Manchester Orchestra – 4 Mar 2012 – Hi Fi Sydney

Um, long time no see…I blame tumblr (and occasionally, life). Anyway, back with an old favourite, the gig write-up.

Manchester Orchestra (4 Mar 2012, Hi-Fi Sydney)

It was a wet night, the rain at one point so heavy that Al and I despaired of having to walk up to the Hi Fi (formerly the Forum). But rain had not stopped Manchester Orchestra from playing last night, though it had cancelled the festival they were originally coming out for, so I sucked it up as well and ended up with squelchy, gross shoes for the rest of the night (yeah yeah, first world problems, I will quit whining).*

But Manchester Orchestra were totally worth it.

The band were obviously happy to be here despite everything, and in fine form. Andy Hull was such a sweetheart, thanking the audience a fair few times for coming out, saying they hadn’t been expecting the obviously enthusiastic crowd - admittedly, the Hi-Fi appears to hold less than the Metro, but the room was well-packed last night. There were way more dudebros present than I’d expected (and TALL ones, at that), but it was a mostly pleasant crowd apart the obnoxious jerks who were trying to start a circle-pit centre front. There were plenty of sing-a-longs, for songs from all three albums, but the crowd was good at keeping a hushed, awed silence during the beautiful, quiet moments; all the better to listen to Andy’s fantastic voice.

And he was in such fine form, from the get go with that distinctive voice on show (and Simple Math) opener Deer. The whole band was great, really tight and giving the massive, monstrous songs their all. But mostly, I found myself thinking, at different times during the night, that Andy Hull really was both the master of the melodic scream (such as in the angrier, powerful songs like Everything to Nothing), and also of the most delicate heartbreak.

It wasn’t a show with a lot of banter (though Andy and Robert were funny and easy-going when they did speak), but it was a beautifully thought out set. There was a really great flow from one song to the next, whether it was the almost perfectly natural slides from one musical theme to a complementary one, or a thrilling jump from the soft and lulling to the shock of the loud and vice versa.



Highlights for me included the a monster-sounding My Friend Marcus early in the set, an utterly gorgeous near-solo performance from Andy of a summer demo (see video above), and then the entirely unexpected The River, followed by a stripped, slowed down version of The Only One that drew out the anticipatory build to the moment everything cut loose, followed by the sombre take of their cover of The Party’s Over – “Turn the lights out / All good things must come to an end” - to lead them off the stage for the first time.

They returned after a short break for an encore, starting with I Got Friends, “the only popular song we’ve had here” (which I’m sure is a LIE considering how well the crowd knew most of the songs), followed by a fun Now That You’re Home. There was some self-deprecatingly funny banter thrown in there too; Andy brushing back his sweaty almost-fro like hair and saying despairingly, “I hate my hair. That’s all I’ve been thinking about all night,” to which Robert tried to reassure him he looked like Dylan. “Bob DYLAN?” Andy answered disbelievingly. But to end the night, I’m glad they went with Where Have You Been, one of my favourites, and its haunting refrain lasted with me long after the show.



Deer
Pride
100 Dollars
April Fool
My Friend Marcus
Pensacola
Pale Black Eye
We Were Made Out of Lightening
Shake It Out
I Can Barely Breathe
Colly Strings
Simple Math
Everything to Nothing
The River
The Only One
The Party’s Over

I Got Friends
Now That You’re Home
Where Have You Been

* PS I just realised that the last time I saw them, I was also wet and damp and they were also totally worth it then too. :)

i made some foods

So I've been cooking my way steadily through a bunch of recipes this month and while almost all of them have been delicious (I have discovered that I'm not a big fan of polenta), I keep forgetting to take photos of them before I eat.

But I remembered this weekend! \o/


Pea risotto with salmon

1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
150g arborio rice
50mL white wine
350mL low-salt chicken stock, hot
70g frozen peas
2 salmon fillets (about 400g)
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp cream

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Fry onion in oil on high heat. Stir in the rice to coat in oil. Add the wine and stock and season (I added a little dash of chilli flakes at this point). Simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

Meanwhile, place salmon on a baking sheet and pour over the lemon juice. Season and roast 10-12 minutes until cooked through. (I also roasted some pumpkin tossed in honey at the same time).

Once the rice is tender, stir peas into the risotto with the cream. (I added 1/3 cup grated cheese too).

