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
Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
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!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Two Door Cinema Club/The Vaccines - 3 Jan 2013 - Hordern Pavilion
Due to a mix-up with the run times on the Hordern website, we rocked up not long after doors opened and had to queue, the horror (no really, I don't think I've queued for a band since forever). Once we were in we decided to give The Jungle Giants a go. They struck me as very young, and as Al noted, their sound is just like a dozen other bands you'd hear on triple J at the moment (we thought maybe early Dappled Cities, Vampire Weekend, Givers, etc etc). But props for a confident, tight set that was a crowd-pleaser.
The great thing about punk(-ish) bands is that if you don't like a song, you know another one will be along in less than two minutes. The Vaccines were on for only 40 minutes but they managed a full-sized set in that time! Since they're quite bouncy on record, I kind of expected them to be even louder and more fun live, but it didn't translate completely. Justin Young's vocals were a bit thin and seemed a lost in the mix at times; so upbeat singles like Teenage Icon and If You Wanna didn't quite have the punch expected. Highlights for me were I Always Knew with good audience sing-a-long, and surprisingly, All in White from 2011's What Did You Expect...
No Hope
Tiger Blood
Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
I Always Knew
Wetsuit
Aftershave Ocean
Teenage Icon
Ghost Town
Post Break-up Sex
All in White
If You Wanna
Bad Mood
Norgaard
I'd been told good things about Two Door Cinema Club as a live experience, and I'm happy to say they lived up to them. It was an energetic, enjoyable set - tuneful and lots of fun to dance to (which meant, unfortunately, lots of flaily, drunk dudebros, but what can you do?). Lead singer Alex Trimble's voice was good and strong, cutting through the sound and rhythm to soar in songs like Wake Up and Sun. Nice staging too - the ever-changing light show backdrop was simple but effective and worked well with the music. And you can never go wrong with giant balloons for a strong finish. :)
photo thanks to Al
Sleep Alone
Undercover Martyn
Do You Want It All
This is the Life
Wake Up
You're Not Stubborn
Sun
Pyramid
I Can Talk
Costume Party
The World is Watching
New Year
Something Good Can Work
Handshake
Eat That Up, It's Good For You
Someday
Come Back Home
What You Know
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Theatre 2012
So Al and I have been joking that you can tell we're getting old because we're starting to swap music gigs for theatre productions.
26/10/2012 Les Miserables @ Riverside Theatre (Riverside Lyric Ensemble)
Musically the cast and orchestra of this production were very good; at the start, it even sounded (spookily) similar the CSR but the main actors managed to give their very well-known parts a bit of their own character. My only quibble musically would be that the whole show was played at a quicker tempo than I'd like, which gave some of the more emotional moments a rushed feeling (though it possibly allowed the quite long show to end at a decent hour??).
The actor playing Valjean was the standout, vocally and in acting. Eponine was also great in her part vocally, and she had the best death scene with a fantastically judged performance of A Little Fall of Rain; but bizarrely, she also decided to play all her scenes with Marius with hunched shoulders and sagging posture as if she were Gollum watching over his precious...it was very distracting.
The major problem with this production was probably direction, or lack of it. It was particularly noticeable in how movement around the stage was terrible; often actors were left to sing their solos at the front of the stage as if in recital rather than in a theatrical performance, and in some group scenes the energy of the main performances would be sapped by background characters haphazardly moving across the stage into each other's paths and in distracting ways.
I went with a mixed group of friends, from Les Mis diehard fanatics to someone who turned to me after the show and asked, in all seriousness, "So tell me about this French Revolution thing". So I think the fact that everyone really enjoyed it speaks to the appeal of the musical despite the flaws to be expected from an (semi-)amateur production.
20/10/2012 Much Ado About Nothing (Globe Shakespeare on Screen)
This would've been so much fun to see in person, I think, and even on film it comes across as a really charming production that handles the balance between comedy and drama in this play really well. Beatrice and Benedick's sparring never gets tiresome and still gets laughs, no matter how many times I've seen/heard it. Nice, simple staging and I loved how the actors used the audience as part of their performance!
30/9/2012 Private Lives @ Belvoir
Fairly straight-forward adaptation, though in modern-dress with some other anachronistic touches that mostly worked (still not quite sure about that Phil Collins moment). Very funny, and the actors did well with the furious pace of Coward's cracking script, but there's still a weird disconnect when your brain registers the casual racism and the violence against women that's just laughed off.
