Harriet Cheney headed to South-By-South-West for the first time and experienced some magical moments:

DAY ONE – TUESDAY

The way it works:

You can purchase a SXSW badge (from $600 for music) in advance. Everyone with a badge can buy one wristband ($170) for someone. All the official nighttime parties are wristband and badge only. If there’s a queue (American’s don’t know what that is, you gotta say ‘line’), the Badges get let in first. However, there are a stack of Day Parties and unofficial night parties that you can go to for zero moola. There are over 100 venues during SXSW because every Automotive Garage, Carpark, Bikestore, and field, including the rooftop of Wholefoods and the carpark of Waterloo Records is transformed into a stage. Most venues will have a day party (11am-6pm) and night party (8pm – 2am) from Tuesday through to Saturday of SXSW Music. Bands can play up to 10 shows in the week, so if you miss them in one place, you’ll catch them at another. In saying that, some of the bigger acts or surprise guests such as Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Prince, Justin Timberlake and Kendrick Lamar, only play official venues and people with Badges literally line up for hours to see them. Yep, lines are a big thing and something no-one warned me about. Your best bet is to see the big acts early in the week, pick one person you want to queue for and then make the most of discovering new music because there is so much going on that requires no lining up. Oh, but you’ve got to RSVP to all the parties beforehand. There’s sites that do a whole heap of RSVPs for you, but connecting on facebook so you’re in the know before the festival is priceless. You’ll likely score yourself free beer and breakfast burritos to go with that free music too.

My first SXSW party was at the Belmont for the Warner Music showcase watching Macklmore, Icona Pop, Action Bronson and Charlie XCX. The venues are, for the most part, very intimate. Action Bronson walked through the crowd rap-spitting on everyone and then threw his manky yellow beanie at my friend, which he kept. Macklemore crowd-walked, which means what it sounds like – instead of lying on peoples hands he walked on their palms – amazing. That dude is ripped and is a great performer too. Icona Pop were as good as I’d hoped. I crown I Love It as Ecstatic Moment #1.

DAY TWO – WEDNESDAY

The day started with a look at the Tradeshow, which was in the heart of the Official SXSW, Downtown at the Convention Centre. My favourite thing in this building was the phone recharge station where you find a compartment that has the input to match your phone, close the mini locker door and swipe any card to lock. The card acts as a key, so you can go away for an hour or so and come back to a newly powered phone. Ta da!

The Tradeshow was pretty interesting. The activations and inventiveness of the stalls made if really hard to get around quickly. There were instagram competitions, stations that printed every instagram that had a specified hashtag, new music app promotion stalls, performances, free straw cowboy hats, free sunglasses (far too many….I think I ended up with a pair in every colour all from different places). The highlight was the Post-It stall, which came with it’s very own cartoonist, who drew me being a groupie yelling out my room number to the band. Maybe he thought I was a whore or maybe he was one of those Americans who have a sense of humour. I guess satire and cartoons go hand in hand universally.

Then I had another lunch meeting. A cruicial thing that I have not yet mentioned is that SXSW is for networking. 90% of the people who attend are in the industry. You chat to the person next to you and they are a musician, producer, entertainment lawyer, journalist, director of a record label, editor of a magazine, etc. Everyone has a business card. It’s a quick, easy way to exchange details. And even more surprising is that people are genuine. When they say let’s meet for lunch when you get to Venice Beach in LA, they mean it. Go with a purpose and relish the fact that everyone around you is musically saturated and obsessed. Conversations get passionate. That’s pretty exciting.

Wednesday’s Day Party for me was at the Empire Control Room watching Ecstatic Moment #2, the totally bab’n MO from Denmark, whose alt, electro pop, with original dance moves and nostalgic graphics pierced the centre of a sweet spot. I adored the bright green projection lighting during Empress Of too and it was great to chat to the Aussies Alpine in the bathroom as they warmed up their vocals and did their makeup before taking the stage.

I chose to go to the Wednesday night Hype Hotel showcase. I arrived as The Orwells were starting. They were on a lot of must-see lists, and while I thought they were good, they very quickly slotted into the ‘just another lo-fi garage rock band’ category. Phosphorescent were next with a really solid set. The mature vocals, reminencent of Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill, put them in my ‘must get this album and listen to some more’ category.