Serve salmon on a bed risotto. Makes enough for two.

**

This next one's not as pretty, but it did make for a satisfying dinner tonight while I watched young kids who could trounce me in cooking skills AND presentation on Junior Masterchef. :P


Chicken noodle soup

300mL low-salt chicken stock
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 nest of noodles
shredded, cooked children
beansprouts
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp spicy sesame oil
lettuce, shredded

Bring chicken stock to boil with 5-spice powder and carrots. Lower heat to simmer and add noodles (I used udon). Cook until noodles are tender.

Stir in soy sauce and sesame oil. Add chicken (I had some chicken I'd roasted and frozen earlier in the week), beansprouts and lettuce.

Serves one.

Okkervil River - 18 Oct 2011 - The Metro

The last time I saw Okkervil River (in May 2009) I never wrote up the concert in detail, but this was my gobsmacked, joyful summary:

"Oh my god, Okkervil River. They were AMAZING and totally renewed my faith in the power of live music. Will Sheff had the audience completely enthralled with his musical storytelling, and the whole band was having fun and playing well - loose and a little rough, but really good, and passionate. <3333333"

It still sits in my personal pantheon of best live shows EVER. So while I was really really looking forward to the gig on Tuesday night, part of me was also worried that I would be disappointed because of my stratospheric expectations.

But I needn't have worried. They are still one of the most face-meltingly fantastic acts live. They dove straight into it with a rollicking Wake and Be Fine from their latest album I Am Very Far, and then just barrelled through one high-octane, wonderful song after another, the energy levels lowering for just a few quieter moments here and there, like on the lovely A Girl in Port.


A Girl in Port

While last time what I came away with was an awe at the intimate, intense experience at the Annandale with more broody songs like A Stone and Another Radio Song, this time around I was struck by the energy and joy emanating from the stage. Hearing Okkervil songs live is a revelation; it's not about hearing a note-perfect copy but the the music coursing through your body, thrumming with energy and emotion.

I loved hearing every song on the set list, though particular surprises and highlights were Piratess came across like a torch song, more haunting in person with Will Sheff's mournful voice; and the one-two-three punch of Your Past Life as a Blast, Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe and Lost Coastlines where each song ended on such a terrific burst of energy that I thought surely, they're done for the night, and prepared myself for their exit - and then they'd throw themselves into the next song with glee.


Lost Coastlines

For every song they played I could think of another I wanted to hear played, but still I walked out humming their songs, grinning from ear to ear, madly proselytising about Okkervil's supremacy as a band to treasure.


Wake and Be Fine
For Real
Rider
Black
Piratess
A Girl in Port
Son of Our So-Called Friend
We Need a Myth
The Valley
No Key No Plan (Will Scheff, Richard Pestorius)
So Come Back I Am Waiting
John Allyn Smith Sails
Your Past Life as a Blast (mp3 from last.fm)
Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe
Lost Coastlines

The Rise
Westfall
Unless It's Kicks

Pulp - 27 Jul 2011 - Hordern Pavillion

Jarvis Cocker made this show – whether dancing awkwardly at the front of the stage, making near-pornographic whispers into the mike or climbing all over massive speakers, he’s so on, possibly more than any other frontman I’ve ever seen. And even though it’s been 10 years since they’ve had a big hit, and over 10 years since I came to love them, there’s something wonderful in seeing his skinny, floppy haired silhouette in person.

The show itself is slick, with giant screens, the band name literally up in lights, and even a night-vision cam, but it wouldn’t work if the band weren’t so damn committed and good at what they do, even after a long hiatus. They played all the hits, sprinkled liberally through a setlist heavy with songs from Different Class (they played all but two songs from that album). Pop hits Disco 2000 and Common People were the most heartily received with a collective singalong and the terrible dancing of a generation of 20 and 30 somethings who were once the awkward, sensitive, sexually frustrated teens and youths that Pulp captures so well in its songs - and for a few golden moments we were those kids once more.

But it was more than just teenage nostalgia – the highlights for me were the songs that allowed Cocker and his band to bring on the layered musical brilliance and the over-the-top psychosexual melodrama such as I Spy, F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E and This is Hardcore.

Apart from being annoyed the the show started way earlier than advertised, so that we turned up halfway through the first song, this was such a brilliant, high-energy night full of great music that was part nostalgia trip but also somehow didn't seem dated at all.


