journal of LIVE stuff

MJWoodbridge (The Factory, 06/11/09)

2009-11-07T06:48:49Z

Fri. 6th of November 2009.
Band competition at The Factory.

Mikey J Woodbridge and band.
http://www.mjwoodbridge.com

Some other performers.

Mishu?

The Bird's Robe Menagerie @ The Annandale (17/10/09)

2009-10-21T10:19:45Z

Sat. 17th of October, 2009.
The Annandale Hotel, Annandale.

Many bands played before I arrived at the venue, sorry people.

PIRATE were excellent

SLEEPMAKESWAVES were wonderful

QUIET CHILD were wicked

SHANGHAI were sheer BRILLIANCE!

overall, a great night and awesome gig.

CANNIBAL CORPSE (@Roundhouse, 12/09/09)

2009-09-13T07:24:20Z

Fri. 12th of September 2009.
The Roundhouse, Sydney. http://www.unswroundhouse.com/

Ouroboros http://www.myspace.com/OUROBOROSMETAL
Only caught the last song or two... good heavy stuff.

Black Asylum http://www.black-asylum.com/
described by a friend as "Baby Triviums". Couldn't tell the comparison myself.

CANNIBAL CORPSE http://www.cannibalcorpse.net/
are great live! With a rhythm section that will shake your spine and spleen, guitars that will shred you to pieces and vocals that will decimate your throat and ears. This American band is there to DESTROY YOU! In a good way of course! A good mixture of songs from throughout their career (from their first album released in 1990 to their current release, Evisceration Plague) and classic songs such as "Butchered at Birth" and of course, "Hammer Smashed Face". Although all songs sounded as though they could have been from the same album, at least this band (only the drummer and bass player are original members) has had a continuity of style if not line-up. The current singer (who has been with the band for about 14 years now) can "windmill" his hair better than anyone - ever! And had plenty of witty remarks and introductions to songs. For example, commenting on the moshpit after the second or third time and something akin to... well, to those in the pit, you better go for it even more because this song has pit in the title... "PIT OF ZOMBIES!!!"
Definitely a band worth checking out!

ALICE COOPER 'Theatre of Death' 24/08/09

2009-08-28T09:22:16Z

Supported by ELECTRIC MARY http://www.electricmary.com/

ALICE COOPER http://www.alicecooper.com/
THEATRE OF DEATH http://www.alicecooper.com/blogs/fromtheinside/archive/2009/08/12/331.aspx

Mon. 24th of August 2009
The Sydney Entertainment Centre
http://www.sydentcent.com.au/

http://www.sydentcent.com.au/index.cfm?s=content&p=event_detail&event_id=102125

...it was AWESOME!!!

FEATHER FEST. feat. SHANGHAI + CAPTAINS (@the ANNANDALE, 04/01/09)

2009-07-16T09:05:38Z

FeatherFest. presented by Birds Robe Collective
Sun. 04th January 2009.
The ANNANDALE Hotel, Annandale.

BRIAN CAMPEAU (acoustic)

+

...

+

SHANGHAI
+
SuperFlorence Jam
+
CAPTAINS

moshcam!

THROWING MUSES (@Hyde Park Barracks, 16/01/09)

2009-07-16T08:21:46Z

16th of January, 2009.
Beck's Festival Bar set up in Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney.
Part of the Sydney Festival

THROWING MUSES

http://www.moshcam.com/web/#?page=player&type=gig&id=458

GARY NUMAN + PIVOT (@the ENMORE, 05/03/09)

2009-07-16T07:51:02Z

5th March, 2009.
The Enmore Theatre, Enmore.

PIVOT

http://www.moshcam.com/web/#?page=player&type=gig&id=515

http://pivotpivot.net

http://www.myspace.com/pivotpivot

GARY NUMAN

http://www.moshcam.com/web/#?page=player&type=gig&id=500

http://www.numan.co.uk

Kronos Quartet @ Sydney Opera House, 05/06/09

2009-06-06T14:11:18Z

Fri. 05th June, 2009.
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Concert Hall

KRONOS QUARTET
http://www.kronosquartet.org/

PROGRAM

J. G. Thirlwell / Nomatophobis * Australian premiere

Unknown (arr. Kronos, transc. Ljova) / Oh Mother, the Handsome Man Tortures Me +

Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Lullaby + Australian premiere

Ramallah Underground (arr. Jacob Garchik) / Tashweesh * Australian premiere

Hurdy-Gurdy (Stefan Brisland-Ferner & Totte Mattsson) / Scatter * Australian premiere

Aleksandra Vrebalov / …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… * Australian premiere

INTERVAL

Hanna Kulenty / String Quartet No. 4 (A Cradle Song) * Australian premiere

Jon Rose / Music from 4 Fences * World premiere

[Plus an encore performance of a piece written by Sigur Rós.]

