Today is the third anniversary of me starting to do a regular photo blog, first on Myspace and now here, on my very own bit of internet, using WordPress. In the three years I have written 197 blog posts, with this post now being number 198.

I posted in last year’s anniversary post, just after I’d transferred all my Myspace blogs over here, that it was all going well and that I was really happy to have moved away from Myspace and set up a more formal blog. The year using WordPress has been fantastic and I can’t believe that I didn’t move from myspace sooner. Having a proper blog has gotten me more page hits, more comments and more readers. It’s also helped me get more photographic work and get published in more places.

Of course it is relentless and never stops, so in the next couple of weeks I’ll be covering The Duke Spirit, The Kills, Louis XIV and Evan Dando, and of course the photos and more readable bits will be here in due course. And I’m still working on my massive backlog from the start of the year – that’ll teach me for having a month off to go to New Zealand – so posts about Fuck Buttons/Dead Meadow/Afrirampo, Laughing Clowns, Jeff Beck, Gareth Liddiard, Gary Numan, Summer Tones, The Stranglers and Andrew Morris are on their way.

So thanks for reading and thanks to all the people who have taken time to comment.  More stuff on its way (hopefully) soon.

The whole Alt Country/Alt Folk scene has been flirting with the mainstream for a number of years, near enough since the start of this decade, but with Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver battling for supremacy in most of the music media’s end of year polls, 2008 definitely seems to be The Year That Folk Broke.

From one man in a Wisconsin cabin, the live Bon Iver experience is augmented to bring it up to a four-piece band and, depending on the song, two drummers, two guitarists, keyboards, bass and all four providing vocals. Starting with ‘Flume‘,  the quieter and more introspective sound of the album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago‘ is completely and instantly transformed into a folk Wall-of-Sound. This effect is used throughout and this is best heard on ‘The Wolves (Acts I and II)‘ where the ever-building song crescendo reaches a sparkling and startling cacophony, further enhanced by the audience supplying the “what might have been lost” refrain.

And it’s good, it’s very good, sometimes it’s sublime, sometimes it’s breathtaking. But it’s maybe not quite as good as the audience reaction would let you believe. The crowd reaction maintains a fervent level throughout, but to the point where it’s too frenzied, too hysterical, over-zealous to the extreme and to the point of uncomfortableness. Yes, it’s good, yes it’s very good but it’s not THAT good. It’s not standing ovation good, which the audience provides at the end of the encore.  It is still one guy with one 9-song album that clocks in at less than 38 minutes and a just-released four song EP. It’s a promising start, a very promising start, but it’s not the Second Coming.

Mckisko supported and whilst her use of multi-track good looping of vocals, piano and melodica and the use of drums in some of her songs is used to good effect and provides some depth to the sound, some of her solo piano songs are just too dry, overwrought and not that memorable.

Bon Iver

McKisko

It’s Monday the fifth of January.  For many it’s the first day back at work after the Christmas and New Year holidays. The Black Keys are playing at The Arena, with a really good support band in Gomez and one of the worst named bands ever, Dr Dog, opening.  Although there are three bands on the bill, the doors don’t open until 8pm.  Faced with those facts, I know that this evening is going to be a struggle…

Maybe it’s the first day back, post-holiday blues, maybe it’s just normal Monday grumpiness, maybe it’s just the everyday struggle of getting older, but what is it with the late timing of gigs in Australia?  Weekends are bad enough, especially when Thursday is generally counted as the weekend when it comes to gigs, but I don’t want to still be out at a venue, watching the headline band I came to see, after midnight during the week, knowing that I’m not going to get to bed until after 1am and then have to get up and go to work in far too few hours time and feel like crap all day. 

I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere else, but noise restrictions and public transport necessities generally mean that in London and other UK cities you’ll usually be on your way home by 11pm during the week and even on weekends it’ll all be over by midnight in most places.  The Black Keys don’t start until after 11pm and are still going when I leave just after midnight.       

