Falls Festival Day Four, Lorne(31/12/2011)

Wed 4th Jan, 2012 in Gig Reviews

Day four of Falls Festival: the hangovers were heavier, the weather was even warmer and the music was about to get pretty hot and heavy itself. The final day had indie stars, heaps of local heroes and a few new gems to discover, and it brought in the New Year pretty darn well.

11 am and the big top on the hill seemed like it would be a good place to camp out for the day – if only it weren’t already full. Gossling was first up and made use of the breeze by covering her stage in colourful windmills. She provided a peaceful start to the day, with a moody piano cover of Dance The Way I Feel appreciated by those watching.

In the Grand Theatre, Kim Churchill had a full house of seated punters, more than happy to let his blues styling bring in the afternoon. Surfer roots one minute, crazy and rollicking the next, his one-man band getup was mighty impressive, and won people over with another cover; his passionate rendition of Led Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song.

More comedy followed Churchill, with 7000 odd cramming into the Grand Theatre to hear some jokes courtesy of Arj Barker, while Alpine provided some whacky dance moves and indie beats on the Valley Stage to those brave enough to handle the midday sun. Miles Kane followed them and struggled to pull significant numbers down front (or away from Barker), but for those watching he put on a true rock performance. Revelling in the sounds of brit pop, Kane posed, quipped and sang solidly in the heat; delivering tracks like Quicksand that were “perfect for this weather”. Familiarity to his Last Shadow Puppets project with Alex Turner was found in King Crawler, and along with plenty of his other material he proved an early treat for anyone excited about the night’s headliners.

Kimbra was next to the Valley stage and pulled a healthy sized crowd out of the shadows of the big top and bar. Opening with Call Me and one huge vocal note toward the song’s end, Kimbra didn’t take long to show why she’s risen to the top so quickly. Again with the covers, Bobby Brown’s Every Little Step made a more than fitting addition to Kimbra’s set, and incited plenty of lazy, late afternoon dance moves.

While there was funk and flair on the main stage, J Mascis was quite the opposite in the Grand Theatre. His was a set of no antics or fanfare – just a man, a couple of guitars, a songbook and loads of distortion solos.

Josh Pyke delivered his set to a very chilled out crowd, lazing around the hill beers in hand. Pyke wasn’t looking to pull out any tricks either, but had many joining in on his closing track, Middle of the Hill.

A modestly sized crowd could be found up the hil watching The Head & The Heart. This was another act intent on charming a bunch of new faces and like fellow Seattleites Fleet Foxes the day before, they did so through tight harmonies and indie allure. Helping them out also was the fact they were really friendly, giving big props to Kimbra and being genuinely appreciative of the crowd’s glowing reaction to them.

Getting a bit heavier with things was The Jim Jones Revue, who provided the only truly rock and roll performance the Valley Stage would see all day. With growl, grunt and some stellar piano work, they livened things up considerably; calling for nudity, swearing and plain rock revelry.

After they were done, there was a pretty special something lined up for fans and those not yet initiated in the magic of Dan Deacon. Deacon had his small crowd (which grew and grew over the course of his 20 minute set) declare their sins while bent on one knee and pointing at the moon. He then had a large circle formed for interpretive dance and eventual moshing, and then finished things off with another huge circle and a round of high fiving, in which the number of runners increased with every lap, eventually ending by sending all the runners as far up the hill as they could go. It was a short, random and highly memorable interlude to the Valley Stage acts, and a good little advertisement for his midnight slot in the Grand Theatre later on.

The Naked and Famous can have the award for biggest change in crowd size during a set – the smaller numbers rising to an enormous pack by their set’s end. Punching In A Dream kicked off their set early, with plenty of voices ironically shouting: “I don’t even want to be here.” From there the numbers increased, with a strange amount of nudity amongst the punters and a stolen camel from the Fiesta dancing its way down the front to rock out on the final track Young Blood.

The Fiesta made its way through the Valley – an Egyptian theme led by giant snakes, a sphinx and a whole lot of people that probably wouldn’t have actually known if they were in Egypt or Australia. Then it was time for Aloe Blacc, who proved to be the coolest act Falls had snared. Blacc’s mantra was love, peace and good times (or Good Things, as his latest album would have it), and people responded to his performance in kind. Relatively unknown before his sophomore release, Blacc performed like he was naturally made for huge festival crowds – his getup, banter and all round stage presence up there with the legends of soul. There were aisles and circles made for dancing, loads of call and response, and his big number, I Need A Dollar, left enormous grins on everyone’s face.

No strangers to Falls, The Grates followed the massive soul vibe with their blend of manic pop. Science Is Golden kicked them off and Patience Hodgson was quick to begin her incredibly weird dance act. Huffing and puffing her way through tracks like 19 20 20, throwing herself around the stage and attempting to jump into the crowd, Hodgson proved she could easily contend with the Energiser Bunny. The annoying thing about the set was her constant pandering to the crowd – a few shouts of love are fine, but every opportunity is overdoing it. Masses of people on shoulders for Rock Boys was quite a sight, though, and was a set highlight.

Coming on at the right time to end their set around midnight, Arctic Monkeys had a mammoth crowd waiting to see what they had installed. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair started them off and immediately set the scene for the Monkeys’ set to come – Alex Turner’s face flood lit to reveal his diabolical glare and the band as a whole keeping relatively cool about everything. Teddy Picker picked up the pace a little next and began a string of more danceable tracks. As far as the dance track went, I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor wasn’t saved for midnight, instead appearing in the middle of the set as a very useful pick-me-up. The band all kept their composure, leaving the crowd to all the physical work while they played tight and solid. Turner’s occasional lines were all that broke up the set’s songs, which kept to a very high standard – chosen well from each of the four Monkey’s albums.

Midnight was where things got amusing, as the band finished up to let everyone do what they needed to do. Minutes later and out came Turner to announce he was under the impression someone else would lead the countdown, and even though everyone had probably missed bringing in 2012 on time, he pull out a 10 to 1 anyway. In came the New Year, and the first three songs for these 16,000 punters: Fluorescent Adolescent, When The Sun Goes Down and a terrific closing 505, on which Miles Kane took Turner’s guitar so the front man could lurk over the crowd.

The party that brought in the New Year was definitely rocking up the hill, with most of the Arctic Monkeys’ tracks providing a sizeable soundtrack. They delivered one big end to the Falls Festival 2011, which was one, sweltering success yet again.