Garbage - 25 Feb 2013 - The Metro

Not a band to see live, I've learnt. For nostalgia's sake, the show was fun, and Shirley Manson is as beautiful and hot as ever. She had great presence, coming out in a severe bun and a cape (which she removed after the first two songs), and it was exciting to watch her pacing round and round on stage as if barely contained, prowling with feline grace. Her voice was great too, slinky and strong.

But the sound was so muddy, the crisp cool stuttering music not coming across live at all with the pedestrian grunt of the guitars and drums. I saw a review that called it a colourful wall of sound, but it just sounded like an unsubtle messy noise to me, with songs having no place to go as they started at full throttle and bludgeoned their way to end (ruining the quiet melancholy of classics such as #1 Crush).

Set list was fun though - lots of old songs, particularly from the first and second album including some deep cuts that were enjoyable for an old fan. Highlight was probably (and somewhat surprisingly) I Think I'm Paranoid, which had the requisite lightness, and I got to hear Only Happy When It Rains, which was the song that made me love them in the first place all those years ago so the show was worth it to the 13 year-old fangirl inside of me. :)


Automatic Systematic Habit
Queer
Blood for Poppies
Push It
Hammering in My Head
Control
Why Do You Love Me
#1 Crush
I Think I'm Paranoid
Milk
Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
The One
Battle in Me
When I Grown Up
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing
Only Happy When It Rains
Vow
You Look So Fine

Special
Stupid Girl
Beloved Freak

Tripod: Men of Substance

13 Jan 2013 - Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

from 3pod.com.au

I hadn't been sure of what to expect actually - this was the first time I'd seen Tripod perform something closer to a comedy set, rather than their D&D musical 'Tripod versus the Dragon'. As we sat down in our great seats (third row, in the middle) my friends nodded approvingly, but joked that we didn't need this good a view as we'd had in my previous feat of excellent ticket karma that saw us admiring the um, talents of the bare-chested cast at Pirates of Penzance. 

"No shirtlessness here!" we chortled - then BAM! Tripod opened with pasty middle-aged beer guts for comedy. ;) It made me wonder what the 'substance' in their show title referred to. Thickening waistlines? or maybe the experience gained with age, after more than 15 years together as an act. They milked this for all it was worth throughout the show, memorably about Yon not changing in all that time ("He's like Benjamin Button - on pause!"). 

Other highlights in the compact show (a little over an hour) included the opening song, Adult Contemporary ("Haven't had a new musical experience since 1994!"); Close all the Local Pubs Down ("Let's move to where the music is - and stop it."); the tax song that becomes a Barry White parody to great effect (and was educational too!) and Yon's hilarious paen on looking back on your twenties with unrealistic fondness ("I think I would've remembered sacrificing a child..."). Oh, and encore song YouTube Party though my only complaint would be that there weren't enough references to cats. :)

In fact, this show felt like it made just for me and my friends - I mean, it featured stupid dancing, age anxiety, musical geekery and just plain geekery, things we're all extremely familiar with. Tripod even sang about Waiting for the Game to Load when we'd literally had a conversation about the days of cassette-loaded games before walking in. What were the chances of that?!

All in all, this show was terrific fun. It was a great showcase of their ability to knowingly and lovingly parody a wide range of musical genres. And apart from being good musicians with great harmonies, I appreciated how nicely constructed the set was, jokes upon jokes that set up for even bigger laughs later in the night. It left wishing for a longer show, more jokes, more songs...so here's to another 16 years!