It began in a blaze of churning guitars and thrashing manes, care of local legends Flour and Batpiss. It ended in a flurry of dancing, singing and celebrating; care of Adelaide heroes The Hard Aches and soul sensations The Sugarcanes. What came in-between was a celebration of the full spectrum of original alternative music – this was a lineup that showcased more diversity over the course of three days than most venues could muster within a month.
The heaviness arrived with aplomb – Tom Lyngcoln and Matt Weston of The Nation Blue, one of the true highlight acts, also took up double-duty with Pale Heads and High Tension respectively. Each band pushed the red on the soundboard and made their presence felt – Lyngcoln even took it one step further and busted himself open during The Nation Blue’s barnstorming set. Elsewhere, Creative Adult turned in a relentless thrash of dissonant post-punk and Brisbane’s Fourteen Nights at Sea shook the foundations of the Reverence Hotel’s front bar with their sprawling, crescendo-driven post-rock journeys.
Of course, there was plenty of time for fun and games to complement this. American visitors Cayetana and Rozwell Kid both had their audiences in mile-wide smiles throughout their performances – particularly the latter, who also brought hilarious call-and-response stage banter and outlandish guitar poses. That’s not even getting started on The Bennies, who expanded out to a six-piece to include a trombonist and longtime friend DJ Snes Mega for the occasion. It’s been a remarkable year for the multi-genre Melbourne natives, with their Friday headlining set serving as somewhat of a victory lap complete with all of the band’s best-loved songs and a rousing rendition of their ten minute epic O Brother, Where Art Thou? to close out.
If that wasn’t enough, feminist indie upstarts Camp Cope drew one of the biggest crowds of the entire weekend, each song from their beloved debut album almost drowned out by the en-masse singalongs. Pity Sex followed, and while they were sadly without recently departed guitarist Britty Drake they were still able to hold their own in a brisk set of shoegaze jangle, complete with a surprise cover of The La’s There She Goes. Truth be told, you could go on for pages on end about the greatness of all of these exceptional acts, but it all comes down to one simple fact: The Weekender needs to be seen to be believed.
WORDS BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
IMAGE BY IAN LAIDLAW
LOVED: The love in the room.
HATED: Marvin Gaye not being alive to see The Sugarcanes cover Let’s Get It On.
DRANK: Plenty of water – it’s a big weekend.
