REVIEW: Falls Festival, Lorne

Friday December 29

Tasmanian punk rockers Luca Brasi had the joy of playing the perfect mid-afternoon Valley Stage set at 3pm. As black clouds loomed over the stage, it didn’t stop their fast growing fan base from showing them some love. Light rain began to fall midway through their set as they served the crowd with songs such as Got to Give, Aeroplane and Say It Back.

They thanked the crowd for braving the rain before they played their sad boy punk cover of Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy, which sent the crowd into a massive singing frenzy. Their set concluded with their hit single Anything Near Conviction.

Up next were Australia’s biggest up and coming Roots act, Ocean Alley. I hadn’t seen these guys live before, and I now can confirm I have been missing out. They play a very tight brand soul infused rock, with a big pat on the back to their rhythm section and their lead vocalist.

They played songs such as Yellow Mellow, Holiday and Lemonworld. Ocean Alley finished their set with their latest single The Comedown.

The rain had passed and DZ Deathrays hit the stage to deliver their hard hitting, catchy rock tunes to the Lorne crowd. Playing as a three piece, they played songs such as Blood on My Leather, Pollyanna. They quite literally put the crowd into meltdown when they played their hit Total Meltdown and their 2017 single Shred For Summer.

Dune Rats were up next at 9pm and the crowd was starting to build. My friend and I thought it would be a good idea to get into the thick of it and stand a few meters from the barrier for the Dunies set. We were wrong. Thirty seconds into their first song and the mosh pit was crazy, we couldn’t hack it. Once we had found our feet back up on the hill we enjoyed their hits such as Red Light Green Light, Dalai Lama Big Banana Marijuana, Braindead, Bullshit and Scott Green.

The sun had now set and it was time for everyone’s Pop Rock favourites, Foster The People. Their set included a lot of new material from their new album, Sacred Heart Club. Songs such as Sit Next To Me, Lotus Eater and Pay The Man were my favourites of the new material. It was my first time seeing Foster The People, and I was blown away with how amazing Mark Foster’s voice sounds live. They played a lot of their older hits in Call It What You Want, Helena Beat, Pumped Up Kicks and Houdini.

Flume was up next and going by Falls Festivals socials, his set up was bumped in on Thursday and you could easily see why. The set-up is massive. If you’ve seen him play over the last 12-18 months it was very similar if not the same as it has been. His lighting set up consisted of about 15, 3D fibreglass boxes that appeared to be stacked on top of each other, hanging in mid-air above him. The first part of his set saw him play some older material in Sleepless, Stay Close and On Top which the crowd absolutely loved. The rest of his set was filled up with a lot of songs from Skin including Tiny Cities, Say It and Take a Chance. As the set progressed he played some old classics in Holdin On and Insane which got the crowd pumping. He closed his set off by saying that this will the last time you will ever see him play this show, after 18 months of playing to crowds all over the world. His last song was Never Be Like You. He had a small hiccup at the beginning of his song where everything was off time where he to start the song all over again, and once everything was in order the song went off.

Saturday December 30

Today the weather was slightly better than the day before, with IV League kicking things off the Grand Theatre. Triple J Unearthed winner Samsaruh played the first set of the day on the Valley Stage. She was followed by Adelaide rockers West Thebarton and Bad//Dreems.

Methyl Ethyl was up next on the Valley Stage. I walked in as they were playing their first song of the set, Drink Wine. It’s always interesting to watch the afternoon acts from a far and see the crowd grow as the people sitting up on the hill hear a song they have heard on the radio before and run down to get closer. They did exactly this for Methyl Ethyl. Triple J Unearthed artist of the year Stella Donnelly was playing lead guitar for them as their guitarist had injured himself prior to Falls. They played all of their hits including Twilight Driving, Femme Maison/One Man House, No. 28 and finished off their set with the Ubu.

The next artist we caught was Camp Cope who were playing in the Grand Theatre. They began their set with Done and the crowd quickly began to build. Within two more songs the Grand Theatre tent was packed up until the sound desk. Lead vocalist Georgia Maq’s voice is seriously something special. It was put on perfect display in Keep Growing, where she sings quite soft at the beginning of the song and by the end she is giving it everything that she’s got when she sings “I keep throwing my hair out, no its not for you”.

Before their last song they thanked everyone for coming and that they loved playing for them. However Maq pointed out the fact that as it was getting better, the majority of the Falls Festival line up was dominated by male artists which got a massive applause from their crowd. They closed their set with their hit single Lost and their latest track, The Opener.

