MEDIA ARTS LAWYERS. GUIDE TO BIGSOUND 2012

There’s some sic label parties on so I tag along with my other boss David Vodicka. He doesn’t really drink so I spend the whole time going in the mosh pit to ‘watch the bands’ but am actually drinking some peach schnapps I bought in the Brunswick Street Mall. “Oh Mercy” kill it and I like what the lead singer does with the egg shaker – sure as hell beats all those electronic drums that most bands use.

Over the rest of the night I see some of the following acts: Jeremy Neale (who is performing in a dress), Fishing (who look nothing like Rex Hunt), Flume (who is probably the youngest genuine rockstar I’ve seen so far), Grey Ghost (badass),  Phebe Starr (babe moment), the Falls, 44th Sunset, Millions (I pronounced their name like Eddie McGuire would say it – mulllions), The Troubles with Templeton, Clairy Brown, Velociraptor (that dress guy x 13, they killed it), Shady Lane (they seemed happier than I expected from their band name), Fantine (who also looked nothing like the girl from Les Miserables) and Tiger Town (rad band). I end up at some American guy’s party drinking Scotch and talking to Jeremy Neale who is still wearing the dress. With each drink he gets cuter and cuter.

Thursday, September 13

I wake up early having a minor hangover panic attack. I look at my watch and see it’s 6.30am – and I’ve fallen asleep on a demo from a band called Tiger Beams… I’m not sure what that means.

I check my phone and I’ve had 6 missed calls and texts from lawyers at Media Arts Lawyers, one of which is from Julian Hewitt and says “if you don’t come back with the caviar that we asked for in 10 minutes don’t bother coming to work next week”.

I fall asleep again and wake up at lunchtime. I can’t handle any conference stuff, and I’m scared that bearded guy from AIR is going to see me and make me have another “Fruit Tingle” cocktail, so I walk down to the Southbank pool to get away from all the conference activity. I have to hide under my towel because I keep seeing lawyers from my firm sitting down with record label people having hushed conversations and shaking hands – why are they doing these meetings out of sight of the conference? I see John Farnham float past on a li-lo eating a Zinger burger and I get a funny feeling in my stomach and head back to my hostel.

There are so many good gigs that I see tonight:

Split Seconds, Oliver Tank (not as well built as his name implied), The Cairos (didn’t play Walk Like an Egyptian which I thought surprising), Mosman Alder, Loon Lake, Saskwatch (danced my ass off), Courtney Barnett (she played a song about self-pleasure, what a legend), Elizabeth Rose, Tin Sparrow, Art of Sleeping, New Navy, Argentina (I danced in a flamenco style, no one laughed), Hey Geronimo, Royston Vasey (I kept calling out “are you local” and, again, no one laughed).

I end up at the SPA party and get a call from one of my law school friends who is in town and wants to get in downstairs – I tell him “sorry mate, this is work for me – I wouldn’t try to crash one of your client functions” and go back to the dancefloor to bust some moves to “Do the Bartman”. If there was a way to get paid for this job it’d be pretty cool.

We aren’t sure whether our intern is going to ever be allowed to go to BigSound, but hell he did have some nice suggestions of what/who to see at BigSound this year. David, Stephen, Julian and Yasmin will be floating around the Valley between Tuesday and Friday – so feel free to introduce yourself in (person or by email) if you have any legal questions. You’ll probably catch them at any number of these panels and showcases: