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Falls Festival, Lorne 28 December 2011 - 1 January 2012

According to the Mayan calendar the world is going to end in 2012, so with 2011’s edition of the Falls Festival potentially being Lorne’s last ever, it was the right time for a party. This year’s lineup was a smorgasbord of variety, beginning with an evening of funky ska tunes and moving quickly through three more days of every genre under the sun. And boy was everyone under the sun – with not a cloud to be seen and the sun blazing for four days straight, it was certainly a blistering way to bring in the New Year.

Day 1

Kicking off the beginning of 2011’s end was the Falls Festival Boogie Nights up in the Grand Theatre: a celebration of ska, funk, go-go dancing and organs!

Saskwatch commenced and immediately set the bar high, encouraging the most eager groovers and shakers to get the party started. The nine on stage, led by the super impressive Nkechi Anele, had the party rolling, with a booty shaking horn cover of Kids and a big shout out to Melbourne mates Little Red with a busting Coca Cola.

One tick for dancing, and the next was for singing. It wasn’t any old sing along that followed though; it was a trip back 20 years to Toffee Apple, Spaghetti Bolognese and Newspaper Mama with the one and only Peter Combe.There were costumes of newspaper and plenty of call and response, but the final verse of Mr Clickety Cane summed up the joy of Combe’s set in the best way; a roaring mass of adults bellowing “Belly flop on a pizza, EWW!” was euphoric.

It’s hard not to be smiling when Barry Morgan is performing, as those in the Grand Theatre discovered. Introducing his World of Organs, Morgan’s “set” transpired as an infomercial for the very organ he was playing, as well as an excuse to deliver as many “clean the organ” jokes as one could muster. His spin and grin trademark is priceless though, and those hanging around were taken by it.

Post novelties, the night’s genuine soundtrack began where Saskwatch left off, with Anna’s Go-Go Academy filling everyone in on the moves they’d need for what was to come. Nouvelle Vague and Babylon Circus book ended the feature trio of acts for the night, but it was the Melbourne Ska Orchestra wedged between the two that had the Grand Theatre in a frenzy. With darkness and alcohol to cure any inhibitions, there was more than enough bad dancing in the crowd. The Specials’ Rudie and Madness’ Night Boat to Cairo had the floor ablaze as Nicky Bomba tore around stage in style, backed by his 20 strong band. Melbourne Ska Orchestra delivered unadulterated fun, and brought in the Falls experience in just the right way.

Day 2

The musical offerings of the Valley Stage began the following morning, as did the first of three blazingly hot days. As a special cure for any early hangovers, Falls had enlisted the explosively raw Lewis Floyd Henry from the streets of London to quit busking for New Years and get heads nodding in blues approval. Loud, rough and singing about anything from fishing to the devil, Henry quickly won himself a few fans. If it wasn’t enough for those interested the first time, he pulled out another two sets over the week on stage, as well as getting out from behind the Hessian fence to busk in the camp grounds.

The day’s early offerings were both hit and miss. Bleeding Knees Club were a miss, pulling a dedicated group of diehards to jump around down front and keeping the energy up, but falling short in their song department as each track seemed to blend into one. Guineafowl followed and was the hit, Sam Yeldham showing off his keen fashion sense and charming the sun soaked crowd.

Easy Star All-Stars performing Dub Side of the Moon in its entirety was a bit off and on. Heat and reggae were an obviously good mix and there was plenty of appreciation and smoke wafting through the crowd in their afternoon slot. An awkward warble through Great Gig in the Sky was jarring, but this was made up for by cool jams during Money and Us And Them. The concepts the band come up with are certainly strange, but a reworked reggae Pink Floyd turned out to be pretty cool. A couple of Beatles and Radiohead renditions rounded things out, with the lyric “I get high with a little help from my friends” ringing ever so true.

There was certainly a lot of love for Missy Higgins, and the hilarious hard-bogan-turned-softy stereotype during her sing-alongs was scarily common amongst the crowd. In her first gig back here in a long time, Higgins took the opportunity to test some new material, but her favourites were all the punters wanted to hear – singing loudly along to The Special Two as the songstress played piano on stage.

