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!

The Living End - 27 Nov 2012 - Hi Fi Sydney

I am old, I am old, I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. So I’d enthusiastically agreed to the idea of reliving being 14 as soundtracked by The Living End, but after dinner, a cup of a tea and a rest of a super soft couch, I was feeling much less enthusiastic about venturing out at 9pm into the pouring rain.

 And when I finally entered the Hi Fi, soaked from waiting at the door, finding myself at the back of the room packed with tall people, and realised The Living End weren’t going to be on until 10:30, I had a mini tantrum inside my head. Gah, It’s a work night, I think. Then, FFS, I’ve really turned into a grumpy old woman.

But we’d arrived mid-set for Area 7, and I’d forgotten just how many of their fun songs I knew. And by the time they finished their set with Bitter Words I was smiling and singing along. Things were looking up!

 I’d seen The Living End once before, though seen might be too optimistic a description because their average fan is a burly dude twice my height, so the last time I saw people’s sweaty backs a lot. But we got lucky this time around and found a patch of good ground with a decent view of the stage, and juuuuust shy of the inevitable circle pit in the middle of the room.

The night got off to a great start with the delicious irony of a roomful of adults regressing gleefully to their teenage years by screaming out, “I’m a brat and I know everything”. After that blistering start with Prisoner of Society, Chris said fondly, “This album never gets old.” Pause, and following cheers, “Even if we do.” So so true.

But there was so much love in that room – the band for their creation, for each other, for the fans, and vice versa for the fans. This was the perfect nostalgia show, seeing a beloved band from your teenage years playing an album that’s aged well and seeing them enjoy it as much as the audience.

 All the big hits got the loudest singalongs, the most frenetic dancing and movement. But even the deeper cuts were great: Trapped was so much fun live, with the Area 7 brass section adding even more oomph. Have They Forgotten sounded immense and angrier live, and it’s sad that the lyrics are still so relevant today to the asylum seeker situation today.

 In fact, the whole album has aged remarkably well. And as me and my friends said over and over to each other after, hearing their self-titled album played end to end live only serves to remind what a great album of singles it was; there wasn’t a dud song in the mix, not one song we couldn’t sing almost word-perfectly, even after 14 years.

 The band also kept the set fresh and interesting by deviating into great, tight jams that played with familiar songs, like in All Torn Down. And watching Chris Cheney play guitar is still….what do the kids say these days? Ah that’s right, he can still get it, yeah.

At night’s end, teenage me (okay, adult me too) was in raptures at seeing them play Closing In live, which has been one of my favourite songs forever and ever. Scott even still does the trick where he slings the double bass over his shoulders to play behind his back! Though I guess with age this only lasted for like five seconds, hahah.

 To further remind everyone of their advanced age, towards the end of the night, Chris thanks the audience for “buying the album…yeah, remember buying?” Cue LOLs from a roomful of people who still remember and own CDs.

 But all in all, a great gig - high energy atmosphere, awesome playing, and incredibly catchy tunes. I ended the night so sweaty, so happy, and with so many fond memories - what more could a girl (okay, an elderly lady) ask for?

Prisoner of Society
Growing Up (Falling Down)
Second Solution
West End Riot
Bloody Mary
Monday
All Torn Down
Saves the Day
Trapped
Have They Forgotten
Fly Away
I Want A Day
Sleep On It
Closing In
(Georgie Girl – Seekers cover)
Tainted Love – Soft Cell cover

Movies of the Decade: 2006

Happy Boxing Day aka yearly avoid-the-heat, watch-a-blockbuster movie day. :)

I went to see Sherlock Holmes, which I enjoyed in a brain-dead, in love with RDJ and Jude Law and Rachel McAdams kind of way.

