Indyfest 2008 Review
Review provided by Tim from MITACT.

Indyfest hit The Basement in Belconnen for the second year in a row on Saturday March 8, this being it’s 18th year of supporting the local independent music scene.

The first band for the day was young band Razzi, kicking things off on the outside stage. It must have been a difficult slot to play at 11am on a Saturday, with stall-holders and crew still setting things up on the site, not to mention some technical issues, and not much of a crowd yet gathered, but they worked through it showing a bit of promise later in their set.

Next up were Thomy and The Tank Engines. An unknown to me before the day, these boys totally blew me away with their rock action. Coming from the mean streets of G-Town, TATTE are a snarling, hard living, hard rocking beast, with plenty of groove and a vocalist with an impressive set of pipes. In spite of nursing a hangover in the morning heat, the band managed a tight set, although singer Thomy had to excuse himself for a quick spew at one stage (that’s rock n roll baby!). TATTE are their own beast, but as a point of reference, if The Bronx and Australian Kingswood Factory had a bastard love child, then it might have been beaten up by Thomy and The Tank Engines.

Rubycon played a good set of indie rock/pop, another young band to keep an eye out for. After that the heaviness set in, with Gasma and Friend or Enemy playing energetic sets, before Templestowe brought the brutality to a new level with their set of death metal. All these bands got a healthy little crowd to the front for their sets.

Corgi Crisis continued the action on the outside all ages stage, bringing their whacky Bunglesqueness, complete with heavily effected vocals. Their set was hampered a little by some technical difficulties though. After that, young local heroes Fistful of Nothing hit the stage to complete proceedings on the outside stage. I had heard good things about these guys despite never having seen them. They played a tidy set of funky rock, and were great to watch.

Inside The Basement it was looking really nice, with balloons and streamers reinforcing the party message, and was a welcome refuge from the outside heat. The stage had some added moving lights and a 2m by 1m stage extension at the front, which all added to the feel of the place, and the production ethic of the show.

I was stuck outside for most of the day, having some official duties to undertake, but I had to sneak inside to catch a bit of Inflatable Ingrid’s set on the inside stage. Inflatable Ingrid are one of the most exciting bands to watch live on the local scene. They always play an energetic set, and today was no exception. Despite the crowd being fairly sedate, the Ingrid jumped around manically, with vocalist Pauly Thalidomide jumping on bass player Nick AMC’s back at one stage, and running up the catwalk and stage diving onto an unexpecting carpet at another.

Once we had packed down the outside stage, I came inside again to catch the last part of Dubba Rukki’s set. The crowd seemed to be digging the band’s smooth grooves in what was a predominantly more rocking line-up.

After Dubba Rukki’s set was a fashion show put on by Raven Clothing and Kats Eyes Promotions. I wasn’t sure if having a fashion show at a rock concert was going to work very well, but it really did, the crowd getting a break from the (otherwise) non-stop live band action, to catch a group of very attractive young females parading around in PVC corsets and the like.

I got back in time to see some of Super Best Friends’ set. SBF managed to pull probably the best crowd of the day, putting on a great show, with the crowd getting right into it. Moh Van Wah were a lot tighter than I remembered from the last time I saw them, they sounded great with the singer sounding like Chris Cornell at times. But the crowd had begun to thin out by the later part of the evening.

Overall it was a great day.