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Australian Blues Music Festival in Goulburn

12 February 2012

I spent the weekend in Goulburn, Australia’s first inland city, and host to what I believe was the 12th Australian Blues Music Festival. I was keen to go for a few reasons: I love the blues, Goulburn is only 2 hours’ drive from Sydney, almost all the acts were Australian, and almost all the shows were free.

I didn’t make the Thursday and Friday night shows, but drove down early Saturday. Gigs were held at several venues in the downtown core, at pubs, parks, and social clubs. It was a really pleasant country-town vibe, and we wound up seeing a lot of the same people and performers over and over again at the different venues.

This festival doesn’t have the big names (and big prices) of the Byron Bay Bluesfest, but here were some really great performers, ones that I feel I was lucky to see for free.

On Saturday I saw several bands.

I started at one crowded pub with The Resonators, a father-and-son act that got a full slot by winning the street busking competition the previous year. They paid blues standards, with solid guitar skills, but the singing was just OK.

A hope to the pub across the street and next up was Leroy Lee, more of a folk singer. He was good, with a looping device and some keen feedback skills that gave his guitar songs lots of mood and texture. But they did start sounding a bit same-y after a while.

Back to the first pub for a band I picked because of the name: Tobasco Tom & Doc White. These guys turned out to be fantastic: steeped in early Americana, with everything from jump blues to Virginia murder ballads. Funny too. I caught one song on video.

Down the road to the Soldiers Club for Diana Wolfe & The Black Sheep. Diana was another winner: very charismatic and fun, and singing very danceable blues and jazz standards.

I left partway through her set to see a trio called Damn Fine Gentlemen in the park next door. They were a heavier rockin’ sound, with some interesting lyrics on some original songs, but the singer’s vocals left me wanting more. So I went back to see the rest of Diana Wolfe’s set.

After a fantastic dinner we stopped into a club with a large house band whose name I didn’t catch, but who were a little too sweaty and full-on for me. We decided to pop over to the Bowling Club to catch Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson. And I’m so glad we did, because they were amazing. Deep delta slide blues, some heavy UK rock-blues influence, and even some Celtic fluting. I got them on video doing a dynamic version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”.

On Sunday some of the singers we’d seen on the previous day – including Diana Wolfe – did a gospel song service in the park that was a pleasant way to start the morning.

After that we caught Halfway to Forth, two brothers from Tasmania – now in Adelaide – who really impressed me with their soulful harmonising, guitar skills, and laid-back blues and reggae tunes.

As I said: to see all these shows for free – and we could have done many more – was absolutely fantastic. There was so much authentic blues, so much Australian talent, and such a good atmosphere around the whole town, that I’d easily return and recommend it to any roots music fan. Way to go, Goulburn.

Posted in Australia, blues, gig, music | Tagged Goulburn, Hat Fitz and Cara Robinson, Tobasco Tom and Doc White | Leave a Comment »

Hall & Oates at the Sydney Entertainment Centre

9 February 2012

Despite being a massive Hall & Oates fan in the ’80s, I wasn’t going to go to their show here in Sydney. It’s been years since I heard anything new from them, and felt a bit over it. But a good friend of mine is a big fan and wanted to go and that made me reconsider. So last night he and I went down to Darling Harbour to see them.

We gave opening band Icehouse a miss. I’ve never been a big fan of them. I thought it best to leave them to the Aussie fans who adore them. My mate and I had a couple of beers and caught up instead.

We timed our arrival perfectly, getting into the Entertainment Centre and finding our seats just moments before the headline duo took the stage.

I’ll be honest: the first half of the show was pretty average. Darryl Hall’s voice took a few songs to warm up, and by doing a couple of big songs early – “Maneater” first, and “Out of Touch” third – I think they squandered a bit of impact. They played a couple of older songs that I’m sure the true fans loved but that I don’t care for (e.g., “Family Man”), and John Oates songs that – c’mon, let’s be fair – aren’t as compelling.

But either the drinks I’d had kicked in or they loosened up as they went (or maybe both) but things got better toward the end. The encores, especially, hit home and had many of us up and dancing. “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” was quite cool. “Private Eyes” had us clapping, too. The joy that the crowd felt in the last parts of the set was infectious, and really fun to be part of.

Those songs are truly great, and Darryl and John are a great writing and singing duo. The band was fine too. But Hall & Oates isn’t a good act for stadium venues like this: you lose a lot in that space and distance. They are, in essence, an R&B vocal duo, and our nostalgic love for them was probably all that got them over the pass line by the end.

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Sydney Festival: 41 Strings

23 January 2012

Last night was another Sydney Festival event: 41 Strings, an orchestral piece by Nick Zinner, guitarist of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I know that’s a lot of cultural references to take in at once, but bear with me.

