We haven't bothered with the heat and crowds of a festival in years, but Sisters of Mercy were only playing at Soundwave - we'd bought Soundwave Revolutions tickets on the same basis, before it got cancelled...

Annoyingly we were both feeling shithouse on the day, so decided to cut a few acts and just go later in the day. We did catch Marilyn Manson and, thanks to last-minute schedule changes, Wednesday 13 - who are heaps of fun.

Honestly though, it was all about Sisters of Mercy. Up against some big headlines on the main stages, it ended up being a pretty committed crowd that turned out for Sisters. Despite the too-short festival timeslot, they got in a good set list:

1. Temple of Love
2. Ribbons
3. Alice
4. Crash and Burn
5. Doctor Jeep / Detonation Boulevard
6. This Corrosion
7. Summer
8. Lucretia My Reflection
9. Vision Thing
10. More

Temple of Love was a great big anthem sing-along ;) While I'd have loved to see some tracks off First and Last and Always, you can't have everything. The big finish of Vision Thing and More was great - they went off!

As a massive bonus to the day, we ran into two different friends who were unexpectedly back in Sydney! Hurrah for chance meetings :)

Labels: gig

You know you're in for a hell of a show: it opens with a plane flying over your head, crashing into the stage in a fireball... then the fireworks kick in...

...then the glorious opening chords of The Wall pulverise the room.

I'd wanted to see The Wall live for over 20 years - ever since I saw footage of The Wall - Live In Berlin. It wasn't a hard decision to pony up and be there when it came to town:

... even if I did wonder if 20 years of expectation could possibly be met.

It was amazing. Rock and roll theatre, spectacle, opera... the story of Pink brought to life.

The Schoolmaster was creepier than I expected - fluctuations in the balloon inflation make the face gurn into the grotesque.

Comfortably Numb was a knockout. But then so were Bring The Boys Back Home, Run Like Hell, The Show Must Go On and of course Another Brick In The Wall. And every other song...

If you get the chance to go - do it. My only regret is I didn't try for the $400 tickets right up front.

Labels: gig

So, how to describe seeing The Cure play at the Opera House?

Epic. Truly. This was the encore:

That's what we got after they'd played Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds and Faith in their entirety. Here's the full setlist:

Three Imaginary Boys

1. 10:15 Saturday Night
2. Accuracy
3. Grinding Halt
4. Another Day
5. Object
6. Subway Song
7. Foxy Lady
8. Meathook
9. So What
10. Fire in Cairo
11. It's Not You
12. Three Imaginary Boys
13. The Weedy Burton

Seventeen Seconds

14. A Reflection
15. Play for Today
16. Secrets
17. In Your House
18. Three (including a "Happy Birthday" song to Simon Gallup)
19. The Final Sound
20. A Forest
21. M
22. At Night
23. Seventeen Seconds

Faith

24. The Holy Hour
25. Primary
26. Other Voices
27. All Cats Are Grey
28. The Funeral Party
29. Doubt
30. The Drowning Man
31. Faith

Encore:

32. World War
33. I'm Cold
34. Plastic Passion
35. Boys Don't Cry
36. Killing an Arab
37. Jumping Someone Else's Train
38. Another Journey By Train

Encore 2:

39. Descent
40. Splintered In Her Head
41. Charlotte Sometimes
42. The Hanging Garden

Encore 3:

43. Let's Go to Bed
44. The Walk
45. The Lovecats

Wow.

Rewind, I thought I wasn't going to see this gig at all. In an effort to get tickets I had a coordinated attack planned with c41. We were both hitting the website when it opened - Pete even got tickets allocated before the system crashed, leaving us both without successful purchases.

He emailed the Opera House in the hope the seats hadn't been reallocated, but we didn't really think anything would come it. But a few days later they rang up, apologised and sold him two other tickets!

Part of me had irrational fears that it was some outlandishly implausible, complex scalping scam ;) But cut to the evening and there was my real, actual ticket:

So could a gig be as good as my ridiculously built-up expectations? It was... brilliant, sublime, impressive. The sound and sheer musicianship blew me away. I'd never been close enough at a gig to truly appreciate all the crazy guitar tricks and interplay on the stage. Those boys can play.

It was a show laden with associations - so many tracks that triggered memories of one kind or another. It really drove home the fact I've been listening to The Cure for quite a long time now - across many stages of my life. High school, uni, moving out of home, moving our lives to a new city... throughout it all I've listened to The Cure. Perhaps this is stupidly prosaic, obvious, everyone has a band like this. But it's fairly rare to have it played out live on stage.