And so we continue into movies I have also enjoyed, from 2006:

Little Miss Sunshine (2006; d. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)

I know it's manipulative, but aren't all movies? It's a funny, bittersweet and very human tale, with some great characters, and it mostly manages to steer clear of mawkishness. Steve Carell is particularly good as the depressed, second most pre-eminent scholar of Proust. I watched the beauty pageant scene again recently, for a class on the sexualisation of pre-teens, and was struck again by how funny and uncomfortable little Olive's routine is, and how well that whole scene is constructed to make the audience laugh and squirm.


Look Both Ways (2006; d. Sarah Watts)

A lovely Australian movie about the difficult reconciliation of coping with death and loss while being alive. Over a summer weekend, a motley group of loosely related people - particularly Meryl, whose father has just died; and Nick, who's just learned he has cancer - deal with the emotions of losing lovers and parents, their own fear of death and loss, finding new people to care for, and so on. It sounds like a heavy mix, but it's actually quite a hopeful film, grounded in reality and well-rounded characters, that asks for some thought in processing the various relationships that are formed, held and broken. Also, the mood is broken up with some really beautiful animation work by the director, who illustrates Meryl's wild imaginative scenarios of death and shows Nick's own mirroring thoughts in photo collages.


Pan’s Labyrinth (2006; d. Guillermo del Toro)

I don't normally cry at the movies, but I was sobbing by the end of this movie. It's so wonderfully made and terrifyingly beautiful; the storytelling is excellent, and from the tears, you can guess that it had a great emotional impact on me. I came home and I could not stop talking about it with my family. But it's certainly not a movie for the fainthearted.


Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006; d. Michael Winterbottom)

I declared this movie the best of the year immediately after I watched it, and while the other three in this post are strong contenders I don't know if any of them match this in sheer ludicrous, free-wheeling enjoyment. It's meant to be a film adaptation of a rambling 18th century English novel that has been dubbed "unfilmable" but it is also a film about the film of an adaptation of a rambling 18th century novel and it is actually a film about the film of a... Whatever it actually ends up being, it is very very funny and clever and knows just how to send up its pretentious roots. At one point, Steve Coogan, playing an actor named Steve Coogan, pompously announces, though he hasn't read the novel the film is based on, "This is a postmodern novel before there was any modernism to be post about."

And he's kind of right. You don't have to have read the novel either, and that's one of the running jokes of the film, that no one on set has actually read the 600+ pages of novel. While the set up is completely confusing, it makes complete sense on camera, and unfolds wonderfully on-screen as actors, directors, and actors playing directors, and actors playing themselves break the fourth wall to talk to the camera, while moving between scenes and sets and "real life", all with a funny, hyper-realistic script that flows naturally between all the different modes. This is a film for people who love film; there's plenty of inside jokes, I'm told there are even inside jokes inside inside jokes for those who are really obsessive about movies.

The cast is amazing. A veritable list of great British actors cross the screen doing good work no matter how big or small their part. In particular, Steve Coogan is great - he's such an vain, insecure man as 'the actor', but he also shows a softer side playing a new father, and it makes him endearingly human and thus likeable - plus he also has to play Tristram the narrator and Walter Shandy his father. But apart from the clever ideas, the great acting and the tamed chaos, there's also a lovely sense of the visual joke. See the picture I've posted? That's one of my favourite scenes of the movie.

As Steve Coogan is lowered head first, complete with his 18th century costume, into a big pink uterus model, he has an argument with the production assistant about how he is positioned.

"[Mark, the director] wants it to be as realistic as possible."

"He wants realism. Yeah. I'm a grown man, talking to the camera, in a womb."

Original post-movie reaction and review.


Movies of the Decade: 2004-2005
Movies of the Decade: 2003
Movies of the Decade: 2002
Movies of the Decade: 2000-2001

Dappled Cities – 22 Aug 2009 – The Metro

Dappled Cities finished their Wall of Zounds tour with a sell-out show at the Metro in front of a hometown crowd. The enthusiastic reception they received from the crowd was matched in turn by the band’s obvious joy and appreciation, all of them grinning and happy.

