Review || The Mountain Goat Valley Crawl

The Mountain Goat Valley Crawl came back better than ever for its third annual take over of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley on Saturday night. With a killer lineup featuring the likes of The Gooch Palms, Bugs, Nice Biscuit, Midas.Gold and more it was no wonder the whole place was packed with music lovers celebrating some of the best live music that Australia has to offer.

 

Ayla

My first stop was at The Brightside Brisbane where I had the pleasure of seeing Sunshine Coast singer songwriter Ayla. This beautiful multi talented female had captured the hearts of her crowd from the very beginning of her set and with all eyes locked on her she played and sung like an angel. Playing tracks such as Shallow End and Porcelain Doll, Ayla made every instrument change and between song tuning into a humble and intimate experience with her fans. It was awesome to see another band with a female vocalist who also showed off her incredible instrument abilities, with many of her songs requiring her to play guitar or piano as she sung but she made it look like she could do it in her sleep. The crowd simply swayed to the beat of every track like they were stuck in a trance until it came to her single Like The Other Kids that set a fire under the crowded room with fans singing along and passionately throwing their bodies to every note. This was my first time seeing Ayla perform after hearing so much about her and she definitely lived up to my expectations.

 

Midas.Gold 

Next stop was The Flying Cock for Brisbane based emcee Midas.Gold. Midas had the most incredible on stage energy and although the use of the DJ siren sound started to grate on my last nerve I couldn’t bring myself to leave because his set was way to addictive. His voice projected throughout the room with so much force at times he didn’t even need the mic to spit his rhymes. Midas leaped around the stage showing off his crazy dance moves and during tracks such as Work It Out the crowd did just the same. His crowd interactions were incredible, with one simple sentence “Do you guys mosh”, Midas turned the pit into a screaming and dancing frenzy of sweaty music lovers. Playing singles 000000, Poppin and Promo, it didn’t matter what Midas.Gold played because he absolutely killed it. Sounding just like he does on recording but with the added bonus of his high energy and unpredictable performance made for a seriously unforgettable set.

 

Bugs

What do you get when you mix together 3 average Aussie blokes and catchy 90’s surf rock tunes, well you get Brisbane 3 piece Bugs. These boys are yet to disappoint because the energy they produce every time they take the stage is breath taking. Currently making waves throughout the Australian music scene, Bugs proved just why we love them with their high energy performance and and fun loving tunes that are perfect for anytime, anyplace and any day. The Black Bear Lodge was jam packed and I wasn’t surprised to find that so many people new all the words to their songs. From Instant Coffee to their latest release Neighbourhood the fans were going crazy and the floor was bowing under the pressure of a crowd that could not stop dancing. During single Stutter a member of the crowd made it up on the stage to sing along with the band and the boys didn’t mind one bit, in fact they were stoked by all the support. One of the highlights of their set was definitely their cover of DMA’s Like A Version song Believe by Cher or when bassist Jordan crowd surfed with his bass where he was gracefully carried from the stage to the back of the mosh pit and back with no casualties. Bugs performed a flawless set with the perfect amount of professionalism and the only disappointment was Brock wearing clothes instead of his usual denim overall attire.

 

And lets not forget to thank the amazing people behind The Mountain Goat Valley Crawl, Mountain Goat, Sailor Jerry and The Music who work tirelessly every year to give Brisbane music lovers a chance to see such talented artists for FREE! To all the amazing venues who are apart of the crawl every year, to the incredible artists who play their hearts out, to the promoters such as Mucho Bravado who keep people like me up to date on whats going on. And to you guys for keeping live music alive! Until next year!