My big sister showed me the Love Cats film clip when I was a kid - she knew I'd love the madness of it. So in one of those little twists, the show finished with the first Cure song I ever knew.

I played 17 Seconds endlessly while studying; and first listened to Faith off my flatmate's vinyl copy when I first moved out of home (the warmth of vinyl really works with all the big bass and drums).

I knew many of the early tracks and b-sides from swapping tapes with friends at high school. I think my first Cure tape had Entreat on one side and Head on the Door on the other; and many more followed. To this day I still expect a skip during Boys Don't Cry, where the original vinyl had stumbled while being dubbed to tape.

At college I sat up late with friends many times, talking and watching videos - usually finishing with Staring At The Sea. The gig included something like thirteen songs from that video alone, calling to mind good company, a bottle of scotch and a night that needn't end early.

So it wasn't just an incredible gig, it was an amazing reminder of the years I'd spent listening to the music.

Four hours, and the show felt like it was over too damn fast :) I can't wait for the DVD to come out, it begs a night with friends and the kind of single malt we couldn't dream of affording back at college.

Labels: gig, the cure

Setlist from setlist.fm:

1. The Answer
2. Burn My Shadow
3. Chemistry
4. Natural Selection
5. Reign
6. Restless
7. Ever Rest
8. The Runaway
9. Keys to the Kingdom
10. Glow
11. Ablivion
12. Money and Run
13. Eye for an Eye

Encore:

1. Heaven
2. Lonely Soul
3. In a State

This was an amazing gig. Massive visuals and, let's be honest, it was the freaking Opera House. It was an occasion. The concert hall is small enough that even our relatively cheap seats were great seats.

How do you pick highlights from that set list? For me, Reign was perhaps the track I most wanted to hear played with a live string ensemble, for obvious reasons:

I wasn't disappointed - especially the pizzicato, which was just perfect.

Otherwise you can't really go wrong with tracks like Burn My Shadow, Chemistry and Restless.

Personally I'd have liked more tracks from Psyence Fiction - I think Unreal and Rabbit In Your Headlights could have been arranged quite well with strings. Still, you can't have everything and Lonely Soul done live had a depth of emotion and power that was just fantastic.

...although this, with the video backdrop, performed live in the Opera House to start the encore... this really had the crowd holding its breath:

It doesn't matter if you've seen that video before, at that moment, in that place, it was something else.

If the show had any downsides it was a little too much use of strobes and the sound levels were up a bit high - there's really no excuse for overdriving a PA in the Opera House. They could have brought both things down a bit for a more refined result - a few songs fell a bit flat because you couldn't hear the depth and detail that we know are in there from listening to the albums.

Overall though, what an experience. Even the band had to comment on what an unlikely night it really was - reinforced when they took their own photos from the stage!

I think it's one of those shows that will come to mind for years to come when I listen to the tracks from the night. It's added a new layer to my appreciation for a band I already loved.

When all is said and done, you can't ask for a whole lot more.

Labels: gig

Back in December, we had a grand weekend'o'gigs. Forgot to blog it at the time, so here it is...

friday 2010.12.10 - that 1 guy (and mr percival)

Thanks to crappy print at home ticketing, I had no ticket in my pocket at the gig. That annoys me as I like tickets as mementos of gigs, even if I can only ultimately keep a scan as the crumpled, ripped and sweaty original fades to nothing.

After the show, That 1 Guy (Mike Silverman) was chatting with fans and signing autographs (actually Mr Percival was too but I didn't get a chance to say hi to him before we took off).

I already own everything That 1 Guy's released so really just went over to say the gig had been awesome as usual (fourth time we've seen him)... but he does card tricks during the show and a few were lying around on the stage.

I asked "any chance you could sign one of those for me?" and lo and behold he drew the ace of clubs.

The support artist, Mr Percival, was an unexpected bonus - we hadn't seen his show so didn't know what to expect. Turns out, he's absolutely fantastic. What other artist could get a Sydney crowd singing?

saturday 2010.12.11 - the reverend horton heat

The place was packed and hot as hell, so we ended up missing most of the support acts. We were outside trying to decypher the running sheet - reaching the conclusion the running sheet had gone out the window hours earlier - when I said "you know that sounds like a Horton Heat song..." and yep it was!

