Saturday brought us into our third day at the extraordinary Culture Collide music festival, another day packed with a fantastic line-up of live music. After spending the day exploring the city of Los Angeles, the night similarly involved a great deal of new discoveries as I was lucky enough to stumble upon a whole new collection of bands.
My night started out with the tropical and cheerful sounds of Young Buffalo. Hailing from Oxford, Massachusetts, these guys had a fantastically joyful stage presence that was certainly infectious as they performed to a packed venue. As the band members Ben Yarbrough and Jim Barrett shared vocals to sing bouncy, upbeat melodies, theirs songs brought the likes of Vampire Weekend and Jinja safari to mind.
Staight after this I caught the beginning of Boxeur The Coeur’s set, to become instantly fascinated by the act’s complex electronic soundscape. Boxeur The Coeur is Pabliz Yocka, a talented artist from Bolgna, Italy, who has a knack for creating interesting, frantic and undoubtedly complex music. Following this I caught the band that I had been most excited about catching all night, Ewert and The Two Dragons. Admittedly, the band’s name and origin (Estonia) served as the major attraction, yet word had already begun to spread about the high quality of their previous set on the Friday. An enthusiastic four piece that plays charming indie folk, Ewert and The Two Dragons have a strong, unified sound. Performing with acoustic guitars, the band played a number of standout tracks including “Sailor Man”, “Good Man Down” and “Pictures”, as each track was built up into thriving, foot stomping choruses. Expressing a genuine surprise and appreciation for being invited to perform at Culture Collide, it was exciting to see promising, up and coming acts such as this one play such strong sets across the festival.
Next up was another local band from the United States, called The Golden Ghosts. A three piece with a talent for playing classic rock, these guys performed with what can only be described as an dmirable level of intensity. Producing a heavy sound that involved a sort of call and response between the lead singer’s story telling lyrics and the band’s subsequent growl, their material made for entertaining listening. Occasionally culminating into wailing vocals and chaotic instrumentals, these guys were definitely an interesting new discovery.
My final set to attend for the night was that of our very own Australian band, Gold Fields. After a grand opening that began with an escalating instrumental section, we were treated to a good number of big, dance-worthy songs. It had been a while since I had last caught Gold Fields live, and I would have to say that Gold Fields’ sound and live has improved significantly. With their explosive, driving sound that blends Mark Robert Fuller’s smooth vocals into the frenzy of synths, guitars and percussion, this is a band that is sure to keep on making waves over here in the United States. Playing songs including their hit track “Treehouse”, it was nothing short of exciting to see the whole venue dancing along and cheering to the grand sounds of a band hailing from Ballarat, Australia.
Once again presenting attendees with an inspiring and dynamic line up that encourages us to seek out and support new artists from all over the world, Saturday was nothing short of a success.