Not that the night went smoothly – they were plagued with technical difficulties at the start, with Dave Rennick shuffling on and off stage trying to fix things while Tim Derricourt led the rest of the band in a meandering jam session and apologised to the restless crowd. And though Derricourt, bouncing all over the stage in excitement, is of the opinion that new album Zounds, only released in the week prior to this gig, is the band’s best to date, there’s a palpable sense of ‘I like your old songs better than your new songs’ from the audience through the rest of the night.

Still, Dappled bravely play half their set from an album that hardly anyone has had time to get to know. The new songs are more sombre in tone, but sound great anyway. The biggest response of the night though is saved for Holy Chord from previous album Granddance. Derricourt says the song is about universal love, and encourages each person to hug the one next to them.

About an hour in, the band leave the stage surprisingly early. But the crowd is mollified by two amusing segments on the backing screen from Alphabreaks, the band’s side project of children’s edutainment (Y for Yodel, and H for Harmonica). Then to top it all off, the band return to the stage in homemade suits adorned with lit up fairy lights to continue playing, including new single The Price which goes down well with the crowd. They get an even better response of cheers and catcalls when, upon leaving the stage, Rennick has to do an impromptu strip out of his suit as his lights have gotten tangled up.

With the crowd still chanting and cheering away, the band return to stage one final time. Rennicourt tells the audience that they hate encores and don’t normally do them, but they make an exception for their adoring audience to play one final song, “a farewell song” that closes Zounds. Here’s hope they it’s not another long goodbye, and that they’ll be back touring the country soon.

Colour Coding
Peach
Vision Bell
The Night is Young At Heart
Wooden Ships
Fire Fire Fire
Miniature Alas
Beach
Answer is Zero
Holy Chord
Cream

(Alphabreaks)

The Price
Apart

Stepshadows

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

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.

Jebediah - 5 Sept 2008 - Annandale Hotel

Inside the venue it was warm and already packed with an older crowd ready to relive their late teens and early twenties with a good Aussie band playing a good Aussie gig. And they'd have to be a tough critic with a heart of stone to have come away disappointed at the end of the night.

Jebediah played mostly old favourites from their first two albums, mixed in with a few later songs as well as some new material due out next year. The new songs are catchy and fit in fine with the rest of their set, but it was the old songs that the crowd really came for, and what they really enjoyed. It was a sight to have bald men in collared shirts bouncing up and down to the music like fifteen year olds at their first gig.

Kevin Mitchell has the most adorable grin, and he had it on a lot; the band were obviously very happy to be back on stage after a three year hiatus ("Emo happened," Kevin deadpanned as an explanation). The weird thing was that the band didn't look like they'd aged at all. I last saw them nine years ago at Homebake, but even as we surged closer to the stage they looked just as they had all that time ago. I heard a lot of people around us murmuring the same thing, and I'm leaning towards the band having a collective portrait somewhere in an attic that's growing uglier by the moment ala Dorian Gray, though I suppose 'vampires' could also be a valid explanation.

After about an hour of playing, and having played a good amount of their best known songs - Feet Touch the Ground, Harpoon, Animal, Please Leave - they started taking requests. Teflon was hugely fun, with the whole crowd jumping up and down and yelling '1, 2, 3, 4' happily back at the band leading out of the chorus. At the 'end' of the show, after leaving the stage for a few minutes while the crowd were treated to a wall of reverb, the band returned to the audience's joy, and went into their biggest song of all, Leaving Home.

Then promptly returned to taking requests, throwing in some long forgotten tracks (Benedict! That really took me back to being fourteen again), as well as admitting that they couldn't remember how to play Military Strongmen (to the audience's disappointment), and deflecting the odd audience comment ("But we've already played Teflon!" Kevin said, wryly amused, to one obviously persistent fan). Finally, they settled on Invaders as their last song, as per two fans in the front row, who were then invited to come up on stage and take over vocal duties, which they really took to, complete with air guitaring and rock star moves. It was a hilarious and awesome way to end the night, feeling that no matter how much time had elapsed, Jebediah were still a great band with a connection with the local fans who loved them.

