Sonic Masala Festival @ Greenslopes Bowls Club, 21.06.2014

Scul Hazzards @ Sonic Masala Fest 2014, Greenslopes Bowls Club, Saturday 21 June 2014

Even though it’s less than six months outside the Australian summer music festival season, today shows just how out of practice I am, at least from a physical sense of coping with an all day event, as those comfy couches dotted around Greenslopes Bowls Club provide a safe haven for most of the day when I’m not up the front photographing the bands.

It’s a day with the two stages providing constant music and a host of excellent bands and performances. That it was a bargain $10 for the day makes it the best value festival I think I’ve ever been to. Even after this time I find it slightly weird that in a city the size of Brisbane, the music scene is still based largely on the same 50 people that I see at most of the local shows I go to and hasn’t changed in the 9 years I’ve been living in Brisbane.

If there’s a single highlight of the afternoon session, it’s Bossfight, a band that play the music and theme tunes to games. Some of the playing is ridiculous.

Scul Hazzards headline the day and show that they’re still one of Brisbane’s best bands, that they don’t play often enough, and that, having moved to Melbourne, they don’t play often enough in Brisbane. Hearing Steven Smith say that the albums at the merch desk are the last few copies and that they’ve been working on their latest album for seven years adds a twinge of sadness. Bands this good shouldn’t be allowed to fade away.