the doorstep of their concrete jungle. While many acts hop the next flight to play Southbound Festival in WA, punters pile out of the Botanic Gardens, already speculating about next year’s lineup.

Reviewed by EddieTwoTimes and misscrystle