Words by Kate Lockyer
Photography by Elizabeth Sharpe | @ummagummamumma
Undertone Festival, the first festival the Gold Coast Music Network has ever produced, was an absolute blast this weekend at Miami Marketta. With a stunning lineup of national treasures, whether they were from the Gold Coast or further afield, the all-women and -non-binary artists treated young and old to a fantastic time. Headlining was Jack River, with Montaigne, Hope D, Hussy Hicks, Tania Doko (formerly of Bachelor Girl), Annie Hamilton, ELEEA, and Tomorrow’s Forecast also playing their hearts out.
The first thing I want to say about Undertone is to acknowledge the great work they put into making this festival inclusive, joyful, and in equal parts relaxing and thrilling. It was fantastic to see people of all abilities and ages enjoying themselves – the kids did a whole lot of hula-hooping, and sat themselves down in beanbags to watch the artists. There was a friendly feel from the artists as well, who were mingling in the crowd and watching each other’s sets.
Brisbane band Tomorrow’s Forecast, who originally hail from the Gold Coast, started the day with their sweet harmonies, cruisy guitar and drums that hit just the right spot for a Sunday afternoon. Here We Go Again ramped up the energy in the chorus with earnest lyrics yet defiant music painting a picture of someone conflicted over dumping someone who is no good for her. The next track had a great moment where the vocalist sang a catchy whip around of notes. Another song kicked off with harmonies that seemed to slide like a figure skater across ice, who then transformed into hockey players as they belted out an adorable, flirty chorus – “Why don’t you want me like the other boys do / They stare at me while I stare at you”. Next, the crowd was surfing on their combination of innocence and fierceness as they sang “take a picture” while the interplay between the bass and electric and the drums had a groovy allure. A slower song, in a deeper register for the vocalist, pulled you into a pensive mood. Tomorrow’s Forecast are bringing their fresh sound to the indie pop-rock scene with the reflections on youth, which are sometimes tender, sometimes throwing rocks at a glass house, sometimes ripped out of the notebook under the bed.
Then, not having been lucky enough to have heard the Hussy Hicks before – led by Leesa Gentz (vocals) and Julz Parker (guitar) – I was plunged into the jaw-dropping, foot-tapping, hip-swaying world of their music completely unprepared for exactly how much I was about to enjoy their set. Hypothetic Needles was absolutely electrifying, their country/blues/roots/rock sound paired with powerhouse vocals so incredible I felt like they could have stood at the top of Tamborine Mountain and called out, and the whole of Queensland would have heard their call. It felt like the moment of truth in a movie, as the hero climbs the final hill, or launches into the decisive battle. The next song they introduced as having “shades of 80s music”, inspired by the amazing women they grew listening to. Its infectious beat, tambourine, and sickeningly fantastic guitar work was, once again, jaw7-dropping. The band were clearly a fun, down-to-earth group, and as Julz swapped out her guitar yet again, Leesa joked, “we’re still saving up to buy Julz a guitar tech”.
They introduced Fool on the Hill, which struck a slightly more laid-back tone, perhaps because it’s about taking yourself, and those who anger you, less seriously. “Particularly this week there was a big fool on the hill,” they said. “These people who keep shouting like they know, they don’t know.” Funky guitar featured alongside cool falsetto, making me feel like they could conquer bad vibes (and worse) with pure funk as they sang, “If you can’t be original / At least be kind”. On the same vein of choosing to take the high road, their next song was called Pirate Ship. “This song was written many elections ago about our dismay about our political situation,” Leesa said. “…My solution is to build a little pirate ship in my brain, hoist the sail and the pirate flag and sail away… I think they call that escapism or something.” It started slow and reflective and suddenly launched into a joyful chorus and soulful vocals – “Let’s set sail under a pirate flag / You were waiting for something that may never come”. This is what music is about, taking us out of the horrors and worries of the world, acknowledging them but then connecting us with ourselves and our values.
