BIGSOUND takes over Meanjin/Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley from Tuesday, 5th to Friday, 8th September 2023. More than 140 emerging artists from Australia and New Zealand are set to showcase at the festival, performing at venues such as Black Bear Lodge, The Brightside, Stranded, The Zoo, Blute’s, Summa House, The Wickham and more.
This year’s program is full of artists who warrant your time and attention. To make planning for BIGSOUND a bit easier, we’ve selected 30 of our favourite acts on the 2023 lineup – find details of where and when to see them below.
30 Artists to See BIGSOUND 2023
1tbsp
1tbsp is the indie-house project of Maxwell Byrne, aka Golden Vessel.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 10.30pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – La La Land @ 9.00pm
Ashli
R&B and pop artist Ashli was raised between New Jersey and Western Sydney and released her debut EP, Only One, in late 2022.
- Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 8.30pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Wonderland @ 10.15pm
BAYANG (tha Bushranger)
BAYANG (tha Bushranger)‘s music sits somewhere on the spectrum between hip hop and punk. Recent collaborators include Kuya Neil, Behind You and Bract.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Stranded @ 9.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – La La Land @ 9.30pm
Beckah Amani
Beckah Amani is a Tanzanian-born, Burundi-raised and Gold Coast-based singer-songwriter whose work is a deeply felt combination of folk, indie-pop and soul.
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Brightside @ 10.30pm
Behind You
Behind You are hard to categorise – their songs encompass murky dissonance, rapped vocals, heavy riffs and post-punk irreverence.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 7.15pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – Superfly Studios @ 8.15pm
Chitra
Chitra makes hooky indie pop music that interrogates our emotional reflexes and gestures towards possible resolutions.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Soapbox Beer @ 9.15pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Outpost @ 9.30pm
Coldwave
Coldwave might be from Adelaide/Kaurna country, but the sextet’s busy take on post-punk sounds like it’s straight out of South London.
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Zoo @ 8.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Superfly Studios @ 9.15pm
Delivery
Naarm-Melbourne quintet Delivery make loose and raw garage rock with a lot of angles, a hint of jangle, and a more than modest amount of spiritual anguish.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 10.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Brightside @ 10.00pm
Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice
Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice is the punk and new wave brainchild of Melbourne/Naarm musician Dougal Shaw, who’s also a member of Cash Savage and the Last Drinks.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Superfly Studios @ 11.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Outpost @ 8.30pm
Dyan Tai
Dyan Tai has roots in the Sydney cabaret scene but has recently crossed over into vocal-oriented electronic dance music, drawing influence from the likes of Skrillex, Flume and Ninajirachi.
- Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 9.30pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 9.00pm
ECB
ECB – aka East Coast Brotherhood – is the collective of sibling rappers Chiggz, Nate G and Will, who make hard-hitting posse hip hop.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Summa House @ 9.30pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – Stranded @ 11.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Outpost @11.30pm
Elizabeth
Elizabeth matches a keen ear for pop melody with lyrics that pay attention to the little things capable of making us feel big feelings.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Loft @ 9.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside @ 4.00pm
GAUCI
Under the name GAUCI, the trio of Antonia Gauci, David Gauci and Felix Lush make guitar-oriented alt-pop music that you can dance to.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Prince Consort @ 10.30pm
Gut Health
Gut Health‘s songs tend to be rooted in dexterous, elastic bass playing, which allows them to oscillate between post-punk and disco-pop, while vocalist Athina Uh Oh injects an element of tongue-in-cheek theatricality.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 9.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm
Hannah Cameron
Naarm/Melbourne-based guitarist and singer Hannah Cameron will be performing songs from her forthcoming album, Holding Pattern, due out on 22nd September. Cameron describes the album’s latest single, ‘The Wrong Way’, as “five years of therapy in song form.”
- Tuesday, 5th September – Soapbox Beer @ 8.15pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – Stranded Bar @ 10.30pm
Izy
Izy are the sharpest rhythm combo in Naarm, and possibly Australia. Ryotaro Noshiro, Maru Nitor and Warrigo Tyrrell specialise in groove-heavy neo soul with sweet vocal harmonies.
