Bleach* Launch

It was a dazzling night of free alcohol and lots of dancing. I'm talking about the official launch of Gold Coast's Bleach* Festival. Held at Arts Centre Gold Coast we met for the compulsory meet and greet prior to a bizarre, yet entertaining, performance by the Inaugural Annual Dance Affair who showcased a few humorous dance routines squeezed in while hosting the event.

We were treated to a few short performances by acts that are a part of this year's Bleach Festival programme, including a wonderfully weird performance by The Farm. They showcased an outstanding level of athleticism and skill but I questioned their skit involving the Mayor and a bear suit; I'm not really sure what happened…

The best part of the night for me was having The Cheap Fakes up on stage accompanying each performance. They stood on stage in suits like a band at a prom but it matched the corny feel of the night. The ended the night with their own set while people lingered back out to the open bar. Funny enough, however, a decent sized group stayed behind on the dance floor to enjoy the set.

Attending this event was a pleasing eye opener for me to see that the Gold Coast does have a strong arts community. Having recently moved to the Gold Coast I've been searching for signs of arts, music and culture and trying to edge my way into that community so that I know what is going on and when it's going on. I've missed that aspect of living in Brisbane, but attending the Bleach* Festival launch gives me hope that I can be a part of this community, here, on the Gold Coast.
The first step in doing that is to attend some of the wonderful and creative events held in every corner of the Gold Coast at Bleach* Festival 2016.

Falls Festival 2015/16 @ Byron Bay

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Me!

See more about my experience at Falls Festival HERE. 

A Students First Home

After three months of living out of home for the first time there are a few things I have learnt about myself and the people around me.
It's been three months now and it definitely hasn't been the amazing experience I expected it to be. Although I am living in a wonderful apartment in a beautiful city, there have been a number of areas of my life that have interfered with the independent, wild and fabulous lifestyle I envisioned.
I moved cities and away from my family. Despite having travelled and spending over a month away from my family it's a completely different thing being away from them permanently. I manage to visit home once a week and just being there is calming yet emotional. I love being at home with my family on the farm. It's an escape from everything else in the world and my family really are wonderful and amazing people. Although I always knew this, it has taken me moving away to really appreciate it. I miss home so much and have never felt lonelier. I never considered myself a lonely person; I like being alone and doing things on my own. But now that I am actually alone, I look forward to the moments spent with family and friends.
I don't, however, live alone. I do have a roommate. She has been a dear friend of mine since we were 14. I thought I knew her well but you never really know someone until you live with them. Despite promises of partying and meeting all her great friends in this new and amazing city, it became very clear very quickly that she was well established in her own life here without much room for me. Of course I am understanding of this and am aware of the need to establish my own life but it's easier said than done.
At first I was on cloud nine in my new apartment but for a number of weeks not too long ago I spent a lot of time in bed crying. I had lost track of my goals and just became obsessed with the little things (like cooking and cleaning).
I believe this also had a lot to do with the sh*tty job I was working. It was a job I liked doing but with awful hours and horrible management. It was an extremely unpleasant workplace and also meant I never had time to see anyone. First world problems, I know, but it really effected a lot of different aspects of my life and particularly my happiness.
The up-side of living out of home is the obvious benefit of not having to check in with your parents or run things by them; you can go anywhere and do anything whenever you like. I'm also enjoying the domestic side of things. I like going grocery shopping and being able to buy the food that I want for me. I like cooking dinner every night based on what I feel like and watching whatever I want on TV at whatever hour I feel like. It is freedom. But with freedom comes loneliness. And for me, with loneliness comes sadness and self-pity.
At present, I have found a new job and am eagerly awaiting commencement. I have made a few good friends in this new city and am trying to regain focus of my goals and passions.
If I were to give any advice to anyone moving out of home for the first time, it would be to keep your family close. Even though you're most likely moving out to be away from them and have your own space, sometimes that space can be sickening and it's good to know they're always there if you really need them. It's also good to learn how to store food correctly because cooking for one is hard!

Brisbane Music Venues: New And Different

If you’ve hit the streets of Fortitude Valley recently you may have taken a stroll past Foundry Records on Wickham Street next to the iconic The Elephant hotel.

What you might not know is that Foundry Records is an extension of Brisbane’s latest music venue The Foundry.

This trend of business amalgamation among Brisbane music venues is on the rise and can also be seen at The Triffid with its inclusion of The Café and Beergarden.

