It’s always hard to know what you’re in for at a debut festival. Normally there are some standard negotiations: travel, start times, weather, act times and, um, supplies. As far as first-time festivals go, BOTB did okay. Not amazing, but pretty good. Located in Ballina, about an hour from Byron Bay, there were a few issues straight up. Firstly, there was no beach. If you left the venue and walked five minutes, you could see the beach. But that’s a fairly loose use of the word ‘on’, I think you’ll agree. Also, since there were more bands than DJs or dance acts, the focus wasn’t exactly on ‘beats’. Then there was no available timetable (at least not that you could access, aside from the three A3 photocopies pasted on the fence) and a few late scratchings, left unannounced; fairly confusing stuff for a would-be reviewer. Still, for a rookie, BOTB was fun. Not too crowded, good weather and, all importantly, some great acts.
Stages were split between ‘Rockit’ and ‘Fractured Beats’. Most of the really good action happened on Rockit, with some awesome local acts proving once again that home-grown talent can easily stand up to international competition. In the morning, National Pornographic strutted their stuff, thrusting and pumping their mix of hip hop and rock in typically well-oiled form. An unfortunate late pull-out by Red Riders couldn’t stop the flow, as the notably excellent Van She, with their eclectic electro-garage-rock-pop sound, moved smoothly between beats and balls-out guitar madness. In similar fashion, Wolf And Cub’s double drum kit set-up, always a crowd pleaser, meshed powerfully with the mod-rock sound so loved by the emerging indie scene. An honourable mention should go to End Of Fashion, as well as Aussie faves Bodyjar, whose unbridled pop punk styles were out for all to hear. Not as tight as they can be, but with all the hot little tunes they’ve unleashed over the last fourteen years, this was definitely a ‘festival moment’ for the audience. But number #1, however, was Karnivool. Tight as Botox, these relative newcomers took the trophy with driving guitar-drenched tunes in the vein of Deftones or Cog laced with near perfectly executed vocals. Their closer, the current single ‘Themata’, had the crowd singing and the pit frothing. Top notch. The headline act, Pete Murray, was Pete Murray. You know what I mean. Always pretty tight, but, well, Pete Murray.
The beats stage saw a lot more international involvement, with only four out of ten acts Australian. In the morning, UK DJ FreQ Nasty woke us up with his usual tidy breakbeat boogie-fest, while Aussie DJ Katalyst and hip hopper RuCL set the tone for the afternoon, teaming up for a solid set that glided effortlessly between breaks, R&B, reggae styles and straight out house. Described by promoters as “Electro phonography”, locals Soma Rasa fine-tuned our ears and streamlined our feet in a progressive feast of electronic breakbeats, just in time for US poet, actor, producer and rapper Saul Williams, who proved that two turntables and a microphone are more than enough to rustle up a crowd. Unique and almost un-pigeonhole-able in style and performance, this was a genuine highlight.
Woollongong three-piece Infusion, seemingly on a constant tour of international and local festivals, displayed the finesse and cool that bagged them their ARIAs last year, carrying the growing crowd through a set that can only be described as cranking. These guys are a definite drawcard, and rightly so. Unfortunately for me (although I got quite an argument on the bus home about this), UK drum and bass specialists Pendulum (featuring MC Verse) did not cut it with the standard of the day. Having only heard hype and a few radio tracks, I was expecting big things. Mostly, however, we were treated to long samples of other people’s tunes, such as Prodigy, Rage Against The Machine and Beastie Boys, loosely mixed into their own beats and some (pretty pointless) MCing. If I wanted to listen to Prodigy and RATM at a festival, I’d invent a time machine, or take an iPod. Either way, very boring. They’re good to dance to, I guess, but I think their originality luggage was lost at the airport.
All told, a good day. Maybe next time they might consider direct access to the beach or a name change. Aside from that, however, this was a good first try. Let’s see what they can do next year…