Hid Myself, Leesa said, was a reminder to stay as authentic as possible, and fingerpicked acoustic along with rushes of cymbals and slight rumblings on the drums added to the sentimentality of the song. They picked up the pace then with Texas, a toe-tapper about being “wanted in Texas”. Another serious, yet enthralling song was Not A Dog, written while Leesa was “super grumpy” during the pandemic, when 60,000 people were allowed at Suncorp Stadium and yet there were no concerts allowed. It struck a darker tone, with distorted guitar and Leesa playing, of all things, a toolbox. “I am not a dog / And I won’t do what you tell me to”, they sang. Their final song, Keep Fighting, was written when Leesa was in a dark place, and at first it was slow and reflective, but then, they put a disco beat into the chorus to make it uplifting. With a guitar riff from Julz which seemed to launch off into space, when the aforementioned disco beat emerged for the chorus, Leesa, and the rest of the band, put out a high-energy performance, flinging around the tambourine, a ridiculous bass solo and frenetic guitar and drums.
Watching more and more performances this year that have incorporated an Auslan translator has me thinking that this is such a great, inclusive addition to live music. It is, of course, wonderful for hearing-impaired people, and the rest of us get to see the translator grooving along onstage with what is almost their own form of choreography. Shoutout to the fantastic translator at Undertone – he was completely matching the energy of the bands the whole time he was up there.
Gold Coast songstress ELEEA was up next, wrapping her tight, compelling melodies in a bow with her velvety vocals. Country-pop vibes presented us with some more cruisy Sunday afternoon listening, as ELEEA’s songs took us through love, heartbreak, and out the other side to self-love and making the right decision for you. The peaks and valleys of her voice were equally lush with emotion and power, as her guitar and that of her duo partner trickled over her lyrics. Kids playing with hula hoops in front of the stage seemed to be buoyed by her feel-good music. Dressed in a stunning red cape, she also covered Jolene, looking every bit the woman torn apart yet determined, and nailed the raw delivery of the beloved song. She told us that she set herself a challenge to write a song about every single country she has travelled to, which have now formed ‘The Travel Collection’ of 150 songs. ELEEA is also a travel blogger, so she’s seen a lot of countries. Red Wine was one such ballad, an evocative song that started describing the dream – “We’re dreaming of a time where we can drink red wine and build a wide fence of our own” – but then examines the reality – “Don’t wait around on something that’s not coming”. Then, a song inspired by Florence, Italy, where smooth vocals, the electric guitar and her acoustic work in tandem to create a beautiful, catchy song where she sings “I can be your lover too”.
Hope D nailed the next set with her confident stance and relatable lyrics. She kicked off with Emerald. Wearing a ‘pickles’ shirt, her quirky presence was launched with a mix of confidence and vulnerability as she sang/rapped about faking it to impress a crush. Then we got Green Out – you can guess what that’s about – with crashing drums and heady guitar riffs, and Hope D pecked the guitarist and drummer on the mouth with a cheeky kiss. In Hate Goodbyes, which features a super catchy chorus, she likened the feeling of her broken heart to getting sunburned because she didn’t put on enough sunscreen – she was “asking for it”. Addict, had a simple but, well, addictive distorted guitar lick, and her semi-rapped, semi-sung lyrics added to her confident persona, like she’s talking over a crowd to recount a story to her group of friends.
Banger Happy Hangover had her off the guitar in favour of working the stage. You could just tell the band was having a ball together, and near the end, Hope D grabbed a drumstick to hit the cymbal, as if she was striking the exact time for the crowd to go up in cheers. Then we had Swim, the first song she released and something of an anthem that she said was about doing “what you need to do to be happy”. This one was slightly slower and much more personal – while it details her struggles with an unaccepting world, by the end, she and the band were joyful, perhaps thinking about how she overcame it – she swam through it all.
The most toxic version of the song Toxic came next – and I mean that as an immense compliment. Hope D’s Like a Version was much more punk rock, full of dissonant guitar that sent a shiver up my spine. It felt like a green mist began to emanate from the stage as she rerouted the vocals, switching up the rhythms, and slipping between full-throated belts and eerie whispers. She had a couple more songs before she finished up with Second, a song which grabs you from the start, making the case for escapism, when it “just feels so nice to have my head cut off a second from reality”.
