Spring Tones - Roxanne Parlour

On 26th September at Roxanne Parlour, inner Melbourne City, on a chillingly cold and rainy Saturday night, noises of fuzzy guitar, pulses of drum beats and distorted electro keyboards sounded loudly in an alleyway off China Town. Presented by 3RRR, Mess + Noise, and Mistletone Records, Spring Tones featured an absolutely awesome line-up of tremendous musical talents gathered in one place, on one night for a full-on, three stage, five hour continuous sonic festival.

The line-up included piles of local acts such as Alex & The Ramps, St Helens, The UV Race, Rat vs. Possum and more, as well as international acts straight from USA – garage indie rock band Vivian Girls, indie folk with distinctive vocal artist Tiny Vipers, Ducktails, original mixed-genre electronic artist Hawnay Troof, then New Zealand tech-pop songwriter Bachelorette.

For the early arrivers, Woolen Kits loudly set off the mood, with gloomy smoke and ambient spot lights filling the front stage room. With the back room almost empty, and Ali and Kickball from Vivian Girls lying around on the couches, the night was setting in relaxed and smooth. Rat vs. Possum opened the first set on the back stage with blistering percussions. Following on with the second set, Songs lit up the vibe with good dynamics and great pop rhythmic tunes, as the venue slowly filled up with more and more anticipatory crowds.

At around 9pm at the back stage, walking up on stage quietly in a grey knit jumper, Tiny Vipers pulled out her guitar cautiously. “Hi I am Tiny Vipers from Seattle,” she whispered. Her haunting voice floated gracefully within delicate guitar sounds in slight sadness, and I was taken away. Meanwhile, I would assume Alex & the Ramps were launching into some sick dance moves, but I did not have the pleasure to see them unfortunately because of the timing conflicts.

Highly anticipated Brooklyn indie rock band Vivian Girls started off their set with fairly inviting words as bassist Kickball gave thanks to the previous sets. Their set combined songs from their previous self-titled record in 2008 and Everything goes wrong, just released in September this year. Heavy reverb, dreamy vocals, and layers of distorted fuzzy guitar noise weaved in and out through the whole set, with instrumental interludes that visibly shook the room. Surprisingly, aside from a few dancers who went down a treat with the band, the crowds reacted with little movement. “You guys should be dancing around, it’s Saturday night” bassist Kickball said with a cheerful smile in the middle of the show.

Punk band UV Race set was utterly one of the highlights of the night. Crowds went wild and dynamited the first mosh pit of the night. Harmonica player Georgia dove down into the crowd and was carried around by the wild crowds as the punk drum beats rapidly struck.

I was disappointed to have to leave early and miss The Dacios, rock n’ roll band from Tasmania with explosive vocalist Linda J; however, Sprint Tones was still a splendidly inspiring night to remember.

Ray Tsai