Bigger
At some point I am going to learn my lesson. Going into night two of Big Sound, I had an even more ambitious timetable for artists to watch consisting of nine artists across six different venues. It did not take long for the timetable to fall apart with my main job and my tired self being forgetful caused what should have been an easy trip to the Valley to see Serendipiti’s set, being instead a bit of a madcap dash across the CBD to make sure I got there in time.
Serendipiti’s set at Quivr was a Big Sound adjacent set at a venue I had not been to previously. Serendipiti, as usual, did not disappoint and I have written many words on her music ability previously. I repeat those same sentiments here.
I think one of my biggest bugbears about the scheduling of Big Sound is that sets are generally placed on the hour or half hour with some sets providing shoulders of starting at quarter past the hour. The Valley is not a massive place and a brisk 5 minutes is all that is really needed to get from the most extremely geographically diverse locations. Based on this, it genuinely baffles me why the organisers dictate 30 minute sets with most starting consecutively at other venues.
It seems illogical that a five minute travel period, such as when school bells sound between classes, is not set. Its like inter-venue transport has been assumed to be zero or that people will just remain at a single venue. The real world result is that people are either getting to the gig five minutes after it started or leaving sets five minutes early to get to the next venue. As such, instead of a full 30 minutes to impress the crowd and the industry peeps watching, the artists really only have 20 minutes where the maximum crowd will be present. This result seems counter to the stated objectives of the festival.
If I had to hazard a guess why travel time has not been adequately allowed for, it would be that humans like nice round numbers and it just wasn’t considered a priority or the organisers thought that having sets start at progressively later times past the hour would be too confusing for musicians and attendees. SO once again functionality has been sacrificed for neat appearances.
Anyway, I had to leave Serendipiti’s set early to make sure I got to Sidney’s set on time down at Eclipse. Sidney’s set was solid even if I was distracted by just how sticky the floors were at Eclipse (which is apparently one of Brisbane’s largest nightclubs, as stated by the bar tender). Seriously, my shoes continued to grip the floor for a solid 500m after leaving the place. I have to wonder whether the stickiness is done on purpose to reduce dancefloor slips and therefore reduce the venue’s public liability insurance premiums.
At this point my schedule had gone off the rails. I was meant to go see Yuni at the relatively close Brightside, a venue I have attended a bunch of times this year. I was distracted though, by running into Gia Darcy who, after performing a successful lunchtime set that day was taking in some of the showcases. Gia, is a Sydney based indie pop singer who has a number of good original songs and a bunch of very well sung covers. I started following Gia on socials during the pandemic, and never got a good opportunity to go to one of her shows. So ultimately I sacrificed getting to Yuni’s show on time in order to have a chat with Gia and grab a selfie.
As an aside, Gia is just as delightful in person as she is during her regular TikTok lives and after grinding away as an artist for a number of years, now seems to be getting her opportunity at success that she so richly deserves. I remember when her originals on Spotify were hovering around the 1,000 to 10,000 plays, whereas now a number of her songs are well into the 100,000s with her single Nice Things currently sitting at over 670,000 plays.
I genuinely can’t wait until Gia gets to do a nation-wide headline tour and draws the crowds that her music properly deserves.
In any event, by the time I got the Brightside to see Yuni, it was packed, to the point that I couldn’t see the stage and as such I gave it up in order to secure an early front row place for Jem Cassar-Daley at Crow Bar.
Now, people might point to the shear and enduring popularity of Jem’s father, Troy, and question whether she has benefited from her father’s connections to succeed within the music industry. My personal view on nepotistic leg ups is one of apathy. Sure, from some perspectives, privilege is something that shouldn’t exist in a truly equitable society but, to be clear, our world is never going to reach anywhere near that position and it would be gross negligence to not utilise and leverage your own privilege to give yourself the greatest start possible.
A secondary point is that whilst the familial relationship may generate opportunities, you still have to be good enough to properly capitalise on them and, in this instance, Jem is 100% that good.
Her set tonight was one of the highlights of not only night two, but of the festival as a whole. She is already a complete performer, performing vocals and on guitar and keyboard. It is also clear that her musical genre is headed away from the country style that made Troy a household name. As Max Jackson would put it, Jem is just a little bit country, and those influences can be seen in her music – as completely expected from someone growing up with a dad who is Australian country royalty.
