When it comes to live music, I’m usually a ‘stay ’til the bitter end’ type of gig-goer.  For the most part I can never fathom why people would purposely walk out of a gig after only a few songs; maybe it’s just the optimist in me that hopes however bad it is it will get better, that the band might impress me, even if they only manage it in the last 30 seconds [Note: since drafting this post last week Swells has sadly died and whilst I think you'd be hard pushed to find a music fan he hadn't managed to wind up and infuriate over the years, the vim and vigour which he approached his writing makes it a sad loss for music journalism].  I will admit to leaving The Drones opening of The Hi-Fi after only half a dozen songs due to its late starting, and I did leave Sloan’s show at The Globe last year well before the end, but it was 12:15am on a Thursday night when I left and I had a photo deadline as well as work on the Friday, but from memory the only show I’ve walked out of due to anything other than acute tiredness was a Spin Doctors show at Newcastle’s Riverside back in the early 1990s – they were so desperately dull and even some mid-show games of pinball at the back of the room couldn’t improve the sense of utter boredom from their workman-like, emotion-draining, insipid, early1990s college rock.

As much as I wanted to, I don’t stay for the whole of tonight’s Trail Of The Dead show, bailing about half-way through, the night another victim of a long day and getting up at 4am to watch the Barcelona football master-class in the Champion League Final.  It’s a sad excuse really as the Trail Of The Dead’s show is such a extreme case of sensory overload, both visually and aurally, that if they couldn’t keep me awake and alert then nothing would.

From a photographic point of view, I assume my normal position at the front stage left, although it means that I’m in a poor position for action shots but in a good place for the obligatory Rave portrait shot.  They definitely are a band that I would love to shoot from a photo pit.  And preferably on a day when I haven’t gotten up at 4am. 

Violent Soho supported, in their last gig before heading overseas and to Download.  Was an ok show from them but far from their best, with the band not as finely tuned as they normally are when playing shows more regularly.  The new songs they played at the Tym Guitars Zoo car park gig were given another airing and were a lot more intelligible than when they were played on the aurally abusing p.a. system they used in the car park. 

More photos on Flickr.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead

Violent Soho

As well as taking the usual digital photos at Brisbane Sounds 2009, as previously posted here, I also took a couple rolls of Ilford HP5, rating the ISO400 film at ISO1600 and then developing them for 14 minutes in ID-11 developer.  The results are very grainy, as was expected, although slightly less than the photos from the middle Saturday at the UnderExposed when the film was rated at ISO3200.

A few more on Flickr.

Screamfeeder

Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side

Vegas Kings

The final additions to the 2009 Splendour In The Grass festival were announced today, to go with the already announced list that I blogged about last month, with the final 18 bands being as follows:

• Happy Mondays
• Doves
• Architecture In Helsinki
• You Am I
• The Beautiful Girls
• Downsyde & Drapht
• Kisschasy
• Little Red
• Bluejuice
• Children Collide
• Miami Horror Live
• Art vs. Science
• Paul Dempsey
• Dappled Cities
• Dananananaykroyd
• Holly Throsby
• Bridezilla
• Deya Dova

This year the first announcement had 28 acts, with the 18 announced today making a total of 46 artists for 2009.  The 2008 second announcement had 21 acts to go with the 26 announced in the first line-up, making 47 in total over the weekend.

In my previous blog I posted that the main disappointment was the choice of Australian acts, which just seemed to be the same tired old acts that get wheeled out at every Australian festival on a two-year rotating cycle.  Looking at the lineup in full, of the 46 acts playing, 5 played last year and a further 8 played in 2007 (although that does include the non-Australian Bloc Party).  Another major disappointment is that whereas 19 international acts were on the bill in 2008, this year there’s a paltry 13, almost a third less.  And the big rumour that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would be on the second announcement proved to not be true, although being just too good to be true it was no great surprise really.

As I predicted in my Part 1 post, Bluejuice have been added to the bill, as have Dew Process’s very latest signings Dananananaykroyd.  No Tame Impala though, which looked like it was a definite considering their omnipresence on every festival bill in recent months. I probably should have predicted Children Collide and Little Red but thought they must have worn out their welcome by now, having been on just about every festival lineup since the start of 2008.  Little Red are also one of the five bands that played last year, along with Bluejuice, Art vs. Science, Paul Dempsey  and Yves Klein Blue.

