Falls Festival 2014/15

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another ripper festival. the raising of drink prices was not overtly enjoyed by those who didnt smuggle in enough alcohol or other things. they just need to sort out the ballot system (if you receive a ballot code you're ensured a ticket) but great festival
 
hamohawk1 said:
another ripper festival. the raising of drink prices was not overtly enjoyed by those who didnt smuggle in enough alcohol or other things. they just need to sort out the ballot system (if you receive a ballot code you're ensured a ticket) but great festival
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Yeah very enjoyable despite the line-up being a little down on the last couple of years. Who did you enjoy? My highlights were Run the Jewels (absolutely set the tent alight), DMA's, and Alt-J (who had a great setlist which rightfully played all the first album hits). Sticky Fingers was a big letdown because out of the 12(?) songs they played, only the last two were from their first album. They didn't even play Caress Your Soul! Wasn't too disappointed though as I had already seen them live at the Corner in 2013.

Had no issues with sorting out drinks too.
 

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lineup came out today, a lot of people critical of it. i really like it, has the capacity to make nights very entertaining
 
Honestly a deplorable lineup

Bloc Party the only true headliner

Not a chance I'll be going this year

Django Django are good as well but it's very thin
 
Rough_Edges said:
Bloc Party the only true headliner
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And even that is untrue. I reckon half the people praising the inclusion of Bloc Party on the line-up don't even realise that they're down to two members from the original band with no announced replacements as of yet. I love(d) Bloc but a gig without Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes wouldn't be the same..
 
Gibbsy said:
And even that is untrue. I reckon half the people praising the inclusion of Bloc Party on the line-up don't even realise that they're down to two members from the original band with no announced replacements as of yet. I love(d) Bloc but a gig without Matt Tong and Gordon Moakes wouldn't be the same..
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Yep, I wasn't aware of that.

I used to really like them 3-4 years ago and listened to them a lot but hadn't listened to the much lately at all nor followed any news from the band.
 
I'm very critical of lineups here because the reality is, dance music owns and short of digging that exclusively, festivals can't pull anyone.

But I like this. I've seen Bloc Party once with the full lineup and that was all I wanted and needed. Are you trying to tell me pinging off your nut at 12:01 to Helicopter is going to a bad experience just because two members are gone? The thing about Falls is that the music is secondary to being around your friends at one place on New Years'.

I'd love to go this year but my friends are pussoirs so it'll be another New Years of racing around and disappointed expectation for me.
 
The Falls line ups continue to remind me of how old I got, and how quickly it happened. The last Falls I went to was 6 years ago, it was the 5th I'd gone to in the previous 6 years. Now? Damn there's a lot of that line up that I either hate, or that I don't even know.

I guess I haven't quite gone over the hump yet. At the moment I can still understand that it's a youth music festival and I'm no longer in the demo - I'll know that I'm truly old when I start bitching about line ups (and certain radio stations) and suggesting that "youth" music should cater to a guy in his 30s.
 

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I decided to go to Falls for the 02/03 only becuase being in early high school and into punk I liked stuff like Ataris, Vandals etc. Anyway, then in January 2003 went to to see Ataris/Vandals and an amazing opening set by The Nation Blue at the HI FI Club. Don't think I've been to a festival since.

Anyway. I wouldn't judge festivals so much on wanting to go watch a band and agree with SA that it's more about friends and experiences than the actual line up.
 
We have a different mindset here in comparison to Europe.

Maybe it was a different time with bonafide headliners and the last wave of a genuine guitar scene, but at 16, I used to be so jealous of Europe and America. They got these tours twice a year, where a band would go to towns barely bigger than Wollongong or Geelong. The festivals were huge. We'd get the dregs. But whether it's the State Of Music or me actually having seen how it operates, but festivals here are probably overanalysed.

Everyone there goes for a week, which is total overkill and you'd end up depressed on comedowns by day three and punching on by day five, but at the same time the music is a backdrop. You might say that's s0o0o0 un-indie brah because it's always about the music!!! but in actuality, the good times are far more important. I met so many Europeans who were into music, but they'd really only see the headliner because everyone else was there, and maybe seven other acts across a long weekend. And that wasn't missing out or a waste, it's just more fun to sit around and talk s**t.

I just think there's a bit of a neckbeard thing about criticising lineups when Foals are basically bonafide headliners except for huge festivals like Glastonbury, Lolla, Coachella et al. For a country as spread out, far away, and packed with festivals (seriously England has as many, with three times the population and music culture, and they reckon there's too many festivals for them), Falls is actually pretty good. Splendour meanwhile was genuine world class.
 
Although genres and sub-genres are no way as separated with fans and the music as say 10 plus years ago, I think downloading music helped hugely with that. Back then if you were gonna spend a fair bit on an album you were unlikely to get a guilty pleasure or take risks on different genres.

Anyway..although we have moved forward with that I still think it's hard to cater the right style of bands for the amount of people they want to attend Australian festivals. Especially with fad culture, when a line up is released one of the draw cards could be dated and cringeworthy by the time the festival is on.
 
