Forever the Sickest Kids / Jack's Mannequin - 25 Feb - The Metro

First act Bayside were loud, and played a solid set of surprisingly tuneful songs.

Jack's Mannequin were poptastic and fun, and very warmly welcomed by the already packed theatre. Andrew McMahon was an adorable muppet, throwing himself around the stage with the same abandon he bashed at his keyboard and sang. Set list was an almost even mix from both albums: Crashin', The Mixed Tape, Spinning, Bloodshot, Dark Blue, The Resolution, Bruised. Thirty minutes was too short a time - I would love to see them headline one day.



Forever the Sickest Kids were enjoyable beyond expectations. They came out to a pre-recorded tongue-in-cheek announcement, with half the band sporting amazingly emo hair, and wearing lolzy band t-shirts (Creed, Nickelback). It wasn't so much their musical ability - a bit shambolic live, which lessened the poptastic impact of their songs on record - but rather their energetic, ironic performance that really sold their show. Frontman Jonathan Cook worked the crowd into a frenzy with his cult leader like posturing, and the blond drummer was fun to watch too, with his endless stream of stick tossing tricks. They were a lot of fun to watch overall.

We decided to not catch RJA, and ended up having a later dinner at the same restaurant in Chinatown as Andrew McMahon, Bobby Anderson, and friends. :)

Fall Out Boy / All-American Rejects / Hey Monday - 21 Feb 2009 - Acer Arena

Despite my misgivings about their youth and relative inexperience, Hey Monday just about won me over with their adorable bouncy show, their bright (if not particularly memorable) pop tunes, and lead singer Cassadee Pope's sweet voice (noticeably stronger in the higher register). I thought Candles - acoustic at the start with just Cassadee and a guitar - was a particular highlight.

The banter for the All-American Rejects was forced and a bit arrogant (as was coming out to the 1812 Overture). The crowd on the floor was really into them though, particularly in the big hits that started the show (Swing Swing, Dirty Little Secret). Musically they were solid, but it wasn't a dynamic set, and it left me a little cold.

This was probably the best I've seen Fall Out Boy live. Pete Wentz was in a fine mood, cracking jokes about being a R.Patz fan, and telling rambling anecdotes about drunkdialling his friends. Lead singer Patrick Stump looked every inch the rock star, and his vocal has improved so much, noticeably when he reached some really low notes in Headfirst Slide...

Cassadee came out to sing on Sugar, and she and Patrick sounded really nice in harmony, and it does make me wish that they could somehow clone Patrick so he could harmonise with himself live.

There were some great surprises, such as Lullabye, a hidden track for Wentz' baby boy on their latest album Folie A Deux, which was lovely though it was a jarring segue from that into the loud singalong that is Arms Race. And they jazzed up the show with some great pyro displays to punctuate their more anthemic songs.

Anyway, it was a really fun, high energy show, pakced with hit after hit, and the crowd obviously adored them.

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
Thriller
16 Candles
American Boy
Sugar
Lullaby
Arms Race
I Don't Care
Beat It
Headfirst Slide
Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
Take Over, Break's Over
I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy...
Disloyal Order
Grand Theft Autumn
American's Suitehearts

Patron Saints
Me & You
Dance Dance
Saturday

TV on the Radio - 24 Jan 2009 - The Metro

Adelaide band Wolf and Cub were an interesting surprise, playing a 45 minute, 7 song set of chest thumping 70s throwback prog rock. The fourth song was an epic twelve minutes long. They were technically brilliant, and the two drummers were amazing to watch as they played in tandem and drove the massive sound of the songs. It did feel a little tedious at times though, particularly towards the end of the set; musically they could be a bit more adventurous. Also, weirdly, the sparse vocals were a detraction and we could've done without them.

TV on the Radio played an energetic, absorbing hour and a half to a rapt, packed crowd. They started with Young Liars, a surprising choice, but it worked as a great introduction to frontman Tunde Adebimpe's awesome style (getting his groove on from the start, dancing up a storm until his shirt turned a light terracotta to a dark brown from sweat), and the falsetto vocal/harmony from Kyp Malone.

Unfortunately, the muddy sound that would plague the entire night was also evident from the start, which meant that at any given time, the distinctive vocals of either singer could be buried under a chaotic wall of guitar-heavy sound. That said, there were still moments of brilliant music from the 7 piece band on stage (two saxophonists rounded out the line-up and helped to add that brassy note that a lot of the newer songs have), with the crowd particularly worked up over the songs from Return to Cookie Mountain.

