Hipster Watch: Bigsound 2011

Hipsters love finding bands no one knows, yet are still good to listen to. Bigsound is Brisbane's answer to the South by Southwest festival. For a few days, the Valley is overrun by music everywhere you look. There's live music, there's workshops, there's speeches and it's basically everything you need to be in the music industry in one place. It sounds like the perfect place for a hipster to get the inside knowledge.

The best part for the average punters like you and me, apart from occasionally seeing a famous guest speaker, is the live music event. One ticket, for $55, gets you 80+ bands across multiple venues over 2 days. And the best part is, being a music convention, it's going to be the best of the up and coming bands in our country fighting for attention. No matter what, we, the punters, win. Check out the band list so far:

The Getaway Plan
Horrorshow
Calling All Cars
Emma Louise
Eagle & the Worm
Busby Marou
Trial Kennedy
Evil Eddie
Last Dinosaurs
Adalita
Big Scary
The Adults (feat. Shihad's Jon Toogood) (NZ)
The Sheepdogs (Canada)
Jonathan Boulet
DZ Deathrays
Bleeding Knees Club
Ball Park Music
The Medics
Avalanche City (NZ)
Stonefield
Jinja Safari
Owl Eyes
Boy In a Box
Damn Dogs (Feat. Chris & Mark from Jet)

Okay, granted, the Getaway Plan has been around as long as I've been going to gigs in Brisbane (if we forget when they broke up) but the rest is some of the best of Australia's new music. DZ Deathrays, The Medics, Calling All Cars, Jonathon Boulet, Ball Park Music and Trial Kennedy are getting me excited. I don't even know half of the bands there, but I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

If you want to find great new music before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon, head to this. Not to mention, it's great bloody value. It's happening September 7-9 at various venues around the Valley.