Having met some cool Japanese people on our journey to get food and no real plan of who to see first, we decided to join our new friends in checking out some local bands. First up on the White Stage, were a brilliant, 3 piece, Japanese punk rock band “Rin to Shite Shigure”. With only a female bass player/vocalist, male guitarist/vocalist and a male drummer they managed to create a huge “wall of sound” reminiscent of bands like Mars Volta and Sonic Youth. At the early hour of 11:30 they had the crowd jumping around like monkeys (way to much energy for us) and were a surprise highlight of the festival.
After taking a quick dip in the refreshingly cold river we headed over to the Green Stage to check out UK band the Courteeners. Sounding like The Clash or The Smiths, but never even coming close, we quickly lost interest and decided to head to Gotye early.Gotye always impresses and this time is no exception. Playing solo to a large crowd of Aussies and an even larger crowd of Japanese, he showed off his impeccable Japanese skills, cracking jokes and announcing songs, all in the local language. Highlights included “The Only Way,” “Thanks for Your Time,” “Night Drive,” “Hearts a Mess” and “Learnalilgivinanlovin.” Crowd loved him and it gave me goose bumps hearing Melbourne music get such a large applause so far from home.
The Zutons, with their sexy, sax-rock were up on the White Stage. They delighted their audience and had everyone dancing, clapping and probably received the best reception of all bands at FRF. I was captivated by the saxophone player who was extremely sexy and their music played like a soundtrack to my captivation. Highlights were “”Pressure Point” and the original version of their song, covered by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse “Valerie” was brilliant.
At the Red Marquee, legendary trip hop artist turned occasional actor, Tricky failed to impress. As did Primal Scream (admittedly not a favourite of mine) on the Green Stage. Although, I don’t mind their track “Get You Rocks Off” I just found their set a bit mediocre and not really a good choice for a Japanese festival. They also played the following night as headliners!!
Tonight’s headliners, Underworld were quite good but I personally enjoyed the crowd more than them. We danced like fools with a group of about 10 Japanese people until we couldn’t dance no more. “Born Slippy” brought back memories of high school and was (by far) the highlight of their set.
The end of the night is a bit of a haze. Checked out electro/hip hop artist Princess Superstar and electro DJ Erol Alkan both of whom were great. But unfortunately for me I missed super producer Switch (M.I.A, Santogold) due to my crashing out, in my chair, in the middle of the dance tent. If you could’ve only seen the tears I cried.
