A paddock three hours south of Perth became home to hundreds of enthusiastic punters on the 4th and 5th of January.
For many it began as a road trip in the summer time, blaring playlists of the best bands to view and maybe a sneaky beer for the trip too. In the distance, the festival awaited to be inhabited, fields scorching in heat, smelling of cow dung, and ready to be violated by a city of tents.
The 9th annual Southbound, a music, camping and arts festival presented by Sunset Events was held at Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton.
With a new layout and the entirety of the site being a licensed area, it was already going to be a new experience for all involved. Featuring the coconut club, vodka cruiser house party (a fully constructed white country house), a Strongbow ship, a HBF Table Tennis tent, and major sponsor Murdoch University providing ample amusement with its radio station broadcasting live from the festival, an open mic area, thrift shop, face painting and silent disco.
There was plenty to tempt the peeps perusing the grounds.
60 rad acts across the two days were to be witnessed by a wide variety of festival fauna. You had your flower crowned indie gals, your ‘it’s too hot to have my top button done up, but for fashion sake’ indie boys, your flannelette bogans, your shirtless beef boys, ladies in ( planned) matching outfit, your ‘I’ll wear as little as I can get away with’ friends and then your occasional fancy dress turtle or dinosaur.
No matter the crowd they were all there to see local, national, and international acts who have been touring nationally this summer season.
The freshmen bands kicked off the festival with the likes of Triple J Unearthed winners Rainy Day Women and Southbound winner 44th Sunset. More locals graced the Sunny stage and the circus tent shared stage.
Millions, a young all-male indie band from Melbourne, showcased an attitude-filled performance of cool cruise tunes, taking you back to the 60s.
Surprisingly, the young band had an adequate crowd appreciating their act, it was unclear as to whether the band were a true drawcard or if people had all just retreated to the shade of the tent.
Matt Corby has most definitely left his Australian Idol persona behind and now mirrors a multi-talented god of the singer-songwriter disposition; playing guitar and piano while taking his audience to a far away land through his soaring vocal lines.
Many bands need the energy of a tight thumping beat, but all Corby needs is his voice to achieve the intensity that brings deep emotion to each song.
Next came a Scottish group who surprised many, Django Django are known for their electronica rock sound, but few could have expected the moves they busted during their set. Percussion fun caused hundreds of viewers bringing on their hippie love moves and smiles from one side to the other.
For the first time Southbound embraced stand up comedy on the share stage, a relaxing option for many to retreat from the blazing sun into the circus tent. Some jokes were lame, some relatable, some getting a “LOL or even a SALTS (smiles a little then stops)”, but nothing can top Felicity Ward bagging out an audience member for being someone who literally wipes bums for a living – she knew how to egg on a crowd.
Disappointing performance of day one goes to Perth raised band San Cisco, poor Scarlett Stevens was suffering from a cold, and boy could you tell when she opened her mouth for those backing lines. Although even when the young drummer wasn’t singing, the band failed to really captivate the crowd.
Over at the main stage, Boy & Bear offered the popular folk rock sound, delivering dreamy tracks with banjo in tow. Killian Gavin offered some ripper lead guitar lines, which projected out into the paddocks for many to admire.
As the night grew older, the dance sessions were just starting. Flume, who only recently hit the scene through gaining a feature artist spot on Triple J, played his tracks from the stage, literally – he didn’t mix them or create them. What you get when you play his album, is what you got on stage, showing off Harley Streten’s real talent.
Obviously seasoned performers, The Hives owned the stage, parading themselves around like they owned the place. Talking absolute nonsense between songs kept the crowd enticed by their unprecedented antics.
Their music was tight with lead licks that soared into the abyss of the night. For those that weren’t admirers of the Swedish garage rock band were absolutely swayed by their ingenuity.
As the temperature begun to drop so did the crowd’s size, it was still abundant but not overbearingly invasive – like any good mosh pit should be.
The Flaming Lips opened with some show stopping gimmicks, a monster inflatable ball literally crowd surfed with frontman Wayne Coyne inside. Groupies dressed up in eclectic costumes embellished each side of stage as mass streamers, confetti, and gigantic balloons were burst forth into the crowd.
Gimmicks are swell but the music really was a bit dull. Impressive, humongous laser hands stole the show but not so much on the performance to musicality ratio. Surely the diehard fans loved it but those needing to be bought were unlikely to be convinced.
So it was that day one went, many punters continued the night at the Cocunut Club shaking their booty, others, retired frozen to their tents. Everyone eventually went to bed a little worse for wear, a little dirty, a little sunburnt but content and ready to be satisfied by day two of the event.
DAY TWO:
The sun rose and so did everyone else, tents tend to be 10 degrees warmer inside than out and on a day looking to be 40 degrees, just imagine the sweat drenched individuals on this Saturday morning.
If that wasn’t gross enough, there was the option to shower in festing portables or communal bathing area. Many instead opted for the ‘shower in a can’ option.
To breakfast the zombies went for overpriced food, a bus trek to the beach, or to the free chiropractic session put on by Murdoch University.
Many viewed the early bands either through the notion of having nothing better to do – resting under the tented stage, or because liquor wasn’t allowed to be sold until 12pm.
Local act the Stillwater Giants flew under the radar as they displayed their surf pop tracks. An eerie falsetto and a mean guitarist all add up to a promising future for these young lads.
Brisbane group The Art Of Sleeping were indie hotties ringin out Triple J favourites like ‘Empty Hands’ and ‘Above The Water’. Main man Caleb Hodges seemed humble to be performing, through the way the boys graced the stage you could tell they seemed simply grateful to be there.
From humble men to the humblest of all men, Jesus Christ! With a white-tuniced saviour roaming around the Sunny Stage playing a sitar… wait that’s not Jesus, its just Sydney folks Jinja Safari. Playing some mellow dreamy folk pop, these boys were either on cloud nine or ready to take you there.
The acts for day two just kept streaming, honourable mentions go to sleazy frontman Alexander Gow of Melbourne band Oh Mercy, Maximo Park who could easily make a living in Broadway theatre for the drama of frontman Paul Smith; and to the sweet Lisa Mitchell who is as spacey as her dedication to loving ravens.
A surprising placement in the lineup was Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a Mexican musical duo who played acoustic guitars, but boy can they play – and fast! They had the crowd clapping, dancing, and kicking their heels up.
US dream pop duo Beach House, although ambient and dreamy, did seem to lag between the acts before and after.
The group that drew the largest crowd of the festival would be the Hilltop Hoods. As far as you could see people were waving their hands in the air, bouncing their heads to the rap stylings of the Australian hip hop group.
An interactive performance encouraged the mass to sway, hold their lighters high, and even diss DJ Debris when he stuffed up a mix, getting him to do 10 push ups in the middle of the set. Although the rebels loved it, the set itself didn’t have a main sense of flow, with each song having awkward silent breaks in-between.
For many, the closing act was who they had waited a whole 48 hours for, Two Door Cinema Club. Alex Trimble had mile high ginger hair, wearing a blue shirt and leather jacket as the crowd swooned to his fast, energetic love potion music.
The basement people of Southbound had waited long for this set and they weren’t going to let it fly by without some jumping, screaming, tone deaf singing, and grand appreciation for this polite bunch of boys. What makes the music of Two Door is the strength of their high, rigid lead guitar parts, which can be accounted to a beauty playing a well crafted Fender.
Thus concludes Southbound 2013, the tents have gone, the stages have been bumped out, and countless bags of rubbish waited to be removed, but whatever festival goers were looking for – rock, pop, hip hop, techno, comedy, or a genre not even invented yet – everyone managed to find it.