NDC
Feet Touch the Ground
(new song)
It's Over
Animal
Please Leave
Harpoon
No Sleep
(new song)
Fall Down
Teflon
Star Machine
Jerks of Attention

Leaving Home
Monument
Benedict
Invaders

Stealing O'Neal / Planet of the Stereos - 20 Oct 2007 - Spectrum

Missed the first band on, but we did end up catching the next two bands, the first being a loud and energetic pop punk band called Stealing O'Neal. They looked ridiculously young. The lead singer was doing his best Adam Lazzara (from Taking Back Sunday) impression, with his crazy all-over-the-stage moves - quite dangerous since the stage is *tiny* and they had five guys and assorted instruments all squished on there - and the microphone lead twirling around his neck. I think the most memorable song for me was actually a cover, an acoustic rendition of 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' (from the Arctic Monkeys).

Planet of the Stereos were good! A rocking indie band, with some really catchy songs; I particularly liked 'Wasting Time', and 'Delicate Girl', both of which managed to sound sweeter and fuller live. I was surprised to hear they'd only been around two years or so, since they played well together.

Kisschasy / British India/In Fiction - 27 Sept 2007 - The Metro

In Fiction were an average five piece rock band. They seemed to have trouble picking a genre to play in, and while April and I agreed that musical range is a good thing, changing styles four times during a song seems rather excessive.

I knew *nothing* about British India except there was a bit of hype about them, that they were supposedly pretty good. I was not prepared for how young they looked, nor for how much I liked them and how utterly enjoyable they were. They had lots of energy, played well together, and had a gloriously chaotic rock/punk sound. The lead guitarist was a tiny tiny axe wielding maniac, and the drummer looked like he was going to die of exhaustion by the second last song but managed to keep going. The lead singer, who looked like your average teenaged indie geek, didn't know what to do with his hands when he wasn't playing the guitar, and settled for trying to dance with his arms waving around loosely and uselessly. But they were definitely a new band to keep an eye out on.

The room started filling up properly for Kisschasy. Their set started with the lead singer doing a simple acoustic version of 'Black Dress' which was very well received by the crowd, and then the rest of the band came out. Their sound was more rock live than I'd expected from their almost pop singles from radio, and I found them very generic in sound; I kept waiting for the song to really interesting...by which time it was over and they went straight into another one that sounded about the same. After four songs I was ready to leave.

Fall Out Boy - 26 Sept 2007 - Acer Arena

I saw Fall Out Boy in March at the Big Top and really enjoyed it, but I was surprised then by how little they played from their latest record, the very good Infinity on High. So when I saw that they were coming out again, having gone triple platinum, and with Jack's Mannequin as support, I easily coughed up for a second go.

Jack's Mannequin - kind of Ben Folds Five gone pop punk with a detour around the lighter moments of Death Cab for Cutie - were on first, and they put on a really fun set, with an emphasis on the more upbeat songs from their one album to date (Everything in Transit). The crowd on the front floor were really into it, which resulted in a heavier crush than I expected that early in the night. Lead singer Andrew McMahon was adorably hyper, and sounded *great* live. I am a complete sucker for piano-tinged rock played with abandon, so the finale where he ended up marching up and down the piano and then on top of it was amusing.

I'm Ready
La La Lie
Bruised
Dark Blue
Holiday from Real
The Mixed Tape
MFEO

I was already dripping with sweat and completely dehydrated after JM, so I went to buy some overpriced water, checked out the merch (but was good and didn't buy anything), then went back to my spot on the floor for the Gyroscope set. Which was short, loud, energetic, and a hell of a lot heavier than the kids were expecting, considering the bemusement around me; they were much more in the rock mould. The set was a mix of old ('Doctor Doctor'), more recent ('Fast Girl', 'Beware Wolf') and really new (latest single 'Snakeskin').