Allday had the honours of playing the sunset slot on The Valley Stage. He played to a large crowd who sang along to almost every chorus he sang. He delivered all of his hits such as You Always Know the DJ, Girl In the Sun and In Motion.

The next couple of hours were a bit of a juggling act for the punters, with some massive acts coming up on both stages. We caught some of Winston Surfshirt’s set was impressive. His delivered tracks such as Same Same, Ali D and Be About You.

By now the sun was setting over The Valley Stage, as a black and white back drop hung on the rear wall of the stage saying ‘As You Were’. It was time for every person that was old enough to remember the mid 90’s to head to the main stage. A man that had co-written the soundtrack to many people’s lives was about to grace us with his presence. That man was none other than Liam Gallagher.

Love him or hate him, from the moment he walked on to the stage he gave everyone who was there to see him what they wanted. Arrogance, charisma, and that brit pop voice that so many have tried emulate over the last 25 years. He began his set with the Oasis hits Rock ’n’ Roll Star and Morning Glory. He didn’t speak a whole lot throughout the set, but when he did he would either pick on somebody on the crowd for wearing a Manchester United shirt, or tell his sound techs side of stage to turn him while punching his chest. The middle of his set was filled with mainly solo songs such as Wall of Glass, Paper Crown and For What It’s Worth. Some classic Oasis finished off his set with Slide Away and Be Here Now, and the song we have only heard cover bands sing over and over for the last 10 years, Wonderwall. He came back on stage for a quick encore to sing the Oasis song Live Forever.

Fleet Foxes were the next act on The Valley Stage, a stage they had previously graced when they played in Lorne at the 2011 Falls Festival. Before we get too far into the review, I must add that we did spot none other than Brian ‘BT’ Taylor on the hill enjoying a bit of Liam Gallagher and Fleet Foxes. You’re never too old for Falls, they say. Fleet Foxes played a lovely set which included tracks such as Ragged Wood, Mykonos, Grown Ocean and If You Need To, Keep Time On Me.

The Valley Stage was pumping by now and it was time for The Kooks to hit the stage. They were also another band that I saw at Falls in 2011, and hadn’t seen since, so I was keen to check out their new songs live. Their set began with songs such as Eddie’s Gun, Sofa Song and Be Who You are. One thing I had picked up since last seeing them is their front man was spending a lot less time without his guitar, which in my honest opinion was great. Their set which consisted of 16 songs, was filled up with the likes of She Moves In Her Own Way, You Don’t Love Me, Sway and Seaside. The Brit rockers closed their set with a couple of classics, Always Where I Need To Be and Naive.

Closing the night out were Peking Duk, who admittedly I hadn’t seen live since they played a sold out show at Star bar in Bendigo back in 2013(capacity of 400) but I was very surprised by how much their set up had changed. I’ve seen a lot of footage lately of them playing more as a live band, and I’ve also seen them cop some criticism for being a ‘press play on iTunes’ type act.

I can confirm they are definitely heading more in the direction of a live band, with Ruben playing bass and synth, and Adam playing guitar for the majority of their set. They also had a live drummer on stage them, and they had a number of live vocalists join them also. They still got behind the decks for small parts of the set, but they mainly had instruments in their hands. The set began with an introduction from Richard Wilkins and Big Lez from The Big Lez Show. The Lorne crowd was pumped up as the boys walked out on stage with Big Lez asking the crowd “is everybody ready to get fucking Peking Dukd??”

The boys got behind the decks for the first couple of songs before grabbing their instruments, where they invited Ben from Safia on stage to sing Say My Name with them. They played all of their hits including Stranger, Fake Magic, Let You Down. Towards the end of their set Adam began playing an acoustic guitar, and they invited Ben from Safia back on to the stage. They played an acoustic version of Take Me Over, which in my opinion was a really great change up in their set. Midway through the song, Adam dumped the acoustic guitar for his electric guitar before they let loose into the original version of the song and the crowd went nuts. Peking Duk finished their set with hit single High.

