This was supposed to be the highlight of my Big Day Out. I’m not exactly across the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ entire discography, but with a back catalogue featuring modern classics like “Zero,” “Date with the Night” and the achingly melancholic “Maps” (one of the best songs of the past decade), I had high expectations.
Sleigh Bells’ stage was sparsely attended, due to coinciding with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bloody Beetroots and Animal Collective. Their stage, with darkness swathed in atmospheric smoke pierced with spot- and strobe lights, created an enclosed atmosphere that intensified the proximity; it was like being a nightclub (with enough space to dance!). It didn’t…
Fuck Buttons’ sound seems to channel the essence of currents. It’s the torrential flow of a raging river; it’s the crackling effervescence of raw electricity. It’s also immense, celestial – like the fierce blood flow of some ancient god. Undercurrent, though, there’s a natural fragility to their music, an organic pulse. That pulse, excited and…
Liars made it clear that they wouldn’t be performing “standard festival fare ” at Harvest, which is what I’d expected – they’re a band known for their experimentation, their refusal to stick with an approach for longer than album. So I was looking forward to something left of centre from their hour long performance. They…
I’d deliberately chosen not to do any reading on Los Campesinos! and their Harvest sets entirely because of one song – their two minute distillation of pop perfection, “Knee Deep at ATP.” It’s moving, funny and exhilarating and one of my favourite songs and I simply didn’t want to know whether or not to expect…
By all rights, Harvest should have been a fantastic festival, even considering the inclement weather (In fact, the apocalyptic storms that never quite eventuated added some excitement, with the brief evacuation a memorable event. Crowds huddled under paltry cover at QUT, believing that hailstones the size of tennis balls loomed over the horizon: they ended…
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