We were lucky getting a good spot up behind the Metro's sound desk - I guess most people were keen to get down into the standing area, but anyway it meant we could see just fine. Given TRHH were the loudest three piece I've ever encountered it's not like we couldn't hear either ;)

The show was absolutely fucking fantastic, truly insanely awesome.

You know if there's a double bass, someone has to ride that sucker... and don't miss the over-the-head throw of the bass at the end: YouTube - Reverend Horton Heat-Devil's Chasing Me~Live sydney 2010.

Then the drummer cut loose with an absolute face melter of a solo... cut to 2:20 if you're impatient ;)

For a similar effort, but a better video...

Setlist:

1. Bullet
2. I'm Mad
3. Big Little Baby
4. Loaded Gun
5. 400 Bucks
6. The Devil's Chasing Me
7. Big Sky
8. Baddest of the Bad
9. It's Martini Time
10. Ain't No Saguaro in Texas
11. Drinkin' and Smokin' Cigarettes
12. Please Don't Take the Baby to the Liquor Store
13. Death Metal Guys
14. Cowboy Love
15. Jimbo Song
16. Spend A Night In The Box
17. Galaxy 500
18. Callin In Twisted
19. Indigo Friends
20. Psychobilly Freakout

Encore:

21. Bales of Cocaine
22. Big Red Rocket Of Love/Folsom Prison Blues/Big Red Rocket Of Love

After the show, hundreds of happy rockabillies spilled out to confuse the hell out of the usual George Street crowd. As I said at the time...

The psychobillies are freaked out, the big red rocket has been ridden and at one point we shot a man in Reno just to watch him die... Our eardrums are somewhere in the blue mountains and george street is full of smiling rockabillies. Reverend Horton Heat.... Fuck yeah!

If you get a chance to see The Reverend Horton Heat... my advice: take it!

monday 2010.12.13 - u2

Dear fuck but this was a logistical nightmare. The stage was moved, turning our expensive tickets into pretty crappy seats at the far end of the stadium; and they tried to make us go get new, randomly-reassigned seats. An usher made a half-hearted attempt to enforce it before deciding he wasn't paid enough to argue with us ;)

The support act was shite - I do not understand why the fucking hell they got Jay-Z to support U2. Much less why U2 brought him on stage later on during the show to ruin Sunday Bloody Sunday.

But eventually we did get a good U2 show. The stage was incredible, really well designed to make a big show out of a big stage and lighting rig. The sound suffered the usual problems of stadium acoustics but there were some great moments.

Two standout gig moments: first, when the crowd spontaneously took over singing Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; and second when the crowd lept to its feet the moment U2 started playing Where The Streets Have No Name. Guess we liked the old stuff best ;)

Setlist:

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day (with Blackbird snippet)
3. I Will Follow
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways
7. Elevation
8. Until The End Of The World
9. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
10. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of (with Do They Know It's Christmas snippet)
11. Bad (with Need You Tonight and Never Tear Us Apart snippets)
12. In A Little While
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. City Of Blinding Lights
15. Vertigo
16. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (with Relax and Two Tribes snippets)
17. Sunday Bloody Sunday
18. Scarlet
19. Walk On

Encore:

20. One
21. Where The Streets Have No Name (with Amazing Grace snippet)

Encore 2:

22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
23. With Or Without You
24. Moment of Surrender

Labels: gig

We saw The Cult a couple of weeks ago at Luna Park, on their Love tour. Basically they played Love from start to end, then did an encore of other songs. Unsurprisingly, She Sells Sanctuary was a massive hit with the crowd - although for the most part, the crowd did the usual Sydney thing of acting vaguely bored with the whole thing (in between trips to the bar).

I wonder perhaps is it hard to get the usual gig vibe going when everyone knows which song's coming up next? We even overheard a couple of people bitching that they didn't think they'd play the whole album. Kind of amazing really, since that was the entire advertised point of the gig.

Ignoring the immovable crowd, it was a great gig. Pure, awesome rock and roll. Plenty of guitar horn, windmills and over the top posing. Astbury threw a seemingly endless supply of tambourines to the crowd. At least one cigarette lighter was waved - a real one, not a phone app...

Astbury's crowd interaction was a bit strange at times, couldn't aways understand what he was saying but he was obviously frustrated by the crowd's low energy. Personally, I do blame the crowd. I've given up on the ennui fucks. If you want to be in an appreciative and energetic crowd, go to the Brisbane gig.