It was at the Opera House. It started with a drum piece, IIII, created by some of the drummers that also perform with Zinner. It’s also based on Four Seasons. There were a couple of dozen percussionists and two synth players, all arranged in the round. And my god, it was a thundering, impressive bit of playing. The rhythms weren’t super complicated – I imagine that would be hard with such an ensemble – but they were mesmerising. There was a lot of heavy crunch from the synths, of the sort that the Brooklyn bands have been producing in the last couple of years. It was cool and heavy and jubilant and compelling. I loved it.

Then came Zinner, his 40 other stringed accompanists (including a large contingent from the Australia Youth Orchestra) and a few drums. The four pieces were a blend of classic and contemporary – the lead guitar unmistakable Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound – and none were dull. In reflection perhaps it could have had more slow, quiet pieces. But it was certainly a big, lush sound, and one that was easy to engage with.

I liked both pieces, but I think that IIII affected me more. There’s something about that many drums, that much booming rhythm, that affects me primally.

Neither work instrumental work overstays its welcome; the whole show was over in 90 minutes, including an intermission. But that worked for me. Any longer would have devolved into stuffiness.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged 41 Strings, Four Seasons, Nick Zinner, Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, Vivaldi | Leave a Comment »

Sydney Festival: Asa and Féfé

19 January 2012

Last night was my third Sydney Festival event. It was a gig, part of the festival’s So Frenchy, So Chic series, and took place at the Keystone Bar at Hyde Park Barracks. I like that as a festival venue: it’s downtown and feels busy, and has a good mix of semi-indoor (in the tent) and outdoor areas that flow very well.

First was Asa, whose gentle, jazzy set was pretty average for the first few songs. But the groove and impact picked up as she went on. Her soulful songs – part R&B, part rock – became catchier and punchier. And she’s irresistibly likeable herself: she dances, she plays the trumpet, she chats with the front row, and she looks like a funky librarian.

Soon followed Féfé. He and his band were fun from the start. They play hip-hop with lots of pop and funk. And he will not leave the crowd alone: the (moderately obliging) assembled listeners had to do our fair share of hand waving, clapping, jumping, singing, running left and right, and screaming. That almost all of the songs were in French was fine. Between Féfé and his DJ there was lots of energy going on, and the point was clear: have fun.

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Sydney Festival: Band of Gypsies

13 January 2012

Last night was a hyper-joyful night of Sydney Festival folk music at the Enmore Theatre.

The first act – which I did not know about – was of a style called Shangaan Electro, hyper-fast electro dance from South Africa. The group of four dancers and singers, and one DJ, carried on the most hyperkinetic dancing I’ve ever seen for a solid 30 minutes. It was dizzying and tiring to watch. The dancers moved with such joy you couldn’t look away; it also helped that the men wore orange jumpsuits with ridiculously fake beer bellies. The beats flew at breakneck speed. It became almost psychedelic.

The main acts, collectively named Band of Gypsies, were comprised of Romanian folk troupe Taraf de Haïdouks and Macedonian brass band Kočani orkestar. They played song after song of gypsy music: wild violins, three accordions, tubas, clarinets, and lots more. It was a Balkan/middle eastern/Slavic/Latin amalgam of high-energy Romani epics. Bows were flying, fingers were snapping, trumpets were blaring. Everyone took their solos, and a few would occasionally sing. It was irrepressibly jubilant. It was the gypsy spirit.

It’s hard for me to imagine seeing either of these sort of acts here at any other time. Way to go, Sydney Festival.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Enmore Theatre, Kocani Orkestar, Sydney Festival, Taraf de Haidouks | 1 Comment »

Newfoundland Showcase at Notes

6 January 2012

The Woodford Folk Festival takes place in Queensland between Christmas and New Year’s each year. This time it was attended by a contingent of folk acts from eastern Canada (mostly Newfoundland & Labrador, though a couple from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island as well).

I didn’t get up to Woodford, but I did notice that those Canadian acts were doing a Newfoundland showcase night at the tiny Notes venue here in Newtown (which has a tradition of booking folk and roots acts), on their way out of Oz. So last night I got the chance to see several Canadian acts – all new to me – for just $15, and ten minutes from home. As a certain Mr. Sheen would say: winning.

Ron Hynes

I dragged along a few Aussie friends, snagged one of the last tables, and settled in for some listening. Seven acts played, pretty much non-stop through the evening.

I came in most of the way through the first set, by a couple of members of The Dardenelles. Very quiet, very pretty guitar tunes.

Next was Ennis, a group taking the surname of centrepiece sisters Maureen and Karen. The Celtic influence started in earnest here. They played some guitar and mandolin songs, harmonised as sisters can, told a few jokes, and brought out a sheet of plywood for some stepdancing.

