FBi Fifth Birthday Party

FBI FIFTH BIRTHDAY PARTY
World Bar, Kings Cross
12/09/08

It shows just how highly thought of FBi is, as a sold-out crowd and a host of local talent flocked to Kings Cross to celebrate the successful passing of five years on the air. Early on, WOW performed to a sparsely populated room. Their distinctly unsubtle dance music was faintly entertaining during their first song, but, unsurprisingly, ugly vocals shouted over crude beats quickly became very annoying.

DJ Mailer Daemon’s (above) excellent set on the terrace stage included vocal turns from Catcall and Peach and was followed by S.Y.L.K, who offered female 80s-style rapping over DJ Spruce Lee’s beats. If you imagine The Waitresses’ Christmas Wrapping in a singing-into-hairbrushes-in-front-of-the-bedroom-mirror kind of way then you’d get an idea of the awesomeness of their performance.

In contrast, upstairs The Protectors (above) played straightforward rock ‘n’ roll. Even though they look absolutely fucking terrible – like a hobo version of The Darkness – their set was raucous enough to forgive such a woeful aesthetic. Meanwhile, Catcall and DJ Sleater Brockman, aka lynchpin of the local scene Andrew Levins, teamed up downstairs to get the crowd moving. In the club room, Yves Klein Blue had a justifiably confident swagger about them as they rattled off jaunty indie-pop-rock with a British feel to it. It’s easy to see a very bright future for the quartet.

Another highlight was beardy three-piece, Philadelphia Grand Jury, whose irresistibly effervescent pop was the kind of thing you’d hear on American college radio. They may not be pin-up boys, but they sure can pen a tune. While The Laurels filled the tea room with shoegazey guitar noise, Spod (below) was his versatile self on the terrace stage. His tongue-in-cheek mix of hip-hop and electroclash was wonderfully baffling and always entertaining.

Opening with Lies Are Much More Fun, before continuing with a couple of new tracks, The Grates were typically perky in the searing heat of a packed club room. Singer Patience Hodgson’s unabated enthusiasm created a buoyant atmosphere as she bounded around stage. “Now we get to play a new album. It’s very exciting,” she enthused as unfamiliar tunes were interspersed with oldies like Trampoline. While such poppy songs define the band, their true strength actually lies in deeper, more ruminative numbers, like the post-grunge of Feels Like Pain and Rock Boys. That said, it was the singalong of Science Is Golden and 19 20 20 which sent the crowd nuts.

And so, as night turned to early morning, the bands made way for DJs and the kids danced until dawn. The most refreshing thing about this party was the complete lack of pretence on display. Often in the rather narcissistic Sydney scene, people attend such events merely to be seen, or to be cool (or, indeed, to be seen being cool) but it is testament to the general vibe of FBi that people were here simply to have fun and enjoy some good music. It was a great night, fitting of such a brilliant community institution. Happy birthday FBi. Here’s to many more.

For another perspective on the night, go here