The playing times don’t get published until a week or so before the festival so I’ll have to wait until then to start planning the weekend and who I’m going to photograph with military precision.  I have previously photographed 16 of the 46 bands playing (compared to 13 of the 47 who played in 2008), those being:

• MGMT
• Hilltop Hoods
• Midnight Juggernauts
• Augie March
• Sarah Blasko
• Little Birdy
• Josh Pyke
• Lost Valentinos
• Yves Klein Blue
• Jack Ladder
• The Middle East
• You Am I
• Bluejuice
• Paul Dempsey
• Dappled Cities
• Bridezilla

Whilst I plan on photographing a number of those bands again, and will no doubt end up doing some that I didn’t plan on photographing anyway, I’m open to suggestions as to other bands that I have to see/have to photograph so feel free to tell me who I must go and check out.  Although the second announcement is disappointing I’m still really looking forward to the weekend; as previously posted it’s really exciting to get to photograph Jane’s Addiction, Flaming Lips and the Gutter Twins.  There’s not a whole lot that interests me personally in the second announcement; I’ll go and check out Dananananaykroyd to see what the fuss is about, I enjoyed Bridezilla at ATP Mt Buller so I’ll try and catch them and for old time’s sake I’ll go and see the Happy Mondays, although, having seen them a number of times over the years, they’ve always been pretty terrible live. 

Five weeks to go.

It was only when I started processing these photos that the significance struck home; as a photographer you wait years, a lifetime perhaps, for that one perfect split second moment to create an icon, construct the legend or fuel the myth. 

I know that every few blog posts I end up including a link to this photo; as a music photographer it’s inescapable.  Let’s call it ‘The Pennie Smith Moment’.  As music photographers will forever be posting in Flickr forums, historically the great music photos were not hindered by stupid music industry rules and conditions that are inescapable in the modern age.  ‘The Pennie Smith Moment’ happened because she was on tour with The Clash, had access all areas and was free to photograph for as long as she wanted, from wherever she wanted.

When opportunity presents itself you need to read the situation, anticipate what is going to happen next and be ready for when it does happen.

“I remember thinking something was wrong, realising Paul was going to crack – and waited. The shot is out of focus because I ducked – he was closer than it looks” – Pennie Smith

With the generously suppplied AAA pass from The Zoo, I find myself side of stage at the end of the Vegas Kings‘ set.  The band are building to an end of set noisy climax, Pete and Ben swinging their guitars around and holding them aloft as the end of the last song builds up to a crescendo. And then Ben has the guitar above his head and without warning  hurls it guitar neck-wards towards the stage.  Being the main guitar I’ve seen him over the last few years and with Vegas Kings also being in the studio recording a new album I just wasn’t expecting it to happen, expecting him to feign a throw and just swing it around.

So with the combination of not anticipating it, being a single shot photographer as opposed to a machine-gunner and the darkness of the Zoo I end up with a close-but-no-cigar single shot – an underexposed, not-quite-in-focus, noisy, red light lit photo that could only really be saved by making it monochrome, with Pete’s guitar lead dangling down the middle – and a yearning for another once in a lifetime photo opportunity, another ‘Pennie Smith Moment’ to come my way sometime soon.

More photos on Flickr.

Screamfeeder

Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side

Vegas Kings

The Blackwater Fever

New Jack Rubys

The Mercy Beat

Australia music seems to be intrinsically linked to a notion that the best Australian bands have to play to tiny audiences in tiny venues, get little attention in their own city, let alone the rest of the country, due to the parochial tendencies of each major city/state and the unhealthy competiveness that goes along with it, move overseas, get the recognition they deserve and then, and only then, can they return to Australia be hailed as all conquering heroes by the general population and the mainstream music media and newspapers who had zero interest when they were playing the small/cheap/free local shows and the early in the evening support slots to better known/more popular international and Sydney/Melbourne acts.

