The Jezabels, Papa Vs Pretty @ Youth Fest, Sydney (10/04/2011)
The Jezabels
What had seemed as such a promising day at
Sydney's Dee Why Beach suddenly took a turn for the worse when the rain came
bucketing down, putting a damper on the Youth Fest 2011 proceedings. The
festival had seemed relatively quiet, with minimal market stalls and most
choosing to sit down on the grass. The rain did seem to help a lot in this
regard as people leapt up to seek shelter wherever possible, with many huddling
right in front of the stage, allowing some of the lesser known local support
acts to have some resemblance of an audience.
The main support were Sydney's up and coming indie three-piece Papa vs Pretty. Spearheaded by frontman Tom Rawle's exhilarating guitar work, they mainly used their support set to showcase tracks from their incoming debut album United in Isolation, including well regarded set highlight One of The Animals, their newest single. To applause, they also introduced the crowd favourite Heavy Harm and then ripped into the also heavily Triple J rotated Wrecking Ball. Although the skill work, shredding and intensity were there, the weather and a few sound problems restrained their set, leading bassist Gus Gardiner to exclaim in pun; "Dee Why must it rain". The set climaxed rather abruptly, albeit after the audience was thoroughly entertained, with the band leaving the stage after Rawle's failed attempt to surf the drum set.
Unfortunately for some, the downpour continued even more violently as the time till The Jezabels' set got smaller. Fortunately for me, this meant a front and centre position was very easy to attain leading to a great view of the entirely black clothed Hayley Mary. Emerging after a twenty minute technical delay, they launched straight into A Little Piece, which sounded pretty good considering the downpour and seemingly continuous sound problems on the small stage. Throughout the set, they alternated between EPs, mixing up their material from all three of their releases. They also treated the crowd to a new song, Long Highway, which is destined to be on a future release but could have easily fit alongside any of their excellent previous work. The loudest and best received songs were doubtless early favourite Disco Biscuit Love, which most of the youthful audience knew every word to, and the enigmatic Hurt Me.
Dark Storm rounded off the main set, probably their greatest work in displaying Hayley's wide vocal range, with its yodelling-like post-rock overtones, as well as Nik Kaloper's resoundingly immense drum beats. Thoroughly drenched, I looked around me expecting a rapid mass exodus from the soaked parkland yet the entire crowd was heaving and chants of "one more song" were suddenly inescapable. Remarkably, for a free youth festival, the band returned to the stage amid rapturous applause and Kaloper had to retrieve the drumstick he threw to the audience at the end of the main set. Seemingly unknowingly, he retrieved the wrong pair (that which Tom Myers of Papa Vs Pretty threw out beforehand) but this did not impede them playing a moving version of the finale, Into The Ink. It was a fitting conclusion to a day of awful weather and some annoying technical faults, the both of which got better as the night went on and could hardly ruin the experience of free, amazing music.
Oscar Coleman
The main support were Sydney's up and coming indie three-piece Papa vs Pretty. Spearheaded by frontman Tom Rawle's exhilarating guitar work, they mainly used their support set to showcase tracks from their incoming debut album United in Isolation, including well regarded set highlight One of The Animals, their newest single. To applause, they also introduced the crowd favourite Heavy Harm and then ripped into the also heavily Triple J rotated Wrecking Ball. Although the skill work, shredding and intensity were there, the weather and a few sound problems restrained their set, leading bassist Gus Gardiner to exclaim in pun; "Dee Why must it rain". The set climaxed rather abruptly, albeit after the audience was thoroughly entertained, with the band leaving the stage after Rawle's failed attempt to surf the drum set.
Unfortunately for some, the downpour continued even more violently as the time till The Jezabels' set got smaller. Fortunately for me, this meant a front and centre position was very easy to attain leading to a great view of the entirely black clothed Hayley Mary. Emerging after a twenty minute technical delay, they launched straight into A Little Piece, which sounded pretty good considering the downpour and seemingly continuous sound problems on the small stage. Throughout the set, they alternated between EPs, mixing up their material from all three of their releases. They also treated the crowd to a new song, Long Highway, which is destined to be on a future release but could have easily fit alongside any of their excellent previous work. The loudest and best received songs were doubtless early favourite Disco Biscuit Love, which most of the youthful audience knew every word to, and the enigmatic Hurt Me.
Dark Storm rounded off the main set, probably their greatest work in displaying Hayley's wide vocal range, with its yodelling-like post-rock overtones, as well as Nik Kaloper's resoundingly immense drum beats. Thoroughly drenched, I looked around me expecting a rapid mass exodus from the soaked parkland yet the entire crowd was heaving and chants of "one more song" were suddenly inescapable. Remarkably, for a free youth festival, the band returned to the stage amid rapturous applause and Kaloper had to retrieve the drumstick he threw to the audience at the end of the main set. Seemingly unknowingly, he retrieved the wrong pair (that which Tom Myers of Papa Vs Pretty threw out beforehand) but this did not impede them playing a moving version of the finale, Into The Ink. It was a fitting conclusion to a day of awful weather and some annoying technical faults, the both of which got better as the night went on and could hardly ruin the experience of free, amazing music.
Oscar Coleman