I see quite a lot of gigs and audiences just don’t seem what they used to be, there just seems to be a general malaise and lack at passion. Maybe it’s just the modern day musical overload, maybe it’s that with the competition for time in everyone’s lives, music isn’t that important anymore.  Maybe it’s too many average bands, maybe it’s unpleasant and/or souless venues with rubbish sound and poor sight-lines. Or maybe everyone is just too exhausted to fully engage and is thinking more about how they’d much rather be somewhere more comfy and in a horizontal position than stood up and watching a band play.

Some more photos on flickr.

Black Keys

Gomez

Dr Dog

There is a new (although temporary-looking) sign next to The Zoo’s door tonight, repeated up the stairs to the front desk and also in the venue itself; ‘No Flash Photography’. Restrictions at The Zoo used to be fairly non-existent, although that’s all changed thanks to Perth band Birds Of Tokyo getting precious enough about it to complain to the venue and have cameras restricted to photographers who have been given prior permission to photograph. Although this rule is publicised on their website and at the entrance, thankfully The Zoo take a more sensible approach than just a blanket ban for all shows, and paying punters are still able to bring cameras to some gigs to get their evening captured for Web 2.0 posterity.

When Newcastle band Firekites start their support slot it’s to the very uncommon occurrence of The Zoo’s stage being lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree. And after three songs the singer asks for the lights to be turned down. No flash photography, the stage lit up for three songs before being turned down to more comfortable levels for those on the stage – is this a complete stroke of genius from The Zoo, stopping the annoyance of flash throughout the show but providing ample light for a few songs to allow photographers to easily get the photos they need without worrying about image quality at high ISOs or blur at low shutter speeds?

For maybe an hour it is suddenly a very exhilarating feeling to be a photographer in The Zoo. Until, of course, Stars come on and play with the more typical mood lighting that you have grown to expect at The Zoo and all those heady thoughts from the previous hour, of a photographer’s life made more easy, vanish, quite literally, into the dark. And of course, despite all the signs, there are people in the front row flashing away with their P&Ss…

Stars

Firekites

Despite only living in Melbourne, a reluctance to play anywhere near as north as Brisbane in a number of years makes Rowland S Howard a real personal draw-card. Having never seen him in the flesh his gaunt appearance is a bit of a shock, but he is in good humour, and with his excellent but sole solo album, ‘Teenage Snuff Film‘, coming up to being a decade old, it’s good to hear when he tells us that he will be playing some new songs and has started work on a follow up record. Mick Harvey is replicating his Teenage Snuff Film drumming duties but Brian Hooper, who played bass on the album isn’t present for a full reunion, but is ably replaced by J. P. Shilo. 

I get to see the first four songs of the set, which includes a new song, but as a result of Harmonia’s late starting and late finishing, I’m left with a dilemma; do I stay and watch the rest of Rowland S Howards’s set or do I go back up the hill to the other stage to see Laughing Clowns play for the first time in over twenty years. In the end there is really only one choice to be made and I reluctantly leave the Amphitheatre Stage, hoping that the promise of a new album isn’t too far from being realised and that some live dates away from Melbourne, and preferably as far north as Brisbane, might follow. I miss an apparently excellent cover of Talk Talk’s ‘Life’s What You Make It‘, but the rumours of Nick Cave joining him for a rendition of ‘Shivers’ prove to be unfound.

