Following the festival it was time to head up into the city for the last night of showcases, and the last night of One Movement 2010. First up for the night was Ernest Ellis, who unfortunately had to cancel his appearance at the Dew Process showcase earlier in the week. From the sounds of it he and his band seem to be going through a patch of bad luck, him with his ear problem, and he revealed his drummer was going to be playing with a broken rib. Which I suppose actually made his performance all the more remarkable, especially given the fact that the drummer was playing away with a great deal of energy looking completely unaffected by the broken rib. That’s rock and roll for you. Being a huge fan of the debut album it was great to finally see these songs played live, and to see Ellis and the band in action. As you would expect there were some wonderful harmonies throughout and some extremely energetic and enthusiastic but skilful bass playing. “Loveless” was a real highlight of the set, sounding great in the intimate confines of the Dilettante car park. The whole experience was made that much better but both the intimacy of the venue and also that there wasn’t a huge
crowd. A perfect start to the night.
It was then up to the Amplifier Car Park for the rest of the night; the first of the performances was from Raghu Dixit who were really quite outstanding. I came to it not really knowing what to expect, having only seen them when they played on stage with Mama Kin. But they dispelled all worries pretty early on. They are a great fun band, dressed head to toe in traditional garb all whilst playing what is essentially rock music.
It was quite a high energy set, and it was pretty surreal seeing the band get a crowd full of delegates, managers and media up jumping and dancing. Though I suppose this is testament to their talent and enthusiasm. Although they aren’t singing in English, the generally themes and meaning of the songs they sing seem to come across quite well, again proving I suppose that we all sing and write about the same thing; and that a love song in one language sounds very similar to a love song in another. They have a great sound, and make great use of varying instruments such as the violin to give their music that extra little kick – this is folk rock Indian style.
Being a Sunday there was an earlier curfew of midnight, so the final band of the night was Dan Sultan. Yes I had seen him only a couple of hours prior, but his music is well worth watching more than one set for; and having so far only ever seen him on festival stages, I wanted to see what he would be like on the intimate confines of a small stage; and I am not sure you can get much smaller than the Amplifier Car Park.
He played another high energy set, which is pretty impressive considering he had done much the same only a few hours previous. His sound seemed to be even better in those intimate confines, his songs work just as well on the big festival stage or the smaller confines of a laneway stage or a pub/theatre. There was some brilliant audience interaction, with Sultan sticking up for himself from a heckler, albeit a slightly drunk and unintentional heckler.
Unfortunately the band were called on stage a little late so were the victims of what has to be the strictest enforcement of a curfew I have ever seen, with Sultan and the band essentially turned off, to some very vocal disappointment from some members of the audience. In terms of songs, Fitzroy was still a favourite for me, though the whole set was fantastic. Sultan has the songs, the charisma and the ability to go far, and with the recent swathe of award nominations and wins, there’s no doubt he will get there. A true Australian talent.
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