WALDENPOND said:
Although genres and sub-genres are no way as separated with fans and the music as say 10 plus years ago, I think downloading music helped hugely with that. Back then if you were gonna spend a fair bit on an album you were unlikely to get a guilty pleasure or take risks on different genres.
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Yeah definitely. All you had for youth music culture then was Triple J, so the Big Day Out was all you really needed because once you got that audience, you got 70% of music listeners under 30.
 
One day festivals are going through a major transition at the moment with the standard bdo and future gone and stereo seemingly staggering a bit. interesting times
 
WALDENPOND said:
Although genres and sub-genres are no way as separated with fans and the music as say 10 plus years ago, I think downloading music helped hugely with that. Back then if you were gonna spend a fair bit on an album you were unlikely to get a guilty pleasure or take risks on different genres.

Anyway..although we have moved forward with that I still think it's hard to cater the right style of bands for the amount of people they want to attend Australian festivals. Especially with fad culture, when a line up is released one of the draw cards could be dated and cringeworthy by the time the festival is on.
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That's exactly why Laneway has become Australia's best festival. Forget about whether you're into hipsters or that kind of music - in terms of a well run festival that always sells out because they have their finger on the pulse on who is about to blow up, no one does it better.

I think there's an element of truth in what you say though. In the absence of true headliners, it must be so hard to come up with a festival of "sub-headliners" because we all have so much access to music now and our tastes are able to be so diverse, how do you even identify who those "sub-headline" acts are? (Is that why festivals in this country keep going back to Hilltop Hoods?)
 
Mac DeMarco is a perfect sub headliner in a time where headliners are old dudes (The Who at Glastonbury, Prince, even Blur, even Radiohead) or incredibly rare (Radiohead) or really really lame (Foo Fighters), Mac DeMarco is the guy you get for some zeitgeist and at-his-peakness who can draw a pretty decent crowd. I think Falls have done well with Foals and Bloc Party (sure Gordy and Matt are gorrrn-y but the majority don't care, and that's who festivals are for – you won't be crossing your arms during Banquet, no matter how into the band you are) and have spaced out the "yeah, I'll give up my spot around the camp for this" acts to make the weekend worth the money.
 
Silent Alarm said:
Mac DeMarco is a perfect sub headliner in a time where headliners are old dudes (The Who at Glastonbury, Prince, even Blur, even Radiohead) or incredibly rare (Radiohead) or really really lame (Foo Fighters), Mac DeMarco is the guy you get for some zeitgeist and at-his-peakness who can draw a pretty decent crowd. I think Falls have done well with Foals and Bloc Party (sure Gordy and Matt are gorrrn-y but the majority don't care, and that's who festivals are for – you won't be crossing your arms during Banquet, no matter how into the band you are) and have spaced out the "yeah, I'll give up my spot around the camp for this" acts to make the weekend worth the money.
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What are your thoughts on a fifth album without Gordon and Matt?
 
t_94 said:
What are your thoughts on a fifth album without Gordon and Matt?
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Shouldn't do it but of course they will. I think the reality is Kele has always been the one to dictate the sound. I don't see the next album as being a potential trainwreck or anything, it'll probably end up like Intimacy/Four and be all over the place stylistically with some things that don't suit them, some stock standard Bloc Party template songs, and one or two stunning songs and two or three decent ones. It's not like Matt and Gordy were going to save them or anything. That ship sailed when they handed their nuts to Kele on a plate during the Intimacy sessions (I think the lyrics/theme ruined AWITC, but they were all in on the idea of being a massive arena band).

They're just like Interpol now. They're not embarrassing like Weezer, but you just expect almost nothing. Unlike Interpol, they've always been bold enough to try new things. They won't die wondering.
 
Silent Alarm said:
Shouldn't do it but of course they will. I think the reality is Kele has always been the one to dictate the sound. I don't see the next album as being a potential trainwreck or anything, it'll probably end up like Intimacy/Four and be all over the place stylistically with some things that don't suit them, some stock standard Bloc Party template songs, and one or two stunning songs and two or three decent ones. It's not like Matt and Gordy were going to save them or anything. That ship sailed when they handed their nuts to Kele on a plate during the Intimacy sessions (I think the lyrics/theme ruined AWITC, but they were all in on the idea of being a massive arena band).

They're just like Interpol now. They're not embarrassing like Weezer, but you just expect almost nothing. Unlike Interpol, they've always been bold enough to try new things. They won't die wondering.
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Yeh can't really get a handle on what to expect. Did cringe the other day when Kele said 'we're better than we've ever been' in that interview the other day. AWITC didn't necessarily hate the theme but think they stuck to it a bit too rigidly and omitted some of the better songs which ended up as b-sides. The lyrics are admittedly clunky in parts as well. Still a pretty good album considering what it was following but could have been so much better.
 
Sideshows should be announced within the next few days.

Hoping for a Mac DeMarco sideshow at The Forum.
 
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