Armed with a swag of horns, Beirut were next to win over those gathered in the early evening. Minimalist in his performance, Zach Condon didn’t need to do too much to charm everyone, his voice alone making for a stirring set. Accordion, flugelhorn and French horn were all part of an ensemble that wouldn’t be heard even remotely similarly elsewhere during the festival, and it was easy to soak up the love for tracks like Nantes and Santa Fe.

And just as the everyone had sufficiently chilled out post Missy and Beirut, CSS made their way out to stir things up again. A costume fanatic , Lovefoxxx aptly prowled onto the stage in her best rock chick getup – leather vest with her name across the back and a wild black frizz of a hairdo. “Imagine it’s really hot and you’re all popcorn” called Lovefoxxx as she got the crowd shaking again after having promptly thrust her wig away, torn her pants off and demonstrated that she actually isn’t tired of being sexy at all. Music Is My Hot Hot Sex, Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above and some hefty cow bell work highlighted CSS’s set, all secondary to Lovefoxxx’s frenetic stage presence.

Like Missy Higgins earlier, John Butler Trio haven’t been heard on stage much lately either, so they were in the right mind for a triumphant return themselves. Theirs was a set laden with singles so the masses could join right in; Used to Get High, One Way Road, Close to You and Zebra all among the tracks sparking similarly communal reactions. The best moment of JBT’s set though was Butler’s solo guitar work on Ocean, his instrumental track stealing the set’s thunder.

Getting the crowd involved is one thing, but disturbing them simultaneously is a greater feat. And that was what Regurgitator were interested in doing. Jumpsuits you didn’t really want to look too closely at, genital graphics rotating behind the band and tracks like I Will Lick Your Arsehole – this is what the crowd needed after the oh-so-kind roots hour. They jumped, they screamed and they played their best tracks (they had to; they were playing Unit in its entirety). Possibly the day’s finest hour and one hell of a round out into the night.

Lewis Floyd Henry plays right by our tent

Day 3

The Grand Theatre had reopened and the early acts were drawing a modest head count on Day Three at Falls Festival. Lanie Lane demonstrated why she is become something of an ‘it girl’, delivering a solid set of retro pop, country and blues and occasionally throwing in some Amy Winehouse-esq soul. Chains on drums made for a rattling cool What Do I Do? and one of her Jack White collaborations, My Man, showed why the White Stripes front man would have wanted her voice; the fact she was fending off a cold made it only more impressive.

An early surprise set came next (after the first horrible round of comedy care of Mo Elleissy and Josh Thomas), with Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor performing his CANT project. Seemingly an underdog in terms of crowd numbers, CANT quickly confirmed those not in the tent were missing out, as Taylor’s voice gleamed through the set’s synth-laden lounge pop and the front man stalked around the stage in his own possessed world.

Back out into the sunshine and Grouplove were living up to their name, drawing the first sizeable afternoon throng to sing and dance. Their attitude on stage was purely joyous, and their final couple of tracks, most notably Tongue Tied, simply went off. Metronomy kept the vibe going next, proving to be equal parts amusing to watch and fun to dance to. Their nerd pop included everything from robot dance moves to mini-saxophone and had everyone sweating their way from Heartbreaker to A Thing For Me.

If there was going to be a local hype band for the year, it looked like it was The Jezebels, and this proved more than true as the numbers in the Valley swelled for their arrival. Fittingly, Endless Summer kicked things off, with Hayley Mary’s vocals soaring from there to the end of the set until a mass exodus from the loved up crowd.

The exit of the masses did mean that there was plenty of dance space for the next act, who would double as both the token main stage hip hop inclusion and the day’s novelty. It was time for Young MC, his ridiculously short set, and that one hit wonder, Bust A Move, which was released before a substantial percentage of the crowd were even born. Sporting a Socceroos top and throwing an “Aussie Aussie Aussie” out, Young MC won favour and busted that move like it was 1989.

Party time over for the time being, the twilight set was up and Seattle’s Fleet Foxes were quick to win everyone over. Having seen the band at Falls three years ago, and having also seen Grizzly Bear fill a similar slot two years ago, Fleet Foxes ran a risky ship with their far more subdued sounds. Thankfully their new found popularity meant the crowd lapped up every moment. The harmonies were gorgeous the whole way through, and there was a real joy throughout the festival as they made their way to their final track, Helplessness Blues, drawing more and more ears closer to the stage.