From The Saints to The Go-Betweens, from Nick Cave to The Triffids, continuing through to a current age when bands like The Drones seem to garner a much higher degree of respect and recognition outside of Australia than within it. Even moving away from the plight of Australia’s better bands, Jet‘s and The Vines‘ success was largely based on the UK music media championing both bands when most Australians had no idea that the bands even existed and even Gabriella Cilmi and Sam Sparro’s UK success means the Australian music industry were falling over themselves to give them ARIA awards last year. In the UK it’s the complete opposite; go to somewhere like the USA and make it big before you’ve at least tried to do it in the UK and no one will take you seriously (see: Bush. Although they were also hampered by the fact that they were rubbish, basically the 1990′s version of Nickelback).

Violent Soho seem to be the latest band to embark on this well trodden career path, having signed to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace record label and playing the UK’s Download Festival in June 2009, to go with previous overseas tours in 2008.

Tonight they’re playing a free show to celebrate Tym Guitars’ Anne Street Shop’s 1st anniversary, along with the Boondall Boys, in The Zoo’s car park. By right the place should be packed (or as much as you can pack out a car park) but looking around it’s the same familiar faces that you see at every Soho gig, the usual suspects you see at most local shows and the unequivocal, unwavering supporters from other Brisbane bands, most of whom have shared a stage with band over the last few years. In some ways it’s great; it’s like being a teenager again and having a special secret band that you share with a few like-minded souls with good taste in music and that you don’t want to share with the world, lest the mainstream success change them, spoil them, and yet you can’t help but think that they deserve to be playing to much bigger crowds somewhere a lot more luxurious than the Zoo car park in the middle of May.

The Courier Mail’s Briz Bands blog, where ‘Candi and Khan explore Brisbane’s vibrant music scene with news, pic galleries, videos and tracks from some of Australia’s edgiest new artists’ has a solitary blog posting about the band related to when they got the Black Francis tour support last year, the usual press release cut and paste blog they excel at; it was written by ‘Carts’, who mysteriously went MIA and was replaced by Khan, who is only able to write about hip-hop…

By right Violent Soho should be the ones with the number one records, with the Rolling Stone features, the extended interviews on Video Hits, on constant rotation on Triple J, playing the sell-out shows at huge venues, being lined up for the ARIAs. But the people of Australia have spoken. And they want Eskimo Joe. At least they do this year.  But history has shown us that should Violent Soho make their return accompanied with column inches in foreign music papers, having had their records played on overseas radio stations and played some high profile festival and tour support slots, the rest of Australia, outside those gathered tonight and similar cliques in other cities, will start to pay attention. 

More photos on Flickr.

Violent Soho

Boondall Boys

Even at the time, 1996 was one of the best years of my life: my PhD was beginning to take shape but was in a worry free stage, still years away from having to write up a thesis, living in an amazing share house with great friends, a beautiful hot summer, a feast of football on the TV every night, the amazing night of jumping up and down of the sofa watching this, the Saturday afternoon barbeque a few days later and the place erupting when this happened, followed by the mandatory trip to the park straight after for a jumpers-for-goalposts drunken kick-around, my weekly lustful date with Anna, the amazing Phoenix 1996 line-up, a line-up so good that if you put it on in 2009 it would still be better than most of this year’s festivals, and of course Reading 1996, when for the first 60 seconds of ‘I Wanna Be Adored‘ everything in the world was perfect. 

Of course not everything was perfect; everything apart from those first 60 seconds of the Stone Rose’s Reading performance, for example, and there was of course the dastardly Britpop Pavlovian experiment, where in the combined efforts of the UK music and mainstream press, Chris Evans and Radio 1 were engaged in a war of attrition against the British public, convinced that if they wrote about and played enough Cast and Ocean Colour Scene they would be accepted amongst the upper pantheons of British musical culture.  Sadly far too many were convinced of their and other Britpop also-rans’ greatness and many still are, even to this very day. 

Obviously until a few years ago Screamfeeder meant nothing to me.  So tonight I find myself at The Troubadour for the launch of their re-mastered/deluxe edition of their apparent classic 1996 album ‘Kitten Licks‘, an album which of course means nothing to me and I’ve never even heard, and a ‘Don’t Look Back‘-style run-through of the whole album. 

