Falls Festival: Day Two @Lorne, Victoria (30/12/2010)

Mon 3rd Jan, 2011 in Gig Reviews

A refreshing breeze allows for a slightly chillier start to Thursday and The Middle East oblige the conditions with the frostily beautiful Darkest Side kicking the second day into gear. Not that it’s a cold day by any means and, similarly to Eagle and The Worm, the guys and gals from Townsville benefit for the majority of their set from a sleepy but receptive crowd happy to let the gentle vibes soothe pounding heads. Unfortunately though, it’s not an ideal atmosphere for more upbeat numbers meaning that the excellent Blood fails to get the crowd wholeheartedly off their bums, denying it the dance floor of unbridled euphoria it surely deserves.

The sun begins to poke out from behind the clouds and suddenly it seems a decent idea to head for the relative shelter of the freshly opened Grand Theatre tent, where Boy and Bear are conspiring to cement their place at the forefront of the Australian modern folk (MoFo?) movement. While Ash Grunwald is kick drumming and steel guitaring his way through a set of raucous redneck derelictica on the Valley Stage, the lads in the tent perform their best Mummford and Sons impersonation before a heaving audience of Triple J devotees. With little stage presence to speak of and a decidedly dour set of opening tracks, there isn’t much to separate these guys from a rapidly crowding pack, so it requires more than a little help from messrs Tim and Neil Finn to finally crack the mould. They say the rose with the sharpest thorns is the sweetest and amidst a set of homogenously humdrum numbers, Boy and Bear’s cover of Fall at Your Feet comes closest of any song to sneak in under the heading of ‘festival defining moment’.

Children Collide arrive on the Valley Stage with indie rock credentials all present and correct and armed with a swag bag full of hits, each more popular than the last. It’s not a note-perfect set and the vocals have a tendency to get lost in the mix, but at 2pm and 32 degrees, there’s no substitute for youthful vigour that CC shovel on to the dance hungry crowd like sawdust into a long drop. It’s good to see another rare set of music not dependent on a singular song and a crowd begins to swell as radio hits Fashion Fits, My Eagle and Social Currency get a well deserved run out.

Diminutive retro popster Megan Washington almost threatened to cancel out the Melbourne trio’s good work. Yet, after a slow start, she recovered with a dynamic version of the jocular Sunday Best, getting tippy toes bouncing and ra-ra skirts shaking across the arena. Cooler than a soy chai latte in a T-shirt emblazoned with Phil Collins’ ironically hip face and wearing her trademark librarian spectacles, Washington seems to be genuinely enjoying herself behind her keyboard and that’s an outlook that gladly reflects on the gathered punters. It means that even after she stalks offstage following the sassy tones of Cement, the festival remains undeniably alive and, egged on by the pounding beats of Missy Elliot’s Work It (supplied by DJ Shag – who later gives us Gangsta’s Paradise and Dog Days are Over to elated reception), the ebullient crowd dances, wrestles and belts around inflatables in the rapture of sun-soaked freedom.