There was another surprising dwindling of numbers before the next act, and Tim Finn came out to strangely low capacity. This was to change by the end of his set, but even for the first half those that had left were truly missing out. With so much material to draw from, Finn’s set was an absolute delight to witness; the performance naturally making its way through Crowded House’s It’s Only Natural, Split Enz’s My Mistake (with many chanting the rock chorus of “that was my mistake”) and solo material like Persuasion. Finn’s set was engrossing and it was so great to see the man’s evolution through the set, beginning as a real folkie; moving to be a party starter with huge sing alongs during Weather With You and Six Months In A Leaky Boat; and finally rocking out with the full bodied audience on I See Red.

The Kooks didn’t seem to need to win anyone over, with the Valley jam packed well in advance for the night’s headliners. Luke Pritchard came out firing, bolting across the stage to rile the crowd for Always Where I Need To Be. From then on he managed to have almost everyone in the palm of his hand, no more evident than when he had many thousand voices sing Seaside with him alone on stage. Kooks favourites like Sofa Song, Sway and Naive all went down very well with everyone wanting to throw a limb or two about.

Another live return was to be had to finish off the third day of Falls, with PNAU coming back to get the late night party going. Fleshing themselves out into a bigger band, ditching the giant fruit costumes and taming (somewhat) Nick Littlemore’s God-complex all added to a new kind of PNAU. What hadn’t changed, however, was the group’s knack for varied and damn fun dance tracks, and song by song a new favourite would re-emerge to have the Valley jump. The biggest delights of the set were Embrace, which had hands outstretched all round, and the fact that Littlemore now allows for more music and less self-appreciation. An optimistic look at the new PNAU, and one sweaty way to end the day.

Day 4

Day four of Falls Festival: the hangovers were heavier, the weather was even warmer and the music was about to get pretty hot and heavy itself. The final day had indie stars, heaps of local heroes and a few new gems to discover, and it brought in the New Year pretty darn well.

11 am and the big top on the hill seemed like it would be a good place to camp out for the day – if only it weren’t already full. Gossling was first up and made use of the breeze by covering her stage in colourful windmills. She provided a peaceful start to the day, with a moody piano cover of Dance The Way I Feel appreciated by those watching.

In the Grand Theatre, Kim Churchill had a full house of seated punters, more than happy to let his blues styling bring in the afternoon. Surfer roots one minute, crazy and rollicking the next, his one-man band getup was mighty impressive, and won people over with another cover; his passionate rendition of Led Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song.

More comedy followed Churchill, with 7000 odd cramming into the Grand Theatre to hear some jokes courtesy of Arj Barker, while Alpine provided some whacky dance moves and indie beats on the Valley Stage to those brave enough to handle the midday sun. Miles Kane followed them and struggled to pull significant numbers down front (or away from Barker), but for those watching he put on a true rock performance. Revelling in the sounds of brit pop, Kane posed, quipped and sang solidly in the heat; delivering tracks like Quicksand that were “perfect for this weather”. Familiarity to his Last Shadow Puppets project with Alex Turner was found in King Crawler, and along with plenty of his other material he proved an early treat for anyone excited about the night’s headliners.

Kimbra was next to the Valley stage and pulled a healthy sized crowd out of the shadows of the big top and bar. Opening with Call Me and one huge vocal note toward the song’s end, Kimbra didn’t take long to show why she’s risen to the top so quickly. Again with the covers, Bobby Brown’s Every Little Step made a more than fitting addition to Kimbra’s set, and incited plenty of lazy, late afternoon dance moves.

While there was funk and flair on the main stage, J Mascis was quite the opposite in the Grand Theatre. His was a set of no antics or fanfare – just a man, a couple of guitars, a songbook and loads of distortion solos.

Josh Pyke delivered his set to a very chilled out crowd, lazing around the hill beers in hand. Pyke wasn’t looking to pull out any tricks either, but had many joining in on his closing track, Middle of the Hill.

