The Hives, Southbound

Quick catch up post with snaps from the Southbound Festival at the start of January. Featuring Birds of Tokyo, The Hives, Gomez, Pete Murray, Tegan & Sara, The Kooks, The Cat Empire and Franz Ferdinand.

Birds of Tokyo

Birds of Tokyo

Hard as I try, I still can’t see Birds of Tokyo as anything but ‘the band to waste time with in between Karnivool albums’, so seeing them on the main stage on the Friday night was somewhat surreal. Also the first time I’d seen a Perth band up that high on a festival lineup. Credit where credit’s due, they’re a great band, and I love their latest CD, but sometimes I just get a slightly dirty homogenised vibe from them. Non-offensive, very accessible, but developing into the sort of thing that bogans with Southern Cross tattoos would be into.

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

The Hives

Pele left me feeling very tired. My actual job at the festival was to get a whole bunch of social photos, with the band photos being somewhat optional, but I had been instructed by my Hives-loving friends that The Hives were under no circumstances an optional band. And that my best photos from the whole festival HAD to be of The Hives. No pressure. I did ok, considering I knew next to nothing about them before I stepped in the pit. I’d been told the singer was ‘active’. Understatement of the century. Fantastically entertaining though, they’re one band I would have loved to have had longer access to.

Gomez

Gomez

First port of call on day 2 was Gomez, who unfortunately didn’t get much of a look-in after our three songs. It was a warm day, the air-conditioned media caravan won out. Could still hear them from where I was, they played a fairly eclectic set compared to others of theirs I’d seen, but I quite enjoyed humming along to ‘Rhythm and Blues Alibi’.

Pete Murray

I have no problem with admitting I was a Pete Murray fan back in the day. His first album ‘The Game’, with its stripped-back rawness and lo-fi production was a favourite of mine, as was the more polished follow-up ‘Feeler’. But there was no musical progression from that point on, and that’s where he lost me. The first time I saw him, I thought he was brilliant, second time, still good but didn’t grab my attention quite as much, this time, there was nothing left. I’m sure many people would say there was nothing there to begin with, but I’m a bit of a sucker for acoustic male singer/songwriter action.

Tegan & Sara

Tegan & Sara

With all the hype surrounding Tegan & Sara, and from all the kids walking around at the festival wearing T&S t-shirts, I was expecting something fairly special. Maybe they were off their game, maybe I just didn’t ‘get it’, or maybe they were just in the way of me seeing The Kooks sooner…either way, back to the air conditioned caravan.

The Kooks

The Kooks

The Kooks

If The Kooks had announced a Perth sideshow, I probably wouldn’t have bothered going to Southbound at all, but they didn’t, so the 6+ hour round trip was made to see them. And was it worth it? Abso-freakin-lutely. An oval full of singing, dancing, happy people can’t be wrong. I’d put off buying ‘Konk’ cause I’d heard such bad things about it, but when I got back to Perth after this show, I went straight out and bought it.

The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire are one of those rare sorts of bands who don’t need a single on high radio rotation to draw ginormous crowds. They’re a party band with incredibly talented members who set out to make the audience dance, sing and feel good. End of story. Their crowd was big enough to rival Kings of Leon’s crowd from the year before, and they weren’t even headlining.

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand

There was a surprising mass exodus after The Cat Empire finished playing, as most of the crowd headed off to catch Karnivool. Like, literally half the oval left. I knew Karnivool were popular, but that blew me away a little bit. Those who went missed out on a stomping set from Franz Ferdinand, back for the first time since the Big Day Out in…2006? New single ‘Ulysses’ has already cemented itself as a classic alongside ‘Take Me Out’, ‘This Fire’ and ‘Do You Want To’. I left a bit early as it had been a long day, but it’s a decision I definitely regret. Admittedly I didn’t see all the bands on offer at the festival, but behind The Kooks, these guys put on my favourite set.