Duration
1st half: 55 minutes
Interval: 20 minutes
2nd half: 30 minute

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:ds51B8T-Pk8J:www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/kronosquartet.aspx+kronos+quartet+program+thirwell+Sydney+Opera+House&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au

http://www.last.fm/event/983930
http://www.ilike.com/concerts/venues/Sydney-Opera-House/Kronos+Quartet/10284249

BATTLES @ Sydney Opera House, 30/05/09

2009-06-04T09:15:19Z

Satur. 30th May, 2009.
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Opera Theatre

Support by: Palace of Fire

BATTLES
John Stanier is an impressive drumming and reconfirmed himself as one of my favourites. Great to see a drum kit at the fore on stage.
http://www.bttls.com/

http://luminous.sydneyoperahouse.com/Battles.aspx

http://soh.viotv.com/?mediaId=1312b860-d878-4de7-a8da-d0cee98a0193

Ladytron + Pivot @ Sydney Opera House, 03/06/09.

2009-06-04T08:31:03Z

Wednes. 03rd Jun. 2009
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE Opera Theatre

As part of the Luminous Festival curated by Brian Eno.
http://luminous.sydneyoperahouse.com/Ladytron.aspx

Support by: PIVOT
http://www.pivotpivot.net/

LADYTRON
http://ladytron.com/

Yes, I was hoping to hear "Versus" too, so I'm glad they played it. Though it was odd having Daniel Hunt sing in almost complete darkness.

"International Date Line" was in there somewhere. And "High Rise" and "Tomorrow".
Yes, the first song in the encore was "Kletva", which was cute. It would be interesting to hear the original.

I would've thought more people would enjoy (or at least recognise) "Runaway", but I guess the live performance didn't deliver the killer synth-bass line to it's deadliest potential. Helen really gave her body a workout singing "Predict the Day", giving a powerful delivery toward the end of the song.

I think another reason for the large amount of middle aged audience members with little inkling of Ladytron is that there were a lot of Brian Eno fans, there just because he recommended them. There was quite a few at Battles too.

Oh the pretty girls of Ladytron. It was a struggle to take my eyes of Helen Marnie to even glimpse the rest of the band. And yes, the lights above were very impressive, not blinding and the girls weren't silhouettes this time.

The "thank you's" and small talk between songs was nice and cute too.
http://aeryxz.com/archives/2009/06/04/ladytron-a-cathedral-versus-love-versus-shame/#respond

http://soh.viotv.com/?mediaId=1312b860-d878-4de7-a8da-d0cee98a0193

THE MEDICATED (@ CLUB 77, 06/03/09)

2009-03-08T04:30:39Z

After 10pm Satur. 06th of March 2009...

Switchblade Sister Anti-Social Club

featuring

THE MEDICATED LIVE!

preceded and followed by DJ sets by Mzzy, etc.

$10 to get in with the lovely Brad (bass player from Mz Ann Thropik) as door bitch!

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e137/doom_deluxe/MYSPACE%20GRAPHICS/topbanner-club77060309.jpg

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/37/l_c6c5fb1c4292458a8fcb7a9b990b8a28.jpg

http://www.myspace.com/themedicated

Ghost Cat + Grimm Love @Club 77

2009-02-21T06:33:33Z

I didn't stay for Bistu/Bitsu though...I would have liked to seen how they play.

LOS ALAMOS + DARK SHADOWS + CAPTAINS @EXCELSIOR

2008-11-29T13:43:15Z

29 NOVEMBER 2008

Opeth @ Luna Park (06/09/08)

2008-10-20T08:11:23Z

06th of the 09th, 2008.
Big Top, Luna Park. Milson's Point. [Sydney].

Virgin Black were perhaps melodic black metal. They seemed to have quite a bit of backing track, something which the head-liner later referred to (Mikael Åkerfeldt said "Well, at least you know everything we do is live" when his guitar stuffed up and they had to fill time while it was fixed in the middle of a song.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Black

Opeth
"The Lotus Eater" was a big highlight. Also, out of the few songs from Blackwater Park (considering how long their songs are and how many albums they have, they fact that they did more than one is generous), during "The Drapery Falls" there was a big stuff up with Mikael Åkerfeldt's guitar and the drummer, Martin "Axe" Axenrot, "covered (his) arse" by doing an impressive solo, followed by Arch Enemy (etc.) guitarist, Fredrik Åkesson.
There was at least one song from Morningrise and My Arms, Your Hearse, though I admit at this point I have neither album (though I have most Opeth albums).
Encore included another song from Blackwater Park.
http://www.opeth.com/

