School of Seven Bells‘ debut album, ‘Alpinisms‘, has been on high rotation round these parts in recent weeks; it’s a pretty good modern shoegaze album, although being the modern age it’s way too long, especially so for a debut album, and would have benefitted by losing a 3 or 4 songs, possibly the ones where they sound too close to The Cranberries for comfort.

In the live setting it’s just the three of them – identical twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza and ex-Secret Machines‘ guitarist Benjamin Curtis – and the use of a drum machine and bass backing track means that the songs tonight sound just about identical to the record.  I’m not sure if they have played with a full band before or whether it’s just a sensible and obvious money saving option for touring overseas, but even though the Deheza twins sing really beautifully together, it sounds very sterile and gives an overall impression, at least from a purely musical point of view, that you may well have just stayed at home and listened to the album on the stereo.  It’s a shame as the songs themselves are excellent, as for the most part is the album, but they would benefit substantially from a looser arrangement and structure, one that allows them to expand and explore, really take their sublime, dreamy, ethereal harmonised vocals to a new level, instead of being hindered by the strictness and military rigidity of the drum machine and backing tracks they’re using.  

For a change, and a very pleasant one at that, it was the best lighting I’ve experienced at The Zoo for a long while.  And, from a photographic point of view, with good lighting and a pair of exceedingly attractive female identical twins you can’t go wrong…

More photos on Flickr.

 

I always felt disappointed (and a bit guilty) that I didn’t go to what at the time might have been Giants Of Science‘s last show at Fat Louie’s in the city back in June 2007.  At the time I had no idea that it might be the end of the band (with drummer Steve Lynagh heading off to Europe for a couple of years) and was instead at The Troubadour watching The Apartments and Texas Tea.  No disrespect, but a show at Fat Louie’s Pool Hall is no way to end your band, especially not one as good as Giants had been the times I had seen them play since moving to Brisbane in 2005.   But fast-forward to April 2009 and normal service has been restored, with Steve back from Europe and erstwhile guitarist/vocalist Ben Tuite back in the fold (having originally left the band, leaving them as a three-piece in the months leading up to that Fat Louie’s performance). 

For a band that have hardly played together (I think I heard they did a secret 1am show at The Troubadour a few weeks before this gig) they are remarkably tight and the sound is just immense (The Troubadour living up to its reputation as having the best sound system in the Valley).  I only stay down the front photographing for a few songs, having claimed my space straight after Hits had finished playing, as it’s a sell out tonight and very packed, although ‘Window Seat’ and ‘The Letter B’ seem to go on for at least 20 minutes between them.  Even though I’m right at the front, at the end of a front row comprising only of photographers, it’s still not a great position, with Ben Tuite’s microphone stand in the way of getting a clear shot of him and the lighting fall off across the stage from where I’m stood meaning Salter and Tanzie are mainly in the dark.  I seem to be cursed every time I stick up for The Troubadour lighting and say that it’s not as bad as I make out, as invariably the next time I go there it is as bad as I make it out to be.  So it’s back down to shutter speeds of 1/30 at times to try and keep the ISO down at something reasonable; a bit hit and miss but I still end up with some ok shots.  One thing that never changes is the difficulty in getting good photos of Ben Salter; similar to Ed Kuepper he hardly ever opens his eyes.  Still, it’s really good to have the band back and in such fine fettle and I’m looking forward to album No. 3, which should be out next year sometime.

Hits are the main support tonight.  I remember seeing them a couple of years ago and enjoying them but tonight they are disappointing (and I have since heard from other people that it wasn’t one of their better shows).  They start well for maybe the first 3 songs but then there is a long mid-set lull before they pick it up again in the last song.  The main issue is Evil Dick’s vocals, which come in somewhere between John Lydon and Shaun Ryder; it works for a few songs but after that there doesn’t seem to be much variety in delivery or tone.  However, they are undeniably a good band to photograph (Troubadour lighting not withstanding), with Evil Dick resplendent in his finest pimp suit, and it’s always a delight to photograph Tamara, who is a music photographers dream and who you could happily take photos of  all night whilst not even thinking about turning your camera away to focus on anyone else in the band.     

No Anchor open the evening and it’s a delight to finally get to see them; we seem have missed each other like ships in the night for far too long. It’s a brutal noise and even after years of aural abuse it only takes one song for my ears to start ringing.  Under the layers of noise there’s melody and there’s also an infectious stoner-rock groove going on, shades of  Kyuss in some places, shades of Sunn O))) in others. It may have taken too long for our paths to cross but it is definitely worth the wait.