Founder of City and Sound, Leith Jacobs, has observed this growing trend and puts it down to clever business.

“Venues such as The Foundry and The Triffid are fairly new and I think they knew that being another square room with a bar and big speakers wasn't going to cut it.

“The inclusion of extra features like cafes and record shops that run during the day is a well thought-out one, I think, and is due in part to the experienced teams behind each venue,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs goes on to recall a number of Brisbane music venues that had to face closure recently and believes that including other forms of business allows venue owners to rely on other streams of income.

“Live music is a niche in Brisbane when compared to the club scene and having other streams of revenue is a safer bet for music venues,” he said.

The Foundry is one of Brisbane’s newer music venues to open its doors and also includes Foundry Studios and Foundry Records.

Venue booker at The Foundry, Patrick Balfe, says the decision to include Foundry Records was to fill a space in the venue.

“We had a spare space on street level below the venue and there wasn’t a lot of places to get good coffee on our street,” says Balfe.

Martine Cotton, manager of Foundry Records, agrees with this and adds that there was more importantly a void to fill in Fortitude Valley, “the space was created to fill something of a void in the Valley; a place for music people to hang during the day, having meetings, listening to music and supporting local bands,” he says.

Supporting local musicians and bands has always been a mantra of Fortitude Valley music venues.

The inclusion of Foundry Records at The Foundry encourages this supportive environment for the community.

“It helps builds a sense of collaborative community for the music industry,” says Cotton.

“The whole building is a collaborative hub – all our residents, bands and friends get a chance to bounce ideas off each other, work together, hang out and see live music,” agrees Balfe.

From a business perspective Balfe says that opening a record and coffee shop during the day promotes the venue as well as giving people a collaborative space in Fortitude Valley.

“It was also a good way to spread awareness of the venue during the day and have a chilled out space for people to have meetings and listen to records,” he said.

Brisbane musician, Kurt Pitman, says that these kinds of venues “simply help the most important thing which is crowd numbers”.

Although positive about the opening of new venues, Pitman is worried that these venues may be attracting patrons who aren’t there to appreciate live music.

“I think it depends on the physical integration of the spaces,” says Pitman.

“If, for instance, the place has a bar and dining area that is part of the music venue then that’s really only a positive as patrons of one are patrons of both.

“But if they are separated it doesn’t really contribute to the music side of things and might even detract as music fans are less likely to go to venues full of people who don’t appreciate live music,” said Pitman.

Jacobs agrees that these additional attractions to the venue will in course attract further patrons but is more positive about the possible turn out, “I think extra services will attract customers who might not otherwise step into that music venue and they might end up stumbling across their new favorite band”.

Although we’re seeing further additions to the traditional idea of Brisbane’s music venues it’s hard to say how long they’ll last.

“More venues ultimately means spreading the audience thinner.

“Those with less business will eventually become unsustainable and the great birth and rebirth of venues will begin again,” said Jacobs.

Maroochy Music And Visual Arts Festival Review

What do you get when 21 bands, 10 DJs, 30 visual artists and 5 bunnies get together on a golf course? The answer, Maroochy Music And Visual Arts Festival, AKA a brilliant cocktail of music and arts.

Upon entering the scene, you are immediately greeted by an array of culinary options ranging from burritos, wood fired pizzas and German sausages to Churros and potato slinkies. Continue past a bunker and you’ll be surrounded by five seven-metre tall illuminated rabbits part of ‘Intrude’ by Amanda Parer.

Not far from here you’ll come across what looks like a lone shipping container. On the inside, however, it’s a mini-gallery belonging to singer/songwriter Bertie Blackman. She exhibited a number of canvases displaying ink and watercolour images of surreal cats and rabbits. Just beside this lay large, colourful cubes showing a variety of murals painted live throughout the day by the likes of Conrad Square, Gus, Jay Beez, Thom Stuart, Fuzeillear and The Zookeeper.

Turn left to exit arts and enter music. The festival featured just one main stage, which meant no clashes, but it also meant half hour breaks between each band. During each break the Ghetto Blaster area showcased a number of DJs throughout the day including Tim Helmy, Elleyet, Toby Walker, DJ Shift-T and Jesswah. The C&O Garden was also occupied between sets by Pilgrims, Gian, Jazzella, Wash, Agnes J Walker and more.