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Wickham @ 7.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Prince Consort Hotel @ 8.30pm
Jada Weazel
Naarm via Woorabinda artist Jada Weazel makes R&B and soul in the style of H.E.R, Jhene Aiko and The Internet.
- Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 4.00pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – California Lane @ 10.00am
- Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside @ 7.30pm
Jujulipps
Jujulipps comes to Meanjin from Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau to showcase what’s made her one of the rising stars of Aotearoa’s rap scene.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 11.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – La La Land @ 10.30pm
Kavi
Kavi is an indie artist with expensive taste in pop and retro-futurist electronic production. His latest single is the mirror ball club-pop song ‘SCANDALOUS’.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Outpost @ 7.30pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 8.00pm
Kobie Dee
Gomeroi artist Kobie Dee makes passionate hip hop that pulls no punches in its truth telling mission. He’s signed to Briggs’ Bad Apples Music label.
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Prince Consort @ 11.30pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 11.30pm
Komang
Balinese-Australian singer and producer Komang has worked to carve out a niche within the contemporary neo-soul field, bringing “Balinese spirit” to her electronic productions.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 9.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Outpost @ 9.30pm
Kuzco
Kuzco makes busy electronic music with a dash of psychedelic soul. Kuzco wants her music to “reignit[e] the self with fluid movement.”
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 10.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 7.00pm
Miss Kaninna
Miss Kaninna’s recent single, ‘Blak Britney’ – named for the lyrics, “I’m a deadly bitch / Blak Britney Spears” – is one of the most addictive hip hop songs released in 2023.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Blute’s @ 4.00pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Valley Loft @ 11.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 10.30pm
Platonic Sex
The unfiltered, guitar-led earworms of Meanjin’s Platonic Sex are unsparing in their honesty and dynamically unpredictable.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Zoo @ 10.00pm
POOKIE
MC and producer POOKIE signalled the onset of her drill era with new single ‘TALKIN DIS DAT’, demonstrating the confidence and style that made her a crowd favourite at last year’s Meredith Music Festival.
- Tuesday, 5th September – Stranded @ 11.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – The Outpost @ 10.30pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm
PRICIE
PRICIE’s immediate, melodic pop songs are encased in grooves borrowed from West African highlife and Afrobeat.
- Wednesday, 6th September – Soapbox Beer @ 9.15pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – La La Land @ 11.00pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Wickham @ 10.00pm
REBEL YELL
REBEL YELL’s Grace Stevenson is a school teacher, but there’s nothing child-friendly about her dark, industrial techno productions. REBEL YELL makes body music with a strong emotional undercurrent.
- Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 10.30pm
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm
The Slingers
The Slingers call their brand of new romantic soft rock, “motel pop”, paying attention to “the lives of ordinary people living and struggling through our current age of loneliness.”
- Tuesday, 5th September – Blute’s @ 9.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – The Sound Garden @ 8.00pm
Yawdoesitall
ARIA-nominated hip hop artist Yawdoesitall is a charismatic MC and deft producer, whose cinematic, club-influenced productions recall UK grime and Kanye and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne.
- Tuesday, 5th September – The Warehouse @ 7.00pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – Wonderland @ 11.15pm
Yirgjhilya
Wuthathi and Mirning woman Yirgjhilya specialises in classic soul music, placing her evocative voice and ancestral language at its centre.
- Wednesday, 6th September – Press Club @ 7.15pm
- Thursday, 7th September – Press Club @ 10.15pm
Zheani
Zheani makes club-oriented hyperpop that isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. Her single ‘BRING WET CUNT’, for instance, implores listeners to act on the request of its title.
- Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 11.30pm
- Wednesday, 6th September – La La Land @ 10.00pm
Further Reading
BIGSOUND Announces Artist Showcase Lineup for 2023
BIGSOUND Details Its First Nations Goolwal Goolwal Program for 2023
Mike Shinoda Is Coming To Australia To Speak At BIGSOUND 2023
