Live Review: BIGSOUND 2018 Night 3
For many people, the third night of Bigsound marks the end of the end of the road, with Friday’s proceedings mainly restricted to events rather than music acts. For us, it was an opportunity to check out any artists we hadn’t yet seen, including big names we couldn’t miss.
Ironically however, first up was Walken’s final set of the week at The Woolly Mammoth. Although we had seen them the previous night at Crowbar Black, we can be forgiven as the sound at that venue was questionable, and we wanted to ascertain if it was the venue or the band that had caused this. Luckily, Walken played a much better set this time, reordering their set list to favour max audience participation, even allowing the crowd (seemingly) to decide what the last song would be, based on if they wanted something soft or heavy. And so the set was capped off by Walken’s heaviest song Ray Gun, leaving the crowd satisfied and ready to continue the night.
Next up was rap-rock group Butterfingers at The Zoo. Rap-rock /metal may not be everyone’s forte, but Butterfingers brand was actually quite enjoyable to listen to. The pounding bass and pop-inspired keys samples laid a good groundwork for the singer to rap his way through entertaining wordplay the likes of which we can’t remember or do justice to. The best way to describe the music would be to say imagine if Eminem made a Slim Shady era album with the guys from Linkin Park as his backing band. The music itself was fairly diverse, with some songs verging on straight hip-hop, while others were more heavy metal-flavoured.
Heading to the Crowbar we were able to catch RAAVE TAPES set. Fairly up-tempo, the music was an interesting blend of punk/rock and indie sounds. The bassist had employed an effect pedal that made the bass sound like a smooth synth, bringing a new dynamic to the set. RAAVE TAPES got the crowd going, seemingly warming them up for what was to be our most anticipated artist of the night.
Psychadelic Porn Crumpets were perhaps the artist that we were looking forward to seeing all week. Apparently, so too were many other people. By the time their first song came to a finish, the main area of the Crowbar was absolutely flooded with people. People were literally swinging from the rafters, in that many people who could not find a place to stand began standing on the bar couches and holding onto the roof, much to the pained expressions of the bar staff, who allowed this in the spirit of rock n roll. The Perth rockers’ second song was their newest single, Social Candy, and was definitely the most high octane song of the night, slamming riffs into the crowd. The music was something of a mix between Pond, Tame Impala, and something unique. The bands set was a great way to finish off the Bigsound week, and the singer Jake realized this, proclaiming towards the end of the show, “This is the hottest place at Bigsound to be right now.” With the Porn Crumpets cascading to a finish, the curtain was effectively drawn on Bigsound for another year. You can catch our interview with them in the coming weeks.