Some more photos on Flickr.

Although it’s mid-week, there’s a more than healthy crowd at The Zoo for the Easy Star All-Stars and it’s been a while since it’s been one of those really hot and sweaty nights that you often get there.   Getting there just before the band start there’s the initial semi-circle of fear that arcs around the front of the stage, which allows me to stroll up to the front and centre of the stage for once, before the circle closes when the band comes on stage.  I’m left stranded in a fairly good spot, as opposed to my usual although tactic of squeezing in at the end very end of the stage, although I have the bassist’s microphone stand in the way of getting anything good of him. 

The All-Stars’ female vocalist (whose name I don’t know and can’t work out from their MySpace bio and Google) is really quite beautiful and extremely photogenic and the fact that she’s positioned right under a light makes photographing her a bit easier.  In the end I photograph for 4 songs; it was quite dark for the first two so I make up for it in songs 3 and 4.

Tonight also makes a new first for photographing at The Zoo in that I’ve been given an AAA pass.  Disappointingly I haven’t brought a flash and I’m not quite sure what it entitles me to photograph to so in the end I just use it to take a few shots from side-stage.  Much of the discussion related to the ‘first three, no flash’ rule centres on photographer access and about how historically the best shots usually haven’t happened in the first three songs and often haven’t come from being take in the photo pit (with Pennie Smith’s Paul Simenon photo, taken from the side of stage, being the most obvious example).  Photographing from side of stage at The Zoo isn’t quite the same… so I don’t really get anything special, just the usual shots you would expect to get at a small venue of the performers’ backs…

The band are touring their just released cover of The Beatles‘ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘, ‘Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band‘. The songs are undeniably fun, after all there’s never a bad time to hear Beatles songs, but the main trouble is that they’re just too engrained into modern culture, and nothing more than the Sgt. Pepper songs, so on one hand the songs sound fantastic, on the other we’ve heard it all before.  Covering ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ and ‘Ok Computer‘ in a dub reggae style has more impact as no one really expected to hear 70′s prog rock and 90′s prog rock (let’s be honest…) reggae-fied.  Maybe they would have been better off covering something a bit less obvious from The  Beatle’s catalogue, as opposed to the album that Rolling Stone considered The Greatest Album of All Time in 2003 (even though we all know that it’s not even The Beatles’ best album…). It’ll be interesting to see where the Easy Star All-Stars go next; I think my money is on a reggae version of  ’Blonde On Blonde‘…

More photos on Flickr.

The live experience car-crash reputation is something that Evan Dando seems unable to shake off, to the point where it feels like it’s almost compulsory to see him more than once on any tour to ensure that you get the full repertoire of one performance to remember for all the right reasons and one for all the wrong reasons. The first time I saw him play live was at Glastonbury in 1995, an infamous performance by anyone’s standards, where having missed his scheduled mainstage afternoon performance (allegedly after being led astray and off the wagon thanks to a certain Brit Pop band singer and the contents of his medicine cabinet) he was squeezed on to the acoustic tent stage before Portishead, unbeknown to the expectant crowd who boo-ed him off after a few songs when they realised that they weren’t getting the Trip Hop fix they were wanting to hear. And reading the reviews for the show in Byron Bay, the evening after tonight’s Brisbane show, it sounds like it was another performance to watch through your fingers.

Tonight’s Zoo show isn’t exactly a car crash performance but is still one that is left wanting. In many ways it has everything going for it; it’s a set of absolutely classic Lemonheads songs, sung beautifully and Dando has a scary Dorian Gray thing going on, not looking a day older than when ‘A Shame About Ray‘ was released, a frightening seventeen years ago, back in 1992. But where it disappoints is in the delivery; the songs are played machine gun-style one after another for the whole gig, with no breaks between songs and barely a pause for breath or to take the audience’s acclaim and appreciation. Whilst you can’t fault the songs, especially with the bulk of the set coming from ‘A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads‘, the manner in which they are played gives an impression that Dando doesn’t want to be there, just play for his contracted hour stage-time and get the hell out of there. When singer/songwriters play intimate acoustic solo shows you expect them to have a more relaxed presence, to talk about the songs, introduce them, tell us what you’ve been up to, but Dando hardly makes eye contact and is very un-engaging, only really acknowledging the audience to apologise for the sound issues towards the start of the set (and during my personal favourite Lemonheads’ song – ‘My Drug Buddy‘ – of all songs…) but then apologising about three times for it during the encores.

There’s a new album (of covers) due out next month and I’m sure there will be more Australian shows in due course. We’ll just have to hope that the Brisbane show falls on the right day of the week for it to be remembered for all the right reasons.