The fashionistas out in force at SXSW

Then it was time for Foxygen – one of the most hyped bands in indie circles for SXSW 2013. I’ll admit I am a fan of their recent single San Francisco; I love a little glockenspiel and the nursery rhyme ease-in which this song flows makes it an instant winner. However, with hype comes expectation, and they fell really flat for me. By the time they finally took the stage it was well past midnight. The venue (a converted warehouse) completely swallowed them and their performance was really sloppy. The lead singer, Sam France oozes on-stage theatrics, but Mick Jagger ain’t Mick Jagger without a great voice to back up his stage antics. As I mentioned earlier, bands play a lot of gigs across the week, so I was willing to give them another shot. I watched them the following day in a more intimate outside venue. They were better, but still disappointing. I contemplated leaving my opinion on Foxygen’s performance out of this article because everyone I spoke to had such high praise for them. Then I watched that Coachella video and it shit me so much that I vowed to never be silenced by mass opinion; That video annoyed me deeply, not because they faked knowing the bands, but because those same buzz words – “they’re great live”, “their energy is amazing”, “they’re such good fun” reappeared again and again until the generic haze of bullshit was blinding. Just because a band has been great live, doesn’t mean that they will be.

What happened to the subjective and why are we so afraid to express what we really think? Are most people are so concerned with keeping up that don’t stop and really listen long enough to know?

On a whole, SXSW is refreshing because it’s not like that. A quick Google of ‘Foxygen SXSW’ revealed that the following day the lead singer had a meltdown on stage and after receiving some terrible reviews from the festival, the band had actually apologised and cancelled their tour for ‘creative health’ reasons. Not surprising really. More surprising that it doesn’t happen more often – 10 gigs in five days. That shit cray.

Foxygen were exhausting, so I only stayed for the very start of the party’s final performer Jim James (of My Morning Jacket fame, although I didn’t know that at the time). The perfect styling combo of that wild-shoulder length hair, neat beard and suave suit was matched by soulful vocals and smooth beats. What a pro!

Public transport is not Austin’s strong point. Like most places, taxis aren’t cheap. There are the minicabs – two person carts, powered by a rider who pedals, which can be hilarious to watch if the passengers are quite overweight. At $10 a pop per person you’d want to get the rider dressed as Wonder Woman or the Hulk (or be rather large) to get your money’s worth. Then there’s buses, most of which stop at midnight… except for the night bus, which was my saviour and acted as a portal for the communal debrief of the day. This particular day I made friends with a crew from Brooklyn. They were on their way uptown to another gig and said I should come along. I followed them to a small gallery space, scored free t-shirt and some more free wine before absorbing a real sonic treat. The band playing were A Hundred Waters. Although they supported Alt-J on their US Tour, I hadn’t heard of them before this gig, but have played them a lot since. It was such a surreal experience. I was in this low ceiling, intimate setting, standing a meter away from the 5-piece band, while melodies evoking Bjork and Fever Ray were brought to life with other-worldly, innovative synth, flute and vocals. In a week full of music, this was fresh; new enough to be unique and engaging but not too abstract to lose me as a first time listener. Ecstatic Moment #3. By the time I left it was after 3am. I was pumped full of wonder and gleefully skipped the 12 blocks home through the empty streets of Uptown Austin.

DAY THREE – THURSDAY

Up and at ‘em early (well relatively) to catch Billy Bragg at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. His honest, poetic set was great, but one couldn’t help notice the irony of a musician known for his left-wing activism playing at a venue plastered in jerseys signed by the corrupt, cycling drug cheat, Lance Armstrong (originally from Texas, and clearly so big of a hero that they are somewhat in denial).

I then raced to the Pitchfork showcase in 1100 Warehouse to be met by a two-hour-long wait in line. Being the 3rd official day of the Festival, the hoards had arrived. Fortunately, I carry my personal shade, aka ‘really cool squashable wide brim hat’ with me at most times and love a good stranger convo. I got to hear Chvrches while I was waiting, as they played on a nearby outside stage. I missed Rhye and a few other bands I wanted to see, which was a little annoying, but not as annoying as how empty the venue was when I finally got in. They intentionally make sure there is a line of people waiting so that they look more popular, well that was the only logical explanation I can think of, which is pretty Grade A shit. And, to tell you the truth it wasn’t the hottest showcase either… it lacked atmosphere (perhaps because it was so empty!!), had an unfriendly inside stage and a really amateur backyard-looking outside stage.

I did see solid sets from Parquet Courts, Youth Lagoon and Toro Y Moi, but the highlight by far was scuzzy, cruisey surf rock of Mac de Marco. With prominent guitar lines, laidback vocals and hints of a 70s psych vibe, I was won over quickly and captivated for the whole set.

In the evening I hopped between a few venues in the heart of downtown Austin. I started at historical Antones and after another hour and a half wait, I got in to see Richard Thompson (in his funny marching band beret) totally rock the house in a way that only the old greats can. But that was nothing compared to Ecstatic Moment #4 when one of my music heros, Emmy Lou Harris took the stage. My face hurt from smiling so hard and I think I may have shred a tear I was so happy. Americana represent and where better to catch these legends than at one of the Americana Meccas of the world; Austin, Texas.