It’s a slightly strange feeling; feeding off other people’s version of 1996 nostalgia.   Strange and yet it seems so natural and is so easy when there’s such a noticeable and infectious mood of happy reminiscence to less complicated and happier days.  You can’t help but be caught up in it.  Even though ‘Kitten Licks’ is not the soundtrack to my 1996, it has such classic indie rock, hook-laden songs that it just sounds like it should have been or could have been; in a lot of ways it has an eerie sense of a long-forgotten but happy memory. And it would have made the perfect soundtrack to my Summer of ’96, much preferable to being forced to endure the seemingly inescapable likes of Shed Seven and The Bluetones on TV and radio.

More photos on Flickr.

Screamfeeder

Midget

Butcher Birds

You just haven’t lived until you’ve seen a giant throw a midget at a couple of ninjas…

After recent lukewarm shows at The Troubadour and at The Hi-Fi, at the third attempt the widespread and vocal support of Hits in Brisbane makes perfect sense. In spite of all the odds, the worst sound possibly ever ‘heard’, far, far worse than that at the Hi-Fi bar a week earlier, Evil Dick having to hold two microphones up against his mouth to get any sort of vocals coming out of the PA, and yet somehow they pull it off with typical aplomb and bravado. Maybe the answer is that Hits work best when the sound is ultra-fuzzy and not the crystal clear sound that you normally demand from a music venue, with the vocals niceties largely lost in the mix, with the melodies turning into an integral part of the songs rather than being something that exists in a layer that lies on top of the guitars, bass and drums.  And, whereas the distance between the audience and the band was detrimental at the Hi-Fi show, when they’re in your face, on a stage so small they might as well play just play on the floor, the band’s exuberance and cock-sure swagger shines through.

The sound problems get even worse for Sixfthick, something no one present thought would be possible during Hit’s set, to the extent that the band end up split into two camps, with Dan, Tony and Fred continuing to play on the stage, whilst Geoff and Ben have to relocate to the mixing desk and plug their microphones directly into the desk. A typical Sixfthick show usually involves the band playing from both ends of a venue at various times during the course of the night, but tonight it takes on a whole new meaning.

More photos on Flickr.

In an age when live music venues in all major cities around the world are closing, or being made to close, a brand new venue in Brisbane should be a cause for celebration, although it’s somewhat muted by the fact that it has coincided with The Arena closing as a live venue and being transformed into an R&B club. The world, and Brisbane, may need many things; however, another R&B club is not one of them.

Moving away from the current spiritual home of live music in Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, the new Hi-Fi, a sister venue to the Melbourne establishment, has set up home in West End. In the days leading up to its opening there has been comment as to whether the place would be ready in time, as it still resembles a building site from outside, with the front facade still all boarded up. Having negotiated the front desk, finding that I’m not on the guest list, that they’ve never heard of the person responsible for my email confirmation but that they let me in regardless and give me a media pass, the proof of the venues readiness to open is instantly evident from the overpowering stench of paint fumes. Moving up the stairs, navigating the obvious bottleneck as the corridor snakes its way into the main room, the first impression is one of disappointment; it’s just a big open room. With the Hi-Fi being similar in size to the The Tivoli I think most people were expecting it to be a similar styled and laid out venue, but instead it’s rather a souless and charmless void compared to its closest rival in the Valley.

Further points are lost when, after a long wait for the bar, it’s discovered that they don’t do any cider; something which makes it an instant FAIL in my eyes… Relocating to the ‘VIP’ bar upstairs, with the aid of my laminate, the open bar is being abused to extremes, with the ‘VIP’ liggers ordering as many spirit based drinks as they can carry in one go and adding in a few shots, mostly of Sambuca it seems, to pass the time at the bar waiting for their more complicated drinks to be made.

Back downstairs the music has finally started, with Hits having won the honour to be the opening band at the new venue. Again, after their recent Troubadour show you can’t help but be disappointed in them. They seem very nervous and apprehensive, look uncomfortable and the confident swagger that they always exude just isn’t there [Note: reading their MySpace blog from the night whilst putting together this post, it's no surprise to find that they didn't get a sound-check, and this would go a long way to explaining their apparent uncomfortableness on stage and further evidence of the Hi-Fi's unreadiness to open to the public]. Also I was expecting more from Evil Dick in the fashion stakes, he was less dressed up than he was at The Troubadour show a couple weeks ago. Tamara seemed quite quiet and less animated as well; I was waiting in anticipation of some good shots of her, not helped by her being in the dark a lot of the time. And then when she bends over trying to induce some feedback from her amp I suddenly felt a bit awkward as I there I am looking through the camera viewfinder getting a good view straight up her skirt…It was giving me flashbacks to photographing Abi Zuton at Falls a few years ago. Ladies, high stages and short skirts don’t mix…

