CITY CALM DOWN // Photo – Mike Wotton

.

‘Against the Grain festival’ combines all my favourite Aussie indie bands, beer and a night sky. Meaning it’s a wicked festival with drinks, music and fun, but my poor pale skin doesn’t have to bake. Seriously, all festivals should be held at night.

This inner city festival is held in Brisbane’s ‘Fortitude Valley,’ every hipsters favourite place to go for low-key gigs at underground venues. This festival was hosted at three of the best and most loved locations; ‘The Valley Drive In,’ ‘The Foundry’ and ‘The Brightside.’

After getting off work I raced over to my first concert of the night which happened to be three-piece brissy band, Sweater Curse I’ve written about these guys before when they opened for The Hardaches back in August. This time though they had a larger stage and sure used it. They rocked it as usual showing that this was just another day at the office. The crowd loved every minute of it, but the highlight of their set was when they played their breakout track ‘Mon’s Song’ which fans new every word to.

After this awesome set, I hopped across to the next venue which was iconic, ‘The Brightside.’ It was here I got to catch The Moaning Lisa’s who have been on my list of bands to see for quite some time now. Not only do they have one of the coolest band names ever, but they also came out with one of my favourite songs of the year ‘Carrie.’ Their vocals and harmonies throughout this set were stunning. These ladies are killer both on stage and on my morning playlist, they are one to watch coming into the new year.

.

I must admit I made my friend move extra fast to get to the next gig as these guys are one of my all-time favourites. We rocked up to the foundry excited and admittedly a little tipsy and ran to the front just in time for Tiny Little Houses! They came out and played a fabulous set filled with all my favourites, including ‘entitled generation‘ and ‘short hair.’ Full congratulations to everyone in the band, they played a tight set alive with grungy guitar and some wonderful drum work. The whole band plays off each other’s energy spectacularly but it is really front man, Caleb Karvountzis who’s unique and recognisable voice makes the whole thing come to life. After playing songs from all their albums they finally got to the big one, ‘Garbage Bin’ which of course, made me scream the lyrics and cry with my friend at the same time. The absolute euphoria from hearing this song is going to be the only thing getting me through their recently announced “hiatus,” which hopefully doesn’t continue for to long.

Tiny Little Houses left the stage, I fixed my makeup up, got another beer and left to get to the big show of the night. As we walked through the valley, following many other groupies and hipsters, the sounds of City Calm Down become louder and louder. We had walked back to ‘The Valley Drive In,’ which was our first venue of the night and now also our last. It was the same venue, however the crowd had tripled in numbers. This Melbourne four-piece band were the heroes of the night, headlining the whole festival. City Calm Down had set a different tone to all the other bands of the night, they were less grungy and more of a clean rock. Lead by singer, Jack Bourke’s rich and robust vocals, the band played through all their most recognisable tunes like ‘Son’, ‘Rabbit Run’ and ‘In this Modern Land.’ The crowd were wild and sang along to just about every word. They were the perfect end to a magical evening of Aussie-rock venue hopping.

The idea behind this sort of inner-city festival hosted by venues which many locals already know and love is genius and I hope to see more events like this in the future. Me and my pale skin also appreciate that majority of the festival is hosted at night. I can’t wait to see what acts they come back with next year; I can only hope Tiny Little Houses makes a reappearance!

CITY CALM DOWN // Photo by Mike Wotton

Follow AGAINST THE GRAIN

Facebook

AMNPLIFY_DT