I didn’t have long to dwell in my emotion. I dropped into the Citizins gig (you know the guys that sings “turning into a reptile”?) before finishing the night with Ecstatic Moment #5, the Shout Out Louds at The Parish. If you don’t know these gorgeous Swedes, I urge you to look them up. Their music is pure joy and at 1am after a long day, they sucked the fatigue out of me and replaced it with a compulsion to dance, jig, jive, skip, spin and whatever you do to express joy-in-motion.

DAY FOUR – FRIDAY

Friday was Converse Fadar Fort day for me and my crew. Wristbands were needed to get into this venue and one of my friends knew someone, who knew someone, who ran something, so I got one. Sweet! Fadar Fort was like a mini festival within the festival. It was very ‘sceney’. There were fashion bloggers running around snapping people (including me – WOO!), a funky hair salon, bands recording in the Converse redlight sessions, multimedia, interactive entertainment and most attractively for me, many activations with lounges. We’d been given the heads up that Friday was the day to be at Fadar Fort, because there was a very special guest performing that we wouldn’t want to miss. The day was filled with sweet potato fries, free vitamin water, jams from Ra Ra Riot, beats from Disclosure and chats to some incredibly friendly Austinites. In the early evening we took our places as close to the stage as we could get and all very suddenly one by one (about 5 minutes apart) all these black rappers started appearing, yelling aggressive rhymes at the audience until there were about ten people on stage. Everyone around me went BALLISTIC and sang/spoke along word for word. I thought “wow!”, in a completely bewildered, unimpressed way, “I spent hours waiting to see this?” In case it means anything to you, I later learnt that some of the people on stage were T.I, B.oB. and Trau and clearly they’re a pretty big deal in some circles. I consoled myself with the fact that it was a very ‘American’ experience and therefore a suitable and worthwhile cultural education, albeit slightly frightening.

I stayed on and watched reformed rock band the Afghan Whigs, who did a mid-set cover of Usher’s ‘climax’… except, it wasn’t really a cover because Usher (pictured) walked on stage during the song. Talk about a climax!

It was unbelievable. I have never considered myself a massive Usher fan, but holy cow that man is SO beautiful and his voice makes you melt and he moves so smoothly. I was four rows back at that stage and was completely overcome with teenage hysteria. And that was Ecstatic Moment #6. I am still reduced to a silence awe when I think back to his performance, particularly his a cappella mash-up encore. What a man!

Call me stupid, crazed or opportunistic, but I wasn’t finished for the day.

I headed to Hype Hotel for instrument and soul heavy groovers, Rudimental, followed by the less famous Knowles sister, Solange (pictured, top). How I wanted to love her. She’s gorgeous and funky and that voice sure runs in the family but, her songwriting was weak, which made for a boring set. Of course when she busted out ‘Losing you’ the house went off and her potential was so clear.

Steve Earl at The Parish featured somewhere in my night too… the man whose song can pierce your heart. So honest and so raw. As true a folk singer as any.

DAY FIVE –SATURDAY

With the end in sight propelling me on to make the most of my final Austin day, I headed to Mellow Johnny’s Bikes again to have the Zombies (the real ones, not a cover band) soothingly wake me.

Saturday was The Aussie BBQ and I while I didn’t go to Austin to see Australian music, I really wanted to support my buddies from Down Under. Clarey Brown & the Bangin’ Rackets were my pick of the day. The nine piece band, that includes leading lady Clarey Brown and her three female back-up singers brought an old-school bluesy, rockability feel to the stage and with such a presence, what a pleasure it was to see them live.

I returned in the evening to see Jonathan Boulet, who delivered much heavier rock renditions of their songs than I had heard before, especially on their final song ‘Animal’ which verged on metal. I heard rumours that this was a taste of lead singer Jonathan’s new direction on the side projects he’s pursuing at the moment.

During the day I snuck into one of my favourite Austin venues, Mohawks – a pub with two stages, one of them being outside with ground or top deck vantage points as stage viewing options. Here I watched the ambient electronica artist, Baths and the very loved Scottish band, Frightened Rabbit. With the late afternoon sun on my back, those charmingly accented Scots with their hilarious, I-don’t-take-my-self-too-seriously lyrics and really great easy-listening rock, it’s no surprise that this venue and band combo made for Ecstatic Moment #7.