Dwayne & Duane followed: that’s be Cape Breton fiddler Dwayne Coté and Newfie guitarist Duane Andrews. Things jumped up a notch at this point. Both were impressive masters of their instruments, especially Coté. They ranged all over the place, playing Irish reels and Django Reinhardt swing. Very cool.

Ron Hynes was next, and was the only name I sort of knew. He’s been recording since 1972, and is a minor legend in Canadian folk circles. Maybe a major legend if you count the people who know he wrote “Sonny’s Dream”, a very popular Atlantic Canadian tune (also the last song he played, and the only one of the night that some crowd members could sing along to). But I thought his best song was “Dry”. Hynes is one of those guys who must be a great songwriter, because neither he nor his voice are pretty (cf. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits).

Richard Wood is a fiddler from PEI; he was accompanied last night by guitarist and singer (and fellow Islander) Gordon Belsher. They brought a lot of energy to the night, with upbeat fiddle folk-pop. We were initially concerned by Woods’ Nickelback-hair-and-tight-pants look, but he delivered the musical goods. Anyone riffing Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” into a folk night is alright by me.

Next was The Once. They had both feet firmly planted in the Irish sea shanty tradition. Singer Geraldine Hollett had a forceful but calming delivery, and the group harmonised exceptionally well. They also played one of my very favourite songs by the great Stan Rogers, “The Maid On The Shore”.

Last was Sherman Downey & The Silver Lining. They were a full-on folk rock band. They were smooth and catchy and laid back, just a bunch of guys having fun playing songs. And they had an electric banjo, which is kinda cool.

Way to go, Newfies. You put on a super show. And you made me pretty homesick for a night.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Dwayne & Duane, Ennis, Gordon Belsher, Newfoundland music, Richard Wood, Ron Hynes, Sherman Downey & The Silver Lining, The Dardenelles, The Once | Leave a Comment »

The Beards + Claire + Matt Andersen at The Vanguard

23 December 2011

Earlier this week I went to a gig The Vanguard, in Newtown, for the first time. It’s a pretty cool little venue.

First up was Matt Andersen, the massive Canadian blues guitarist I’ve already seen twice as he’s toured Australia. He displayed the same pyrotechnics as before; maybe a bit more, as he was the first opening act. The crowd seemed to think it was cool, though a lot of them remained sitting on the floor, which I found a bit odd.

Second was Claire, a relatively new and very young Australian act. Heavy art rock, sort of. Modern, and theatrical, but not emotional enough for me after seeing Matt. The crowd stood up, though.

Finally it was The Beards in their last show of the year. They were as tight and hooky and beard-y as the first time I saw them. You’ve got to have chops if you’re going to be successful as a one-joke band, but they really do it.

Here it is again, because you need to hear it: “You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man”. Listen, then vote it into triple j’s Hottest 100.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Claire, Matt Andersen, The Beards | Leave a Comment »

Still got the blues: Claude Hay and Matt Andersen at The Beaches

19 December 2011

The other week I saw Aussie one-man blues band Claude Hay and Canadian acoustic blues guitar wizard Matt Andersen. We thought they were good enough to see again, and so Sunday afternoon we drove down the coast.

They played an early evening set at The Beaches, a popular pub in the seaside town of Thirroul. And it was a free show!

They were as good as the first time. Hay’s set was exactly the same, I think, but I’m still amazed at the stomping jams he can create with that loop machine. And I love his bass lines.

Andersen mixed it up a bit more, and we got a couple of crowd-pleasing covers (including “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “People Get Ready”). In fact, the crowd was so pleased they cheered him back for two encores.

As luck would have it, I’ve discovered that I’m going to get to see Andersen yet again before he returns to Canada. I’ve just noticed that he’s going to open for The Beards, another band I can’t get enough of, in Newtown on Wednesday night. And since Andersen is now rocking a beard, that fits perfectly.

Matt Andersen. Photo from QuinteLive Magazine.

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Claude Hay and Matt Andersen live at the Brass Monkey

11 December 2011

We got an early Christmas present from my mom, who tipped us off to the fact that Canadian blues guitar wizard Matt Andersen was touring Australia. So last Thursday we took the train down to Cronulla’s Brass Monkey to see him.

It’s a co-headlining tour of two stringed-instrument masters. First up was Claude Hay. First impressions were of a stereotypical Blue Mountains muso: tattooed, semi-hippy, happy, and multi-instrumentalist.

Second impressions: a fantastic Louisiana-blues-based one-man-band. Hay played a twin guitar (lead and bass) he made himself, and a tricked-out sitar. He utilised a loop machine to lay down his own backing tracks, then jammed over top. His kick-drum and kazoo and bongo rounded things out. I thought he was fantastic.