Finally, Fall Out Boy came out to that instantly recognisable opening riff of AC/DC's Thunderstruck. Their set was ridiculously fun; three songs in I was already exhausted from jumping around so much, but I couldn't help myself. I ended up centre left a little way back, still within the happy moshers, but not close enough to feel crushed, and I barely needed to watch the big screens at the side because I generally had a decent view. Sound was not great overall, it was a little messy at times and Patrick's glorious voice seemed drowned out a bit from where I was but what they lacked in sound cohesion they made up with heaps of presence.

Pete was in an odd mood, not withdrawn, but rather introspective; a fair bit of his stage banter was musings on how fans react to them, and how they perceive that adoration and attention. For example, he prefaced the cover of Basket Case by talking about how people often tell him that FOB music has saved their lives, which he says he finds it difficult to respond to, but in turn they wanted to play "a song that saved our lives". How, I don't know, but it was a good cover of a great song.

Thriller
Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy
Don't Matter (cover) - video -
Sugar We're Going Down
Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued
Of All The Gin Joints In All The World - video -
Hum Hallelujah
I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me
Basket Case (cover) - video -
I'm Like a Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)
A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’
Beat It (cover) - video -
Carpal Tunnel of Love
This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
The Take Over, The Break’s Over
One and Only
Dance Dance
Power of Love (cover)
Saturday

Dappled Cities Fly / Red Riders - 15 Jun 2007 - The Metro

Last time I saw support act Belles Will Ring, supporting Death Cab for Cutie that time, they were a four piece, and not particularly memorable in a generic rock way. This time around, they were now a five member band, and they'd picked up a 60s folk-rock influence. Some of the songs from their album Mood Patterns are quite catchy – I particularly liked 'Park Benches', which is the point where their set picked up for me, 'Midnight' and 'The Coldest Heart'.

After Belles Will Ring, both Red Riders and Dappled Cities came out on stage and did a coin toss to determine who would play first on the double bill. To my relief, Dappled won the toss and elected to go first. After hearing Dappled briefly at Modest Mouse and wanting more, I'd come to really enjoy their sound. They didn't disappoint, with a good tight set; the band gelled together really well, and they seemed to be really enjoy playing, and the crowd’s response. I admit I tuned out a touch during the middle of the set with more material from A Smile but there were lots of great moments from second album Granddance. 'Work It Out' was slowed down, which threw me a bit at first, but still sounded great, and 'Holy Chord' was really beautiful live, with the crowd singing along enthusiastically.

Not a set list, but we definitely heard: Granddance, Peach, Vision Bell, Within Hours, Beach, Work It Out, Fire Fire Fire, Holy Chord and Colour Coding.

We ended up only staying for the first 3 songs of the Red Riders set, which included their hit 'What They Say About Us'. They struck me as being quite young, not really polished on stage yet, but they had a real energy to them that was fun. The crowd on the floor was really into them. They reminded me a bit of The Strokes, a bit of Franz Ferdinand.

Modest Mouse - 3 Jan 2007 - Enmore Theatre

I didn’t really have any expectations going in, because I am woefully acquainted with the entirety of the Modest Mouse oeuvre (though what I know I like) so I was ready to go and experience for experience's sake. It was good to see some really good live ROCK (when I'm listening to Modest Mouse my dad will often pop in and ask what all the noise is) with the jangly guitars, the growling bass, the massive percussion section.

We arrived about halfway through the Dappled Cities set, and what I heard was catchy and good. Two things in particular struck me – they can caterwaul in harmony! and the lead singer/guitarist has a really nice voice. I will be looking for more of their stuff to listen to.

Modest Mouse started with 'Ocean Breathes Salty', which was one of about five songs I wanted to hear tonight. They followed up with a stompingly good 'Black Cadillac', then a song that was only about a minute and a half long, then Isaac Brock stopped and said something along the lines of “Normally we just play this through again because that’s all there is. It’s a good song so here we go.” And then they really did just play it all the way through again.