My last stop for the festival was over the river to the suburb of South Congress. This is the side of town that a sort of breakaway, unofficial SXSW happens called South By South Jose (yes the Mexican presence in Texas in very much part of the landscape). If you’re looking for less hype and more soul then this is where you want to hang out. My destination was The Continental Club, a place that calls itself “The granddaddy of all local music venues”. We arrived early, sat at the high bar table closest to the stage and let the drinks roll as we soaked up the dimly-lit, cavernous, dive bar atmosphere, before getting our boot scooting on when the band took to the stage. We were there to see reformed local band The Wagoners, who some say founded the alt-country genre in the 80s. It was such a hoot and a quintessential Texan experience.

Overtired and a little drunk from another round of far-too-strong free-pour drinks, I misplaced my backpack. I loved that bag. It was made by Aussie super designer Emma Mulholland and has been my trusty sidekick for months. Other than that the only vital contents it held was my phone charger. I was flying out of Austin at 6am the following morning and Mercury retrograde (an astrological time for miscommunication) was turning direct, so there was no way I could risk attempting to catch a flight without a charged phone. Shit!

I made a cab drive me around the outskirts of Austin, as I ran into servoes, Walgreens and supermarkets. NONE of them had a suitable charger. Finally I found a charger at Walmarts, 5 minutes before it closed at 1am. I was so happy that this has to take Ecstatic Moment #8.

It turned out that my cabbie did forget to pick me up so I needed my phone to call and remind him. (no chance of getting up cab in the streets around where I was staying at that hour). Of course I hadn’t packed, so when I got to the airport at 4:30am, I was riding on half-an-hour’s sleep and around 15 hours for the whole week. Total nuts and I was hating life. The flight with my SXSW buddies from Austin to LA was hoods up silence; the sound of a very good week.

SXSW is not a festival for the faint-hearted or musically apathetic. It could hurt you, but pain never felt so good. I list eight Ecstatic Moments above and without being hyperbolic, they truly were. I’d think I’d had the best day of my life and then the next day would arrive and top the one before.

SXSW Austin, Texas – where seriously cool shit happens.

Words and pictures by Harriet Cheney.

Their ridiculously cute kind of surf-pop mixes Beach Boys wholesomeness with cheeky indie guitars and the occasional yowled lyric. What does it for me however are the super daggy doo-wop backing vocals which add a little bit of careless kitsch, and differentiates Teen Sensations from the usual bong-ripping, three-chord-playing surf bands from Brisbane.

It’s a little pensive without being melancholy, and lot of fun without being shallow. Check out Teen Sensations newest release Surf and Sway right here where you can grab it at a price you see fit.

Words by Bianca Cornale. 

Carol Bowditch finger-snaps along with New Zealand’s latest musical export. 

As a sixteen-year-old growing up in the leafy northern suburbs of Sydney, my greatest aspirations were pretty dull. I didn’t want to fail my learner driving test (again), and wanted to find a formal dress that didn’t make me look like a total frumpy mess (success of this was questionable). At that age I thought the only person that was allowed to have grillz was Nelly, or Chingy, and my alcoholic beverage of choice were five dollar bottles of fizzy wine.

I guess my teenage age years were a little different to those of today’s rascals. Lorde, a sixteen-year-old from New Zealand (with a very impressive mop of curls) fantasises in her track Royals of Grey Goose, jet planes and gold chains, but, that kind of luxe just ain’t for her. The track is super catchy with her accapella vocals and finger snaps, so much so that you’ll be singing about being a high class baller for hours post-listen.

Words by Carol Bowditch. 

Sonically, The National continues to do what we have come to expect; each member turning inwards to focus on the somber, broader moments rather than indulging in excessive melodic punches. Amongst tracks like Demons and Don’t Swallow the Cap, which see the band edging ever so close to a ‘U2’ Stadium Rock vibe, are deep cut gems like Pink Rabbits and Fireproof that ooze a sense of quiet reflection and space that many musicians attempt their entire lives to craft.

Matt Berninger’s pensive Baritone – clearer and reaching new heights since quitting smoking – acts as the glue holding the instrumentation together. On lines such as ‘I have only two emotions / careful fear and dead devotion’ Berninger carefully pulls apart memory, if only to look at it for a glimmering moment before tossing it back into the ocean from which it came.

With a long list of collaborators (Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, Doveman, Sufjan Stevens, St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Dark Dark Dark’s Nona Marie Invie) Trouble Will Find Me is cleverly crafted, it’s additions crawling seamlessly, almost hidden, between the soft layers of sound.

A weighty record full of overflowing heavy emotion, skirting-despair and unbridled lust, this is a set of songs that will both wrap their arms around you and squeeze you for every last tear, before singing you to a restless slumber.

A definite highlight of 2013.

Review by Jack Colwell.

