musopantz

The Grates!

With less then five days until I fly over to Sydney to start off my photographic journey with the V Festival, I thought it’d be a good time to actually post a lot of photos up from this year’s festivals. It’s been a long time coming, and I think I have at least one festival to cover every day before my flight! So, let’s start with a HUGE update - photos from this year’s Southbound Festival!

Read on for The Grates, Soko, Santogold, Dash & Will, Lykke Li,  Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, Donovan Frankenreiter, Tegan & Sara, Architecture In Helsinki, Mystery Jets, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Kooks and The Cat Empire!

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The Grates were on just before Franz Ferdinand but there was no way I was going to miss out any of their set. Luckily enough, Patience cut straight to the chase and jumped right into the crowd! Science Is Golden started off their show and that was PURE JOY. It’s always so much fun watching The Grates, as I have said about their Club Capitol show. Though I wasn’t around to see it (but who would want to!), Patience fell on her ankle on their last song. You can follow the journey on their Tumblr blog. Her injury carried on to their Sunset Sounds show where she sat in a throne dressed as Snow White and a cast around her leg! Check out kyza’s photo of it.

Soko!

Oh… dear Soko! She sings like she cries. Each one of her cutesy notes brings a cutesy tear to my eye. When she’s on-stage, it’s like a kid sitting at pots and pans and crashing them like a drum set. Yes, she’s really that cute. Keep that image in mind when she jumped onto the drum kit to sing a song about becoming a tiger. Despite having toured the world one small bit at a time, she always seemed so naive at the attention she was getting. She was completely shocked when she turned around and saw herself on the big screen! Aww… how cute! 

Santogold!

Santogold (now known as Santigold for some odd reason) was on early during the 2nd day of Southbound. There was a fair delay before two hooded gold dancers jumped up on-stage and did some weird shit. And THEN… Santogold came up on stage and started off with L.E.S. Artistes. I didn’t stick around to see what else she got up to though, but she seemed pretty cool. Nice touch with the dancers!

Dash & Will!

The last time Dash and Will were in the state was when they were on tour with The Futureheads. That show was, sadly, a very low-key concert at Metropolis Fremantle. Something must have gone horribly wrong with promoting the show. There were 100 people there, at the most, but these 100 people (including me!) were treated to some great English indie-rock! More about that later… Dash and Will were looking quite seasonal up on stage. I guess if I said anything else, I’d sound like a creepy old man. They also must have drawn the short straw with timetabling, being placed the same time as Tame Impala, with only a modest bunch of girls watching D&W do their thing. To sum it up- they play some catchy pop-rock tunes… and I don’t get it. Oh well…

Lykke Li!

Speaking of girls that I don’t get… here is a photo of Lykke Li.

Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed & Donavon Frankenreiter!

Now for a change of gender- this is Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed. Like a few others, I wasn’t sure what he was all about but from the looks and sounds of it, Paperboy here is a soul-singing black man stuck in a white man’s body. He’s got a pretty impressive voice! Many of you would have heard him sing in Basement Jaxx’s latest song She’s No Good. “Ah hah!” I hear you say.

And on the right we have Donovan Frankenreiter. There’s a lucky fan out there who now owns the hat that he threw out into the crowd.

Tegan & Sara!

Probably the lowlight of the weekend was Tegan & Sara. It was such an uninspiring performance by the twins. They effortlessly raced through their songs and are now completely rehearsed with their in-band and audience banter. It just seemed like they didn’t really care about being there. Of course, their best show was their first time in Australia in 2006 for the Perth International Arts Festival, when their on-stage conversation was very natural and they had the kind of energy that really opened the Beck’s Verandah. Now they’re just going through the motions. Come on, give a little!

Architecture In Helsinki!

Here’s some Architecture In Helsinki for ya! I don’t think I need to say anything more about how much fun they are!

Mystery Jets!

I had only heard of Young Love by Mystery Jets since Triple J played it a fair bit. A pleasant song that kinda reminds me of the guitar-pop of The Basics. But when I saw these guys on stage, I was a bit confused… were they also a synth band too? It sure sounded like it. I’m still undecided about these guys though. A fellow photographer kept pointing out lead singer Blaine Harrison’s “ocky-strap-for-a-belt”, while I pointed out their fancy tops not going well with their gym shorts. I guess they hadn’t expected the warm weather coming to Australia!

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings!

Highlight of the weekend has to go to Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings for totally funkifying it up! Massive kudos to the house band The Dap Kings for warming up the crowd with some soulful instrumentals. They had a giant for a guitar player - he must have been around 7 foot tall! Sharon Jones shimmied her way onto the stage, bumped around and blasted the crowd with some good vibes. She is one sassy woman! I missed out on their performance last year at the Perth Festival, so I’m pretty glad to catch them at Southbound this time around.

The Kooks!

Stunned faces turned to me when I asked, “Who are The Kooks?” I don’t think anyone took me seriously. “How could you NOT know The Kooks?!” they would say. ”You’re so Naive, Anthony.” someone said, hoping I would get the reference. I obviously didn’t realise that it was a song of theirs. Well, maybe if I were a screaming teenage girl, maybe then I would get it! So, being in the photopit was an excruciating experience. My earplugs were doing nothing to stop the piercing screams of teenage girls in heat. They were hot for lead singer Luke Pritchard. And who could NOT see why? Many comments were made in the media room afterwards of Luke’s excessively tight jeans. Let’s just say they contoured him very well. *shudder* (I did recognise one or two of their songs though…)

The Cat Empire!

And, finally in this massive post, we have The Cat Empire feeling right at home with tens of thousands of revellers swinging their worldly beats. Their popularity is undeniable and with four albums under their belts fusing jazz, latin, funk and rock tunes. So it’s unsurprising to see everyone totally losing it with these guys on stage. Though, I must say lead singer Harry was looking a bit bogan on stage with his wifebeater and epic beard!

Phew! How’s that for an update. Check out my Flickr photostream, if I’ve missed any photos. Or check out a couple of past posts about Southbound with The Hives and Franz Ferdinand!

Related post: Southbound Festival 2009 Photos… coming soon!

Related post: Franz Ferdinand and The Hives @ Southbound Festival 2009