Venue: Jubilee Hotel
Date: 08/07/2005
Its Valley fiesta time and that means music, specifically of the Brisbane variety. Soobiesta is a ‘Straight Out of Brisbane’ event, promoting over 40 Australian acts over four stages, and nine hours. Amongsts the ones I was fortunate to see included Flamingo Crash, Bit By Bats,Spod and Sekiden.
I had caught the enigmatic Flamingo Crash for the first time as the Faker support, one week prior. I was pretty darn impressed, so I eagerly awaited their set. Unfortunately, due to terrible sound engineering on behalf of the venue, their sound was terrible. All you could really hear was the drums and keyboard, despite the fact I was only standing five metres away. The mental frenetic guitar attack lamented in the face of overwhelming bad sound. Still, it was a brave effort, but the band only got to play for about twenty minutes, much to my enormous disappointment. However, they are a band to watch, and will no doubt eventually hit rotation on national radio.
Bit By Bats are a Melbourne trio with an inspired sound. They supported locals ‘The Grates’ on their national tour in June, where I was first exposed to their pop-punk tunes. They certainely prove themselves tonight, attacking the crowd with a barrage of riff laden noise. I digged their attitude and their approach - they are here to make sure everyone has a good time, and it doesn’t matter if a mike stand or two get in the way of achieving this goal.
The downright bizarre, Spod, hit to the stage next, backing track in tow. Spod crosses mutilple genres, even inventing some along the way - pop, rap, punk, electro and metal. At one stage, management try to get Spod to calm the barrage of sound down, which charismatically, the mad genius blames on the backing track and that they should ‘talk to the sound guy’. Songs like ‘Sex Party For Ever’ and other over-sexed recordings combined with Spod’s mad gyrations create a dance infection, and everyone clearly enjoys themselves. For the last few songs, Spod invites Sekiden up to join in the madness, and the crowd goes wild. Thoroughly entertaining.
Sekiden - a band I have long wished to see, but had not been given the opportunity - are the last act on the main stage. Its 1am, and I’m pretty wrecked. But as soon as those atari like keyboard sounds reverberate into my brain, my feet suddenely inject adrenelin into my veins and I’m off again. I loved every second, and there is no doubt that their somewhat irrelevant lyrics have some meaning, and that meaning is just ‘chill out, have a good time’. I was, again, thoroughly impressed by the standard of these local acts.
I had an awesome time! And it only cost $15!
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