I’m a firm believer that one of the best ways to immerse yourself in a
culture is to also immerse yourself in the music of that country, and what
better way for me to do that than go and see some of the biggest names in Aussie
music at Sea N Sound Festival in Mooloolaba.
The outdoor venue, The Wharf, was reasonably small given the good
things I’d heard about some of the artists, but I like the intimate atmosphere
it gave. I perched myself down on the kerb to wait for I Know Leopard, the next
scheduled act, to appear, but realised pretty soon that there had been a
scheduling issue when Kyle Lionhart
appeared instead. Apparently flight delays had resulted in things needing to be
moved around, but we sure didn’t mind.
Kyle and his long-haired band kicked off with So Close, Kyle’s latest single, a vibey number with a great drop in
the middle. This seemed to be the case for most of Kyle’s songs, which started
off quiet and then BAM! Big drop and energy increase. The Byron busker showed
off his falsetto and deep tones on songs like Compromise and Heart Out
First, a song written about being away from his wife for a long time.
His Byron roots showed loud and clear during the thought-provoking Keep Pushing, a plea to the people to
continue focusing on conservation in Australia even when the politicians don’t
seem to care too much. I very much enjoyed the next two tracks – Sweet Girl, written after a conversation
where his father explained how much his daughter (Kyle’s sister) meant to him,
and Sleep By Rivers, one of Kyle’s
most popular tracks and the one I’d direct you to if you want to check him out.
Kyle finished with a snazzy guitar intro on Call Back Home, and plenty of screams from women in the crowd who’d
crept forward to the front during his set. Obviously a man in demand, I think
Sea N Sound made a good decision in choosing Kyle for the lineup.
After a short break, four piece band I Know Leopard took to the stage in red and white outfits which
already made them seem pretty cool, and this was before they’d even started
playing! The electronic keyboards used throughout the set on songs like Heather and Blame It On Me gave them a very 70s/80s vibe harking back to the
likes of Wham! or the Stranger Things soundtrack. I’ve noticed a resurgence in
this style of music so if you’re a fan of Mac DeMarco or Rex Orange County, I
think you might like these guys too.
Frontman Luke provided most of the vocals on 70 Lies, Evergreen and personal favourite 1991, backed by Jenny and Rosie on electronic keyboard and bass.
They ended their set with the catchy Everything
Goes With You and the earworm Landmine
which was stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Out of all of the artists
playing the festival, this band were definitely my favourite, and I look
forward to seeing them perform around Australia again in the future.
Ali Barter was up next with
a set full of angsty punk rock that brought me back to Alanis Morissette and
Avril Lavigne as she jammed on tracks like Please
Stay and Ur A Piece Of. Ali was
certainly a step apart from the previous act but I appreciate the variety that
the festival had chosen to include, to show us the best of Australian talent,
no matter the genre.
Ali was followed by Oka, who
again were completely different from anything we’d heard so far. The band, who
describe themselves as ‘Australian earth music with sublime dimensions’ led the
didgeridoo do the talking with instrumental songs that contained very few
lyrics. I found myself thinking of them as music you might hear at a spa mixed
with dubstep as they took fairly relaxing sounds and turned them into dance
music.
I liked the mix of traditional and modern that they brought to the
festival in the way that changed the tone to more of a club atmosphere as
people began to dance and let loose. If you’re looking for a band that
encapsulates the old and new of Australian music, you really don’t need to look
any further.
Next up was Didirri, who
started his set in quite an unusual manner by just singing by himself with no
backing instruments. I wasn’t sure that this was the best way to start as it
didn’t really give us an indication of what was come, and the rest of his set
was actually pretty different from this. The young artist, who could easily
have passed for a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, had a style akin to James Bay,
writing punchy songs about his ex, ‘not complicating stuff’, and ‘taking care
of each other’.
He did show his humorous side in explaining the meaning behind Worth The Wait, written following a trip
to a Maccas drivethru where one of the servers said ‘Sorry for the wait’, or
what Didirri interpreted as ‘Sorry for the weight’ he’d gain as a result of
going to Maccas.
The penultimate act of the day was Busby
Marou a duo whose music was full of melodic guitar and harmony. I found it
difficult to find a genre to fit them into, as they blurred the lines between
indie, blues and a kind of Americana-roots style. Their songs like All of You, 5 Rocks and Getaway Car were all incredibly
wholesome and the crowd certainly seemed to be lapping it as they cheered and
sang along to the words.
They had obviously been a big pull for some people to show up to the
festival, and I was again surprised at the small size of the festival given
some of the acts they’d managed to draw, with fans more than willing to stick
it out in the rain to see their favourite acts.
If there was one person I was sure most people were excited to see, it
was definitely Amy Shark, whose
music is consistently played on Aussie radio stations. Keeping with the theme
of weird intros, Amy’s set started with an excerpt from Do You Hear The People Sing? from Les Miserables (yes, you’re as confused
as I am) before Amy traipsed onstage in front of her name in huge letters.
She began with Blood Brothers and
I Got You, her voice a mix between
singing and talking, giving herself quite an edgy vibe. She went on to
introduce herself to the crowd (“I love you, Sunny Coast!”) and explain that
she has always been a big fan of Blink 182, and got the opportunity to write a
song with B182 vocalist Mark Hoppus, which turned into Psycho which, in spite of its name, was actually one of the slower
and more heartfelt songs in her set.
She continued with Don’t Turn
Around and a song ‘for the OG Amy Shark fans’, Spits On Girls. I liked her interaction with the crowd, constantly
stopping to shout out positive thoughts to festival-goers and prefacing Mess Her Up with “I feel like we are
already close friends and I could tell you anything, even if it was bad,” and
indeed, Mess Her Up has a pretty bad
subject matter when you realise it’s about a woman cheating with her best
friends boyfriend. Regardless, it is a very catchy song and I was one of the
many singing it at the top of my lungs with her.
Amy’s next song was about her ex, the aptly titled The Idiot, followed by a song yearning for a Sunday sesh, Weekends; and one bursting with emotion,
Drive You Mad, which you could hear
ripping through her voice. We got a huge treat next as she performed a cover of
Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag which
certainly made anyone who wasn’t raving already start dancing.
She finished with the song that started it all – Adore – and a song to all those who said she’d never make it – I Said Hi – with people jumping on
others shoulders and waving their arms about wildly. A great end to a great
introduction to Aussie music. Having entered the festival with very little
knowledge about what this vast country has to offer in terms of talented
musicians, I feel like I left with a much better understanding of who to keep
my eyes open for, and certainly a few new artists I’ll be adding to my
playlist.
I hope you enjoyed today’s
review! If you’d like to read more reviews and interviews, make sure you follow
me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to stay up to date. Were you at Sea N Sound, or
wish you were? I’d love to know your thoughts – drop me a message in the comments
below!
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