By the way, I was in the front row on the barrier... left in front of the stage... I can remember there were photographers in the first few songs of each band. Apparently one of them was Damien Radford and here's his album on the triple j website:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/gallery/opeth_080906/

LADYTRON + FAMILJEN @ METRO (29/09/08)

2008-10-20T07:10:10Z

mon. 29th of the 09th, 2008.
METRO THEATRE. Sydney.
http://www.metrotheatre.com.au/

FAMILJEN from Sweden. And that's the best thing about this duo. They're from Sweden AND the lyrics (plus song titles, EVERYTHING) are in Swedish. Out of the loads and frigging loads of all manner of artists to be exported out of that Scandanavian country, I cannot think of but one other artist that puts the majority of lyrics in Swedish. It's ALL friggin' in English, with the occasional word here and there if you're lucky. Anyways...
The music is good too, but visually, this was the most piss-weak soft and boring "live" act I've seen all year. Two dudes. One singer, who's pathetic dancing was cringe-worthy at best and one dude behind all the electronics, who moved around very little if at all. But like I said, they sounded good (well, the actual mix could have been better) even if the singer seemed to be a giant castrato. I'd been told that Swedish men these days had gone completely soft and I didn't believe it until I came across these guys, because most Swedes I know of are in metal and punk bands. Anyways, I'm whinging again...
http://www.detsnurrariminskalle.com/

In between sets was some DJ that I am not familiar with and he wasn't on stage anyhow.

LADYTRON walked out silhouetted onto an unlit stage, save for the blinding lights shooting out from behind them. Gave a real '60s/'70s science-fiction movie look and feel. Scottish singer, Helen Marnie, completely depicting herself as a 1960s Witch and perhaps she was one in her previous life. They started out with a couple of songs (actually, I think "Black Cat" lead straight in from "Mu-tron" as an intro, but I am unsure. But when the bass beats came in for "Black Cat", they shook right through my body and that's definitely a good thing and the crowd roared. Wouldn't be so good if you had a pace-maker, but if you had one of them you probably wouldn't go to many concerts) from the new album, Velocifero, but every album had a good input. I especially liked "discotraxx". And EVERY Ladytron song with Bulgarian lyrics was brought out, giving Miro Aroyo a good work out, not that any member of the band went into anything remotely resembling a frenzy of energy.
Encore of three songs, including "Destroy Everything You Touch" as the final song, which was to be predicted since they hadn't already played it and it's one of their biggest singles.
http://www.ladytron.com/

Here's some photos:
http://www.inthemix.com.au/photos23/080929-ladytron

DiOY,Y? + GP + ELF @ OAF (02/10/08)

2008-10-20T06:45:20Z

WEDNES. 02ND OF THE 10TH, 2008.
THE OXFORD ART FACTORY, DARLINGHURST. SYDNEY.

THE E.L.F. is the goblin-like hunchback from Gerling. I now see why he used to wear a backpack. Quite entertaining for a dude in flanno with a laptop and a mic, drinking beer. A bit creepy though when he squeezed at the air, looking at the audience.

GRAFTON PRIMARY strike me as the Pseudo Echo of 2008... or 1988, considering they're quite retro... though to be fair, they do have some elements that you wouldn't find back then. Good band actually. I'd just heard about them, so it was good to see and hear what they're actually like.

DOES iT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? are a brilliant band from the U.K. who have some great electro-rave tracks, some cool indie-electro tracks and a few adequate pop songs. Very enthusiastic was one of the dudes, the others being a bit more chilled out. Would prefer to be told something other than "LEt me Hear you make some NOISE, SYDNEY!!" though.
Electro celebrity, Har Mar Superstar, came out of nowhere (seemingly) towards the end and crowd-surfed of the stage.
An encore was well in demand, so the band came out again and did a true to the original cover of "Whip It!" by DEVO, even though they made the crowd sing a large part of it.
http://www.doesitoffendyou.com

My first time to the Oxford Art Factory as a venue (it used to be a record store, under a different name). Sound seemed alright, considering it basically is a concrete box. Like Spectrum and the Gaelic, there are some annoying pillars that can block sight of the stage depending on where one is viewing from. Though those same pillars give some stability (and/or danger) to those in the mosh-pit. Some hip young blonde dude called Corey (and he looked like a Corey) introduced himself to me during The E.L.F. I don't know what that was about, but I didn't see him again. I did however see a friend that I went to high school with after I left the venue.

