The Falls Music And Arts Festival made its annual
trip to Byron Bay last week to welcome in 2016 with a stellar strong line-up, a
water park and a Captain Morgan’s ship. Arriving as a Falls
first-timer I was eager to soak up as much as possible in the three days ahead
of me. I was initially blown away by how relaxed everyone was; staff and crowd
included. Everyone was there to take it easy and take care of each other and
that made a huge difference to the overall experience.
After pitching the tent
I was off to see Bullhorn to mark my first Falls Festival act. I had heard the
murmurings of Bullhorn around Brisbane but was eager to check them out with my
own eyes and ears. They were a great band to open the festival with and set the
scene for the coming days. For an earlier, smaller band, they managed to pull a
crowd as they played and had every person watching and moving along with them.
Bullhorn’s MC, Roman Albert, was extremely energetic and interacted with the
crowd really well but also had an impressive and versatile vocal range and freestyle
ability.
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| Bullhorn |
Later on in the day I
manage to catch Art vs. Science’s set in the amphitheatre. Their set was very
similar to the set I saw at Splendour In The Grass a couple of years ago and
also their set at Big Day Out a few years before that. There’s no doubt they
have a lot of energy on stage but they just seem to use it in the same way each
gig. They pulled a strong crowd who were quite familiar with their older
repertoire, however their newer tracks didn’t translate as well live on stage.
Following Art Vs.
Science were Peking Duck who definitely got the crowd moving again. Their set
lacked continuity and was very random. It followed the classic ‘30 seconds–drop–30
seconds–drop’ formula that left fans struggling to keep up with their erratic
push-playing and they eventually lost interest part way through the set not
long after Peking Duck whipped out the Lion King soundtrack (which was later repeated
in Disclosure’s set). Peking Duck’s original material was more popular among
the crowd than their remixes. They also brought along some confetti canons,
which are always a good way to impress.
By this time, we were
ready to say goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016 and to help us do that were The
Wombats. Initially I was surprised they were the New Year’s Eve act as opposed
to other headliners such as Bloc Party or Birds Of Tokyo but I was definitely
impressed. When I saw them at The Tivoli a few years ago they were silly, in a
lovable way, and just having fun. Now, on the main stage of Falls Festival
counting down to the New Year, they were serious, fun and comfortable. They
performed a flawless set with hit after hit familiar among every person in the
crowd.
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| The Wombats |
Entering the second day
of Falls it’s important to note how good the sound was. I can confidently say
that it’s the best sound of any music festival I’ve attended with the live
amphitheatre offering well-balanced sound from the top of the hill right to the
front of the stage. It made the whole live music experience a lot more
enjoyable.
Withstanding the heat on
day two was Courtney Barnett. Although we were glad there had been no rain, the
ground was bone dry and there was a cloud of dust surrounding us as we danced
to Courtney’s set. Her vocal performance was spot on but she was the first act
I had seen to encounter a wee bit of feedback.
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| Courtney Barnett |
New Year’s Day was
coming to an end and Rüfüs was there to prepare us. Their set was transfixing
and got everyone on their feet. They gave a great original performance and left
me impressed. Vocalist Tyrone Lindqvist had a limited vocal range but it suited
their style. The crowd were very familiar with their work and sung along with
most songs.
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| Me with Bloc Party |
Rounding out the day was
Bloc Party with an up and down performance. This was the one performance of the
event that suffered negatively from sound issues. Although not an easy band to
dial in sound wise, their sound was particularly thin in tracks without the
second guitar present. It was an overall quiet start but the sound did improve
as they played on. Bloc Party played a variety of new and old songs but not a
lot of material from their albums in between. It was very evident that the
crowd lost interest during their newer tracks as some translated better live
than others. It was obvious that Bloc Party didn’t tailor their set for a
festival stage – true Bloc Party style - and their set would have gone a lot
better at one of their own gigs. I have a feeling the audience may have been
left disappointed by expecting more from such an iconic band. They did bring out
their fair share of “bangerz” however, as the crowd busted some moves and fell
in love with Kele’s charm.
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| Bloc Party |
Entering our final day
at falls started with Gang Of Youths. Evidentially worn out from two tours in
the past six months, David Le’aupepe’s voice was suffering but that didn’t stop
him from throwing himself into his performance, literally. One thing I noticed
when I saw Gang Of Youths live a few months ago was that they just loved what
they do and that was still obvious months later. They played a strong, tight
set that many enjoyed.
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| Gang Of Youths |
Later on in the evening
were Foals. They had a huge crowd with many popular tracks. I was honestly
surprised to see such a huge turn out for them. They had the biggest mosh-pit
of the festival and everyone seemed to know their songs. Their music ranged from
indie-pop to hard rock so it’s no wonder it appealed to such a large audience.
The biggest thing to note about their performance was their beyond crazy light
show; it was insane!
I finished off the festival
with Django Django at the Forest Stage. The sound in here was also very good,
in fact, even better than the amphitheatre. They played at the same time as
Disclosure so they didn’t have a huge crowd but it was a mixture of loyal fans
and people who didn’t know where they were. Their font man, Vincent Neff, was
eccentric but kept everyone interested as they played a fun and energetic set
with more crowd interaction than expected from a band in their genre. I don’t
think I had ever danced so hard and it made for a great ending to The Falls Festival
2015.
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| Django Django |
It was a great few days
and the biggest piece of advice I have to give to future Falls goers is to wear
sunscreen, because sunburn really ruins your time. There is never a shortage of
things to do at Falls Festival including the array of market stalls, bars,
comedy, movies and arts in The Village. If
you make the most of your time at Falls you won’t be disappointed, but how
could you be disappointed with a line-up this strong.
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| Me! |
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