A few more photos on Flickr.

A seemingly rare night of festival sideshow action in Brisbane…

Louis XIV start much later than advertised, possibly because The Zoo was rather empty at the time they were supposed to start, although it gradually fills up in the interim.   Having seen them the last time they played at The Zoo in 2006, they don’t really offer anything new; the sound hasn’t progressed past the Mud/Sweet 70′s glam mixed up with Rocky Horror Picture Show-style camp show tunes and most of the best songs come from the Pitchfork-rated debut album they were promoting last time around.  It’s pretty limp and it’s another one of those shows where you feel that the band is going through the motions and there’s little sense of any real passion or enjoyment.  Having played V Festival on the Gold Coast the day before, there seems to be a case of the day after the night before about their largely lethargic and insipid performance.  The experience isn’t helped by the particularly muddy sound and the absence of the lush vocal harmonies that are to the fore on the albums and which they are not able to replicate live.  The best song they play tonight, which comes from their Pitchfork-rated second album, sounds like Elton John… And I think I’ll just leave it at that…  

Everyone stakes their place at the front for The Kills within seconds of Louis XIV finishing. Not expecting such a surge I find myself nowhere near the front and so start photographing from a few rows back, although I eventually manage to navigate around to the very side of the stage and and up shooting right across the stage.  It’s a less than ideal situation, not helped by MCP, who, when confirming my pass, seem to be under the impression that The Zoo has a photo pit and so have stipulated a three song limit.  The light in the first three is very erratic and Alison Mosshart’s movement makes it hard get a clear shot and shooting from so far out to the side renders Jamie Hince largely invisible behind the stage/PA system. Depressingly, and typically, the lighting after the first three songs is really nice and would have made for some excellent photo, particularly when Mosshart and Hince move their microphones into the centre of the stage so that they’re facing each other as they play (like this). 

It’s often annoying and frustrating  photographing bands in Brisbane and then comparing them with photos taken in Sydney and Melbourne, where often they have the benefit of much better lighting and/or a photo pit, e.g. when The Kills moved onto Sydney they played at the Forum with a photo pit and what looks like a much better lighting set-up.  Having photographed in a few venues in Sydney and Melbourne it is something that I’ve experienced first-hand; it’s always amusing to go to a venue down there, have a local photographer tell you the lighting is terrible and then find out that it’s in fact better than just about every venue in Brisbane…

A few more photos on Flickr.

Jack Ladder, recent Australian Music Prize runner-up and recipient of the Red Bull Prize of $15,000 “in recognition of outstanding potential”, is an unlikely support act for 60′s R&B influenced The Duke Spirit.  Playing solo without his normal band and with just an acoustic guitar he possesses a deep, rich voice that evokes Bob Dylan and Tom Waits at their most world-weary. It is a strangely seductive voice, definitely one that is an acquired taste but one that can be acquired within a few songs of him singing. 

His between song banter is very awkward though, which takes some of the gloss of his overall performance.  Having never seen or heard him before it will be interesting to see how his musical career progresses now that he has the additional benefit of a major national music award to help promote himself.  He’s been included on the first announcement for this year’s Splendour In The Grass festival, presumably for the McLennan Stage, so it will be good to see him (presumably) with a full band backing him and interesting to see how he goes down with the Splendour crowd.

The Duke Spirit are blighted by another night of muddy sound at The Zoo, although it doesn’t really spoil an excellent show, with the band seeming delighted to be there and their excitement evident throughout.  Somewhat strangely, unlike typical headlining performances at The Zoo, no one is pressed up against the stage, with the audience forming a semi-circle around the front, something that usually gets seen during unknown support bands when no one wants to commit fully to the experience, but not usually for headline bands.  

Leila Moss, The Duke Spirit’s singer, does the whole elfin look with aplomb and looks sensational in her short shorts, but, somewhat depressingly, she is one of those people who just “sing ugly”; she has a tendency to either purse her lips so that her philtrum forms a pronounced and unflattering ridge or sings in a way that makes her lips disappear.  Either way, it doesn’t do justice to her obvious attractiveness.  The lights are on but after the first song are asked to be turned way down by Moss, and, so with the band skulking around in the dark reaches of The Zoo’s stage, there’s a disappointing lack of good photos after the first three minutes, which is a real shame.

Some more photos on flickr.

I’m confirmed to photograph at this year’s sold-out-in-75-minutes Splendour In The Grass festival down at Byron Bay at the end of July.

