With the summer festival season well and truly in full swing, St Kilda’s Rock The Bay festival at The Espy was a break from the thongs/hot pants/Indian headdress/other ironic headgear festivals offered up to us of late. Rather than a sea of colourful sundresses, a beer garden full of men in studs and aging metal chicks in visible g-strings set the tone for what was going on inside. Thankfully, organisers lucked out with a near perfect if a little hot day after a run of predictably unpredictable Melbourne weather. A special mention must go out to the metal heads out front – sitting in 30+ degree heat in full leather regalia is a dark art indeed and one that I will never fully understand.
The early crowd was slightly smaller than expected but spirits were both high and flowing liberally. Early on bands did their best to inspire near empty rooms while trying not to melt. New Zealanders Decortica put on an early, floorboard shaking prog rock set which was well received. “We need more Aussie bands in New Zealand… you can stay in my house and use my gear,” offers lead singer Mathew Bosher. If there were more New Zealand bands that sounded like them, the door would be more than open for some sort of rock band exchange program.
After nearly falling down the basement steps (platforms = near fatal mistake), the welcome sound of the always tight Phil Para Band playing “Purple Haze” to a mess of much older patrons does not fail to bring a smile to my face. After finishing up to huge applause the crowd is keen for an encore but seeing as the sound guy has mysteriously disappeared from his post it is not meant to be and more than a few people leave slightly disappointed.
Heading back into the main bar in time to hear the Tim McMillan Band perform a slightly unexpected though thoroughly impressive cover of Busta Rhymes “Break Ya Neck”, we press forward into the Gershwin Room in time to see Bellusira begin their set. While it is good to see a female fronted band in the mix, and Crystal Ignite is animated and fun to watch, some of the more theatrical high notes she tries to achieve fall short and sound off key. Aside from this Bellusira are a great watch and may just have been victims to the slightly off sound in the Gershwin Room, but more on that later.
En route to a breather outside (by this point breathing feels more like inhaling other people’s bodily fluids) Sub Atari Knives stop us in our tracks. Their industrial punk meets metal sounds brings about the first mosh of the night and while not a big one, people are finally moshing which is always a good sign.
By now, the crowd is really starting to build in anticipation for headliners Dead Letter Circus. F L O A T I N G M E draw a solid crowd but the drum solo that seemed to go on for 10 minutes had us running for cover.
The bands in the basement were running behind so instead of The Morrisons, we caught the end of Citrus Jam; a bizarre mix of violin, cello, bass and acoustic guitar with few vocals apart from a few pirate yarghs thrown in sporadically. While they are heckled pretty relentlessly by the token drunken dickheads who always seem to appear at this time of night, Citrus Jam are actually quite good.
Before too long, The Morrisons take to the basement stage and as always put on a blistering set. Unfortunately the basement was now more of a douchebag docking station and their slot was marred by heckling also.
Dead Letter Circus who are headlining though playing well before the last bands pack out the front bar. It is difficult but we squeeze our way through the crowd in time to hear vocalist Kim Benzie yell, “We know it’s been a really warm day but were going to ask you to jump as high as you can,” an order with which their fans happily comply; I am certain the temperature in the room rose another 30 degrees.
A quick peek into the Gershwin Room (which by now was having the same problems with running late as the basement stage) saw poor Bugdust playing to about 10 people as Dead Letter Circus had all but stolen everyone else’s crowd. Ever the professionals, Bugdust played just as loudly as usual. As they announce that they are going to cover blues legend Freddy King, they seem to realise the Phil Para Band were also on the bill. “Did Phil Para already play any fucking Freddy King today?” Regardless of the answer, they press on with their cover and we retreat outside once more to cool down.
Interestingly the crowd has significantly dropped post Dead Letter Circus and for the first time getting a seat outside is a goal easily achieved. Someone spots Jay Bowen from Ten Thousand who is meant to be on the stage any minute now and yells, “Jay what are you doing man? You have a gig in 5 minutes!” the singer just responds with a smile and a wave and disappears inside.
Ten Thousand have been greatly hyped up over the last few months and I am curious to see them in action. Sadly, I am greatly disappointed. Their opening is a little lame, with lead singer Jay jumping on to the stage in such a cheesy way that I am reminded less of Mick Jagger (or any other charismatic front man whom I am guessing is what the entry was based on) and more of a Robbie Williams impersonator. Vocally, Ten Thousand sounded weak especially in comparison with the epic nature of their music. Bowen is solidly backed by extremely good musicians but his voice lacks any real power. Perhaps there was a problem with how the vocals were mixed, but for whatever my opinions were Ten Thousand’s group of hardcore fans front stage were eating up every minute of it and I guess that is all that matters.
At this point, the crowd in the Gershwin room has decreased significantly and the formerly bustling front room is close to a ghost town and so is the beer garden. It is surprising that everything is over so early, especially as there are more bands to play. Perhaps moving Dead Letter Circus to a later slot would have retained the crowd that made a mass exodus after their set.
For the most part, Rock The Bay did just that, it rocked. However the day did seem to drag on for far too long and everything seemed to be crammed in. As the bill was so large and so widespread sets inevitably ran late which made working out who was actually playing, especially in bands who were less well known, really difficult at times. As with any relatively young festival you are going to have these sorts of problems but with a few well placed tweaks and a good trimming of the fat, Rock The Bay will continue to grow into something to look forward to on the summer calendar.
Now, to buy some leather for next year…
– Madison Thomas
