Review: Spilt Milk at Claremont Showgrounds

Spilt Milk made its massive Perth debut over the weekend, easily becoming one of the biggest festivals we’ve seen for a long time, with its three stages, multiple pop-ups, and myriad of vendors sprawling across Claremont Showgrounds.

The massive festival site was somewhat of a maze, but one that led to great discoveries around the site, including ice cream stalls, Red Bull tents, a party bus playing requests, which mostly included drum and bass, and the guilty pleasures tent, which played, you guessed it, everyone’s favourite guilty pleasure pop hits.

Venture into the Centenary Shed and you will find the Derbyshire Stage, which boasted some great up-and-coming acts and some much-needed shade in the afternoon heat. RedHook really got the shed sweaty with their unique blend of heavy rock and emo. Their dedicated crowd was very keen to sing along, especially to Soju, Jabberwocky, and Bad Decisions, and they were having a lot of fun forming circle pits.

The Basquiat Stage was the party tent, and each act took the party to the next level. Cub Sport stunned, and Tim’s incredible voice rang out around the whole tent, filling it with a warmth that felt like a hug. Chasin’ and Party Pill were highlights alongside the ever-popular Come On Mess Me Up, which never fails to tug at the heartstrings. Partiboi69 added some trance to the tent and got the party started.

Later on, Aitch continued the party with a super-fun set that the whole crowd got into. He wasn’t afraid of some banter with the punters and had the guts to start the “What do we think of Tottenham?” chant in Ange’s home nation after spotting a fan sporting the jersey in the crowd. Two things were clear after his set: Australians really love grime, and we sure know a lot about football for an AFL nation.

Chris Lake took the party up a notch on the Basquiat Stage with an amazing light show and impressive DJ set. The crowd could not stop dancing, especially with remixes of Skrillex and Fred Again’s Rumble and Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know. Ending his set with Freed From Desire was a power move that everyone appreciated.

The Angove Stage was reserved for the heavyweights, and Lime Cordiale came to prove how much of a mainstay they are. The band shone in the late afternoon sun and played a slew of hits, including newbie Imposter Syndrome. Louis and Oli were effortlessly cool on stage, but in an interesting setlist choice, they played arguably their biggest songs, Robbery, and their cover of Divinyls I Touch Myself in the middle of the set, meaning some punters left to catch other acts before the band had wrapped up.

With so many stages and great acts, it could only mean there would be some unfortunate clashes, with the most unfortunate being Post Malone and Dom Dolla. Choosing to watch Post Malone under the stars resulted in being treated to fireworks, pyrotechnics, and a hell of a show. Opening with Better Now and a shoey, the crowd was going wild for Posty, and he was going wild for them. I Like You (A Happier Song) got the crowd singing along before Post leaned into his rockier side, playing his song with Ozzy Osbourne, which featured visuals of the prince of darkness himself. The singer was accompanied by a whole band, including drums, guitars, and a string section, which added a new dimension to his songs and lifted the atmosphere.

One lucky fan got to make an appearance on stage, coming up to play Stay on guitar, and after a few hiccups, presumably caused by nerves, and with Post’s help, the show went on, and it resulted in such a sweet moment. We were all tricked by the set’s false ending when the stage went dark after Congratulations, but to the crowd’s delight, the lights came back up and Posty returned for Sunflower and Chemicals, which were followed by a full set of fireworks. It seemed as though the festival's entire pyrotechnics budget was spent on Post Malone’s set alone, but it certainly made for a show-stopping set. This was in spite of Post himself seeming to be shouting the songs at times rather than singing them, which was a shame as he normally puts in a great vocal performance—and his voice is such a unique one.

One thing that stood out about Spilt Milk is that it really seemed like the artists were still in control of the creative direction of their stage shows. Normally festivals will just throw up the band name or logo at the back of the stage, but during Spilt Milk, artists seemed to have different visuals for each song, as well as matching light shows. For example, during one of their tracks, Cub Sport had footage of band members Tim and Sam together with their dogs, Missy and Evie, and Lime Cordiale had custom cartoons for each song. This made each set feel like a headline show, which was something quite special in the festival environment.

Despite the festival site being quite large and spread out, there was still a lot of congestion through the walkways, which made for a slow descent to the main stage area, and it seemed to take a long time to walk anywhere on the festival grounds.

Overall, Spilt Milk made a great first impression here in Perth. Everything ran incredibly smoothly, with a few acts even arriving on stage a few minutes ahead of their scheduled set times—that is unheard of! It was a very polished first run, and it will be exciting to see who they will bring over next year.

KIERRA POLLOCK

Photos by Stu McKay