A lot of the songs were given more muscular arrangments live, which worked really well in the case of the older songs like Dreams and Staring at the Sun. They played a great set stretching back to early EP material, punctuated by a lot of songs from last year's Dear Science; though in my mind the highlight of the night was the back to back pairing of Golden Age, as funky as you could get, and the howling amazing Wolf Like Me. Apart from the disappointment of not hearing Family Tree nor Halfway Home, and even with the bad sound, there was a lot to enjoy from the band, and their tight, high energy, passionate performance that got the crowd moving and singing along.

Young Liars
The Wrong Way
Dreams
Crying
Golden Age
Wolf Like Me
Dirtywhirl
Stork and Owl
Shout It Out
Dancing Choose
Red Dress
DLZ
Satellite

Love Dog
Blues from Down Here
Let the Devil In
Staring at the Sun

Lupe Fiasco - 20 Jan 2009 - Enmore Theatre

From the moment Lupe came on stage, there was this incredible energy in the theatre, feeding the crowd, and feeding off the crowd. The first half - about five songs - was brilliant, starting with an early hit, Kick Push, that had the crowd singing along and dancing to the infectious beat, and ended with his fantastic rapping skill demonstrated in Go Go Gadget Flow, living up to the boast of the chorus. The band was amazing - tight, and as into the performance as Lupe himself, jumping and dancing to their funky selves.

So far, so good. Though the small breaks between songs constantly decreased the intensity of the energy, it was cute to see Lupe to stand at the side of the stage, literally trying to cool down with the help of a fan, leading to Lupe gleefully repeat a sad joke about the audience waving their hands at him - "fans as fans".

But then the night becamed unfocussed, unstuck. Even though the night continued with a string of well received songs, after only fifty minutes on stage Lupe was performing his big hit from last year, Superstar, ending with a drawn out, almost angry outro, milking the popularity of the song for all it was worth.

After a brief intermission, where no one actually left the stage so the audience had no idea whether the night was almost over, or just starting, Lupe reeled off line after line from songs everyone wanted to hear - but a line was all we were going to get. Tease. Then Lupe went into a ramble about Obama ushering in a new and wonderful age by tomorrow morning, and the crowd went nuts, and it served as an extended intro for last song Daydreamin', which featured his awesome guitar player and his falsetto. Right after that the concert was over though, and it was all to soon for my liking.

A solid performance, and the first half was truly amazing, but it just kind of peetered out and felt a little unsatisfying.

Kick Push
Hip Hop Saved My Life
Sunshine
I Gotcha
Go Go Gadget Flow
? (might have been a song here)
Hi-Definition
Paris Tokyo
We Love You
Superstar

Daydreamin'

Stars - 3 Jan 2009 - The Factory

Missed Bridezilla, who played first, but caught second support act, Newcastle band Firekites. They were fine - very young, and intensely quiet in performance, with moody atmospheric songs, largely instrumental. Their stagecraft needs work; the lead singer mumbled into the microphone between songs and I'll be damned if I have any idea what he said.

Stars came on a little late, but threw themselves into the performance from the start. Torq started grabbing bunches of petals from the flowers strewn across their amps and tied to their mike stands, and threw them into the air like white confetti as a mood setter, and they were as idiosyncratic and sweet from there on.

I think they had some minor sound problems, and sometimes the instruments (particularly the keyboard) overwhelmed Amy and Torq's voices, but overall they sounded good together. Especially when Amy and Torq harmonised and sang to each other; I will never tire of hearing how their voices work together. Alone, Amy has a lovely, light tone, while Torq is a little rougher and less polished, but somehow their voices just mesh perfectly.

I really do think their partnership is the backbone of the band; even their banter complements each other. When Torquill started rambling about losing his glasses, and not being able to see into the crowd without them, Amy cut in, saying "I have perfect vision", telling Torq that she couldn't share his gripe. At which Torq said, rather put out (in a joking way!), "Perfect pitch. Perfect vision. Amy Millan, she's just too perfect," or something like that, and made a face. Then he gave Amy the finger and she just giggled along with the rest of us. But he obviously adored her, and spent most of the night either singing to her, or leaning into her space to sing with her.

