Busybee
Norgdom
Perth MusicFriday 2nd January 2009
Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton
The start of the year is when people have finished visiting family for Christmas, finished partying for New Years and ready to just enjoy themselves and listen to great music. Luckily Southbound is here and for the first time this year the festival has extended to two full days starting at midday on the Friday and ending late on Saturday night. It had been a very hot start to the year in Perth so it was never going to be a comfortable weekend but it is always a bit cooler down south so the it was going to be bearable.
After arriving a little late due to traffic, heat and the usual road trip shenanigans I set up camp and ventured over to start seeing some live music. Sydney’s Bluejuice were up and having as much fun as they always do on stage, jumping around, dancing and just getting everyone in the mood for a great music festival. Vitriol still gets the crowd going a year after it was released and even the hot sun could not lessen the enthusiasm by band and crowd.
End Of Fashion were up next on the same stage and the local boys arrived happy and relaxed with frontman Justin Burford waving and greeting the growing crowd. The sea breeze had started to blow across Sir Stewart Bovell Park and allowed for more people to start dancing in front of the stage especially to past hits Oh Yeah, Rough Diamonds, She’s Love and newie Fussy. WA fans love local bands and even at festivals with international superbands, local bands still make us all proud.
The chilled out sounds of Donavon Frankenreiter was next up and his acoustic guitar tunes fit in perfectly with the surfie culture of south west WA. Frankenreiter looked and sounded like a mix between John Butler and his label mate Jack Johnson and the crowd sand along to many of his popular songs. To appeal even more to the local crowd Pro-Surfer Taj Burrow could be seen side of stage grooving to the acoustic tunes and Frankenreiter then invited Burrow’s father Vance on stage to play some songs.
Another big local band, Birds Of Tokyo drew a huge crowd to the stage next and Ian Kenny seemed ready to rock out for the first of his two sets during the weekend (the other with Karnivool). Even with two albums now under their belt Kenny explained that festivals are not what Birds Of Tokyo are used to and he thanked the crowd for all their support. Black Sheets, Wayside, Silhouettic and Broken Bones were all played to a great reception from the crowd and a great ‘dance’ routine by Kenny.
It was then time for the highlight of the festival: Sweden’s The Hives. It had been a long day of music but the explosive nature of The Hives picked up the whole energy of the crowd. It was as if frontman Pelle Almqvist was going to eat up the entire crowd and spit them out with each and every song. In their trademark black and white suits, The Hives made every other band that played that day seem like amateurs and their confidence on stage didn’t seem cocky but more justifiable. Hate To Say I Told You So and Tick Tick Boom were definitely highlights but songs from all four of their albums were part of the electrifying set.
For more photos of Day 1 click here (Thanks to Noodlez)