Sunday December 31

We hit the main stage at about 1pm to catch Melbourne’s Alice Ivy who has had a massive breakout year on the festival circuit after playing Splendour In The Grass, and playing the main stage at Groovin The Moo in Bendigo. She played to a reasonably strong crowd for that time of the day, which definitely grew as her set progressed. The electro pop producer got the afternoon crowd pumping as her and her lead guitarist work in tandem to make some serious electricity on stage. Ivy played her more well-known songs such as her latest single Be Friends and she invited vocalist Georgia Van Etten on stage to sing her song Touch with her which added another dimension to the performance. She closed her set with her hit single Somebody Get Me a Drink which features E^ST on lead vocal duties, while Melbourne MC Charlie Threads pops up in the bridge. Overall an energetic, captivating performance from Alice Ivy.

Alex Lahey played a great mid-afternoon set on The Valley Stage where she played songs such as Every Day’s The Weekend, Lotto In Reverse, I Haven’t Been Taking Care Of Myself and You Don’t You Like People Like Me while The Creases played in the Grand Theatre.

Castlemaine’s D.D Dumbo was up next on The Valley Stage where he played to a strong crowd from the beginning of his set. He kicked things off with his hit single Walrus and the majority of his set was songs from his 2016 Triple J Album of the year, Utopia Defeated. His New Year’s Eve set included tracks such as Satan, In the Water, The First Day I Found God and Cortisol. He also played his breakout song Tropical Oceans towards the end of his set. He said goodbye to us before playing a thumping rendition of a personal favourite of mine, Brother.

The NYE sunset slot was handed to Australia’s favourite duo, Angus and Julia Stone. With Polish Club playing a somewhat surprise set up the Grand Theatre, Angus and Julia did have some competition over the spread of the crowd. As predicted they still played to a massive crowd on the hill, as the sun set for one last time in 2017. Angus and Julia Stone played mainly new material with songs such as Cellar Door, Snow and their 2017 hit Chateau. As their set was coming to a close they still hadn’t played Big Jet Plane which was no surprise to me, however they played their last song and walked off stage without playing it. Everyone thought there would be an encore, but after a few seconds the intermission music began blaring over the PA. Now I know a lot of artists get to a point where they don’t enjoy playing their older songs, but I do believe an act should always include their biggest song to date even if they don’t want to play it. I’m sure I wasn’t the only fan unhappy with the exclusion from their set.

Melbourne’s ever so loveable The Smith Street Band hit the stage and the crowd went nuts for them. Will Wagner and his boys were on point from their first song. While The Smith Street Band played a lot of their new material, they also delivered some older favourites in I Don’t Want to Die Anymore, Surrender and Young Drunk. Wagner gave us one of his many heartfelt talks in between songs, quoting “Words can’t describe how special it is to playing our songs for you, and if I wasn’t up here doing this, I’d be in the crowd with you”. After that speech the bands next song was a heartfelt cover of The Killers ‘When You Were Young’. They closed off with telling everyone to look after each other, and that if anybody saw Will stumbling around a campsite that he may need a bed to sleep on. They finished their set off with Death To The Lads.

English band Glass Animals had the pre NYE set of 9:40pm. It was my first time seeing these guys and due to their high rotation on Triple J I’d heard a lot of their songs, so I couldn’t wait to see what their live show was like. They hit the stage like a pack of rabbits running away from a fox they were that excited. By now the crowd was ready to lift the roof off and Glass Animals were the perfect band to lift it. They played songs of their new album ‘How To Be A Human Being’, kicking things off with the percussive Life Itself and songs such as the catchy Youth, Pork Soda and Season 2 Episode 3. They played their Triple J like a Version cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy which the crowd went wild for. They also played some older material with Black Mambo, and their 2014 hit single Gooey.

All the way from the USA were trap-hip hop outfit Run The Jewels to bring us into the New Year. As predicted the hill was packed out for the duo, as they walked out to ‘We Are the Champions’ (Queen song). The duo launched into songs such as Legend Has It, Call Ticketron and Oh My Darling Don’t Try. While trap really isn’t my favourite genre of music, I have to admit that Run The Jewels do have a huge stage presence. They work really well in tandem on stage to deliver their songs in a powerful and meaningful way. The later part of their set included older material such as Sea Legs, and they closed their set with their massive tune Run the Jewels.

Following on from Run The Jewels on The Valley Stage was Vince Staples. Vince was a nice change up from Run The Jewels, however it was New Year’s Eve and I am sure there would have been a few people in the crowd that had a few too many that would have thought Run The Jewels had lost a member and they were playing a two and a half our set. Aside from their being two very close genre’s one after another, Vince turned it on for the crowd and gave us songs such as Party People, Yeah Right, Big Fish and Norf Norf.