Annie Hamilton then got onstage to bewitch us with her husky vocals and crackly pop-rock sound, and in her stunning black silk dress, looking like an enchanted dark apparition. talk was built on a midnight soundscape of faint drums and electric guitar, with lyrics about an elusive relationship. Exist began with drums thumping and a mirage-like guitar, before the chorus hit with the gravity of a pendulum as Annie sang “I’ll be waiting just outside” as the pendulum swings back, to help someone who doesn’t “want to exist anymore”. She is a little bit Lana, a little bit Julia Stone, and a lot Annie Hamilton. Her song Kitchen is subtle in its story, like poetry in its cryptic lines: “I’d tell you that I can’t find the words to say / Will you wait up for me later? Can you concentrate?” Ultimately, it seemed to be about not being able to recreate a moment in time.
Last week she released a new album – ‘stop and smell the lightning’, and DYNAMITE saw her ironic side some out, as she sang about how this person blew their relationship up, but now she is blowing her life up – “Like dynamite, dynamite, dynamite”. Then she sang an older one – Panic – which was also very poetic, leaving room for multiple interpretations of her words as she played her very sparkly black and red guitar and echoey electric arose from the stage: “I feel you crashing over me like waves upon the stones at sea / You ruin me like the tide erodes the island”. The first song she ever released, Fade, was heavy and yet dreamy, her breathy voice singing of how she can’t forget someone. Annie finished with the defiant slut era, all about the impossible expectations placed on women, singing, “but the bad boys never lose in the end / yeah, this much i know is true in the end / gotta be shareable, vulnerable, fuckable, relatable, dinner-on-a-plateable, burn-her-at-the-stakeable.”
Montaigne was simply mind-blowing, exultant in their celebration of uniqueness and human feeling – it felt like they took us to a higher dimension. Glorious Heights, with its rallying drums and simply insane vocals was our first entrée to their set, as they sang about pulling themself out of a dark place, and “trying to climb to glorious heights”. Their high notes are nothing short of heavenly, and they tell the story of their songs with their whole body, as exhibited in I’m a Fantastic Wreck, when they enact their lyrics to a sparse instrumental backing – subdued percussion and the plucking of string-like synth, which evoked the jarring nature of their lyrics, “If I’m a little bit deranged / Would you not estrange me or change me?”.
Organ sounds began Lonely, creating the feeling of a cavernous space – where one would no doubt feel lonely. Incredible vocals were supported by the fact that it seemed Montaigne was back in that place they were when they wrote the song with their movement that embodied their emotion so authentically. How they can make such a dark song so groovy is completely beyond me, but the crowd was bopping along. Their 2019 song Losing My Mind, they said, was about burnout, when they couldn’t do anything for a while. Immensely relatable, darkly funny in a way, she sang, “Can hardly read about / My symptoms on-line / It’s over, I’m fine”. Possibly the humour I find comes, once again, from the juxtaposition of their dark thoughts and the undeniably great beat, catchy melody and deep synths. You know that every moment that Montaigne is onstage, they are utterly themselves with no façade.
Then, they talk about their journey to Eurovision, when they “made a bunch of songs on the way to Eurovision,” but “a lot of them got left on the cutting room floor”. They said one song, a satire of the entertainment industry based around aliens coming to Earth, was too weird. “Too weird for Eurovision?” Montaigne laughed. jc ultra has got to be the best song written about aliens since David Bowie, with hilarious commentary, bouncy synth, and a healthy dose of vocal effects.
Because I Love You was a creative, quirky look at a relationship that is fed by perhaps less-than-healthy actions, but without a cliched lyric in sight – “You say horrible things / I laugh because I love you / And when you touch my skin / I think, this isn’t boring”. For much of the song they are jumping up and down, and so is the crowd. Say what you will, but Montaigne has incredible stamina to put so much energy and physicality into their performance and yet still be note perfect. Their newly-released talking shit was such a fun pushback against… assholes. “Life could be really nice / but instead you’re a dick / you’re a dick, you’re a dick / why are you a dick to me? / that’s the million dollar question”. Love. It.
Technicolour, the song that didn’t get left on the cutting room floor at Eurovision, was a breathtaking mantra that encourages people to create the world they want, a big message bundled into a super infectious chorus. Till It Kills Me was another track that questioned the status quo, and Montaigne’s powerful vocals again didn’t falter, and a cymbal crash had the artist kicking out with a massive jump into the air. READY, their final song of the night, finished on a high note (if it was possible to get any higher). Nothing more to say except my mind is blown.