This Place Is Yours launches as part of Vivid Sydney this week. Founded by Sydney-based 28-year-old writer and social entrepreneur, Seraphina Reynolds, the new media project aims to combat stigma and enhance empathy and awareness around the issue of mental health. 

The book includes contributions from people such as NYC visual artist Jeremyville and musician Ben Lee.  The event on 26 May has speakers including acclaimed fashion and music photographer Cybele Malinowski, FBI Radio producer Belinda Lopez and more. We sent Sonia Clarke to chat to Seraphina about the project:

Do you think stigma around mental illness is a particular problem in Australia? Why is this?
I think stigma is a problem everywhere, but I suppose it is a bit different in Australia because of what people seem to want to talk about. In my experience – and this is only my experience! – it seems that people here don’t really like to talk about emotions so much. Everything is very sunny, very casual, very fun. But this is an obvious problem when things aren’t so sunny or casual or fun. Sometimes life gets really challenging, and if you don’t have a community to discuss that with, and you can’t match the sunny disposition you think the people around you expect, you can feel a sense of stigma in your pain. I don’t like the phrase mental illness – it’s all pain, in varying degrees. I definitely think there is a stigma around pain in Australia, because people (in my experience!) don’t like to talk or hear about it.

There seems to be some really inspiring expressions of mental illness that I’ve seen lately, like Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half essay about depression. Do you think there’s growing momentum to share experiences like this online? What’s driving this?
Allie Brosh is my hero. I think the internet has given us an incredible opportunity to connect to one another and have conversations that we otherwise may never have. This is a big part of my thesis (I am doing a PhD on the ideas behind This Place is Yours through the Institute for Culture & Society at UWS and the Young and Well CRC) but in a nutshell, the internet allows us to open up with the world because I think it provides us with a sense of detachment to what we are saying. We are speaking through a screen, so it’s a really interesting way to communicate. It can be very harmful (particularly for those who confuse Facebook with reality) but also pretty incredible, as is the case with Hyperbole and a Half. The internet also provides greater potential for us to find other people who may understand what we’re going through, because it brings down the traditional boundaries of time and space. And finally, I think it can be an extremely confessional medium, which is a wonderful thing. Some things cannot be said so easily, but they can be expressed through creativity online.

How did the idea for the project come about?
Initially This Place is Yours was going to be a completely different project. I first conceived of it when I was working at Oyster – it was going to be a kind of extension of my last project, Side Street, Sydney. But then I got really depressed, and writing helped me find a way out. From the moment I blogged about my struggles with depression, people began writing me and telling me they were going through the same thing. I guess I saw that people were yearning for a community where they too could be honest about their struggles, but not everyone was going to put the time and energy into a blog. So I decided to create a kind of “blog for the masses” – This Place is Yours is a space where people can express themselves creatively and share their stories, however they choose to and whenever they want. I felt like if I didn’t have my own blog, that’s where I would go to share my own story, and hopefully find people who would understand.

Why do you think creativity can be so important in helping to treat mental illness?
I think creativity can help all of us, throughout our lives, in the good times and the bad. I think it can be particularly helpful in the bad times, because we will be more likely to be open and honest with our creativity than with anybody else. Creativity – particularly when it’s done in personal narrative – is another way of having a conversation with ourselves, and just like when we have a conversation with our friends, it’s a way of getting to know ourselves. It compels us to admit our challenges, and admission leads to acceptance, eventually. Creativity gives us insight into our lives. It propels us on a journey towards self love. Engaging with our creativity really is the best gift we can give to ourselves.

You’ve got some great speakers involved in the launch. Have you found the Australian creative community to be very receptive to This Place is Yours?
Absolutely. Cybele Malinowski was actually one of the first people I spoke to about this project, nearly two years ago, when it was a different incarnation. She has been supportive throughout the building of it, and getting someone of her talent to appreciate what I was doing was my first affirmation, in a way! And Melanie Lee and I went to the School for Social Entrepreneurs together – she is been an incredible woman who is working on her own very powerful project. I could name so many people – the team, the contributors to the book, and so many others who have agreed to let me pick their brain over a cup of coffee. I’ve had such incredible support, and I feel very blessed for it. I think people can see the need for this project and the need for us to start having more open and honest conversations.

What are you hoping to achieve with the project – what would a good outcome look like to you?
Gosh, big question. I hope people feel as though they have a place to go to share their stories, and that they start to tell them. On a personal level, I hope people witness the healing power of their own creativity, and begin to accept and love themselves. I hope they know that they’re not alone, and that there is a community of people out there who care. On a social level, this project is all about reducing stigma and cultivating empathy. Granted, I do not feel like this project alone will achieve that – it is part of a much greater movement towards emotional intelligence, and we alone do not have all the answers. But I think we are the cusp of a change, and I would be honoured if This Place is Yours played some tiny part in that.