Before the concert we'd wondered when in the set 'Float On' (their far and away best known song) would go and we guessed either first or last or in the encore to draw out is popularity. However four songs in there it was, and it was good but not great – I still love the song, but hearing it live did nothing for me. However, a few more songs in they played an absolutely blistering rendition of 'Tiny Cities Made of Ashes' that just raised the energy levels. This started a great section of songs – 'Tiny Cities', 'Bukowski', 'The World At Large', 'The View' - where the crowd really got into it; the moshers started a crazy whirling pit in the centre, and others were less timid in moving along to the rhythm and beat. And I got to geek out over the use of unexpected instrumentation, especially during Bukowski with the bit when it’s the banjo, electric double bass and accordion only – so cool.

Isaac Brock tried a bit of banter, though for him it consisted of awkwardly funny sarcasm. He was most animated when he was talking about cuddling koalas in Brisbane, which is adorable. And I’ve discovered that I really like it when frontmen are narky at certain parts of the crowd – it might be a bit mean, but it’s still amusing when they’re paying out some idiot in the crowd (I guess as long as it’s not me I’m ok with that). The crowd was a bit insane last night though, with the crazy hyper girls on the barrier, and the half-naked guy who kept trying to crowd surf and actually dove onto the stage at one point, only to be chased back onto the floor by a big security guard who dragged him away forcibly while the guy’s girlfriend hung off the security guard as an useless impediment.

Last song of the set was 'Breakthrough' (also good). There was a two song encore ending with 'Dramamine', which I did want to hear, but they noodled through it for a bit too long. The energy level of the crowd was flagging and it seemed that most were not in the mood for that kind of extended jam, which meant the concert ended on a strangely impatient note.

The Whitlams - 8 Dec 2006 - The Metro

Such an amazing gig. I didn't want The Whitlams' set to end, I didn't want them to leave the stage, I wanted them to play another song and another and another...

When we walk into the Metro, everyone ahead of us in the line (and there were a good 40-50 odd people) is either at the bar or seated. Mend and I stare at the barely occupied barrier in a kind of disbelieving wonder, then decide, hell, why not? I really do love experiencing a concert from the floor, even if my feet and legs do kill the next day, and even when most of the time my sight is obscured by a large sweaty man. So we pick a spot just to the left of the centre of the stage on the barrier, which means the stage is about a metre away from me. We would NOT be regretting this decision by the end of the night. I spent every other moment just basking in the fact that I had an unobstructed view of everyone and everything and every single moment on stage for the whole entire night. Plus the crowd was this weird mix of everything from conservative to alternative, young to old, and overall very polite so I had space to dance along and breathe and didn't get jostled once.

We had no idea who the support acts were. The first support act, James Cooper, played average singer-songwriter pop rock that occasionally was quite fun but nothing stuck in my head at all. And for someone that had a four piece band with him, there wasn't much sound or energy coming through. Second support act were a five member band headed by a female singer, The Hampdens, who played a 45 minute set that seemed a lot lot longer, mostly because they weren't particularly catchy, didn't seem very enthused about being on stage, and had very little presence.

Thank goodness for The Whitlams, who utterly redeemed the night.

Tim Freedman is funny and sharp and really lovely and has a really sweet smile. He and Jak Housden in particular have really good chemistry and there was some good banter going on between them towards the end, but the band is really great together as a whole. The four of them (Tim Freedman on piano, Jak Housden on guitar, Warwick Hornby on bass and Terepai Richmond on drums; they all have a part in vocals which surprised me) seemed to be having so much fun, and they played so well individually as well as together; there’s such joy in their performance that it just spilled out over the crowd, who were quite placid at the start but really warmed up to a fannish devotion by the end. The lone drunk annoying woman, who would interrupt at inappropriate moments with a whooping call (like a bad coo-ee!) was thoroughly told off by Tim Freedman in the first ten minutes, and actually seemed to get the idea after the THIRD time he told her to shut up and go away. Not to make him sound crotchety, because everybody must have been feeling the same way - the room erupted in cheers after she was chastised.

