BIGSOUND 2026 came and went in a blur of live music, beers and sweaty crowds.
BIGSOUND has always been like Game Of Thrones for me – everyone talks up how good it is but I’d never experienced it myself, so when people bring it up, I just go quiet. Well, I will no longer be silenced. Last week I hit Brisvegas for the 25th year of the legendary showcase, and quickly converted to being one of those people who won’t shut up about BIGSOUND.
One of the first things you realise after stepping foot in Fortitude Valley, outside of being discombobulated by dealing with eight zig-zagged pedestrian crossings, is that BIGSOUND is everywhere. Posters, billboards, and even a bunch of purple tentacles coming out of a pub – you can’t go 10 metres without being smacked in the chops by a BIGSOUND logo. The takeover is huge.
You also learn pretty fast that getting anywhere on time is impossible. You’ll be bumping into artists and mates from all over the country, industry people etc. every two steps, so factor that in whenever you need to go anywhere. You should allow extra time for yapping.
The first thing on my checklist was an artist in conversation event with Julia Jacklin, who spoke about the state of music, her new album The Gem and more before leaving us with the question, “do we actually need to make music videos any more?”
Shot by Darcy Goss Media
Then we (by this stage you’re kinda moving in a rolling posse of randoms and mates) hit the Monster Children showcase, which was the first bit of live music for the trip. Kate Moth were so good, somehow sounding huge and delicate at the same time; Stimpies gave us garage with a bit of soul and a few delicious little harmonies in there (more to come on them soon); Milly Strange was simply mesmerising and brooding as fuck, sounding like bitter heartbreak embodied. Props to BC from Dunies who stepped up and MC’d the hell out the thing.
Geez. Now realising this article will go on for a week if I’m just talking about bands I like. To summarise, the next few hours on the Wednesday, having put away a few Young Henrys by that stage, were a blur of great tunes, with Piper Butcher from Newy being a standout, giving a bootscootin’ crowd at Chattahoochee Joes a reason to shuffle their feet, while serenading us with some delightful country-esque tunes.
The next morning, after a wander around the river in an attempt to heal that hanxiety, we were shooting artist portraits with American Apparel (see them here). As you can see, a bunch of legends came through the Content House to get their snaps, with the windowless room basically turning into a sauna. Photos were taken, toxins were sweated out. Good times.
Look, you can’t go to Brisbane without doing some very Brisbane things, and that evening we ticked a couple of things off our Brisbucket list. Firstly, we had a succulent Chinese meal at the very place where that legendary “democracy manifest” interaction happened – the food was good and no one was grabbed anywhere they didn’t want to be grabbed.
The next very Brisbane thing we did was head to QUIVR to see Nerve’s pop-up. This place quickly got packed out, with the Bris-born rapper bringing up the likes of Tasman Keith, Yung Martyr and more, as well as performing new Nerve faves ‘You’ and that now-iconic ‘Sexyback’ Like A Version.
After a few more hours of catching live tunes (And Beyon were sick and Bala Rontu stole our hearts for 25 minutes at Wonderland), I weaved my way home, doing whatever I could to not “accidentally” roll into a Maccas or pizza joint on the way (I failed). By 8am on Friday I was already over the never-drinking-again part of the hangover, and thinking about what BIGSOUND 2027 will have in store, now that I’m totally one of those people who won’t shut up about it.
Shoutout to the BIGSOUND team and QMusic for having us. And a huge general thank you to Brissy – your schnitties were cheap, your river is mid, but the love of live music was well and truly FELT.
Also, expect a Game Of Thrones review next week…