With only a few moment’s changeover Andersen got on stage. First impressions: my god, that is a huge man.

Second impressions: wow, that guy is an amazing guitarist and singer. He sits and plays his acoustic six-string alone, with no other accompaniment. There are no effects pedals or backing tracks, just his fretwork frenzy and his massive blues howl. The songs are, to be fair, pretty ordinary, both lyrically and melodically. But the power of the voice from the man, who must be 180 kg, and the speed and passion from the fingers on the strings, are pretty damn impressive.

We’re going to go see Hay and Andersen again next weekend when they play at the Beaches Hotel in Thirroul down the coast. Thanks, mom!

Posted in blues, Canada, gig, music | Tagged Claude Hay, Matt Andersen | 1 Comment »

Harvest Festival Sydney

17 November 2011

Last Sunday – after flying back from Spain – I went to Harvest Festival in Sydney. It was a good day out, and a great way to stave off jetlag.

It was a very chilled, hippie vibe out in Parramatta Park. With no under-18s, it was a fairly grown-up gathering. It was never ridiculously crowded or annoying. It was, as it was billed, civilized and relaxed.

I got to see:

TV On The Radio (Fantastic, once their sound guy got things levelled out)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Rub Your Hands Say Meh)
Bright Eyes (just a bit, which was enough)
Mogwai (good as always, and a great soundtrack for laying on your back in the grass and watching the sky; chattier than normal)
The National (just a bit, they weren’t as god as I’d hoped)
The Flaming Lips (always a super experience; I welled up during ‘Do You Realize’, like I always do)
Portishead (only a bit, as the jetlag finally caught up; good, but a super downer after The Lips)

The Flaming Lips explode onstage. flickr photo from gunslingr

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Harvest Festival, Mogwai, The Flaming Lips, TV on the Radio | Leave a Comment »

Alice Cooper at the Enmore Theatre

27 September 2011

Last night was living legend night: Alice Cooper. I’ve never before seen the master of shock rock, the inventor of gig theatre spectacle, play live. But last night I saw a wrinkled, potbellied 63-year old do everything that rock ‘n’ roll is about.

Nice hat. Image from sezzles via Creative Commons license.

It’s always been clear to me that the best rock is big, dumb (but in a clever tongue-in-cheek way), brash, and ugly. And that’s Alice and his live show to a tee. He’s undoubtedly doing it by numbers now, but those numbers are hilariously bizarre and catchy. No one can tell me that “I’m Eighteen” isn’t one of the best rock songs ever recorded: it perfectly expresses the youth and alienation we’ve all felt.

He’s doing the same songs every night on this tour, but I thought it was a pretty good selection. Alice knows when his golden era was, and half of the songs come from Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, and Welcome To My Nightmare.

Highlights: opener “The Black Widow” with eight-legged jacket; “Only Women Bleed” followed by “Cold Ethyl” (with a loved/abused mannequin the object of Alice’s crooning); a full psychedelic version of “Halo Of Flies”; a monster-stomping “Feed My Frankenstein”; “I’m Eighteen”; the metal tune “Brutal Planet”; a selection from his New Wave phase, “Clones (We’re All)”.

What didn’t work: I’ve never liked the song “Billion Dollar Babies”; “Hey Stoopid”; the guitar mix (there were three) was pretty muddy, and the sound board often didn’t switch in time with the solos.

Alice sounded better than I expected, not that he ever had dulcet tones. He strutted, and swirled his cane, and was decapitated, and brandished a sword, and impaled a music journalist, and did all the amazing rock spectacle things that we wanted from an Alice Cooper show. Sure, a lot of it would be considered trite if someone else did it, but he invented this stuff.

The lesson: be more creative, and don’t take yourself too seriously. And songs about loving dead people are big crowd-pleasers.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Alice Cooper | Leave a Comment »

Bryan Adams at the Opera House

18 September 2011

Bryan Adams catches a lot of shit. I would maintain that the reasons for this are not his fault. So last night I went to the first of three sold-out shows he’s playing at Sydney’s Opera House on his Bare Bones acoustic tour.

Gary Breit and Bryan Adams. Photo from ASquall via Creative Commons license

Between 1984 and 1985 Bryan Adams was one of the biggest rock stars on the planet. He did this not by making a single original sound or writing a single insightful lyric. He did this by having a perfect rock voice, and by writing tunes that were perfect archetypes of guitar-driven, singalong rock songs. Thus those songs have broad public appeal. Thus they get played a billion times. Thus many of us will change the station when “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” comes on the radio.

