After a huge first night of high calibre acts, Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley was ready to do it all again for the final night of BIGSOUND 2016.
The triple j Unearthed stage at Oh Hello had a line wrapping around the corner and out of sight before the first act even came on, and the band on everyone’s lips for the night was, unsurprisingly, the indomitable hometown kings DZ Deathrays.
Our slightly weary, caffeine-loaded journalist Kyle Butcher tackled BIGSOUND for the second night in a row, and here’s what he saw.
Ceres
The first set of the night, and an ideal way to kick things off. There’d been a lot of talk around Ceres leading up to the conference, and they well and truly delivered on that buzz.
Good Boy
There might be a theory that the longer lead singer Rian King’s beard grows, the better the band plays live. Alternatively, we made that up, and just wanted to quantify the reason Good Boy have gotten so much better over the past few months.
Either way, their set rocked, and the whole of Oh Hello got behind “Transparency” and “Poverty Line”, belting out the latter’s rapid-fire chorus quite happily.
MOSSY
Looking like a modern day Morrissey with his loose white shirt floating around him, MOSSY oozed old-school swagger. Swathed in layers of smoke and backlit by harsh lighting, it was MOSSY’s silhouette entertained the crowd for most of his set.
He went from belting out his Billy Corgan-esque nasal tones as erratically moved across the stage, to being hardly able to contain his contrasting dulcet tones, highlighting his vocal versatility.
A.B. Original
Briggs and Trials circled on stage, smoothly swapping lines that rolled off their tongues quicker than most Aussie rappers could spit out.
Their set was star studded both onstage and off, with onlookers too enthralled to spot Courtney Barnett amongst the crowd, while Dan Sultan mysteriously appeared from thin air to help the fearsome duo nail their fiery new collaboration “January 26”.
With a lesson injected into each composition, A.B. Original drove home just how impactful politically charged lyricism is in today’s society.
DORSAL FINS
The band’s laid back vibes were infectious, transforming the once sullen-looking crowd of people into a cohesive dancing unit. A few people in the crowd excitedly pointed at GL vocalist Ella Thompson, not knowing that she was a part of the Dorsal Fins family of seven.
With so many musicians crammed onto one stage, it took all the ducking and weaving they could muster to avoid headstocks to the face as they provided the perfect party tunes in the form of their hazy, psychedelic pop-rock.
Young Tapz
Young Tapz had the best stage presence of the night, hands down. He was even able to complete the Bigsound impossible- pull off a call and response not just once, but consistently throughout his set, receiving a solid roar in response every time.
Not a fan of anything longer than a radio edit, Tapz crammed a huge list of songs into his half hour set as he strode around stage, loaded with confidence. We’re calling it now, Young Tapz is going to be king of the ANZ hip-hop scene in the not-so-distant future.
Sampa The Great
Bursting onto the Oh Hello stage in a resplendent cape, Sampa The Great was a prime choice for closing out the triple J Unearthed showcase. In a similar situation to Dorsal Fins, Sampa’s backing band took up the entire stage, leaving her with only a few body spaces to move in.
Undaunted and unable to slow down, she grooved along to her tracks, only dropping her wide smile to belt out enchanting high notes. The backing vocalists underpinned her divine vocal melodies loaded with lyrical truths, cementing the heavy triple j support as being the start of the recognition this prodigious artist deserves.
DZ Deathrays
When DZ Deathrays are set to take the stage, you have to prepare yourself, and there’s no doubt a few casual fans were caught off guard when little pockets of death appeared throughout their headlining performance. Five-man circle pits opened up religiously for each song the hometown band played, particularly when they dropped “Less Out Of Sync” early in the set.
One security-foiled shoey attempt later, and the band dove head first into an extended version of Black Rat single “Gina Works At Hearts”, giving the crowd that extra bit of time for the circle pits to reform. As punters wove through the crowd, excited whispers rumoured that Ecca Vandal would materialise for a cover of the Beastie Boy’s “Sabotage”, and that is exactly what happened.
Tearing the metaphoric roof off The Zoo, their explosive collaborative cover rounded out what proved to be a perfect homecoming set for the local band.
And The Bands Just Kept Coming
As always, there were some other great acts that we caught for at least a song or two. The Foundry hosted a great one-two punch in Naked and Gabriella Cohen, while Olympia and Rebel Yell also impressed.
Another fantastic night of music, and another genuinely epic year of BIGSOUND.
Full Gallery