I can already hear Laughing Clowns playing as I start up the hill and reach the photo pit out of breath only to find Ed Kuepper thanking the audience and the band walking off… Luckily, they decided to play a song for their sound-check, although unluckily security count this as one song and so the we get kicked out of the photo pit after two proper songs. Laughing Clowns are nothing short of a revelation and that very rare occurrence of a reformed band that live up to the hype. Essentially, they are everything that The Saints should have been last night but weren’t. Unlike last night, Ed Kuepper is in a jovial mood and looks happy to be there playing these songs with these musicians. Although he adds vocals to the songs, his role in the band seems almost peripheral, with his guitar playing much more restrained than when normally playing an electric guitar and the focus of the band is shared between Jeffrey Wegener’s outstanding drumming intricacies and Louise Elliot’s sax playing. Growing up in the 1980s, when so much pop music was blighted by tasteless saxophone playing, it’s almost shocking to hear a saxophone being used to such great effect that it’s the true heart and soul of a band. They finish with ‘Eternally Yours’ and it sounds nothing less than astonishing. Everett True and Warren Ellis are both stood only a couple of metres away, grooving away, Warren is taking photos with his camera phone (don’t let security see you doing that…), the sun is shining, everyone is grinning like idiots. It’s possibly the moment of the whole weekend.

Before moving to Australia, Spiritualized were my most seen live band, nine times if I remember correctly; various shows in Newcastle, Birmingham, and London down the years, as well as at countless Glastonburys. It doesn’t take long for me to realise just how much I’ve missed seeing them play, possibly when ‘You Lie, You Cheat‘, segues into a typically sublime ‘Shine A Light’. They’re down from the 20-something piece band I saw them play with one time at Glastonbury to a seven-piece, and unlike previous, more recent encounters, Jason Pierce is stood up. Although he’s not sat down and Spiritualized have their usual epilepsy-inducing lightshow, they’re not the most exciting of bands to photograph, not that it really matters when they are in such stunning form.  It really makes you feel even sorrier for Sonic Boom (although rumours are that Spacemen 3 have already started on rehearsals).   The double whammy of  ’Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space‘ followed by the very unexpected ‘Lay Back In The Sun‘ is the highlight.   The only thing that could have improved their set would have been the inclusion of ‘Medication‘, which for so long was a mainstay in the set, and maybe a dusting off of a few more songs from ‘Laser Guided Melodies‘, but time is fleeting and it’s all over far too soon, with an hour being nowhere near long enough.  However, it’s still more than the scandalously short 45 minute slot they get in Brisbane a few days later, with Brisbane, as usual, being overlooked for festival sideshows.

 

We all know we’re only got one song in the pit to photograph Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. What we don’t know until about 30 seconds before they start is that we have to be sat down in the seats along the back of the front barrier. When the pit isn’t very wide, the stage is over 5 foot tall and there is a wall of fold-back speakers on top, this is not a good thing. When the band come out onto the stage, most of them just can’t be seen from our vantage point. And when Nick Cave bounds onstage he is either perched on the edge of the stage, 10 foot above you and you are photographing right up his nose, with half his face obscured by his hand/mic or he has moved back into the middle of the stage and half disappeared from view . It’s very disappointing and the restrictions just seem overly melodramatic. As with everyone I photograph my aim is to get the best photo I can of them. When overdramatic restrictions like this are put in place it almost seems like it’s an act of self-sabotage to ensure that nobody gains anything positive from the experience.

The View Up Nick Cave’s Nose

Nick Cave vs The Stage

Cropped version of above photo

After all that, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are slightly disappointing, something I wasn’t expecting on my first time seeing them considering how highly regarded their live shows are.  The set is a mix of what could be termed ‘Greatest Hits’ and a heavy dose of songs from ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!‘.  There is a strangeness about a Nick Cave greatest hits set as his audience is surely much more loyal and isn’t exactly a scenester crowd, only there for the ‘hits’.  It’s a similar set of songs to those that played on his solo tour last year, with ‘Tupelo‘, ‘Red Right Hand‘, ‘The Weeping Song‘, ‘The Mercy Seat‘ amongst the songs getting another airing, albeit this time with full Bad Seeds support.  the only real surprises being ‘Hard On For Love‘ and ’Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry‘.  Although ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ was one of the albums of 2008, the songs played from it seem a bit flat when played live, not helped by the fact that after the ear-splitting volume of Spiritualized, the sound for the Bad Seeds seems very quiet.  (The ATP Brisbane show later in the week after Mt Buller is a completely different story, with the band being in stunning form and being what I hoped they would be, even though they play a very similar set of songs).  Ultimately, although they are the festival’s headliners, tonight is just not their night, with Laughing Clowns and Spiritualized jostling for the set of the day, if not of the whole weekend.