No matter what the frustrations, I still enjoyed it immensely - I was buzzing for days. Hearing Love played end to end just highlights how many great songs that album contains. A great gig, reckon we'll see them again next time they're out here (they said it wouldn't be too long, hurrah!).

Labels: gig

So, we went to The Chemical Brothers on Friday night. It was the first time we'd seen them since Big Day Out 2000 (Gold Coast). That time they came on at the end of the night and we were buggered, we thought we'd just watch. But they were so damn good we danced hell for leather the whole way though (Carl Cox had the same effect the following year).

So we were hopeful that this show would be pretty good too, even if we didn't have standing seats. In any case, L's foot still gets sore so being able to sit down sometimes wasn't a bad idea.

The music was great! A good set with a mix of new/old, singles/album tracks. I was pleased when the lead-in of Leave Home got a huge reaction :)

The crowd detracted pretty seriously from the show though. We really can't understand the crowd you apparently get at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (it was similar at The Cure, although not as bad). Several groups around us kept up a constant (seriously, non stop) bucket chain out to the bar; regularly ignoring the gig in their fixation on booze. There was a group in front of us that spent most of their time taking photos of each other and having yelled conversations with their backs to the stage. A group behind us spend the last 10-15 minutes screaming "fuck you", presumably at the Chemical Brothers.

What the fuck? Why would you go to a gig you don't give a shit about? Why would you spend $90+ when you could just as easily go to a pub? The leading theory is that there's a breed of tragic that wants to be able to say they were there, regardless of whether they actually enjoyed it.

I guess our view of big-name gigs was shaped by the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Not that great a venue, but the crowd was committed. Let's face it, you've gotta be keen to drive all the way out to Boondall (often on a weeknight). So you you're not going to get so many "casual punters". A crowd that really wants to be there is going to be more fun than a crowd of people who really just want to be seen.

But anyway, despite all that it was a great show, Chemical Brothers are always good value. I just hope they don't play at the Entertainment Centre next time ;)

Labels: gig

This gig had been a long time coming - in fact I didn't truly believe I'd ever see The Cure live again, nor ever get the "real" experience of a three-hour show.

We saw The Cure at Livid 2000, a disappointingly short experience where they were forced to leave the stage after about an hour and fifteen minutes. The reason, ostensibly, was the concert had to stop due to noise restrictions - yet Lou Reed droned on for another 45 minutes on another stage. On the flip side, we did get to see 10:15 Saturday Night at 10:15 on a Saturday night (cheesy but fun!). Plus Green Day beforehand were actually quite amusing, including the legendary "Fuckin Dan!" moment.

(Set list from 2000... Main: out of this world, watching me fall, want, fascination street, open, the loudest sound, shake dog shake, from the edge of the deep green sea, inbetween days, trust, the kiss, prayers for rain, one hundred years, 39, bloodflowers. Encore: 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab.) From The Cure Concerts Guide

So anyway, last night's gig was just about everything I'd hoped for. It was a set list to please old fans, with tons of old songs I just didn't think would get played. I kept recognising the song they were about to play from the little tuning twangs while they swapped guitars :)

Sydney set list, updated as per the cure concerts guide:

(Tape as intro)

Main Set

1. Open
2. Fascination Street
3. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
4. Kyoto Song
5. The Blood
6. The End of the World
7. Us or Them
8. The Walk
9. Alt.end
10. Lovesong
11. A Letter To Elise
12. Pictures Of You
13. Lullaby
14. A Strange Day
15. The Figurehead
16. Push
17. How Beautiful You Are
18. InBetween Days
19. Friday
20. Just Like Heaven
21. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
22. The Kiss
23. Shake Dog Shake
24. Never Enough
25. Wrong Number
26. One Hundred Years
27. Shiver & Shake
28. End

Encore 1

29. Plainsong
30. Disintegration

Encore 2

31. Hot! Hot! Hot!
32. Lets go to Bed
33. Close to Me
34. Why Cant I be You

Encore 3

35. A Forest
36. Boys Dont Cry

Robert closes with "See you again"

The lineup was three guitars plus drums. With no keyboard I knew from the start some songs would be out, which was a little disappointing (I have a dream of seeing them play Homesick). But then Porl produced sounds that weren't really meant to come out of a guitar, filling in for everything from violin to accordian. Impressive, although we did have to laugh at some of his fuckups - he wasn't having a perfect night :)

They teased me by not playing A Forest until the last encore. Price of admission right there. Sure, it wasn't one of their 20-minute jam versions, but I realised last night that I've wanted to hear A Forest live ever since a mate at high school described A Forest as played at the Wish Tour gig. That's over fifteen years ago!