I’ve never bothered to see Adams play before, even in the decades I lived in Canada. If it had been his normal band I wouldn’t have gone. But on this Bare Bones tour it’s just him and an acoustic guitar for much of it, with pianist Gary Breit on the rest. That’s it. Since all Bryan Adams’s songs are guitar tunes I thought that this would be the way to hear them.

It was. The format reduced the packed Opera House to a backyard singalong.

He opened big, with “Run To You”. Adams’s voice sounded exactly as it did in the early ’80s: strong and raspy. His guitar playing was much better than the simple rhythm parts that some singers play, and we got all the relevant fills.

Ultimately there are few people on the planet who can write a catchy, dynamic melody and a massive, memorable, rock chorus like Bryan Adams. That’s not enough – in my books – to call him great, but it is enough to pack a venue with people who know every line.

I was struck last night by how good the early songs that he co-wrote with Jim Vallance were. “I’m Ready” and “Heaven” were vital. “Heat of the Night”, as one of the few Adams songs to stand out with different guitar sounds, was one of my favourite tunes of the night. So was “Do I Have To Say The Words”: its phrasing and rhythms mark it as a better song than most.

The night was not without surprises: “Cuts Like A Knife” was always going to be good, and then the “na na na” ending was accompanied by a walkthrough bagpiper. Didn’t see that coming.

“Summer of ’69″ was played fast and hard, and was the most crowd-enthusiastic song. But this track – like “Everything I Do…”, which got played of course – has been overdone to the point that even in an acoustic format I just wanted it to be over. All of the Mutt Lange co-penned songs fall short of the early stuff. I mean, c’mon, “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You”?

Adams himself was relaxed, chatty, and full of funny stories. It was a genial evening, and – to be honest – one very low on cheese (perhaps bombast enhances cheese). I enjoyed seeing a songwriter play songs I knew, on his acoustic guitar, which I imagine is exactly how he first wrote them all.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged acoustic music, Bare Bones, Bryan Adams | Leave a Comment »

The Beards at the Annandale Hotel

21 August 2011

I have to admit the truth: I love gigs but I have not yet been to Sydney’s Annandale Hotel. On Friday night I addressed this terrible shortcoming. A couple of mates came with me to see The Beards, and I now have another trembling admission: I think beards are incredibly cool.

The Beards just want to be friends. So long as you also have a beard.

First off, the Annandale: perfect dive bar for gigs. It’s just a dark, dirty, sticky room. There’s a pretty nice little Thai food restaurant in back (called Wok ‘n’ Roll, of course). But the Annandale is awesome for all the same reasons as the Astoria in London was awesome: dark, filthy rock had infused every grain of wood in the building’s structure. Love it.

There were three bands on Friday, but we missed The Rockets because we were stuffing our face with Thai. The second band was Gay Paris, and I’ve seen few odder. They were a roaring, bald, purple-cloaked, bearded hillybilly stomp of rock funk. The bass player’s grimacing had me in stitches. Okay, they were just a weird bunch of guys, but as one of my mates pointed out they played incredibly tightly. Also, their bearded-ness made me wonder if The Rockets had had beards as well, and it was an all-facial-hair night.

But The Beards…oh, The Beards. They were awesome fun. Okay, obviously they’re a bit of a novelty beard…I mean band. They’ve had three albums, and every song on every one of them is about how awesome beards are. Songs like “A Wizard Needs A Beard”, “No Beard, No Good”, “Born With A Beard” and “It Only Takes A Fortnight…*”.

But their songs are all rocking, and delivered with such enthusiasm, and single-minded, beard-stroking seriousness, that you cannot help but pump your fist. At the same time you buy in: beards do make you look manly and powerful. You start thinking about your chin follicles, and straining a little.

It’s all helped immensely by the facts that they pick especially catchy, singalong rhythms, and their singer is really quite good. There’s nothing especialy complicated going on, sonically, but it’s fun, energetic rock. They wore matching lounge suits too. Always a plus.

Witness a couple of examples: first, the video for “If Your Dad Doesn’t Have A Beard, You’ve Got Two Mums”.

Now listen to a new song, ’80′s synth-drenched track “You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man.”

I think it’s pretty clear what level of awesome I’m talking about here.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged awesome beardy music, Gay Paris, The Annandale, The Beards | 2 Comments »

The Cure, live at Sydney Opera House

2 June 2011

I was never a goth.

I was also never a big fan of The Cure. Sure, I thought they were okay, but I never owned any of their albums until just last year. Too many of their tunes were simply gloomy, rather than moving, to me.

But I came to appreciate their good stuff recently. By “good stuff” I do not, obviously, mean “Love Cats”. God, I hate that song.

Tonight I saw the second Reflections show by The Cure. These are two-nights only performances of the band’s first three albums, with original band members, performed at the Opera House as part of the Sydney Vivid Festival.