Even having attended countless music festivals down the years, including Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Phoenix, Falls Festival, Big Day Out, Splendour In the Grass, and Peats Ridge, ATP Mt Buller was an amazing experience, that easily outshone just about every other festival I’ve been to.  Near perfect, with an outstanding collection of bands, a truly stunning location, great weather, first rate organisation and the most pleasant festival crowd I’ve experienced in a long while, with not a single drunken, flag waving idiot in sight.  Hopefully it will be back next year, although the organisers have taken a massive financial hit in its inaugural year by only selling something like 3,500 of the 6,000 tickets that were available. I’ve seen nothing but praise and rave reviews from anyone who was there and based on those views you would hope that word of mouth would help sell it out much quicker in the second year.

The main issue is going to be who curates it and who could play on the bill. By having Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds curate and play and by having Australian bands with the pulling power of The Saints and The Dirty Three, the organisers could be accused of putting all their eggs in one basket in the first year, as there’s no Australian act with the ’indie cred’ of Nick Cave, yet mainstream appeal needed for an Australian ATP, that could curate.  If Grant McLennan was still alive I think the Go-Betweens could be a possibility, but I don’t think Robert Forster on his own has the pulling power.  People have suggested The Drones, who I think would do a great job and were a surprise omission from playing this year, especially as they are signed to ATP’s record label, but they don’t really have the mainstream appeal.  Some people have suggested Crowded House/The Finn Brothers or Silverchair, but that’s just laughable and shows an ignorance as to what ATP is about.  Time will tell, but I would expect that ATP and an international act will co-curate.  As for me, I’m pinning my hopes on a Pavement reunion and My Bloody Valentine being included on the bill.  Whatever eventuates I’m already looking forward to next year and hopefully getting to photograph it again.

If there is one major criticism that could be leveled at the ATP Australian line-up, it’s that it’s very male and very middle-aged. In that respect, Afrirampo are like a breath of fresh air. Sure, they have the whole clichéd Japanese female punk band thing, with the colorful outfits (resplendent with artistic face make up), the kookiness of the between song banter, the extreme politeness and telling us that they love us but there’s so much unbridled joy and a sense of fun that transcends cultures in watching Oni and Pika play. And they really can play, with Pika putting in a really stunning powerhouse drumming performance, providing evidence for their claim that ATP stands for ‘Afrirampo. Top of mountain. POWER!’  They are one of those bands that can’t help but bring a smile to your face when you see them.  J Spaceman is watching them play from side stage, although I don’t think he does smiling…

From one happy smiley person to another and it’s time for Michael Gira back down at the Amphitheatre stage… One man and his acoustic guitar can often mean the insipidness of a city busker but when it’s Michael Gira and his acoustic guitar it’s a whole different matter.  With just his voice and guitar, Gira has the ability to both terrify and yet captivate an audience, and deliver a performance of hypnotic intensity that stuns the crowd into silence. Apparently he sold $800 worth of CDs in three minutes after he played; impressive stuff and a true measure of the impact he made on the audience.

Robert Forster plays a typically classy set and is so eager to play that not only does he sits out on the drum riser before the rest of his band come out to the stage but he doesn’t bother tuning up as the batteries in his tuner are flat. Adele Pickvance plays mum in trying to convince him that he really should tune up before they start, which provides no end of amusement to all the photographers in the photo pit but Robert isn’t having any of it and away he goes, straight into a cover of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Temptation Inside Your Heart’, with Go-Between classics ‘Head Full of Steam‘, ‘Surfing Magazines‘ and ‘Quiet Heart‘ following soon after in amongst his own excellent solo songs.