Why yes, I am a huge Cure fanboy, thanks for asking :)

Last night also clarified something. I like the cure when they're boppy, I really like them when they're mopey, but I love them when they're angry. The Kiss + Shake Dog Shake blew my socks off. There must have been some trendies there last night who only knew the radio-friendly happy stuff, wondering what the hell was going on (and fuck them, eh!).

So anyway. Last night was about 3hrs 15min of pure treat. I was surprised when I looked at the Brisbane set list and realised there's still a stack of songs I'd dearly love to see live - Jumping Someone Else's Train, Fire In Cairo, Grinding Halt, At Night, M, anything off Faith... actually seeing them play their cover of Purple Haze would also be cool. They have such a massive back catalogue, no wonder their gigs run to three hours ;)

Robert Smith last night: "Never thought three hours would be too short..."

Couldn't agree more. I reckon another two hours might have just about done it ;)

Other random notes...

• Could have carried a small nuclear weapon in - no bag check whatsoever. If I'd known I'd have taken my camera and got some shots!
• Despite zero security check, they wouldn't sell you a bottle of water with a lid. What's up with that?
• Lots of people wearing colour. That's just WRONG, people ;)
• Overheard in the merch lineup: "The tshirts are all so goth, but I'm going to get one anyway." Colour me fucking surprised, the tshirts are a little goth! What gig did these people think they were attending? :)
• I am utterly tickled by the fact I now own a Cure stubby cooler. Cure stubby cooler, people! I can now be a goth yobbo.
• Best surprise of the night: old friends from Brisbane sitting one row away from us!
• Speaking of old friends... Nick has so firmly mashed The Walk and Blue Monday in my head that even at the gig, I couldn't help thinking of it.
• Weird thing about the gig: constant stream of people going in and out. I've never seen a gig where people so constantly churned in and out - some people must have spent more time at the bar outside than in the gig. Apparently though with the sheer volume, you could still listen perfectly well out there. It was loud, like LOUD.
• There was a woman a couple of rows down from us... conservatively dressed, looked like she was in her fifties maybe. But she went off, danced her butt off and had a whale of a time. Rock on!

Can't wait for them to come back :) Currently auditing the ipod and working out what I need to go and buy to replace the tapes which wore out years ago. Yep, tapes. I'm a Cure fan because of all the cassettes we traded at high school...

