Live Review: Bigsound Day Three
Having thrown a large afterparty for everyone the previous night, the conference understandably started a little later than the rest of the week on this, the last day of Bigsound. Some felt pleased to have survived the four-day slog, most were hungover.
An interesting chat with Regurgitator and a Q&A and performance by Kasey Chambers were pleasant ways to sit through the first half the day, and the free bloody marys were a good move. The final part of the conference was a packed out keynote discussion and performance by Gurrumul.
Throughout the interview Gurrumul sat silently whilst his collaborators Mark Grose and Michael Hohnen spoke of the processes involved, and the stories behind the creation of the songs on Gurrumul’s albums, with the singer occasionally pulling a sly smirk or laughing. But when it came to the live performance sections and that man opened his mouth, the sound that came forth made every single person in the auditorium sit up and take notice. Not merely beautiful but astonishing, the audience reaction ranged from goosebumps, to smiles, to tears.
Easing into the afternoon at Ric’s, Melbourne’s Damn Terran owned the backyard stage with their furious, scuzzy rock. The interplay between the bass, drums and guitar, as well as the contrast of the two vocalists, Lachlan Ewbank and Ali Edmonds, helped to maintain interest through their use of dynamics while keeping the energy levels consistently high.
I went off to play at a house party nearby, where local folk duo Loose Nickers kicked things off followed by The Willow Seeds, whose catchy folk-pop tunes were a delight.
Heading back to The Black Bear Lodge we managed to catch the end of Good Oak, a group featuring Thomas Busby from Busby Marou, Nat Dunn and with Jess Ribeiro guesting on certain songs. This band really impressed, both with their songs but also the obvious amount of talent held by its members and the enjoyment they seemed to be getting from performing. If they seemed a little under-rehearsed in sections they pulled it off, with Nat Dunn’s soulful vocals complimenting the rootsy-pop make of the songs.
And so ended the 2013 Bigsound, a chance for people from all aspects of the Australian music industry to come together briefly, do business, catch up and see some of the best current live acts around, and damn it was fun.
Words by Alex Watts. Main photo courtesy of Bigsound. More here. Check out Alex’s review of Days One and Two here.
