Daughter: Did you know this would be so gay, millenial and female-headlined? Dad: yes. The festival was my choice and my daughter Olivia came with me. We saw four acts.
GFlip is the kid in school who is your instant friend and can learn any instrument. She sang and played guitar, drums and sax. Her infectious appeal could land her on the pop, country or rock charts. This is rock culture that we exported to Australia coming home to visit us. GFlip's visual stage logo has an American muscle car pulling away. Australia is us. We are them. And there is nothing wrong with that.
Blondshell was the act I came to see. She took on the task of bringing a moody indie rock message to an outdoor crowd when her band was better, and slightly louder, than her. On record, Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum has a lower range. Her live vocal is higher-pitched and more authentic.
Her songs are short and idiosyncratic, like ours. Her metier is vulnerability, while taking risks in relationships. She performed Sepsis, T&A, Kiss City, Change and three other songs. She packed in 7 songs total in half an hour. By the end of the show she had removed her shirt and sunglasses and was crawling on all fours, like Iggy Pop. I still like Blondshell but a little more stage presence would not hurt.
Paris Paloma was a pleasant surprise and had stage presence in spades I knew little about the British singer-songwriter's music. She creates a well-rounded sound with her 12-string guitar, drummer and second guitarist.
Her polemic songs are pop and are not boring. "Good Boy" is about men and "Labor" is about what men force on women. The songs are memorable but what she does best is entertain. She sings, dances, plays guitar, and then all three at once.
Paris Paloma makes politically-charged statement on 'patriarchy' in the US at All Things Go Festival
The Last Dinner Party made us feel that we walked into rehearsal for the musical at an English girls' boarding school. Which is exactly their origin. Singer Abigail Morris seems to drive the five-piece outfit. They seem to have quit the drama department when they discovered their grandparents' records from the 70s: Bowie, Queen, Elton John, Mott the Hoople. So you get a significant amount of British music hall cheese with the tempo changes from that period in the middle of a song.
The LDP keep it popping and I suspect that Morris relies heavily on keyboardist/keytarist Aurora Nishevci to write songs. The other band members are crackerjack hands. They closed with their hit "Nothing Matters," which has a hook-y chorus: "And I will f**k you like nothing matters." If you say so.
Morris has a habit of stretching both of her arms out with the mic in one hand while she prances around. Vocals continue. Are her bandmates entirely in sync and on pitch with her while singing lead vocals? Seems suspect. Points taken off for backing track jiggery pokery. GFlip did some of this as well, but at least she was always playing an instrument.
The Marias' set construction was interminable, so we left, having had a fine time on a sunny day in the borough of Queens.