The lineup so far is:

Bloc Party
Flaming Lips
Jane’s Addiction
MGMT
Hilltop Hoods
Grinspoon
Midnight Juggernauts
The Specials
Augie March
Sarah Blasko
Friendly Fires
White Lies
Little Birdy
Josh Pyke
The Gutter Twins
Birds of Tokyo
Manchester Orchestra
Decoder Ring
Lost Valentinos
Bob Evans
Yuksek
Kram
Yves Klein Blue
Leader Cheetah
Jack Ladder
The Middle East
Polaroid Fame
Glass Towers

I think we’re 2 international acts down on last year’s first announcement, possibly a sign of the fall out from the GFC, possibly because in moving the festival forwards a week it’s now the same weekend as Fuji Rock. White Lies are managing to play both festivals but I would have thought it unlikely that many of the other bands would be making the trip over to play in Byron and virtually impossible for any of the bands playing Fuji after the Friday. Japan’s other summer festival, Summer Sonic,  is two weeks after Splendour, so I’d have thought it more likely that any acts touring over this side of the globe that are added to the bill would be added from their line-up.

Big rumour is that a certain female-fronted New York trio that I’d like to photograph will be playing; there is room in their current schedule, although they’d need to be back to play in New Jersey the following Friday, so I’ll believe it when I see it. Either way, Jane’s Addiction, Flaming Lips and Gutter Twins make it a win for me and in terms of the overseas acts I think it’s probably better than last year (even though personally I’m non-plussed about MGMT and Bloc Party – MGMT were hugely unimpressive at The Tivoli in December, as were Bloc Party when I saw them in 2005, plus I can’t stand Kele Okereke’s awful voice).

The disappointment is in the Australian acts, which are the same tired old acts that get wheeled out at every Australian festival on a two-year rotating cycle, e.g. Grinspoon, Hilltop Hoods, Little Birdy, Josh Pyke, Midnight Juggernauts, Augie March, etc.  There’s the usual Dew Process shoe-ins in Sarah Blasko (who I quite like) and Yves Klein Blue (who I don’t and who also played last year) and I’d expect new signings Bluejuice to be added in the next round of announcements. Nothing from the Modular roster as yet (certain NY band pending), but Tame Impala seem to be omnipresent at the moment so I’d expect them.  With Little Birdy just having released a new album and with Hilltop Hoods about to release a new one, you know that they’ll be playing Homebake, Falls Festival, Big Day Out and every other festival in-between for at least the next twelve months. Let’s just hope that they don’t take it to Wolfmother extremes and stretch it out to about 4 years… 

There’s so many better bands that are more deserving of a place on the festival bill and it would be nice for major festival organisers to take some risks and give some exposure to some different bands for a change; they know it’s going to sell out on the first morning so it’s not going to really affect them.  I’m living for the day when Big Day Out or Soundwave puts Sixfthick on their line-up, they would be an amazing band to take on a big tour around the country (and bagsy tour photographer). As for Splendour, I’m not quite sure who I think should be on it as it’s such a varied mish-mash of musical styles, and generally panders to the more mainstream aspects of present day Triple J, although this year seems to have more variety on that front and more of a Generation X slant. Based on the response The Wombats’ power pop got last year, and based on their Troubadour show on Saturday, Screamfeeder would be a worthy addition to the bill, but possibly wouldn’t excite the youth element as much as they should. Giants of Science were outstanding a couple weeks ago, but possibly too heavy for Splendour? Ditto Vegas Kings. Texas Tea for the McLennan Stage? Or too quiet, too acoustic? Andrew Morris? Too low a profile? John Steel Singers? They’d be a good band to put on at Splendour.

It’s an even more expensive weekend away than last year was (when tickets were $199 + booking fee) at a mind-blowing $240 + booking fee, a 20% increase in a year. Factoring in accommodation, getting there, food and drink, some people are easily going to spend the best part of $1,000 for a couple of days of music, so I’m always a bit perturbed when people post on forums about how excited they are to see Little Birdy etc when you can go and see them on tour for $20-30 several times a year if that’s your thing.