A modestly sized crowd could be found up the hil watching The Head & The Heart. This was another act intent on charming a bunch of new faces and like fellow Seattleites Fleet Foxes the day before, they did so through tight harmonies and indie allure. Helping them out also was the fact they were really friendly, giving big props to Kimbra and being genuinely appreciative of the crowd’s glowing reaction to them.

Getting a bit heavier with things was The Jim Jones Revue, who provided the only truly rock and roll performance the Valley Stage would see all day. With growl, grunt and some stellar piano work, they livened things up considerably; calling for nudity, swearing and plain rock revelry.

After they were done, there was a pretty special something lined up for fans and those not yet initiated in the magic of Dan Deacon. Deacon had his small crowd (which grew and grew over the course of his 20 minute set) declare their sins while bent on one knee and pointing at the moon. He then had a large circle formed for interpretive dance and eventual moshing, and then finished things off with another huge circle and a round of high fiving, in which the number of runners increased with every lap, eventually ending by sending all the runners as far up the hill as they could go. It was a short, random and highly memorable interlude to the Valley Stage acts, and a good little advertisement for his midnight slot in the Grand Theatre later on.

The Naked and Famous can have the award for biggest change in crowd size during a set – the smaller numbers rising to an enormous pack by their set’s end. Punching In A Dream kicked off their set early, with plenty of voices ironically shouting: “I don’t even want to be here.” From there the numbers increased, with a strange amount of nudity amongst the punters and a stolen camel from the Fiesta dancing its way down the front to rock out on the final track Young Blood.

The Fiesta made its way through the Valley – an Egyptian theme led by giant snakes, a sphinx and a whole lot of people that probably wouldn’t have actually known if they were in Egypt or Australia. Then it was time for Aloe Blacc, who proved to be the coolest act Falls had snared. Blacc’s mantra was love, peace and good times (or Good Things, as his latest album would have it), and people responded to his performance in kind. Relatively unknown before his sophomore release, Blacc performed like he was naturally made for huge festival crowds – his getup, banter and all round stage presence up there with the legends of soul. There were aisles and circles made for dancing, loads of call and response, and his big number, I Need A Dollar, left enormous grins on everyone’s face.

No strangers to Falls, The Grates followed the massive soul vibe with their blend of manic pop. Science Is Golden kicked them off and Patience Hodgson was quick to begin her incredibly weird dance act. Huffing and puffing her way through tracks like 19 20 20, throwing herself around the stage and attempting to jump into the crowd, Hodgson proved she could easily contend with the Energiser Bunny. The annoying thing about the set was her constant pandering to the crowd – a few shouts of love are fine, but every opportunity is overdoing it. Masses of people on shoulders for Rock Boys was quite a sight, though, and was a set highlight.

Coming on at the right time to end their set around midnight, Arctic Monkeys had a mammoth crowd waiting to see what they had installed. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair started them off and immediately set the scene for the Monkeys’ set to come – Alex Turner’s face flood lit to reveal his diabolical glare and the band as a whole keeping relatively cool about everything. Teddy Picker picked up the pace a little next and began a string of more danceable tracks. As far as the dance track went, I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor wasn’t saved for midnight, instead appearing in the middle of the set as a very useful pick-me-up. The band all kept their composure, leaving the crowd to all the physical work while they played tight and solid. Turner’s occasional lines were all that broke up the set’s songs, which kept to a very high standard – chosen well from each of the four Monkey’s albums.

Midnight was where things got amusing, as the band finished up to let everyone do what they needed to do. Minutes later and out came Turner to announce he was under the impression someone else would lead the countdown, and even though everyone had probably missed bringing in 2012 on time, he pull out a 10 to 1 anyway. In came the New Year, and the first three songs for these 16,000 punters: Fluorescent Adolescent, When The Sun Goes Down and a terrific closing 505, on which Miles Kane took Turner’s guitar so the front man could lurk over the crowd.

The party that brought in the New Year was definitely rocking up the hill, with most of the Arctic Monkeys’ tracks providing a sizeable soundtrack. They delivered one big end to the Falls Festival 2011, which was one, sweltering success yet again.