Labels: gig, lastfm:event=264512, sydney, the cure

• Wednesday
  • Flew in to the Gold Coast airport... cabbed to L's parents place...
  • Drove to pick up L's little sister from the train.
  • Roast dinner!
  • Attempted to fix L's mum's computer. Also diagnosed printer as "fucked". Technical term.
  • Got L's mum to switch to Firefox instead of IE. She gets full credit for managing to set up Skype on her own before got there, too.
• Thursday
  • Went out for breakfast before heading to Officeworks for new printer and an external hard drive.
  • Ran out of time trying to fix the computer (backup had several hours to go before we could have started to wipe/reinstall). Left the phone book open with local PC repair people.
  • Missed the first train at Robina by 2mins. 2 fucking minutes!
  • Train → train → parents picked us up and drove to farm.
  • Dinner and loss of consciousness.
• Friday
  • Sleep, glorious sleep. Coffee upon awakening. Simply being on the farm is good for the soul.
  • Discovered a big meeting gazumped our plans to visit Griffith - nobody would have been available, so we ditched the idea.
  • Discovered that kangaroos are now coming right up near the house.
  • Borrowed car (no more trains!) and drove in to friends place in the Valley.
  • Very amused to find towels with chocolates laid out on the spare bed. Very sweet! ...um, so to speak.
  • Great dinner at Wagamama's, even if it was a bit rushed so we could get to the gig.
  • Gave Colin an interrobang (‽) stamp. Much glee! Win! :)
  • That 1 Guy gig became a total shambles thanks to the promoters and/or venue pulling a bait and switch with the starting time. Earlier in the day we were told "doors at 8pm, T1G at 9 or 10pm, get in early or you'll miss out". It became clear that T1G wouldn't go on until at least midnight. Some blunt discussions ensued with venue management and the promoter. Most of the group took the money-back option and headed home (fair enough, too).
  • Decided to go and have a coffee to see us through to the midnight start, although L's little sister then decided to call it a night after all.
  • Very pissed off at the gig. We specifically set things up so we would see T1G with friends up in Brisbane - particularly Colin, since he missed out last time T1G was in Brisbane (we were in Sydney for that gig). It was so much fun the first time we saw T1G in Brisbane at the Troubadour!
  • Eventually saw T1G; his performance was good (he even worked the Imperial March in to the act) but the crowd had a very high proportion of fucktards who did their best to ruin it.
  • By the time the gig was nearly done our hosts had already gone to bed.
  • Crap sleep - I was so fucked off about the way the evening had gone, I couldn't settle.
• Saturday
  • Crawled out of bed, stumbled around, eventually met up with friends for Cosmo breakfast.
  • Fairly soundly defeated by Cosmo breakfast.
  • Hung out with our hosts for the afternoon before driving out to my sister's place.
  • Stopped off at the good old Gap Family Markets to pick up some Alchemy cordial. Funny the little things you miss.
  • Dinner and much boozing with my sister, brother-in-law and brother.
• Sunday
  • Several delicate people staggering around the house.
  • Before leaving, frisked L to make sure she wasn't abducting a cat (catnapping?).
  • Eventually dropped my brother home and headed back to the farm.
  • Got my parents signed up to Flickr, so they can get high-res copies of my photos when they want them.
• Monday
  • Dentist. Joy. But it wasn't worth finding an equivalent specialist in Sydney.
  • Quick dash into Pulp Fiction. We have books! :)
  • Lift to Brisbane airport with parents.

Other random stuff from this trip:

• We are now Haigh's dealers. There's no way you can argue it's for personal consumption when there's about 3kg in your bag. The fact it was packed in big foil baggies made for some amusement when I carried it around The Valley on a friday night.
• A 2WD Hilux ute handles differently from an Impreza ;)
• There's a bat colony near L's parents place.
• Bats can unload body waste on cars with astonishing volume and accuracy. "What the fuck? ....I didn't think cows could fly..."
• Gordon's premixed gin and tonic is surprisingly good.
• USB1 is so slowwww it hurts.
• There is absolutely nothing to do at Robina train station, except perhaps wish you weren't at Robina train station.
• Trains suck. Catching trains all the way from the Gold Coast to Ipswich really sucks. Some amusing moments with various people in the train bopping to their own musical worlds, but mostly long periods of wishing we didn't have to be on a train.
• I do still get a lot of memories while travelling along the Brisbane train lines. Places I've been, things I've seen from the windows of the endless trains during first year of uni. Thinking how much I could have used an iPod back then, rather than my then-snazzy walkman (graphic equaliser, bass boost AND noise reduction! ;)).
• The Shamrock sucks arse as a live music venue. No aircon, tiny stage, no vision for anyone beyond the first two rows.
• That 1 Guy's new album is great.
• We can both drink rum straight, so long as it's incredibly good rum.
• We still prefer shopping at Pulp Fiction over any other bookshop.
• I really need to dig out my copy of House By Mouse so L stops thinking we're all insane, referring to a specific house as "Pig's House". Also so I can show her Otter's House and Spider's House with the music room for his drum kit (what else would a spider play?).
• I really don't know if any of my photos of the farm are even slightly good. I am far too emotionally tied to the place to be objective.
• Apparently three bottles of cordial looks worrying to airport staff when they xray your backpack. I had to remove the bundle and let them xray it separately.
• The long approach into Sydney airport sucks.

So anyway, I suspect we packed about as much as we could into the time we had. In fact I think we tried to do too much, but you get that :)

Labels: brisbane, gig, gold coast, that 1 guy, the farm, travel

That 1 Guy at The Vanguard, 2007.01.05.

Labels: gig, photo, that 1 guy

Saw That 1 Guy again tonight. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be quite as much of a knockout as the first time... I needn't have worried :)

It was fantastic. Knowing the show just made it even better. A whole room of people singing along to One (and every other song)... a whole room responding with gusto to his little howls :)

Then we bought the DVD (yeah!!) and Leah got a shirt. At first she wasn't getting a shirt because they only had the same design as the one I've already got. But then the merch lass had a dig around and discovered one of the round print ones!