The set list – oh goodness, what a set. 20+ songs over two hours, so I couldn’t really give an ordered list but I can remember most of what we heard. The first six songs were definitely:

Beauty in Me
White Horses
Fall For You
I Will Not Go Quietly
Make Me Hard
Tonight

Then I think just after Tim had announced they were playing 'Fondness Makes the Heart Grow Absent' next, Terepai Richmond’s snare drum broke, or something malfunctioned or it was planned, but anyway, the rest of the band moved offstage and left Tim Freedman in his own, and he performed absolutely heartbreakingly beautifully '12 Hours' and 'Charlie No.2' with just his voice and the piano, and I’m sure people behind us were crying through the second song and I was mesmerised because '12 Hours' is my favourite song off Little Cloud and I have listened to it over and over in these last few months especially in some of my worst days and to hear it so pure and unadorned and perfect was just amazing.

The band then came back on and continued, though they didn’t end up playing 'Fondess...' at all. The next lot of songs were definitely in there though possibly not this order:

Little Cloud
No Aphrodisiac
Blow Up the Pokies
You Sound Like Louie Burdett
I Was Alive
Royal in the Afternoon
Fancy Lover
Year of the Rat

There was a song that I didn’t know just before 'I Was Alive'; Tim said it was about considering marriage and deciding NO (“luckily for her” he quipped) and then they segued from that into 'I Was Alive' which is kind of the opposite, about a very stormy relationship that seemed to have been worth it anyway. The last two songs of the main set were definitely 'Thank You' - which was so very very good live, energetic and happy and so appropriate for the moment with its chorus that suggests a band looking back on their long successful career and thanking the fans who've stuck with them despite everything – and 'Gough'. There was moment in Gough where I just stopped and looked this sold out room of very disparate people, brought together by a band who had them all singing and dancing along to a song about Australian politics and betrayal in the 1970s, and I just laughed because it was so cool and unusual and what other band could do it?

There were two encores. Tim Freedman came out on his own to do 'Charlie No. 3' (my one tiny disappointment was that there was no 'Charlie No.1' to complete the set and my wishes) with just him and the piano, then they went into a rousing rendition of 'Stay With Me' and also 'The Hamburger Song', which the crowd went wild for. Second encore was'She's Moving In' and then one final song.

Everything sounded excellent live – from classics with new arrangements (such as with 'No Aphrodisiac') to the newer songs that sounded louder and bigger out of the studio and came alive, to the delicately beautiful solo songs. For just four guys on the stage, they have such energy and sound that they fill the room. It was an awesome night, and best of all – the tickets had only cost $30. I’ve never had better value for money at a live gig.

The Living End - 12 May 2006 - Hordern Pavillion

I've been wanting to see the Living End for years, and they didn't disappoint on Friday night. High energy atmosphere, awesome playing and mostly catchy tunes - what more could a girl ask for? Apart from the insane crush at the start of the concert and the fact I caught about 7 glimpses of the band in total, it was a great night.

I did jump around a lot, not just because the music dictated a pretty good mosh, but in trying to see better; this big guy in front of me (who seemed like one of maybe ten people who were our age and up, GAH) noticed and indicated he'd pick me up for a bit if I wanted. So I hopped on, wobbled perilously and I think actually made some kind of noise that was interpreted as a "whooo!" (I'm not sure if that was what I was thinking though, heh) and took a blurry photo from the vantage point and had a quick scour of the massed crowd below. Very cool. This guy also held my camera up a bit so I could take some video. I'm not sure if he was just very very nice, or rather annoyed at having this little Asian girl bouncing up and down behind him with her camera in the air, so. But anyway.

The music was mostly songs off the new album (State of Emergency - pretty much everything *except* my favourite track, Order of the Day) with a few old favourites chucked in. The absolute best thing was the jamming, extending familiar songs with awesome, really tight playing. The highlight was the rockabilly track because it was just excellent listening to them and wondering how the hell they can play that fast, that well, and so in sync with each other. Of course, with the really popular older singles, the crowd just went nuts all over again and ramped up the energy levels. I was dripping sweat after the first song and by the end I was dripping with everyone else's sweat.