Anyways, here's some photo's from inthemix:
http://www.inthemix.com.au/photos23/081001-doesitoffendyou
I don't know about you, but I don't care to see close ups of the audience just hanging out, but half the photo's are just that. Also, I think it's plain rude to take photo's of one-self and their friends while someone is performing on stage. Especially when they're pointing the camera away from the stage, so that the band/artist isn't even in the background. You can take those kind of photo's anytime, why do it when it means you're ignoring a band/artist that you paid to see? Anyways, I've been meaning to rant about that for a while. Will probably say it again too.

THE FAINT + SPOD + PomoMofo @METRO (25/09/08)

2008-09-27T05:22:52Z

http://www.metrotheatre.com.au/

PomoMofo

SPOD

THE FAINT

Pauly said it best in his entry:
http://badpauly.livejournal.com/1058546.html

Especially "The Faint... as awesome as I expected, rockier than I thought, and mixed the old with the new with perfection."

@The Gaelic (19/08/08)

2008-08-22T05:57:04Z

THE GAELIC club/theatre
on TUES. 19th AUGUST 2008

LAWYERS, GUNS & MONEY

PHIL JAMIESON (Grinspoon) + SCOTT RUSSO (Unwritten Law) both acoustic.

The Curse of Eve @ the Excelsior (15/08/08)

2008-08-18T07:46:46Z

Kill the Motive were surprisingly good!

The Curse of Eve... Ellen is one of the hottest drummers (and vocalists!) around. Hawwwt.

http://events.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&eventid=451987.22844&Mytoken=EB9D9DCE-1863-49DC-B1766C229999874F38315088

Hosted By: The Curse of Eve
When: 15 Aug 2008, 08:00 PM
Where: Excelsior Hotel
Foveux St
Surry Hills, New South Wales|76
Australia
Description:
The Curse of Eve

Click Here To View Event

HN gig: Superb Lyrebird @The Excelsior (09/08/2008)

2008-08-13T07:12:01Z

Satur. 9th of AUGUST, 2008.
The Excelsior Hotel. http://www.theexcelsiorhotel.com.au

http://www.heavenly-noise.com
Heavenly Noise presents...

Sargent Sapphire (what's the deal with the American spelling?). Large male lead singer a bit overbearing, but an alright band. Female drummers rrrrrockk!! http://www.myspace.com/sargentsapphire

Bellusira from Melbourne. Also with an overbearing singer, though a small female. The guitarist wore a 'King For A Day' Faith No More t-shirt, so that's one thing in their favour.
http://www.myspace.com/bellusira

Superb Lyrebird. Awesome, as usual. Good to see them at the Excelsior again. Perfect sound.
http://www.superblyrebird.com/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=16921993913&refurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fs.php%3Fk%3D100000004%26id%3D17350053556%26gr%3D5%26act%3Dpast

MENISCUS+sleepmakeswaves+Mish @the Excelsior (30/07/08)

2008-08-05T09:38:29Z

WEDNES. 30th JULY 2008
The EXCELSIOR Hotel, Surry Hills

mish

sleepmakeswaves
http://www.sleepmakeswaves.com/
http://www.ozprog.com/forum/sleepmakeswaves
http://www.ozprog.com/forum/showthread.php?s=df28224cf4535c7d01b3a64fe2ebd176&t=6231

meniscus

Les Yeux Noirs @the Factory (29/07/08)

2008-08-05T09:17:46Z

The FACTORY Theatre, Marrickville
http://www.factorytheatre.com.au/
TUES. 29th JULY 2008

Support: Maja Petrovna with occasional visual entertainment assistance from an unnamed dancer. http://www.myspace.com/majapetrovna

Les Yeux Noirs from France, via a whole bunch of other countries.
http://www.lesyeuxnoirs.net/

http://www.factorytheatre.com.au/events/2008/07/29/les-yeux-noirs-france

Songwriter Sessions (w. John Chesher) @the eXcelsior (28/07/08 & 04/08/08)

2008-08-05T08:17:53Z

The Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills (personally, my favourite venue in Sydney and commonly agreed upon to be the best of its size). http://www.excelsiorhotel.com.au/
64 Foveaux Street (I practically live there, I'm at it so often).
Monday nights. Every Monday (except perhaps Public Holidays... and even then it might be on sometimes).

Basically, if you're not attending Cult Sinema at the Annandale or drawing a nude person at the Sandringham AND you love singer songwriters, then you better have a bloody good excuse for not being at the Excelsior on a Monday night between 7:30pm and 11:30pm.