THIS PLACE IS YOURS – VIVID SYDNEY
Sunday, 26 May – 7pm to 9pm
Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay
Tickets are $15/$10 – http://www.vividsydney.com
This Place is Yours (book) is available for purchase via select stockists and here.

Interview by Sonia Clarke

The final countdown, do-do-do-do. Yes, seemingly so soon after it had begun, The Great Escape’13 had already reached its last day. The closing Saturday of the festival started as all the coolest events tend to, with a bunch of Australians eating meat and drinking beer. It was the renowned Aussie BBQ at The Concorde II on Brighton beachfront, where Velociraptor were proving themselves to be the loudest act of the weekend. And the most raucous. Onstage, approximately 2351 band-members blasted out their ramshackle brand of garage surf rock at top volume. And it was awesome. In the courtyard, cool kids drank and smoked. The whole thing was very Surry Hills.

A different, but no less excellent, performance could be seen further up the seafront, where youngun Chlöe Howl (pictured, top) delivered delicious slices of pop to a busy room. Opening with Rumour, the song that first caught our ears, her set was a bit Lily Allen and a bit Kate Nash without ever really sounding too much like either of them, if that makes sense. In terms of ticking boxes, the 18-year-old has radio-friendly, accessible tunes and is cute in a girl-next-door/tomboy kinda way, which suggests there is quite the market for her amongst her peers. Expect the charts to be full of her in 2013.

Following a devilishly hot turn from Swiss lady three-piece Velvet Two Stripes – all bluesy riffs and attitude – came more Aussies. Deep Sea Arcade, Deep Sea Arcade, so good we saw them twice. Following Friday’s great show we couldn’t resist catching them again and they were just as impressive the second time around. Big indie anthems with a reminiscent edge amid ethereal guitars.

Obviously, by the evening there were queues everywhere like there always are at this festival, but if you ram that many good bands into three days, people are obviously gonna want to see them. However, even by the Great Escape’s standards, the line that snaked down the street outside the Dome Studio was insane, and suggests that there is a mega-buzz surrounding The Strypes right now. Well, when Sir Dave Grohl describes a band as “unbelievable,” people tend to pay attention. And when Sir Elton John (he actually is a Sir) adds: “They’re playing music like the Rolling Stones used to, or the Yardbirds, or The Beatles,” you kinda wanna know more. When you learn that their ages are thus: singer Ross Farrell – 15, guitarist Josh McClorey – 17, bass player Pete O’Hanlon-  17 and drummer Evan Walsh – 16, you realise this is a band that you HAVE to see. And the Irish four-piece didn’t disappoint. Suited up, they belted out rock n roll, blues and RnB in the traditional sense with astonishing control and confidence. McClorey, all gum-chewing and cocky with boy-band hair, dazzled on guitar. If they make the right decisions and surround themselves with the right people, these kids (pictured, above) are gonna be MASSIVE.

Leaning more towards Led Zeppelin than The Stones, Deap Vally (pictured, left) were next to raise the roof with tracks from their upcoming debut album Sistrionix. Churning through bone-shaking riffs and yelled vocal hooks, duo Lindsey Troy (guitar, vocals) and Julie Edwards (drums) have got the perfect mix of sass, sex appeal and congeniality when it comes to bantering with the crowd. This was their third packed-out show of the festival. They could have played at least three more gigs and still filled the room every time.

Next up, the big headliner. While the previous two nights at The Dome had felt a little flat, Bastille ramped up the energy and had the all-ages crowd practically turning cartwheels with a combination of songs from their big-selling album, Bad Blood, and some well-placed cover versions. No Scrubs merged with The xx and featured the vocal talents of Ella while, later, their Rhythm is a Dancer/Of the Night mashup sent the audience apeshit. Although the fact that these covers were so well-received might simply point to music these days not being what it used to, the disproof of this theory became apparent when the London band’s own big singles got an even bigger reception. Dan Smith bashed the hell out of drums at the front of the stage and lasers shot around the room while a string section added depth. Even though the smaller venues had been rocking solidly for three days and nights, the kind of main headline performance the festival had been lacking was finally here.

From the stage, Dan Smith had noted that The Great Escape two years ago was their first big show. Post-gig, their heady ascent was clearly illustrated by the fact that he was mobbed by adoring teenage girls in the street (right). While he signed autographs and posed for photos, the rest of us scurried off to discover some more acts in the smaller venues that might, two years from now, be in Bastille’s shoes.