All in all they were lots of fun, and completely worth seeing live. I got to hear old favourites, act like I was 16 again, and even got sold on a few of the newer tracks.


Who's Gonna Save Us
Save the Day
I Can't Give You What I Haven't Got
We Want More
No Way Out
Monday
One Step Behind
Black Cat
All Torn Down
Medley of older songs (incl. From Here On In and English Army)
Prisoner of Society
'Til the End
Wake Up
(rockabilly country thing)
Long Live the Weekend
?
Roll On

The Room
West End Riot

Avril Lavigne - 12 Apr 2005 - Sydney Entertainment Centre

Things you may already know about Avril Lavigne: she is small and often appears rather unhappy or sour in the press; she favours a casual look of t-shirts and cargo pants, coining a new uniform for girls of a certain age; she became famous on the back of some classic pop singles about teen-girl-angst most probably written by the Matrix group and not her; she's the antithesis, or the smart-yet-shallow evolution, of your mid to late 90s female pop star, your Britneys and Jessicas and Mandys.

None of these are necessarily false.

Things I notice about Avril Lavigne within the first five minutes of watching her on stage: her small slender frame; her very blonde and straight hair; the swagger and confidence as she performs her songs, at odds with her quick spoken segues between songs; the pretty smile on her face as she performs; her great voice - husky due to a recent bout of the flu, but strong and in-tune and very clearly live.

We approached this concert with trepidation leading up to tonight, hearing about unsold seats, the hastily discounted tickets, the lack of excitement - and teenagers - around the Ent Cent as we enter the building. There's barely a respectable line for the merchandise, and, worse still, no line for the female toilets, usually a sure sign of a packed house. Poor Avril. It seems that this time around, supporting a strong, more mature second album, she's lost a fair few of the throng that filled the venue for her first tour.

Support band Town Hall Steps ("We were in Melbourne, but we come from this ****ing city!" the lead singer blurts out excitedly after a song) are a solid if not particularly interesting confusion of rock and punk. As my friend put it after the set, "The lead singer thinks he's in Incubus, the guitarist thinks he's in AC/DC, and the keyboard guy thinks he's in Muse".

After a short half-hour break, the house lights dim, and a gothic-classical theme starts up, strobe lights flashing, building an atmosphere for Avril (in a green t-shirt, a red belt, and camoflage 3/4 pants) to stride out on stage to start singing the first track of her first album. She is greeted by cheers - well, cheers from those in the seats, anyway. Those of us on the floor stare in confusion, as we see her lips moving and hear the band, but hear nothing of Avril's voice. For a moment, we think we're going to be at the worst. concert. EVER.

But after a verse and a chorus, the sound kicks in, and the crowd on the floor finally gets to legitimately cheer. The set is only an hour or so long all up, but due to the lack of stage banter, forced or otherwise, the songs move from one to the next rapidly, a great big string of hits along with a cover of American Idiot by Green Day ("My favourite band!" Avril acknowledges) right after current single He Wasn't - a brave move, considering the latter is noticeably a Green Day-lite kind of song - and some lesser known rockier songs from both albums. Avril plays guitar on several songs, accompanies herself on piano for some of the slower songs (complete with a rather anaemic chandelier above the baby grand), and in a fantastic encore, plays the drums while her band sings the Blur hit Song 2.

Losing Grip
Unwanted
My Happy Ending
Mobile
I Always Get What I Want
I'm With You
Things I'll Never Say
Who Knows
Don't Tell Me
Fall to Pieces
He Wasn't
American Idiot
Take Me Away
Forgotten
Together
Tomorrow
Nobody's Home
Sk8er Boi

Song 2
Complicated

With every song, the atmosphere went from lukewarm to happily enthusiastic. She has some of the best sing-a-long songs out there at the moment, and the concert was one nice bask in simple enjoyment in listening to a good singer happily performing without much fuss, letting the music move the crowd.