John Chesher is the best host for this kind of gig, with his half-Canadian accent, acute intelligence, warmth and cheeky sense of humour. He begins the night and he ends it with a few of his own songs, which I personally would be happy to hear on my deathbed (well, some of them) or at the gates of Heaven, if such a place existed.

And if you do turn up (especially if you perform: that involves putting your name on a list, presumably early on the night), then please stick around to support other people performing with either applause, constructive criticism or both.

/bjn

DEVO + Regurgitator + E.D.S.R. @ Hordern Pavilion (01/08/08)

2008-08-04T09:37:58Z

Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park [sydney]
Fri. 1st AUGUST 2008

Eddy Current Suppression Ring were an appropriately weird, garage rock band from (Melbourne?) Australia. Good energy, the singer walked around out into the audience, but mostly they played close together on a fairly large stage, making it look like they believed they actually were in an invisible garage. The first time I've seen them, they left a good impression.
http://www.ecsr.com.au/

I personally enjoyed Regurgitator far better than DEVO. Partly because I'm familiar with all of Regurgitator's songs (that are performed live) and mainly because they're just such a great live band. Although Quan can be a bit hit and miss with his enthusiasm on stage, despite apologising for being "tired", he was on the ball and the whole band had a tremendous amount of energy that I was compelled to rock my heart out to. Even the fill in drummer (apparently Peter Kostic recently fathered a baby) was tight with the band. They performed songs that I personally hadn't heard live before ("Polyester Girl" and "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff"), the fairly obscure song, "Bong in My Eye" (which I think has only been released as a single in 2004, not appearing on any other releases, hence being obscure) as well as eventually playing the classics "F.S.O." and "Kong Foo Sing" from Tu-Plang... ...I was surprised that they didn't play the title track from their new album,Love and Paranoia, the recent single "Romance of the Damned" or "Track 1" (usually a regular high point in their gigs). But over all, their set was absolutely frigging awesome and definitely put them as one of the best bands IN THE WORLD in my honest opinion.
I was damn near fainting by the end of it, utterly exhausted in the uncontrollable dance/mosh/jumping they bring out of me, irrespective of my own free will. Wow, they are good!
http://www.regurgitator.net

So anything after that (bar NIN or the Dillinger Escape Plan) could top such a performance. Even so, I think I would have been disappointed by DEVO. Mind you, the screen projected intro was ominous and amusing, but once they came on stage, they really did look like old men (unlike the fit masculine beasts of Iron Maiden) and put less than 100% into the first few songs, which included "Girl U Want" and "Whip It" fairly early on the set. But by "Secret Agent Man" (sung by one of the Bob's) and the Rolling Stones cover, "Satisfaction (I Can't Get No)", things were heating up. "Mongoloid", "Uncontrollable Urge", "Freedom of Choice", "Blockhead" and the monumental "Gates of Steel" all rocked my socks and showed they were a hell of a lot fitter than they appeared. The in between stage banter was amusing, or at least interesting (mainly coming from Gerry Casale, whose physical proportions make him look very weird now, which is perhaps fitting and gives him more visual character), but things started going down hill again when he introduced *Boojie Boy*, who many were not completely familiar with (myself included) and ended up being a character who looks a bit like the fat kid on King of the Hill. Really, it was just Mark Mothersbaugh in costume, singing in an annoying "Towelie/Hankey the Christmas Poo" style voice. Which rather fucked "A Beautiful World", which is a song probably better left un-tampered with. Turned out to be the last song too. With *Boojie Boy* throwing (what seemed like hundreds) of little bouncing balls from out of a bum bag. No encore, although those last few songs may have been the encore, as they had gone of stage earlier in what I thought was an intermission. It was a fairly short concert and I, amongst many others, was feeling a bit dissatisfied (punny reference!), knowing that it could have been a whole lot more than what it was. There were a few songs I really would've liked them to have played and they could've played with more intensity throughout the whole set. But overall, I'm still glad I went and happy with the merchandise that I bought.
http://www.clubdevo.com/

CAPTAINS + LOS ALAMOS + Herbert Anchovy @the Excelsior (14/06/2008)

2008-06-17T07:35:49Z

Satur. 14th of JUNE 2008
@_ the Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills [Sydney]

Herbert Anchovy played well.
http://www.myspace.com/herbertanchovy

Walking Zero pulled out, unfortunately.

LOS ALAMOS. burn down. build. burn again. CD launch. Great stuff. New songs sounding good too.
http://www.losalamos.com.au

CAPTAINS. Rubick's cube. Awesome band. You MUST check them out!
Uh... links.... http://www.myspace.com/thecaptainspackage ?