Tania Doko paused her hosting duties for the night to take to the stage herself, treating us to some of her songs from her 90s band Bachelor Girl, as well as new songs and some delicious covers. The song Shine saw her glowing, a little twang in her husky, warm vocals. She threw to the audience who sang it loud – clearly still a beloved classic. Hardcore, with a dramatic start from the keys, she dedicated to the mums and mother figures out there, off her 2023 EP ‘The Beauty’s in the Broken’. It was a touching song which encompassed the heartbreak, the joy and power of motherhood – “Now I let you share my heart for a while / For a while / When it beats inside of you / It beats in me and that’s enough”. A sizzling cover of The Divinyls’ Pleasure and Pain was well-received, and her rich vocals showed this was a woman who has felt a lot in her life. Another recent original, Harder Now, was a heartfelt anthem with an undeniably catchy chorus. As soon as the first chord hit, people leapt to their feet for Buses and Trains, her 1998 hit. With a whole lot of help from an enthusiastic crowd, there’s no other way to describe it except that she sang the HELL out of it – it sounded better than the original to me. Finishing up with another well-chosen cover, Brass in Pocket kept the crowd singalong going.
Jack River is known for her smooth indie pop and her incredible activism for Aussie music, the environment, equality and more. She started her set with her trademark affected vocals and laidback instrumental in Dark Star. Then she went into another upbeat track – Palo Alto. This is a popular one that paints a vivid sense of place with lyrics like “We’re driving to Mexico from Palo Alto / Cruising past fast cars and little old ladies”. Continuing the vehicle theme, Limo Song seemed to be an enigmatic love song – perhaps the limo evoking something transitory. The steady yet catchy beat had everyone nodding along in the crowd. Talk Like That – which Jack described as “the beginning of everything for us”, being the first song she released, had a spacey feel, with the tremulousness of knowing you would be better for someone you love than the person they have chosen.
Jack paused to give a shout-out to the festival committee for the inclusivity and the all-women and non-binary lineup. She said her next song, Lucy Sea Queen, was written for her friend Lucy. It is a beautiful portrait of a fun-loving, loyal friend completed by synths that fell like the calming wash of waves at the beach. A lot of her songs focus on the theme of flawed loves, and Fault Line is one of them. In Fault Line, it is on her own part, and she questions why she took them for granted.
Introducing Paradise, she said she came from a town called Foster, and she wrote the song during the pandemic, when “I kinda felt like things were ending but I didn’t want to give up hope”. She said she was inspired by an Oscar Wilde quote about laying in the gutter and looking up at the stars, and that reminded her of living in a small town and not feeling part of the rest of the world. The song is about a person with a dream, and it has an upbeat feel that makes you want to get up and do something, make your mark. Metallic synth introduced Constellation Ball, a surrealist song about being different and flawed, with imaginative lyrics like “You’d have my spaceship heart / From the planets and the stars / Wish you could see it from afar / How beautiful you are”.
Jack said she has a 2-year-old daughter, and “being a new mother, I live in this strange bubble of home and work”. She said a lot of her songs have a theme of defiance which she thinks is what a lot of women are feeling right now. Lie To You is about not lying to yourself, and with the acoustic guitar it feels like a gentle reminder not to sell yourself out for someone. Gentle synths introduced the next song as Jack said, “are you ready to dance?” Ballroom had thumping drums, and despite it being a quite sad song about feeling alone on the dancefloor, again, people were dancing along.
“We hope that the government can continue supporting the arts,” Jack said, referencing the recent Queensland election, about which she wryly said, “YOLO about who you voted for”. Something else she said stuck with me though – “Music matters when there is chaos in the world”. She dedicated We Are The Youth to the incredible young people forging our future. Despite acknowledging the terrible things we are facing, it is uplifting in insisting we can change.
Confess was another uplifting track, this one about love that had the audience swaying along, savouring the moment. Then, after a moment of suspense in trying to locate Tania, she invited her up to sing with her on a cover of She’s So High, which saw the two belting into the mic cheerily and dancing around the stage, with the crowd clapping and singing along. Then, there was just one last song, Fools Gold, a banger that had all clapping along to the shimmering final moments of Jack River’s performance.
Let’s hope more festivals can create the magical, friendly atmosphere of music lovers that we saw at Undertone.
Thanks to Gold Coast Music Network
