Sunday morning can be difficult at the best of times, let alone having come off one and a half days of festival frivolity. As each night passes, crawling out of your tent into the sunlight becomes that much more difficult.
Thankfully this day provided some absolutely top shelf entertainment of all kinds. Despite what judgements you could make about the general demographic of the crowd, the beauty of Falls actually comes with its diversity.
The perfect example of this was the morning yoga sessions in the Art Village, giving sore heads a chance to recuperate and align one’s chakras for the rather huge day ahead.
With the morning sun beaming onto the hill and many a brekkie burrito in hand, Fraser A. Gorman took to the Valley Stage following Brisbane’s Art of Sleeping.
Gorman’s awkward slurred banter surprised a few considering his early start but certainly didn’t detract from his smooth country tunes and beautiful harmonies.
The first hit of the day came in the form of Brisbane’s Ball Park Music and they also drew the day’s first big crowd. With some heavy radio support from Triple J over the past couple of years, it wasn’t surprising to see the numbers that gathered in front of the Valley Stage. Kicking their set off with ‘Rich People Are Stupid’, the masses were in full voice from the get go.
Frontman Sam Cromack obviously realised the significance of Falls’ 20th Anniversary and came onto stage wearing a backpack that had a kettle, and later discovered to have a bunch of grapes that he fed the crowd with.
The band’s extensive touring schedule this year has clearly made them into a well-polished machine. It was nothing but picturesque as the hill was full of characters bopping up and down to classics ‘Ifly’ and ‘All I Want Is You’, with recent tracks ‘Coming Down’ and ‘Surrender’ equally lapped up with fervour.
With some punters deciding to brave the lengthy drink ticket and bar lines, others heading back to their campsites for a refuel, the weekend’s comedy began in the Grand Theatre.
Also attempting to illicit some laughs was the obscure Jeremy Farquart in the Village, listed as a mystery guest in the guide. It seems the more you speculate about these mystery guests the more you will be disappointed, because after ten minutes of Mr Farquart, a venture back to the camp was well overdue.
As the batteries were recharged, Jinja Safari tore up the main stage, along with another appearance from The Bamboos, whilst in the Grand Theatre Ash Grunwald had special guest band members Midnight Oil’s Rob Hirst on the drums and The Living End’s Scott on double bass. While Melbourne’s Oh Mercy brought out the soul-funk with tracks from their latest effort, Deep Heat to bring about some more dancing in the theatre.
British indie rockers The Vaccines took to the Valley Stage in front of an enthusiastic crowd, animal onesies were again out in force along with a variety of face paint and headdresses.
‘Teenage Icon’ and ‘No Hope’ were certain highlights, however the rest of the set did come over as slightly unengaging, the more you hear of the various groups around you yelling and joking with each other it’s obvious they don’t care what’s happening on stage.
The anticipation for London’s SBTRKT was at an all time high. The promise of a live set from the eclectic masked DJ had people at fever pitch waiting to hear their favourites.
In his second visit to the country in 12 months, it was evident that no one was sick of the seriously deep bass and warped electronics from SBTRKT. ‘Wildfire’ predictably went down well but most importantly sounded awesome, matched by some equally crazy dancing.
After the hype of the previous set, things came down a significant notch with the Valley Stage turned into a trippy, outer space lanscape with Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House.
Whilst some people cleared out after the excitement of SBTRKT, a devoted fan base was eager to see the wondrous hits from both Teen Dream and last year’s Bloom. ‘Walk In The Park’, ‘Zebra’, and ‘Myth’ were awesome standouts creating an atmosphere not often experienced at Falls.
With Triple J’s darling of the moment Flume getting prepared in the Grand Theatre, a huge march by the masses saw the large tent fill to absolute capacity within minutes.
The audience was even warned at one stage that the tent could not take another soul for the show. Clearly the push from radio has translated well and it is of course well deserved for this 21 yr old producer and beat maker, with everyone leaving the tent impressed beyond recognition.
While Flume was getting bodies uncontrollably moving, there was a long wait for the much-anticipated Flaming Lips. As Wayne Coyne squeezed into a giant inflatable ball, confetti cannons spewed out celebrations into the crowd as he rolled onto the mosh pit.
The amazing party ambience unfortunately quickly dissipated with the blowing of the lighting and a fairly lacklustre performance from the American festival pros. Finishing with ‘Do You Realise?’, one was left feeling rather empty and that the band was perhaps going through the motions a little too much.
Hot Chip were undoubtedly the highlight of the day and certainly the most impressive act of the festival so far. The anticipation was astronomical after punters, having experienced the high of Flume’s set into the disappointing Flaming Lips offering, were ready to be immersed in the irresistibly catchy electro pop of the London outfit.
They produced an absolutely amazing set that had the whole crowd dancing like fools and grinning like Cheshire cats. Newer tracks ‘Night and Day’ and ‘How Do You Do?’ certainly stood out, as well as their older staple, ‘Over and Over’.
Check out the review of Dec 28th/29th of Falls Festival here and the 31st here.
View all the snaps from Falls Festival 2012 in our photo gallery:
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