And that was it, as gigs continued into Sunday morning, punters gradually filtered home in the knowledge that The Great Escape Festival 2013 had been one of the best ever. With new sounds still ringing in their ears from countless worldwide acts of whom they had never previously heard, there would be a whole lot of new music to investigate when back in the real world tomorrow.

Words and pictures by Bobby Townsend. Check out heaps more pictures from all three days on Facebook.

Jess O’Callaghan gives you the heads up on some potential highlights from the upcoming Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne, which kicks off this week:

Tucked into Melbourne’s lanes, libraries, and town halls, the Emerging Writers’ Festival celebrates its tenth year. The program’s a combination of exciting new writers, events that you always wished were a thing, and pure inspiration to just write and write well, dammit. I want to recommend everything, really, because I could happily spend every day and night between May 22 and June 2 revelling in its awesome program, but for the sake of actually getting some writing done, here are bits I’m the most excited about:

Seven Enviable Lines
Five awesome writers share seven incisive bits of advice they wish they had known when they started out writing. It’s always comforting to have people where you want to be explain that they were you once, highlighting festival programs, scribbling out first drafts, full of confusion and self-doubt. It’s even nicer when they share words of wisdom. The Festival Ambassadors, Khairani ‘Okka’ Barokka, Melinda Harvey, Walter Mason, Jennifer Mills, and John Safran, are just the sort of people you want giving you advice. The event is on at 10am on Saturday May 25 at Melbourne Town Hall, and will hopefully be like coffee in the morning and make you want to go and do all the writing all weekend long. Details here.

Words Travel – Australia and Indonesia
EWF has teamed up with Bali Emerging Writers Festival to present a co-program, and on Sunday May 26 you can hear lovely writers talk about how Indonesia and Australia have inspired their work, and also find out all about the potential the partnership presents to emerging writers in Australia. This is great for lots of reasons, some of them being travel writing, Indonesia, and Laura Jean McKay. I heard Laura read about her trip to Cambodia a few years ago and ever since then have been super excited to read anything that she ever writes, and the EWF writers biographies tell me her short story collection Holiday in Cambodia will be published in July. Yay! This one’s also at Melbourne Town Hall, at 1.45pm. Details here.

Late Night Live with Literary Magazines- Mixed Tape Memoirs with The Lifted Brow
The Lifted Brow’s music edition has consistently made me happy for well over a month now. They had a bunch of amazing writers to make mixtapes, which you can stream online. Then they had four independent record labels create downloadable bundles of music. That’s before we even talk about how great the content of their consistently awesome publication is. Thanks Lifted Brow. I listened to Pip Smith’s “lady focused” mixtape when I spent the day pulling out the weeds from what is now a useable garden bed. I listened to A.H. Cayley’s mixtape for “not giving a single fuck to” while drinking wine before leaving the house last night. I listened to Anna Krien’s mixtape while writing, in the hopes that it would make me write like Anna Krien. It didn’t, but I am grateful anyway, because I have not had to think about which music to listen to in an entire month. The EWF has handed over its late night programming to literary magazines (Kill Your Darlings on Tuesday, Ampersand on Wednesday, and Seizure on Thursday), which means the night of Monday May 27 will be like streaming your favourite writer’s mixtapes online but live, with five writers “sharing the music that has impacted them most, and explain in a storytellery way just why”. This one is free, 9pm, at festival hub 1000 Pound Bend. Details here.

Weekend Writing Space
For the last weekend of the festival, everyone moves to one of the loveliest places in Melbourne, Abbotsford Convent. There are birds there and big nice spaces and good food and it’s all very nice. Explore the proper program for workshops that combine meditation and yoga with writing and other events. The really exciting bit is the writers’ space, which will be a great way to channel all the good things you’ve learned and been inspired by throughout the week into actual words. A space full of writers to write in! The program says the only distractions will be productive ones, but the other draw card of this weekend-long event is poet Emily Stewart giving away all of her books (She’s what!? Wait! Why?) with a personalised letter to go in each. Which sounds distracting, but in the best way. Details here.

Wild, Wild Life – an Evening of Animal Stories
Well, almost all of my favourite writers will be telling animal stories in Abbotsford Convent with a sound artist doing things with sound, so I think it’s safe to say this will be one of the best nights of any festival ever. Oslo Davis, Rebecca Giggs, LK Holt, Laura Jean McKay, Marc Martin, Josephine Row and Khairani ‘Okka’ Barokka with a “wild soundtrack” by Michael Prior. Yes, yes please. Whenever someone reads something written by Rebecca Giggs they become evangelical about telling everyone about how awesome Rebecca Giggs is, so be warned that if you come to this event that may happen to you. This one is on the final Saturday night (June 1), 6.30 at Abbotsford Convent. Details here.