I don’t know if the people at the show have, like me, never been goths, but surprisingly few of them belonged to that grim culture now.

The show was four hours of The Cure. There was no opener, but there were two brief intermissions. That meant a lot of music. We got the full rock show, lights and smoke and big bass stances and Robert Smith sounding as good as he ever has on record.

First were the albums. Three Imaginary Boys was the first. I thought it was the best set of the night. These songs were so poppy, so exuberant. And the band can now deliver them with such skill and power. It all really worked for me, especially “Grinding Halt” and “Fire In Cairo”. We even got final, short, instrumental blues track “The Weedy Burton” which Smith said was an omission from the first night.

Second (proper) album Seventeen Seconds sounded good, and the crowd loved “A Forest”, of course. But the gloomy Cure sound was still developing when they wrote and recorded these tracks. To me that made them a less interesting listen, as a complete album. Like I said above, I never contemplated suicide by eyeliner while listening to this album while young.

Third album Faith was, surprisingly to me, even worse. I really like this album, but live, played all in a row, the tunes were all just too same-y. Too little variation in the depressing shades of grey from song to song.

During the encores, though, things really kicked in for me again. The first ramped the energy back up immediately, with some early B-sides, “Boys Don’t Cry”, and “Killing An Arab”.

The second encore kept things intense, with “The Hanging Garden” a highlight.

And then we got a third encore, still powerful and energetic, with “Let’s Go To Bed”, “The Walk”…

…and fucking “Love Cats”. Oh well.

Although the middle bits were just alright, the start and finish of the show were immense. It was a real event, too, and something I’m glad that I saw.

Two final notes about the people that were on either side of me:
1. To the guy on my right: you really should have checked the scalped ticket you bought off the guy out front more closely. He was obviously an asshole: seeing the first night’s show and then selling you the used ticket for the second night. You’re lucky the ushers didn’t notice the date, as you hadn’t, and let you in. You’re also lucky there was space to hide at the back, as it was a sold-out show. Still, I’m glad you got to see the show, as you were obviously a big fan.
2. To the women on my left: why would you come to a gig just to have a four-hour conversation? Your insanely loud and brainless chatter spoiled the show until I and the guy in front told you to shut up. Three times. I hope the rock gig didn’t ruin your chance to gossip. Idiots. Desperate Cure fans missed out on that show because you bought tickets. Well done.

Posted in gig, music | Tagged The Cure, Vivid Sydney | Leave a Comment »

Spiritualized: Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space at the Vivid Sydney festival

28 May 2011

Vivid Sydney is this city’s annual festival of “light, music and ideas”. I can agree with the first two, at least, as I was down at the Opera House last night. There are coloured, moving projections of light all around Circular Quay. Lit installations and warm glows are everywhere you look down there at the moment. It’s very pretty, very cool.

Inside an Opera House covered in huge, moving patterns of luminescence, though, was the music I’d come to see: Spiritualized. The UK cosmic-rock act led by J Spaceman is one of my favourite bands anyway, so I’d have gone to see them (for the fourth time) in any case. But last night – and repeated again tonight – they were playing the entirety of their perfect 1997 album, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.

Not only was there a six-piece rock band that took the stage, there was also a 9-person choir and a substantial orchestra behind. If you know Ladies And Gentlemen… you know those are essential to reproducing it live.

The Spaceman was in sitting-down mode tonight. I was in the third row, right next to him. God, he’s thin and pale. His ever-present sunglasses kept him from us. Not that he looked out into the audience anyway: he always faces across the stage when he sits like that. He looked weak and shaky, a vulnerable man in a white T-shirt, separate from the black-garbed band, almost like he’d rather slip back with the ivory-robed choir.

This is how close I was. That's taken with a Blackberry.

With no prelude, the album began. If you know Spiritualized, you know their drug-hymns, their space-rock noise-dirges to love. This album is a perfect combination of sounds about love, in fact: love that makes you weak, and drugs that you love that make you weak, all wrapped up in the sounds of gospel and choirs, but that eventually must descend into sonic chaos. On this album, Spiritualized were Punk Floyd.

The reproduction on-stage was perfect. There’s zero antics. Apart from frequent strobing lights, it was all sonic waves, song after song of loss, crashing over us. J’s voice was as plaintive and mournful as on the albums. Every throbbing bass note, muted trumpet blare, choir keen, and guitar scream was delivered as it is when you’re listening to Ladies And Gentlemen… on your own, in the dark of your bedroom, with headphones.

“Come Together”, “I Think I’m In Love”, and “Cop Shoot Cop” (all seventeen minutes of it) were amazing highlights. J got up to say thanks at the end, as did the assembled Opera House. They came back for just one more, Let It Come Down‘s “Out Of Sight”, which was equally powerful. I’m glad they didn’t overdo it, and – apart from that one encore song – let the album stand on its own.