Last year I questioned whether, if I worked like a dog and lived on a diet of coffee and Red Bull for a couple of days, it was possible to do a live photo blog from a festival.  Photographing as many bands as I did made it nowhere near possible.  I got up early and did do a couple of daily highlight blog posts on the Sunday and Monday mornings, and also twittered over the two days at the festival, so I expect I’ll be doing the same again this year.  And of course having a camera phone for the first time there’s always the low quality and blurry photo potential of Twitpic… I had a ball last time, despite the largely disappointing line-up, and am already looking forward to it.  And of course I’ll give everyone’s love to Candi Vegas if I see her in the photo pit…

It’s the first time I’ve seen Texas Tea since their album launch back at the end of November. After an all-star cast that night, it’s back to just Kate and Ben tonight. The band sound as good as ever though. Having photographed them on so many occasions, including my very first gig as a Brisbane resident when they supported Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side along with The Exiles at The Troubadour, I really need to start experimenting with different ways of photographing them, something more than just the standard editorial photo approach, although I’m just not sure what direction to take. Playing sat down makes it hard to really vary the angles, especially when there’s microphone stands and tambourine/hi-hat stands obscuring them, there’s obviously not going to be any action shots, and the only real thing I can think of to play around with is different processes. But having done a lot of this with the band I need to find something new to do; maybe I need to think about a much more abstract approach. Will think about it some more.

Although I’ve seen Andrew Morris‘s name around a lot, on numerous gig bills and in street press interviews and reviews, tonight is the first time I get to see him play. It’s a shame it’s taken me this long to get around to seeing him, as it’s a really enjoyable gig; he’s got a really fantastic voice and an excellent collection of songs. The only disappointment from the night is that there’s a criminally small crowd here to see him launch his latest album; it’s disappointing as it’s a Thursday night, and I was under the impression that Thursday is the new Friday, and even more disappointing as he’s also playing his home patch tonight.

It’s pretty tough trying to photograph him however; there’s a lot of backlighting, with smoke also being blasted out from the venue’s smoke machine, and although he roams the stage, he tends to keep to the shadows. The best photos come during the songs when he plays guitar and is tied to his microphone more than when he’s just singing.

Some more photos on flickr.

The Tivoli is surprisingly full for tonight’s Stranglers show; there wasn’t much in the way of advertising for either the original date (in December, but cancelled with the GFC being blamed) or tonight’s show, and at $90 a ticket it’s a fairly pricey mid-week night out

It’s been a long time I last saw Wind & Brackets, supporting Expatriate with Operator Please at The Globe if I remember correctly.  Even though they’ve got the same personnel, they’ve changed a fair bit since then; they at least look like they’re in the same band and have similar musical interests now, compared to the varied looks they had back in 2007 and there’s a lot more keyboard than I remember (if they had a keyboard at all back then), with the (possible) introduction of said keyboard giving them a sound that makes them a suitable choice for the Stranglers support slot.  Musically they’re solid if a bit unspectacular but go down pretty well with the crowd.  Tommy seems quite nervous or maybe just out of breath when delivering inbetween song banter.  He needs to get rid of the hair flicks he keeps doing though; it’s really off-putting and makes him look like a walking Timotei advert, it’s like he wants to lose himself in the music but is a bit too scared to let go in case it messes his hair up.

Waiting in the photo pit for The Stranglers to start I have a glance at the set list that’s been gaffa-taped to the stage and it’s an impressive list; even I know most of the songs that they are going to play tonight and I’m not a huge fan, with only a copy of ‘No More Heroes‘ representing the band in my record collection.  It’s surprising, being perennially ‘uncool’, just how many hit singles they’ve had.

There’s no Jet Black tonight (unless he’s lost 10 stone and 40 years somewhere…), with post-gig research discovering that Ian Barnard, his drum tech, has temporary taken his place on the drum stool.  The post-gig research also reveals that in addition to illness over the last few years, Jet Black is going to be 71 in August, which explains why he’s not playing many live shows with the band.  With no Jet Black, and with singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell having left (somewhat scarily) almost 2 decades ago, bassist/singer Jean-Jacques Burnel and keyboard player Dave Greenfield are the only original band members on show. With Greenfield hidden behind a wall of keyboards at the back I spend most of my three songs photographing JJ as he struts around the stage, looking in really good shape for his 57 years.  His bass sound, the driving force behind the band, is immense, sounding best on ‘Nice ‘N’ Sleazy‘, ‘Peaches‘ and the ‘No More Heroes‘ encore.  Singer/guitarist is Baz Warne has been with the band long enough (since 2000) to make the position his own and there’s a definite on stage band dynamic, as well as appreciation from the audience, even though for the most part of the night he’s singing Cornwell’s classic songs.  Still, there is a strangeness in Warne’s broad Sunderland accent delivery compared to Cornwell’s familiar, menacing snarl on those songs, so tonight we get the likes of ’Gullden Brewn‘, ‘Ellweys The Soon‘, but it doesn’t take away from a fun night of nostalgia and reminiscence and an entertaining and enjoyable mid-week night out.

Some more photos on flickr.