Jem’s freshly released album, Tattoos used to come off in the pool, is a classic journeyman’s album where the artist is both highly skilled and has oodles of natural talent but is still trying to full find their own niche in the world. I would rate it a solid 8.5/10, and am definitely looking forward to seeing Jem’s album tour later this year.
It is clear that Jem has grown up performing. She has that immediately arresting stage presence and her charisma abounds. Jem also benefits from a backing band that is clearly experienced and adds significant value to her performances.
Ultimately, I was delighted to be able to see her et tonight and she has definitely won herself a new fan.
From Jem’s performance, we went full country, heading to Chattahoochee Joe’s which has to be one of the most over the top Americanised (is it ironic that Americanised is spelt in Australia with an ‘-ise’ when if it was truly Americanised, it would be spelt with an ‘-ize’? Truly my philosophical musings have no limits) version of what a country bar would look like if the world only dealt with stereotypes and cliches. I absolutely loved it, from the multiple American flags painted on the roof, through the longhorns mounted on the walls and to the “God bless Dolly” sign above the stage.
I was in the venue to see Tori Darke perform. Tori is another musician that I had started following on socials during the pandemic and pre her first appearance on The Voice. Now, Tori has to be one of the most perfectly suited artists to ever perform in Chattahoochee Joe’s. Absolutely everything about her screams country from her hat down to her rhinestone studded high heeled boots.
Tori has been doing the rounds of the country music scene for a couple of years now and has, very successfully, carved out her own niche as the quintessential country star. I say that having watched Max Jackson perform in a country pub (the Bribie Island Hotel counts, okay!). If Max makes songs just a little more country, then Tori’s shtick is the same as Chattahoochee Joe’s, that is, take it to its absolute extreme.
It shows that Tori has spent time honing her craft in Nashville, since subtlety does not appear in America’s lexicon. Now don’t get me wrong, this should not, in any way, shape or form, be read as a criticism of Tori and her stage persona, I adored her set. She captures the crowd with her stage presence and refuses to let go, with her set filled with riotous joy and boot scooting dancing.
Its funny, cause if Jem Cassar-Daley attempted the same overtly country look, she would undoubtedly never live down the (misguided) nepotism allegations. But for Tori, it just works. It was a delightful set and one that I would gladly attend as many times as possible, which should be the biggest indicator of talent, as I am by no means a proper country music fan, but Tori’s magic has helped to move that needle.
I skipped the scheduled Lara Buchanan set (so that I could watch the complete Tori set and then grab dinner) satisfied in my knowledge that I can watch it tomorrow night on the Mall Stage.
I saw Tusekah perform again in Eclipse where I found that her mix of R&B and Soul was growing on me. Outside of that, my comments on her set from Night One, were provided in my blog Big.
I finished my night with Salty’s performance at the Prince Consort. Salty provided a different style of performance which deviated from the norm of the Big Sound showcases. Pretty much all the performances I have seen at Big Sound over the last two days have been focused on vocal and lyrical talent with supporting instrumentation. Salty has gone in a different direction where she still capitalises on a slimmed down backing band of a drummer and guitarist, but has turned her talents towards that of a traditional pop diva, with a focus on wowing the crowd through what would best be described as highly sexualised dancing along with two extremely attractive backing dances who had somehow perfected wearing both very little whilst remaining perfectly decent.
Salty and her dances were clearly very talented and expertly wove what, I assume, were both technical and difficult dance movements whilst Salty still sang her original songs.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the performance and lets be honest, shear sex appeal has been a tried, tested and highly successful strategy to achieve mainstream popularity and Salty has both the looks and singing ability to grasp that opportunity. All the more power to her.
I had scheduled to go see Sidney Phillips at The Brightside to wrap up the day, however, following the three hours of sleep I got last night coupled with another early morning of business networking which I had committed to, I decided an earlier finish would be beneficial.
Night Two, as a whole was even bigger than the first night and the bar is continually being raised in terms of quality and shear fun. Who knows what Night Three will bring, but I suspect the festival will finish with a bang!
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