6/7/2012 The Duchess of Malfi @ Playhouse, Opera House (Bell Shakespeare)
Oooh, depressing. I mean, any synopsis of the plot would make that clear but geez, when it's compacted down like this it's just one terrible thing after another. Coupled with a dark, claustrophobic set full of sharp edges and it was all a bit much after a while. Lucy Bell delivered a nice, subtle performance of as the Duchess but the male cast veered between OTT villainy and blank ambiguity.
19/5/2012 Les Liaisons Dangereuses @ Wharf 1 Theatre (STC)
Simple and elegant staging, overall really good production with particularly strong performances by the female cast. Justine Clark was heartbreakingly lovely as Tourvel. Pamela Rabe was great too, though almost unrecognisable in her grey wig. But - and it's probably an unpopular opinion - I thought Hugo Weaving was a bit too arch in this, even allowing for the source material.
21/4/2012 Macbeth @ Drama Theatre, Opera House (Bell Shakespeare)
Hm. Great staging - instead of the traditional stone walls of Scottish castles, it all takes place on an empty, grassy stage with a mirror above casting a reflection that serves to make the emptiness seem ever darker and more foreboding. Interesting choice to collapse the three witches into one portrayal, using body shape and voice distortion to bring a creepy, eerie tone to Lizzie Schebesta's intriguing performance.
But overall, I didn't enjoy this - didn't enjoy the choice to sexualise Macbeth's connection with the witches, didn't enjoy Katie Jean Harding once again histrionically playing another bereaved mother, didn't enjoy the way it dragged and dragged even as it got closer and closer to everything falling to pieces.
24/3/2012 This Is Our Youth @ Drama Theatre, Opera House
Really enjoyed this. Despite it being a play written in the 90s about kids in the 80s it still felt relevant and applicable to the predominantly (and unusually) young audience watching 20, 30 years on. I like that Lonergan managed to capture a portrait of youth that's going to feel true even if the clothes, the drugs, the phones and presidents keep changing.
The three young actors were all very good. Michael Cera played to type as the hapless perpetual screw-up Warren, and at first his distinctive voice took a little getting used to in a live setting, but he is a very good, subtle physical comedian and he also managed to bring to surface surprising moments of joy and choked-up sadness in turn. Emily Barclay was all coltish teenage girlishness and nerves, perfectly performed. But Keiran Culkin was the best as the fast-talking Dennis, full of barely-suppressed rage. He owned the part so well that we were surprised to find out afterwards that he'd originally played Warren in a NY production!
**
I also saw the all-male production of Pirates of Penzance at Sydney Theatre, which was very enjoyable and provided a lot of food for thought about gender roles, but I forgot to make notes on that...
26/10/2012 Les Miserables @ Riverside Theatre (Riverside Lyric Ensemble)
Musically the cast and orchestra of this production were very good; at the start, it even sounded (spookily) similar the CSR but the main actors managed to give their very well-known parts a bit of their own character. My only quibble musically would be that the whole show was played at a quicker tempo than I'd like, which gave some of the more emotional moments a rushed feeling (though it possibly allowed the quite long show to end at a decent hour??).
The actor playing Valjean was the standout, vocally and in acting. Eponine was also great in her part vocally, and she had the best death scene with a fantastically judged performance of A Little Fall of Rain; but bizarrely, she also decided to play all her scenes with Marius with hunched shoulders and sagging posture as if she were Gollum watching over his precious...it was very distracting.
The major problem with this production was probably direction, or lack of it. It was particularly noticeable in how movement around the stage was terrible; often actors were left to sing their solos at the front of the stage as if in recital rather than in a theatrical performance, and in some group scenes the energy of the main performances would be sapped by background characters haphazardly moving across the stage into each other's paths and in distracting ways.
I went with a mixed group of friends, from Les Mis diehard fanatics to someone who turned to me after the show and asked, in all seriousness, "So tell me about this French Revolution thing". So I think the fact that everyone really enjoyed it speaks to the appeal of the musical despite the flaws to be expected from an (semi-)amateur production.
20/10/2012 Much Ado About Nothing (Globe Shakespeare on Screen)
This would've been so much fun to see in person, I think, and even on film it comes across as a really charming production that handles the balance between comedy and drama in this play really well. Beatrice and Benedick's sparring never gets tiresome and still gets laughs, no matter how many times I've seen/heard it. Nice, simple staging and I loved how the actors used the audience as part of their performance!