Waax opened up the main stage nice and early at ten AM followed by Marlon Williams, Harts and Hiatus Kaiyote. Following this was Sydney group, One Day, comprised of Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride. Although not a group that has been performing together for very long, they had incredible chemistry on stage and seemed well practised. They also just seemed to really enjoy, not only the performance, but their music as well.

Gang Of Youths took the stage afterwards and jumped into an aggressive and intense set – something unexpected. Front man, David Leaupepe, stared down the audience with wild and crazy eyes. He mixed it up every now and then as he attempted to bump and grind his way around the stage and managed to stack it with both grace and sex appeal. David jumped into the audience giving them everything he had. The band experience some minor sound issues near the start of their set but they drew little attention to it and continued on despite the vocal layer being barely audible for their opening song.

Alpine experienced some similar sound difficulties during their set. They couldn’t hear much up on stage and therefore missed the mark in their opening song ‘Crunches’. They went from strength to strength with each song, however, and managed to pull it together performing favourites such as ‘Foolish’ and ‘Damn Baby’. Leading ladies, Phoebe and Lou, were extremely energetic, bright and quirky as hell. 

DZ Deathrays took the stage next and then The Kite String Tangle shifted the mood into the night time hours with a beautiful and mesmerizing set. His silky smooth vocals had the crowd hooked. He brought out crowd favourites like ‘Arcadia’ and brought Dustin Tebbutt up on stage for ‘Illuminate’. He also invited Tiana Khasi on stage with him to perform ‘Stone Cold’. So far The Kite String Tangle performed the stronger set of the day.

Backing it up with another strong set were Flight Facilities. It was hit after hit for Hugo and Jimmy smashing out ‘Crave You’, ‘Sunshine’, ‘Clair De Lune’ and ‘With You’. Kurt Kristen helped them out on stage with his smooth and sexy vocals. Owl Eyes performed a large portion of tracks effortlessly as well. Even when she would giggle or miss a beat, it still sounded good; she could do no wrong. Flight Facilities certainly left the audience on a high.

With a dull half hour break between sets Hermitude were left to pick the crowd back up. Although they performed an engaging set their sound was way too quiet too make much of an impact and their music is best played loud. For two DJs stuck behind a desk, however, they did well. Luke Dubs and Elgusto tried to mix it up a bit and step out in front of the desk but their set-up limited them.  

As the day came to an end it would seem to be a success. Announced as an annual event, it’ll be interesting to see how next year’s festival will differ from this year’s debut event.

MMVAF gallery

One Day

Gang Of Youths

Alpine

The Kite String Tangle

Flight Facilities

Hermitude

Doughnut Time vs. The Doughnut Bar

My first visit to Doughnut Time was after dinner one night in the valley near the beginning of the year. Doughnut's had just come onto the scene as the hot new artisan food. I first heard of the Doughnut Craze when The Doughnut Bar was set to pop-up around Brisbane. 

Upon my first encounter with Doughnut Time, I ordered one Slim Shady, a vanilla glazed doughnut covered in m&m's, and a chocolate glazed doughnut with a peanut butter candy similar to Reece's cups on top - I can't remember the name of it. They were delicious, yet over-rated, but I was most impressed with the actually doughnut itself. It was light and incredibly tasty even without the toppings. 

I returned to Doughnut Time a few months ago and got the Veruca Salt doughnut which was sugar coated with a dollop of delicious salted caramel in the middle - definitely a favourite!. I also got the Tim-Tam doughnut which was chocolate glazed with Tim-Tam pieces on top. I enjoyed them just as much the second time.

I was passing by The Doughnut Bar van on Edward street and decided to give them a try. From the pictures I had seen on social media, it seemed as though their toppings were a lot more impressive than those on the doughnuts at Doughnut Time. On the day I went, they only had the Nutella doughnut and the Golden Gaytime doughnut available, so I grabbed one of each. 

They looked great! The Nutella one had a syringe of Nutella inserted into it's centre where a dollop of Nutella was. It also had a small amount of Nutella filling in it's doughnut centre. The Golden Gaytime doughnut tasted just like a Golden Gaytime (funny that) and had a whipped cream filling. They were both delicious but the actual doughnut was much heavier and similar to a cake texture. Therefore, it was a lot more filling and hard to get through both. 

Although the doughnuts at The Doughnut bar looked great and have wonderful toppings, personally, I prefer the quality of the doughnut itself from Doughnut Time.