Valley Fiesta

A weekend in Brisbane, 8-10th July

Friday

An air of awkward anticipation hung in the air as I was getting ready to leave the house for the first of three days I'd be spending at the Valley Fiesta. Tonight I was mixing friends and work friends and I was more than a little worried it would explode in my face like a backyard meth lab.

By the time we arrived in the Brunswick Street Mall, things were already in full swing. I was desperate for a sit down and a beer but any chance of seating at Ric's or RGs was already long gone. Heading down further we found our place at Manfred's, close enough to the main stage set up in the centre of the mall to hear without it overwhelming conversation.

At this point in time, Elation took to the stage. Easy going, chilled out music under some sweet vocals were the perfect way to ease into the weekend. It's easy to see where the comparisons to Dido come from.

Luckily, as Spod was striding onstage, everyone was getting along even better than I could have hoped. It was the perfect time for me to escape and taste the radness. Tonight he was joined by local indie synth popsters Sekiden. What ensued can only be described in Spod's own words as he "ripped us 18 new bottoms". There were licked guitar necks, falls off speaker stacks and all round great rock showmanship as he made his way around much more rocked up versions of his usual songs courtesy of the accompanying band.

It was a great close for the Mall Stage that night, though we were far from done. As we moved into Ric's, I experienced a sensation I'm sure usually only felt by sardines as they're crammed into a can. Before Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side even began the show a bouncer had to be deployed to the ground floor entrance to stop anyone else getting in…unless they just went straight up stairs and came down through the back. Due to this the crowd still steadily increased as more and more air was being forced form my lungs.

Gentle Ben was the consummate showman as ever but it was getting ridiculous to even bother trying to see the show as more people willing gave themselves over to the fleshy wall in front of me and bar staff tried to push through bins full of empty bottles.

I had already lost most of the group to the much more spacious upstairs, where the DJ was spinning up a storm of classics or across to the Zoo for End of Fashion and Tamberlane (who by all reports stole the show). Giving in to the call of upstairs not long after Dave McCormack and the Polaroids gave a full-of-cowbell rendition of the Custard hit "Girls Like That", I fully gave myself over to beer and dancing to the wee hours right about the time the DJ played Blur's "Parklife", the song I want played at my funeral.

Saturday

Saturday morning came and I was hangover free. We had called it a night at the perfect point, my only regret being missing the Spod vs Sekiden DJ set at the Depot.

A substantially lessened mob of us took to the Valley which by lunchtime was already more packed in than it was the whole of the night before. Monster Zoku Onsomb were a band I had always been conceptually interested in, simply by seeing their name around, so we waited patiently and I secretly wished for two Atomic Monsters to take the stage and fight through a miniature representation of Tokyo Harbour.

Unfortunately this was not the case. If men dressed as Mexicans in lime green ponchos, sporting bass guitars I don't think I actually saw them play and Rocky Horror cast offs uttering the occasional line over a wall of beats and bass is your thing then check them out. For me though, the joke was over after about 15 minutes.

Next up were The Whats, a straight ahead, two piece rock outfit in the Detroit Tradition. At first I was initially unmoved as they worked their way through some bluesy-rock, thinking that the vocals were perhaps not strong enough the carry just itself and the bass drum even as the crowd continued to grow around them. However, the Whats are the sort of band you only realise the draw of when you walk away for five minutes to take a phone call and wander back thinking to yourself, "hey, this band sounds pretty cool, I think I'll check them out".

Admittedly I have a soft spot for local old school punkers, The Disables but you couldn't deny the frenetic energy of their show with rabble choruses, chunky guitars and a healthy dose of politics. I couldn't help thinking back to the awesome book "Pig City", and just how much Brisbane really has changed that a punk band can perform in the middle of the Valley, during the day and not get beaten.

Sekiden followed next with what could only be described as indie-pop goodness. The three piece bounced around the stage delivering their infectious pop without a Spod or "Sex Party Forever" in sight, though drummer, Mirko definitely took the prize for best facial expressions of the entire fiesta.

Hunger was starting to take hold at this point so it was a quick trip out of the Valley for dinner (I didn't fancy a second night of Subway) and then it was back in plenty of time to see Dave McCormack and the Polaroids without feeling like I was slowly being crushed to death in some sort of Death Star trash compactor.

The crowd was swelling, definitely for the impending Evermore, though "King Dave" didn't let this sway him from letting loose with all the slightly skewed music we know him for, slipping in Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" in the middle of "I Want to Execute Your Ex-Boyfriend", singing high very poorly just for a laugh and walking through the crowd, administering kisses on the cheek. He worked through a series of newer songs and Custard classics, definitely providing a personal highlight for the weekend.

After this I was in serious need of a place to rest my weary legs and drink. We trekked off to No.12 where there's generally never a problem finding a seat, though even here filled due to the heightened crowd numbers. As part of the Fiesta, a saxophonist from local group the Seks, took a spot in front of the DJ booth, improvising over beats and occasionally MCing. It was here that those that stuck around for Evermore met us, the only comment being that apparently, "they played their big song twice".

After pool and excessive amounts of import beer, it was off to the Depot to rock on and just keep soaking up the general party atmosphere that permeated the entire Valley for the weekend.

Sunday

Come Sunday the casualties had started mounting. Only two of us set off to take in the last day of the festivities which began with the Gin Club, described by themselves as, "more of a gang than a band". Their country tinged rock was the perfect accompaniment for the windy, hung-over, Sunday afternoon. There is always a sense of fun to any Gin Club show as band members switch between instruments and give off a sense of drunken camaraderie, arms draped over each other, harmonising into a shared microphone. Somehow I feel its criminal this band aren't more recognised.

Lunch took precedence over everything else so the next band taken in was The Scare. The only apt way I could find to describe them is that the band lie somewhere between Hot Hot Heat and AFI. And I apologise if that leaves you non-the-wiser.

My Valley Fiesta was brough to the perfect close by Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, tonight appearing on the Mall Stage. A Gentle Ben show is like watching the lovechild of Elvis and Freddie Mercury playing with Los Lobos and as the sun set on the final day of Fiesta and a cold wind cut through the crowd it all just seemed to fit together perfectly.