Then I met That 1 Guy himself:

It was a good night :)

Update: readers from Australia should note he's doings shows around the country including Big Day Out; US readers should note he's touring all over. Check out That 1 Guy tour dates. If he plays near you, you should go. There will be a test afterwards, people! ;)

On another note, yes I know I am desperately overdue for a haircut.

Labels: gig, that 1 guy, the vanguard

Attention everyone, including those in Sydney and Melbourne. That 1 Guy is playing in your town and you should go. His show is absolutely incredible, can't recommend it highly enough! Don't think there's anyone on my list living in Tassie/Byron/Katoomba/other places on the tour schedule, but hey if so, pay attention too. For those of you who do the Woodford Folk Festival, he's booked there too.

What can I say... we're talking about a guy who has created his own musical instrument - a stonking big pipe with strings. He also plays a saw, a shoe and rocks out with a credit card. It's an unusual act to say the least, but last night he held the entire crowd at The Troubadour utterly spellbound from the first song to the encore.

colinmo has posted about the show too.

T1G returns to Brisbane early next year, I expect to drag as many of you beotches as I can get hold of along to the show :)

Labels: gig, that 1 guy, the troubadour

Fucking awesome. BTW, yes, row AB does mean the second row. From the front. Yes, I really did pay that much money and FUCK YES it was worth it... and I'm not even a huge Bowie fan :) Of course it helps to be able to so close you can pick up every nuance of gesture and expression; plus Bowie has a piercing gaze which makes everyone up front feel like they've made eye contact.

Some rockers disintegrate with age; others, like Bowie, just get better. Bowie worked the audience in a manner that can only be described as energetic and playful. He knows he can make the crowd do anything and he's not afraid of playing with that :) Plus the band were truly awesome - all amazing musicians in their own right; and they all got to shine in this gig. Bowie hadn't been here for 17 years.... what the hell set do you play? The answer was 2 hours and 15 minutes of old stuff, new stuff, instrumental, obscure tracks, massive hits and audience-involved songs.

A sparing but gorgeous stage set was perfectly chosen for the show - simple video screens, a pair of raised catwalks and some hanging white tree branches at the sides. The lighting played off it all really well. The sound was clear; no overdriven speakers here - just massive banks belting out perfectly mixed songs.

I'm surely biased by being so close to the stage; but even so this was an amazing gig. It was a great chance to see the benefit of experience; to watch a rock legend do his thing. The attention to detail was in evidence everywhere - from the way Bowie would work each song, down to his guitar picks being printed with the tour details on one side and "David" on the other (my guess is that each guitarist would have had their own picks done up with their own names as well).

Setlist from bowieNet.news (I'm impressed they've got that posted already):

01 Rebel Rebel 
02 New Killer Star 
03 Reality 
04 Fame 
05 Cactus 
06 All The Young Dudes 
07 China Girl 
08 A New Career In A New Town 
09 The Loneliest Guy 
10 The Man Who Sold The World 
11 Hallo Spaceboy 
12 Sunday 
13 Under Pressure 
14 Life On Mars? 
15 Looking For Water 
16 Be My Wife 
17 Days 
18 White Light, White Heat 
19 Ashes To Ashes 
20 I'm Afraid Of Americans 
21 "Heroes" 

(Encore) 
22 Always Crashing In The Same Car 
23 Five Years 
24 Suffragette City 
25 Ziggy Stardust

Highlights:

• Starting the show with Rebel Rebel. Yeah.
• Under Pressure - Hollywood (the bassist) sang Freddy Mercury's part and damn near stole the show.
• Super extended version of Sunday. The comment was made afterwards that they should have put that version on the album instead of the shorter version.
• Hallo Spaceboy and I'm Afraid Of Americans. Pure, unadulterated rock'n'roll absolutely went off.
• Bowie: "....there's a great band reforming, called The Pixies..." (big roar from the crowd) "Good for you, Brisbane... you really know your stuff!" [or words to that effect - can't remember the exact wording] I like that, despite the expectation Brisbane people wouldn't know who The Pixies are :)
• Ending the encore with Ziggy Stardust; and ending Ziggy Stardust with Bowie standing in front of a huge video screen with simple black and white letters spelling out BOWIE. It came off as glorious without being (too) egotistical.

...and if you think I'm going on a bit, I'll put you in touch with the fanatical fans I went with :)

Labels: gig