Harmonia are another large personal draw-card, and judging by the size of the crowd, which easily dwarves that which Kraftwerk played to in Brisbane late last year, I’m amongst a large number of like-minded souls.  They provide an interesting comparison with Kraftwerk, their Krautrock peers; although they don’t have the stunning visuals of a Kraftwerk show, they sound more contemporary than them, with Kraftwerk having a sound, and especially vocals, that ultimately betrays the timing of their origins and popularity, meaning that they can be easily placed as a mid-70s to early-80s band.  If you didn’t know better, or didn’t have the benefit of seeing the age of the band members, you could easily mistake Harmonia for a modern-day band and, more than likely, current darlings of the music press.  As with so many of the bands playing on the Amphitheatre Stage, the combination of the music, the location and the now setting sun heightens the whole experience to a level that just about no other festival can even get close to.

All the exertion of the previous day as taken it’s toll as I wake to a world of pain, with extremely sore knees and back.  Things are taken more leisurely than at Splendour, when the alarm was set for 6am on both days, so editing the first days photos starts at a more reasonable hour, with the usual photo-editing brain food of Tim Tams and accompanied by bad 80s music on Rage in the background.  The world outside is looking very grey and like there might be rain but the sky is a bit brighter by the time the second day officially starts at 12:30pm.

There are no truer words than “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know“, and Hunter Dienna, in being related to one of the Bad Seeds, (although I can’t remember which one, possibly Mick Harvey as he’s one of their top Myspace friends and plays on their debut EP…) obviously know the right people to get on the ATP bill.  But whilst nepotism might be alive and well in the music industry in 2009, they are more than worthy of their place on the bill, with deliciously deep and dark vocals provided by singer Xanthe and an overall sound somewhere between The Bad Seeds, Mazzy Star and The Tindersticks.

There’s a bit of time to kill before The Stabs are due to play so I’m persuaded to go and join the others for the music trivia in the ABOM for a quick half-hour guest-spot appearance on the team. Having put my camera bag on the floor with my camera on top of it, I decide to have a quick look at the day’s photos but have hand-eye coordination issues and manage to knock the camera off the bag onto the iron base of the table. Where it makes a really unhealthy sound. Somewhat luckily everything still works, although at the expense of the lens hood, which obviously took the force of the impact and is cracked all the way through.  That’ll teach me for entering into the frivolity of such timewasting follies as music trivia competetions instead of the much more serious business of taking photos… 

Despite not knowing many of the answers, the team still manages to be in third place when I head off at half-time and also has a spot-prize Drones 7” and $25 drink voucher to its name. Unfortunately they go from third place to nowhere in the second half, missing out on possible ATP gig tickets for shows back in Brisbane.

After all that, The Stabs are, despite all the rave reviews I’ve heard, not that exciting. Another Melbourne band, that whilst not being terrible or anything, just aren’t that memorable. Maybe another case of the wrong band at the wrong time. Maybe lunchtime at relaxed outdoors festivals just isn’t the right time for loud guitars and feedback.

I had always dismissed Bridezilla as a bit of a Sydney hype band; they seemed to have oversaturated coverage in the Australian music press a year or two ago but what I heard at the time didn’t really excite me, but in giving them more attention via the ATP Mt Buller Last.fm radio I had started to really enjoy and look forward to their songs being played. Holiday Sidewinder might not have the strongest of voices but it has a unmistakable charm and for a young band, they have a very mature sound and more than hold their own with the rest of the festival’s bill. Plus in the flesh they are a fairly photogenic bunch, especially the aformentioned Ms Sidewinder…

 

The Small Knives. I stick around for three songs and take some photos but it’s a bit of a chore; photographing bands that don’t excite you and you can’t get into or don’t give you much to work with visually are always the hardest to photograph.

More ATP photos on flickr.