Witch Hats are nothing special; a lack of variation, not much interaction with crowd and the sound is only marginally better than for Hits. It’s dark for first three and then the lights all come on, so I take some sneaky shots in the fourth song and then a few more in the last song. Despite being told it was first three no flash, I don’t think anyone in authority is that bothered, with plenty of photographers in attendance and plenty photographing for whole sets throughout the night.

One of several things has happened tonight; either a bit of “mainstream” success has changed the crowd that The Drones draw or the opening of a new venue has brought out an irregular gig crowd for the night or the over-abuse of the free “VIP” bar, as previously mentioned, has changed the crowd into an obnoxious beast. Or maybe it’s all three of these things. The jerk factor is definitely high tonight, from the annoying guy screaming as loud as he can every five seconds before The Drones come on to the guy downing his drink, cheered on by his mates, and then just dropping the bottle from his hand, where luckily it just bounces off the concrete floor, to the guys trying to drape themselves over the fold-back speakers to help keep themselves upright. After enduring constant conversation drowning him out at his recent solo Troubadour show, it’s no wonder that Gareth Liddiard is rumoured to really hate Brisbane.

Once again I find myself with little new to say about The Drones; still an amazing live band, helped by the improvement in sound over the night.  Opener ‘Nail It Down‘ and ‘The Minotaur‘ are now firmly established in the band’s ever-growing canon and as pivotal songs in their live repertoire. With three bands on the bill I had anticipated 8, 9 and 10pm start times, with the headliners playing for 90 minutes, as they had done in the shows in Sydney and Melbourne a few days prior. Indeed they do apparently play for a good hour and a half but, not starting until 11pm, play to an ever decreasing number until they end somewhere around the 12:30am mark. I’m not there to see it though, only staying for perhaps six songs and leaving at the more sensible Wednesday night gig time of 11:30pm.

In many ways it’s a shame that the venue was open to the public when it is so far from being ready. Hopefully a number of things will be fixed in the coming weeks; the finishing of the actual building work being the most obvious one, the installation of a photo pit being another. Then there are a few things that the venue could/should be fixed but more than likely won’t; an improvement in the poor bar selection, an improvement in the rip-off bar prices and of course getting cider behind the bar… And then there are the more critical elements which just can’t really be fixed; the layout of the building, the bottlenecks and the uncomfortable sense of claustrophobia in the main room. Even more critically I’ve heard on the grapevine, from people with a far greater knowledge of sound than me, that unless work is done to the room, the sound will never be that good.

Ultimately a venue lives and dies by the bands it puts on and the initial list of bands lined up to play at The Hi-Fi is fairly impressive, at least in terms of the popularity of the bands. However, when you consider all the faults of the Hi-Fi on its opening night there’s a real sense of déjà vu; whilst there may be a new building in West End they have also managed to capture the very essence of The Arena and everything that made going to see bands there such an unpleasant experience.

Photos on Mess + Noise and the rest on Flickr.

Having taken a roll of film at the middle-weekend Saturday night UnderExposed gig, I decided to go back to digital for the last couple of gigs. Not sure why, as I had been delighted at the results of using and developing a roll of film for the first time in over three years; possibly because the previous week’s gig had had such terrible lighting and I thought I’d play around with my digital camera at much higher ISOs (although in the end the lighting was much better for these final two gigs and I could keep the ISO speed at more sensible levels). The last weekend of gigs at the exhibition was bands from the poppier side of the musical spectrum, somewhere I guess I don’t go very often. Having never seen any of the bands playing before, I thoroughly enjoyed the two gigs and it was a great way to round of the exhibition. Roll on UnderExposed 2010.

More photos on Flickr.

Georgia Potter

Yeo & The Fresh Goods

Rhiannon Hart & The Umm-Ahhs

Blame Ringo

The Quills

The Travelling So and Sos

Mr Laneous & The Family Wah