I’ve seen many of these songs performed before. But seeing them all performed together, in order, in the dying format that is the album, was pretty powerful. Pretty vivid.

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The Cure: Reflections – Getting tickets

13 May 2011

I got tickets today for what should be a pretty historic show by The Cure.

Vivid is an annual Sydney festival of the arts and culture. I’m already going to see Spiritualized play their seminal space-rock album Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.

Then it was announced that original members of The Cure would be re-joining Robert Smith and the rest of the band to perform two special shows at the Opera House for Vivid: namely, playing the band’s first three albums, Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, and Faith. All together, each night, complete and in a row, with the members who recorded each record playing.

They say that this is a one-off event for the festival. I’ve never been the world’s biggest Cure fan, but I couldn’t miss this.

I managed to get tickets for me and a mate today, for the second night’s show. It was tricky: the Opera House’s web server was definitely not ready for the onslaught of fans. I’d given up after an hour and a half, but careful Twitter monitoring alerted me to a new link the Opera House put up later in the morning. It seems I was pretty lucky, as lots of people didn’t get tickets (and, judging by the times they believe the show sold out, didn’t spot the new links for ticket).

The shows are May 31 and June 1. Expect a monster review on June 2.

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Gig review: The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band

17 April 2011

Several weeks ago I was looking at upcoming acts for some of the smaller local music venues I know attract good musicians. Notes Live in Newtown listed a Saturday night gig for something called the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band. The writeup sounded like they were the legit deal from the US, so I bought a ticket, without knowing anything more.

I later found out that Rowan is a bit of a bluegrass hero. He was only a “bluegrass boy” for Bill bloody Monroe in the ’60s: it doesn’t get more genuine than that. He was in a group called Old And In The Way with Jerry Garcia. He’s done lots of other projects, some related to rock and folk and reggae. But now he’s joined up with some other bluegrass die-hards and returned to those roots. It’s this band that’s now touring, having released a bluegrass album.

It was the real deal last night. Rowan plays guitar; the others play mandolin, banjo, and bass. Just about every song last night was bluegrass, or close to it.

Rowan’s voice is high, clear and lonely, perfect for the sort of music they play. And the other guys provide excellent harmonies; almost every song saw them do three-part, sometimes four-part.

In the first half they played just about every song from their latest recording, Legacy. My faves were “Jailer Jailer”, “Catfish Blues”, “Turn the Other Cheek”, the Carter Family’s “Let me Walk Lord By Your Side”, and the Tibetan-tune-influenced “Across the Rolling Hills (Padmasambhava)”.

After the break they played songs from Rowan’s solo career, Old And In The Way, and other influential early bluegrass tunes: “Old Mountain Dew”, “In The Pines” was awesome, Monroe’s “Roll On Buddy, Roll On” was fantastic. Another Carter Family tune, “Don’t Bury Me On The Lone Prairie”, was moving; and their “Wildwood Flower” guitar riff found its way into “Panama Red”.

Oddly, it’s some of Rowan’s most famous early songs that rub me the wrong way. They come across as mawkish and lame: “So Good”, “Land of the Navajo”, “Moonlight Midnight”, and “Free Mexican Air Force”.

But those are small whinges. This was a genuine, zero-frills, honest-to-roots, feel-good night of musicianship and vocal harmonies. These guys care about this music deeply.

If you’re in Sydney and you like bluegrass, you can catch the band on Tuesday night. They’re back in town and playing at the Cat and Fiddle in Balmain.

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Stone Temple Pilots at the Metro Theatre

22 March 2011

Grunge hit when I was in my early 20s, so it was a pretty big thing for me. I was a Nirvana/Alice in Chains/Soundgarden fan. I was not a big Pearl Jam fan. Nor was I much of a Stone Temple Pilots fan; I never owned any of their albums, for instance.

However I always found myself tapping and singing when an STP song came on the radio. They knew how to write and play a good hook, something they learned from Led Zeppelin. And they made out like they were rock stars, too, not mopey grunge guys. This may have been why they never got as much critical acclaim as some other bands.

But I was never a huge fan, so when I heard that the reformed Stone Temple Pilots were playing the large Hordern Pavilion here in Sydney I didn’t bother getting a ticket.

But when I heard they were playing an encore show at the tiny Metro Theatre, I changed my mind. And that was a good decision. I just got home from that gig.

I managed just the last 40 seconds of opening band Redcoats. That much sounded okay.

STP rocked. Every song crunched, heavy and full and satisfying. Maybe a little too much volume on the instruments, at times, allowing the vocals to get lost in the fat rolls of guitar, bass and drums. There was energy and joy, and very little stopping; I don’t think I saw any of the preening or tuning between songs that seem to take some bands ages. There was just rock ‘n’ roll.