The crowd was fairly subdued to start with; even during well-known and upbeat tracks like Ageless Beauty there were swathes of people in front of us standing stock-still. This could be explained in part by the fact that a good part of their usual fanbase, the indie hipster crowd, was probably across town at the sold out Fleet Foxes gig instead; something Torq himself acknowledged when thanking the crowd for being here instead of there, or at least for buying a ticket to Stars once FF sold out.

Highlights included the joy on their faces as they let the crowd sing their best-known song, Your Ex-Lover is Dead, to them; the very cute sad robot impression Torq did on Amy's command: "That was your sad impression, where was the robot?" "It's inside."; and the chaos of the penultimate song, Calendar Girl, as Torquill crawled onto the middle of the crowd on the floor, with fans surrounding on their knees, as he yelled the song's refrain, "I'm alive!" over and over again, joyously and manically, to the end. When he finally returned to the stage, his face was so red from the exertion, but he was grinning from ear to ear. The energy they put into the show, and that they drew from the crowd, was amazing, and well worth seeing.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, d. Danny Boyle)

I originally gave Slumdog Millionaire a three out of five, but thinking it over the past few weeks has made me downgrade it to a 2 1/2 at best. It seems to me that by using a "fairytale" framework, the movie feels free to use plenty of cliche and sentiment. "It is written"? UGH.

I found it predictable - poor urchin overcomes great odds by cunning and a big dose of luck and gets his dream girl and lives happily every after - and the sensationalist violence left a sour taste in my mouth in light of the offhand dismissal of the gritty lives these kids emerged from.

The story itself is hampered by gaping plot holes that are ignored in favour of hurtling toward the inevitable happy ending (and the big song and dance routine, which was fun and the redeeming factor of the ending).

Dev Patel is the weakest link in an otherwise decent cast full of appealing and capable child actors; he appeared to me to be sullen and dull throughout the film, rather than quick-witted and deserving of the fate he lands. Frieda Pinto is beautiful, but the film casts her in that role alone - she is a cypher, a pretty fantasy for Jamal to live his life hoping to achieve, but neither the audience or Jamal is allowed to see or access anything more about her, which makes their supposedly fated connection unsatisfying.

The cinematography is vivid, the sights and sounds of Mumbai - the beautiful tourist attractions as well as the grim of the slums - conveyed with an eye for detail. It was an enjoyable enough experience in the theatre, and the furious pace hides a lot of its sins, but in contemplation the film is as pretty and as empty and hollow as the romance at the centre of the film, and hardly deserving of the hype and praise heaped upon its slight self.

Brideshead Revisited (2008, d. Julian Jarrold)

The film is lavishly beautiful, and I was touched by some of the moments. But it's very ordinary in direction, has some odd shaky camera moments quite out of character for the material, and the story itself remains unbalanced, with the first half much more intriguing than the second. When Sebastian and Lady Marchmain leave the story, so does much of the interest.

The film emphasises Lady Marchmain's obsession with Catholicism to the point of using much leaden symbolism and lingering camera shots to bring about the point that her trenchant observation of her faith has ruined her children's lives. It tries to tell us that God has ruined Sebastian and Julia's chances of happiness.

But then the film has to deal with Waugh's ending (and the fact the author struggled with his own feeling about his faith) because we see that Lord Marchmain relents on his deathbed, to his children's immense relief, and Julia leaves Charles because she cannot cut herself off from His grace. It is ultimately Charles who is punished for his ungodliness - Sebastian lives broken and exiled, but of his own choice, and Julia has to live without Charles but at peace with God of her own choice - but Charles is the one character at the end of the book who has nothing that he has ever desired - not Julia, not his wife, not Brideshead, not his identity as an artist.

It is as if the film has no idea how to resolve the film. It wants to condemn God, but Waugh does not choose to do that in his text. And so, the film peters out uneasily and lost, through the final half hour.

I really liked Ben Whishaw as Sebastian; in looks he isn't quite what I would've expected, not blond and carefree from the text, but he manages to show Sebastian's fey frailty without being ridiculous. It's easy to see why Charles would've been attracted to him, and his life, at the outset. Matthew Goode (who is so very pretty) does struggle a bit, particularly in the latter half of the film, to convey poor Charles' emotions; probably because Charles is written as so much of a blank slate who just wants to adopt some code or convention to become someone else completely. Hayley Atwell is fine as Julia, but Julia was always not very well-fleshed out nor likeable. Emma Thompson is good as Lady Marchmain; her particular arch coldness comes more from the script than any translation issues from the original text.