Do You Remember the First Time?
Pink Glove
Bad Cover Version
Pencil Skirt
Something Changed
Disco 2000
Sorted For E's & Wizz
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.
I Spy
Babies
Underwear
This Is Hardcore
The Fear
Sunrise
Bar Italia
Common People

Like a Friend
Live Bed Show
Mis-Shapes

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (TBR Challenge Book 3)

Leaving on a jet plane in a little while, so this will be short!


I always think Atwood is going to be harder to read than she actually is, though this might be because I gravitate toward her books about women and their complicated, often hurtful, relationships with each other.

However, because of this, it was also emotionally wearing to read. I was bullied as a child when I was around Elaine's age and there were times when I had to put the book down because my skin was crawling at the spot-on voices of Elaine's friends, the things they said to and *how* they said it, the way they used niceties to police her in really not-nice ways.

And yet, the sections about her life as a child were the most vivid, the most interesting to me - the descriptions of her unusual family, their trips away, the day-to-day minutae of being a child and finding out piece-by-piece how the world works. Elaine the grown woman, the artist, while she continues to talk in first person, seemed to become more and more distanced from the reader, from the world around her, as she reveals more about her past, revels more in the stories of the past than in her present.

But in the end, I liked it - couldn't say I enjoyed it, but I liked it. And hopefully this makes me more willing to read more Atwood.

**

Also, RIP Diana Wynne Jones. My first DWJ book was Black Maria (which hardly anyone mentions anymore) at around age 9 and it was creepy and wonderful and made me want to read more about magic worlds. I then went on to read Magicians of Caprona, then in quick succession all the Chrestomanci books. I will miss the joy of coming across new DWJ books in Kino - I will continue to look out for those books of hers I haven't managed to read yet.

Belle and Sebastian - 10 Mar 2011 - Opera House

Set list
I Fought in a War
Expectations
Dirty Dream No. 2
I'm Not Living in the Real World (Stevie)
Piazza, New York Catcher
I Want the World to Stop
Antony
Sukie in the Playground
Fox in the Snow
A Century of Fakers
Travelling Light (Stevie)
Write About Love
I Didn't See It Coming
Boy with the Arab Strap
Judy and the Dream of Horses
Sleep the Clock Around

Blues Are Still Blue
Me and the Major

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (TBR Challenge Book 2)

On the Road is jazz music; it's made up of riffs and improvisations. It sprawls at times - over space, time, form - but it can also seem rather hermetic at other moments, sealed in the repetition of yet another drifting/madcap travail from one end of America to the other, narrator Sal once again towed along by his best friend Dean. Or more correctly, by Dean's manic energy and his endless dreams - both in his limitless capacity for dreaming, and foor the fact that these dreams never come to fruition, never reach the end.

It's Dean that's the pulsing heart of this book - he's fascinating, and at the same time, you can't help be aware that if he were real he would the most infuriating person to be around. And then you realise he *was* real, that the beauty of the book in part is the way Kerouac has captured this portrait of his friend Neal Cassady, the way he manages to make music out of his character who leaps off the page, burning so bright that you can see why Sal/Jack stuck with him for so long, why he was drawn into Dean's schemes again and again.

It's actually taken me around five goes to finish reading this book. Some of the writing - oh, perfect in its poetry, its precise story-telling.

Marylou was watching Dean as she watched him clear across the country and back, out of the corner of her eye - with a sullen, sad air, as though she wanted to cut off his head and hide it in her closet, an envious and rueful love of him so amazingly himself, all raging and sniffy and crazy-wayed, a smile of her tender dotage but also sinister envy that frightened me about her, a love she knew woulld never bear fruit because when she looked at his hangjawed bony face with its male self-containment and absentmindedness she knew he was too mad.

But some other sections I couldn't leaf through fast enough, bored, frustrated. I'm not sure if I ever will attempt to give it a solid read through again - it seems to me such a rich text that it's best served in small bites, snatches of music, bursts of life at its most haphazard.

TBR Challenge - my 12 books for 2011

related reading

On the Road, Revisited
Loved reading this back and forth discussion between Megan O'Rourke and Walter Kirn on Slate about their reading of On the Road. I particularly enjoyed O'Rourke's response to the book, the way it expresses an idea of an America that was and never was and could've been.