Ric's Big Backyard Festival @Ric's Bar, Brisbane(26/03/2011)

Tue 29th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

“$75 to get into Ric’s? What an outrage!”

It looks steep on paper but in reality this is where the criticism of Big Backyard stops (with the exception of stage sizes and noise levels, of course). The set-up of the festival is quite refreshing, even if they apparently had trouble trying to fill it. The small stages in the venue both upstairs and downstairs have both been utilised whilst a larger beer garden setup exists in the carpark outside. There are plenty of full strength beverages and hot food available to remove the usual gripes of weak beer and horrible junk food.

It’s kind of strange how many familiar faces are here. Ian Haug from Powderfinger, Patience Hodgkins from The Grates and Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale are all floating around, no doubt due to the headliners You Am I and a reformed Pangea.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; If that’s the case then The Arcade Fire must be truly humbled by Brisbane’s Inland Sea. Their twelve-part vocal performance shows proficiency but there’s a perfectly good choir down the road at All Hallows. All the orchestration in the world will do squat if the actual compositions are unimaginative. Sadly, this proves to be the case. They might find their own voice eventually, but if they resort to simply copying their influences they will only bring themselves cynicism.

Kicking off the upstairs stage with a bang, Velociraptor hit the stage with their take on 60s indie pop. With tambourine in hand, lead singer Jeremy guides the band through a bunch of their indie pop anthems such as Hey Suzanne, In The Springtime, Sleep With The Fishes and new track, Trash Talking Raptors. Though they present as an octet (and still sans three members) for the show they don’t lack energy or vibrancy, as they scream and howl their way through an entertaining set.

Sydney band Gunieafowl are second on the outside stage. They played an amiable set including In Our Circles and Botanist. The lack of a crowd sees the band uninterested in interacting and the set is hampered by keyboardist/vocalist Imi Harper’s laryngitis. Unfortunately today’s set is lost on the crowd so they finish quickly and make a hasty exit.

Ben Salter and Ric’s are suited to each other, and that’s not just because there’s a framed photo of him on the wall upstairs. Unlike his recent support with The Beautiful Girls, Ben’s audience are far more attentive and his surroundings gel more cohesively with his music. Yet there are still a small selection of his material that doesn’t quite live up to potential. Nevertheless, West End Girls has Salter pouring heart and soul into the microphone. This morbid sounding song is contrasted by the jovial melody of Opportunities which proves to be a highly accessible even after only a few listens. Let’s not forget this dude is supporting Foo Fighters the day after, so any fallacies are excused.

Are The Mercy Beat the loudest band to ever play at Ric’s? They surely must be, and they’re not even using a full set up. Their usual high energy is constricted by the tiny stage, but they still manage to wield their instruments like weapons despite having a few near-misses with some of the artwork on the wall. Eagle Throws Goat Off Cliff and Arouzin Yispouse unleashes an aural blitzkrieg. Loose as Tin Heavens show’s that their hardcore punk/ metal hybrid isn’t all serious. A close inspection reveals they’ve slotted KISS’s I Was Made For Loving You into the drawn out sections. When the band members waltz out onto the balcony it would become quite the spectacle for passers-by in the Brunswick Street Mall.

Hey, wait a second, where’s The Honey Month? These four acrobats are The Medics. Their blend of atmospheric indie is played with the energy of a hardcore band. They ponder over climbing onto PA stacks but decide leaping off the drum rider is safer. In a rather bizarre moment during Joseph , drummer Jhindu Lawrie leaps off his kit, sprints across the ledge on the left side of the stage and runs around aimlessly in the crowd. He bellows “You built walls to cover your pride!” and the crowd watch with looks of bemusement. Not even the band truly knows what they just witnessed.

A large crowd gathers upstairs to see rockabillies King Cannons do their thing. They start off with an energetic track entitled Gasoline, ensuring everyone knew they weren’t here to mess around. Full of attitude, tatts, hair dye and an impressive auxilliary percussion stash, the band draw one of the largest and enthusiastic crowds to the upstairs stage. Take The Rock is a highlight and throughout their set the crowd whispers comparisons to Gaslight Anthem, or even Sprinsteen at a stretch.

Surprisingly, Richard In Your Mind only have a few supports in the room when they hit the upstairs stage. Lead singer Richard Cartwright introduces the small crowd to their take on pop-psychedelia, and the band excels when playing their more pop-orientated tracks I Will and The Sun Broke Into Your Heart. They put the synth to good use on other tracks when they explore the psychedelic side of things. Some of the intricate experimental production found on their albums seems lost in a live setting, but not dissimilar to The Flaming Lips, the band ends their set with a handheld confetti cannon.

New Zealand’s Die! Die! Die! pulverise in a live environment – and this set contains more noise than music . It’s only about 10 seconds and Andrew Wilson is already off the stage building up layers of distortion into a wall of noise. He strums so furiously that his whammy bar dislodges. Material from Form is slowly vanishing from their set in favour of a few new songs. Strange, given all the acclaim the album received. We Built Our Own Oppressors has the band members venturing into the crowd, although people are still hesitant to get involved.

To say Pangea are dusting off cobwebs is an understatement. This is their first show in over a decade; A reunion highly sought after by people who have followed Brisbane music for long periods. Even those who aren’t sure of their history will no doubt notice the familiar faces of Ben Ely from Regurgitator and Dave Atkins from Wolfmother/Resin Dogs.
Their brand of ultra-technical funk metal is dated, but that’s because a thousand other bands have leeched from their style. Back in the 90s this was mountain-moving stuff. Colossus is an adequate reflection of their style; slapped bass, furious metal shredding and a blistering fusillade of drum fills by Atkins. The only disappointing thing about this set is that it is a one off. [Ed’s note: apparently not – April 30 at The Zoo] I believe the appropriate expression to summarise would be “I like your old stuff better than your new stuff”.

“This is probably the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to at Ric’s”, smirks James Tidswell from Violent Soho. You could say they’re the loudest most raucous grunge band to ever set foot in the venue, but since they’re outside it doesn’t really count. It’s good to have them home, and it’s even better to have them pissed off and full of malice. From the ferocity of Son of Sam to the cathartic Muscle Junkie – it’s as solid as always. Scrape It has become a ritual as a closer; right down to Tidswell’s mid song break and Luke Boerdam throwing his guitar like a rag doll. Even if it has become rehearsed, it’s scathingly brutal.

Reviewed by Scott Thompson, Thomas Nall and Crystle Fleper. Compiled by Crystle Fleper