30/9/2012 Private Lives @ Belvoir
Fairly straight-forward adaptation, though in modern-dress with some other anachronistic touches that mostly worked (still not quite sure about that Phil Collins moment). Very funny, and the actors did well with the furious pace of Coward's cracking script, but there's still a weird disconnect when your brain registers the casual racism and the violence against women that's just laughed off.
6/7/2012 The Duchess of Malfi @ Playhouse, Opera House (Bell Shakespeare)
Oooh, depressing. I mean, any synopsis of the plot would make that clear but geez, when it's compacted down like this it's just one terrible thing after another. Coupled with a dark, claustrophobic set full of sharp edges and it was all a bit much after a while. Lucy Bell delivered a nice, subtle performance of as the Duchess but the male cast veered between OTT villainy and blank ambiguity.
19/5/2012 Les Liaisons Dangereuses @ Wharf 1 Theatre (STC)
Simple and elegant staging, overall really good production with particularly strong performances by the female cast. Justine Clark was heartbreakingly lovely as Tourvel. Pamela Rabe was great too, though almost unrecognisable in her grey wig. But - and it's probably an unpopular opinion - I thought Hugo Weaving was a bit too arch in this, even allowing for the source material.
21/4/2012 Macbeth @ Drama Theatre, Opera House (Bell Shakespeare)
Hm. Great staging - instead of the traditional stone walls of Scottish castles, it all takes place on an empty, grassy stage with a mirror above casting a reflection that serves to make the emptiness seem ever darker and more foreboding. Interesting choice to collapse the three witches into one portrayal, using body shape and voice distortion to bring a creepy, eerie tone to Lizzie Schebesta's intriguing performance.
But overall, I didn't enjoy this - didn't enjoy the choice to sexualise Macbeth's connection with the witches, didn't enjoy Katie Jean Harding once again histrionically playing another bereaved mother, didn't enjoy the way it dragged and dragged even as it got closer and closer to everything falling to pieces.
24/3/2012 This Is Our Youth @ Drama Theatre, Opera House
Really enjoyed this. Despite it being a play written in the 90s about kids in the 80s it still felt relevant and applicable to the predominantly (and unusually) young audience watching 20, 30 years on. I like that Lonergan managed to capture a portrait of youth that's going to feel true even if the clothes, the drugs, the phones and presidents keep changing.
The three young actors were all very good. Michael Cera played to type as the hapless perpetual screw-up Warren, and at first his distinctive voice took a little getting used to in a live setting, but he is a very good, subtle physical comedian and he also managed to bring to surface surprising moments of joy and choked-up sadness in turn. Emily Barclay was all coltish teenage girlishness and nerves, perfectly performed. But Keiran Culkin was the best as the fast-talking Dennis, full of barely-suppressed rage. He owned the part so well that we were surprised to find out afterwards that he'd originally played Warren in a NY production!
**
I also saw the all-male production of Pirates of Penzance at Sydney Theatre, which was very enjoyable and provided a lot of food for thought about gender roles, but I forgot to make notes on that...
Anyway, I have a Belvoir subscription for next year (5 plays!) and I'm hoping to get some tickets to some of the major productions STC will put on, so bring on 2013!
Les Misérables (2012, d. Tom Hooper)
Unpopular opinion time...
That said, I stand by my opinion that this a bad movie. It's still a fantastic musical, but it is a bad film.
So the Boxing Day movie for this year was the new Tom Hooper directed version of Les Misérables. Some of you have asked what I think of it, and some of you unfortunate souls who saw it with me already heard this rant, so I apologise in advance.
That said, I stand by my opinion that this a bad movie. It's still a fantastic musical, but it is a bad film.
Seriously, Tom Hooper confirms for me with this movie that he is completely undeserving of that Oscar. The direction is DIRE. It's stolid, heavy-handed, unimaginative and ridiculously literal.
Though the religious aspect is obviously a big part of the story with the key themes of mercy and grace, of justice and repentance, Hooper again goes for entirely unsubtle visual reminders on top of the lyrics and story, hammering home the Christ-parallels for Valjean, and he didn't seem to meet a cross he didn't want to shoe-horn in.
And the whole thing, despite the roller-coaster vista shots, and the many changes of time and place, still feels frustratingly static, with performers moving awkwardly around sets while singing their key songs (e.g. Valjean singing What Have I Done while pacing the chapel, Javert singing Stars while standing figuratively and literally on the edge of the fakest looking Paris ever, Marius singing Empty Chairs and Empty Tables, etc etc). The camera does nothing but twirl around them and up their noses while they sing, and the pace slows to the a crawl. It's perfectly standard for the stage show, but it begs the question: why bother translating it to film if you're not going to use that to your advantage at all?