Scott Weiland still dances like a whisky drunk attempting tai chi, which is great. He’s got proper rock frontman moves, with a serious mug, lots of swaying and jerking, and lots of shouting through a megaphone. He started besuited, but quickly became a sweaty T-shirted strutter. Except for the mix volume issues he sang well, too. Being clean has been a good move, it seems.

We weren’t left wanting for hits: “Big Empty”, “Interstate Love Song”, and a “Plush” that everyone sang along to. I think that “Wicked Garden” and “Vaseline” were two of the best ones from early in the set. Even the couple of new songs from last year’s album weren’t bad. And they gave a nod to the group that most influenced them by playing “Dancing Days”, which they’d recorded on a Zeppelin tribute album back in ’95.

“Sex Type Thing”, fast and menacing, brought the main set to a close. You couldn’t beat an encore of “Dead and Bloated” and “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”, though. It looked like the band thought so too: they finished the night with hugs and smiles and laughs.

I took a few blurry Blackberry pics: [1] [2] [3] [4].

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‘Weird Al’ Yankovic at the Enmore Theatre

19 March 2011

I was a ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic fan from the instant “Eat It” made him popular. I like to joke around, and goofing on music – sometimes in a clever way, sometimes in an oddball way – appealed to me for a long time. I owned seven of his albums, everything from In 3-D to Alapalooza. He had one before that, and has released five since. I enjoyed the 13 episodes of the Saturday morning Weird Al Show, and his Al TV/Al Music video channel specials. Unlike most musical comedy acts he’s managed some sort of longevity.

I stopped enjoying the albums enough to buy them, though. I’m not sure he’s still appealing to the kids given the average age assembled at the Enmore Theatre last night. But I pretty much had to go.

The opening act was a comedian, decent and light on smut.

The show that Al put on was a nearly 2.5-hr set that was introduced with the “Fun Zone” instrumental from UHF and continued with one of Al’s polka mashups of contemporary songs, including Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, and a bunch of US R&B that I’m (thankfully) unfamiliar with. The show continued – surprise, surprise – with funny song after funny song. There are, in the Weird Al canon, three types of songs apart from the polka mashups:

Parodies, where he plays a popular song’s music but uses lyrics about another topic. Last night he played “White & Nerdy”, “Smells Like Nirvana”, and a well-received “Amish Paradise”.
Style parodies, where he sings a song about something funny or topical that’s quite clearly in the style of a famous band, though not a direct mimic of one song. Some of these last night were “Dare To Be Stupid” (Devo-style) and “Craigslist” (The Doors).
His original nutty songs. I was chuffed to hear the 16-second “Let Me Be Your Hog” and “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” (with hilarious guitar pump-fake). I wondered why a lame duck like “Frank’s 2000″ TV” was rolled out, though.

Some of the big songs were delivered in a medley: “Eat It”, “Beverley Hillbillies”, “Gump”, “Bedrock Anthem”, “Ode to a Superhero”, and “Another One Rides The Bus”, and people loved ‘em. Ultimately we were all there for silly fun, and Al and the band delivered plenty of that. Al’s got plenty of energy and charisma onstage, and when the parodies are spot-on there was much cheering and laughing. The band were competent: never standing out above the comedy, but always playing well enough to make a believable parody, never distracting by sounding “off”.

Some of the more recent songs felt pretty flat to me because they’re just not funny: “eBay”, the snippet of “Trapped In The Drive-Thru”, and “Skipper Dan” for instance. “Canadian Idiot” was good, but I think it helps if you’re Canadian: a lot of the US-vs-Canada fun he pokes in that song could just as easily apply to Australia (or any country with public healthcare and manners). And Al’s homage to Charles Nelson Reilly (“CNR”) definitely didn’t work: how many Australians of any age would know who he was?

Three big screens showed videos or other funny imagery during songs. They also gave us non-stop clips of Al TV or other television and film references to Weird Al to allow the band costume changes between songs.

He finished the main set with “Fat”, including his full-on fat-suit and all the Michael Jackson moves. But the greatest crowd pleasers were the two Star Wars themed encore songs: “The Saga Begins” (done to the tune of “American Pie”) with a coterie of stormtroopers and Darth Vader himself onstage getting funky, and “Yoda” (done to the tune of “Lola”). The nerds in the Enmore couldn’t have been any happier.

Weird Al At Fun Fun Fun Fest With a Giant Lady Gaga Watching Him.

My Polka Face. Photo from watsonsinelgin via Creative Commons license

Posted in gig, music | Tagged Weird Al Yankovic | 2 Comments »

The Plummet Onions