Words by Jess O’Callaghan. Check the Emerging Writers’ Festival website here.

Amid hangovers and weary limbs after the opening day’s festivities, the second instalment of The Great Escape’13 creaked into life Friday lunchtime, yet it didn’t take long for things to hit full throttle.

At The Green Door Store, The Skints were so popular that any position with a half-decent view was at a premium, with the crowd stretching way back from the stage into the next door bar. Necks were craned in order to see them belt out their blend of ska and reggae. Up the road, the Brighthelm Centre offered a decent-sized room which was well attended for Fletcher. Or Ben Fletcher to give him his full name. The singer/songwriter (who we recognised as being Sarah Blasko’s guitarist) delivered a set that was a thing of fragile beauty, as his nylon-stringed guitar-playing was accompanied by a harpist, while his lyrics occasionally juxtaposed the music in their dark subject matter.

Alongside the main schedule also lies The Alternative Escape, a heap of additional shows programmed independently. One such event was at The Courtyard, where under grey skies, Night Engine belted out bouncy indie before Norwegian Susanne Sundfør played a short set. Her textured, engaging music, with warm vocal over programmed beats and a bunch of synths, is likely more suited to intimate, dark surroundings than an afternoon courtyard, but there was enough here to suggest that her evening show at Green Door Store would be amazing.

At the Queens Hotel, all five members of OYAMA (pictured, below) had to delve into their pockets to turn off their mobile phones as one of them was interfering with the PA during their show. “This isn’t part of the set,” they joked. Phone interruptions aside, the Icelanders offered some interesting moments within their shoe-gaze fuzz, slowly building sound and then demolishing it with an explosion of drums.

Up next was Caitlin Park (pictured, top). Accompanied on stage by UK singer/songwriter David Ford on drums and that man Ben Fletcher on guitar, the Australian’s show was one of the absolute standouts of the weekend. Her cleverly-structured folktronica utilised a sample pad, loops and Ford/Fletcher’s backing vocals as she played a set of songs from her debut album and her – as yet unreleased – follow-up. Old songs like Baby Teeth and Jack, Where You At? sounded as great as ever while her newies showed impressive extra dimensions to her songwriting. Most notable was her next single, The Sleeper; a groovy-as-hell number built to make hips shake and feet stomp. Absolutely irresistible. Anyone who was elsewhere during this eclectic set was simply in the wrong place.

Billy Bragg‘s headline show at The Dome was a strange thing. Heavily leaning towards an American country sound, Bragg appeared onstage in pointy boots and cowboy shirts, delivering Woody Guthrie covers, such as I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore, amongst his own compositions and well-known protest songs. You have to admire the singer’s vision, yet, while his band were excellent and his arrangements fine, it takes some musical chops to successfully pull off such a sound. While the inclusion of You Woke Up My Neighbourhood from way back when shows that this isn’t an entirely new direction for him, perhaps the country vibe is not something especially suited to his blunt vocal and guitar-playing. Bragg (pictured, right) is undoubtedly at his best when belting out his leftie busker anthems. His songs – unquestionably important in their time – still sounded impassioned and with a sentiment that remains as true as ever. And of course, his banter was fantastic. There can be few more naturally affable stage-presences than his and, he’s right, Margaret Thatcher never will know how Breaking Bad ends.

Post Bragg, there was time to catch big haired indie hotshots Childhood at The Blind Tiger Club, whose energetic show suggests they fully deserve the mountains of praise that has been heading their way over the last few months. Keep a keen eye out for the Londoners. Meanwhile, over at The Haunt, the surprise guests were Palma Violets, whose set was off the hook. Punters stagedived, crowd-surfed and created general fervour as the NME darlings shook The Haunt to its very foundations. If their album was more ordinary than extraordinary (it was), then their live turn here was absolutely fucking ace.

After this, the Friday night parties kicked on and on and on and on like a Duracell Bunny with a can of Red Stripe. Tomorrow’s hangovers would make today’s seem pathetically small.

Words and pictures by Bobby Townsend. Check out heaps more pictures from all three days on Facebook.

Vance Joy’s Riptide popped up on the radio whilst I was driving home from a quick dip on Sydney’s Northern beaches. It was mid-Autumn and I felt great cruising through the bushland in the sunshine listening to this Melbournian’s sunshiney tune. I managed to track it down and what made  the already great track even better was the video that features a cute girl hula-hopping in her backyard for the duration of the poppy song.

If you’re not enjoying the ambiguous unseasonal weather in Sydney at the moment, take from Vance Joy, and think summery thoughts. And if you like what you hear, the solo artist has his EP, God Loves You When You’re Dancing available to stream for free on his website.

Words by Carol Bowditch.