So that the movie succeeds as a piece of entertainment at all is in spite of Hooper's work, is because there's still some fantastic performances, and the story and music itself remain wonderfully involving and moving.
Anne Hathaway stood out the most for me; she does her best with a rushed sequence of Fantine's fall from grace, and I Dreamed a Dream is so heartrendingly good, from her singing to her huge, sad eyes, the way she can subtly convey the change from bitter reminiscence to dead-eyed present within the performance...it was probably the most emotionally true moment of the film.
Hugh Jackman is great too as Valjean, though I expected as much, and I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Eddie Redmayne as Marius, both acting-wise and vocally. Most of the others in the main cast are good, if not outstanding: Amanda Seyfriend makes a beautiful Cosette and her clear, high voice works for the character; Samantha Barks sings Eponine a little more stagey than the others but is fine; Aaron Tveit is a suitably stern and a little fanatical as the idealistic Enjolras; Helena Bonham Carter was better than I thought she would be 'cos much as I love her she's not a great singer, but the part of Madame Thenardier calls more for comic timing than singing ability, and she got great laughs from the audience.
While Sacha Baron Cohen couldn't quite match her as Thenardier and was given some incredibly broad humour to carry, he was not the worst performer - that title would fall to Russell Crowe, who clearly struggled vocally with the demanding role of Javert. His higher register was noticeably weak, verging on nasal, and he didn't have the vibrato which meant a lot of his lines were clipped and lost their power. And he didn't give his actual performance a lot of colour either, so overall it was just plain that he was out of his depth with this.
In the end, I couldn't hate this movie because of my love for the musical, and I don't regret the 3hr+ sitting. But I spent more time thinking about what was wrong with it, and snorting about the literalism and the anvil-ly emotionalism, than actually being carried along with it. And my impression on coming out of the theatre was not 'what a beautiful, grand and uplifting end!', but rather 'Tom Hooper, you hack'.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Patrick Wolf - 8/9 Sept 2012 - The Studio, Sydney Opera House
Writing this MONTHS after I made notes reminds me that I really really should write these fresh. Oh well.
Support act Brous were a weird mix of Kate Bush and Fleet Foxes, except not as enjoyable as that sounds. They had elements that I normally like and thought would be a great match for Patrick Wolf - Baroque harmonies, plenty of unusual instruments (such as the harmonium, zither, bassoon and recorder) - but it just didn't work for me. In part, it might've been because they tried for awkward banter that assumed too much engagement with the audience to start with; they obviously did have fans there, but there wasn’t enough warmth coming the stage, nor returning. It was an awkward set that dragged for me.
And there was even more instrument porn, but done right! It was just Patrick on stage with one other musician, and they cycled through a range of instruments each, from violin and piano and harp and even a saw; and also his beautiful voice, used just like another instrument. There was a lot of emotion in the performance too the clear joy in The Magic Position, gratefulness for his aunt (who was in the audience) for supporting him, love and acceptance in House and Bermondsey Street.
I really appreciated the depth of his back catalogue, and the lovely mix of older (Hard Times) and newer (Together), popular (The City) and rare (such as Penzance). The Sundark and Riverlight arrangements were great, giving a fresh sound. Standouts for me were Tristan and Oblivion, which despite being acoustic kept their edges; Tristan was slinky has hell, and Oblivion sounds completely different in a really melancholic, beautiful way.
So we only planned to go the once…but this show was so so so good that as soon as it ended, even as we were still sitting in our (front row!) seats, Al and I turned to each other and almost simultaneously said, “If there are still seats for tomorrow…” And there were – and even more amazingly, they were the EXACT SAME SEATS IN THE FRONT ROW for a near-sold out show. No, we don’t understand how that could be possible either. But we didn't question our luck and bought them, quick smart.
The Sunday night show was a much more subdued affair. Patrick seemed to be in a hurry to race to an end, with a lot less banter, not opening himself up to the audience like first night. With less connection, so the night seemed to go a lot faster and ended rather abruptly.
But he did change up the set list, and Bluebells was my standout this night. I also loved hearing Overture at the start, with another great arrangement. And the music was still beautiful and totally worth the impulse buy. :)
Sept 9 setlist
Overture
London
Demolition
Tristan
Paris
Bluebells
Oblivion
Hard Times
Together
Wind in the Wires
House
Magic Position
Trust
Penzance
The City
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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
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
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)