Archive for November 2009
I made a comment in a recent blog about how easy it it to lose touch with the local music scene. When you start of photographing the usual route is to start with the local scene, build up a portfolio and  hope that it leads to bigger and higher profile opportunities but when that happens those gigs can easily take up all of your time and energy.
However, when the Incremental Records launch night came up I was really keen to cover it thanks to Before Hollywood’s excellent 42 song, triple CD compilation, ‘Stranded’. The launch night included bands who I’d first heard on the CD and who had been wanting to catch live for a while, particularly Nova Scotia who had one of my favourite tracks on ‘Stranded’ and who I kept managing to miss, despite them playing regularly around the Valley.
Ambitious Lovers kicked off the night and you can’t help but think that there’s DIY and then there’s DIY. They’re probably as shambolic a band as you’re ever likely to see. They sounded a lot more together on ‘Stranded’ and obviously could do with a lot more pre-gig practice but maybe that’s not the point.
After Ambitious Lovers’ ukuleles and home-made percussion lo-fi folk, the night has an immediate change in musical style with Turnpike’s frenetic, spiky straight-up punk.
Sometimes you can watch a band and see how much they are enjoying the night, sometimes, like tonight, you can watch a band and see the ever growing frustration as they try to deliver the set that they know they are capable of delivering. This is more than obvious tonight watching Mt Augustus’s Cameron Smith battle broken guitar strings, culminating in him throwing his guitar to the floor at the end of their set. And for the second time in as many Zoo gigs I manage to miss getting a good photo of someone throwing their guitar to the ground; luckily for Cam, and unlike Vegas Kings’s Ben, it was thrown body first. Although you could see the increasing irritation, it doesn’t take anything away from a really excellent set of acoustic indie folk.
After such a long wait I enjoyed finally seeing Nova Scotia; sure they’ve probably got a fair few well worn copies of ‘Slanted & Enchanted’ and ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’ but there are far worse bands to be influenced by then Pavement.
More photos from the night are on flickr.
I know I’ve blogged previously about photographing keyboard players; it’s the worst and along with saxophonists they’re probably the hardest musicians to get really good photos of. Not just ok photos, REALLY good photos. This is possibly because, with a very few exceptions, the keyboard is the most un-rock instrument ever. So Megan Washington is off to a bad start straight away and getting anything near resembling a really good photo of her is made even harder by her long hair falling all over her face and also by her wearing glasses. Photographing people with glasses can be a hard task anyway, what with the reflections, but it’s amazing how hard it can be photographing musicians with glasses and to not get the frames covering up the eyes. Being The Troubadour, everyone is sat down and so I end up just photographing from the same place but afterwards regret not moving over to the other side for a bit, as other photos I’ve seen of her since seem better from that side.
Apart from the pains of photographing, it was an enjoyable gig. It’s good to see sold out local gig (although I thinks she’s based in Melbourne now). It’s amazing what a bit of regular play on Triple J can do for you; shame they don’t play Brisbane bands a bit more often…
Some more photos on flickr.
Washington
Last Dinosaurs
I guess I had an inkling of what a Flipper show might be like to attend and tonight I get pretty much what I expected; you can get a sense just from listening to their music without having to even read a single live review. It’s a bitter, angry, alienated, disinterested, discordant experience and tonight Bruce Loose struts the stage with an obvious air of a man who wishes he was anywhere else but on a stage in Brisbane playing to a the small crowd that’s assembled in front of him and who can’t really be bothered to even pretend otherwise. The loss of his voice a few songs in results in some sort of bizarre karaoke/Stars In Their Eyes show, with lead vocals taken by various members of the crowd, and it could almost be seen as an improvement. However, although watching Trash Video‘s Stumpy sing ‘Ha Ha Ha‘ is like watching a man fulfill his life-long dream, with a technical improvement in the vocals and the obvious increase in passion, it’s almost as if you need that disinterest and disengagement for the full Flipper effect.Â
It must be infectious though, the band obviously bring out the worst in people, with sufficient dissonance causing a post-punk Rite of Spring-type epiphany and tonight is the most obnoxious crowd I’ve been in for a good while, something made all the more depressing by the fact that they’re all old enough to know better. There’s definitely hate in the air tonight. Squeezing in at the side of the stage I find my vantage point quickly taken away from me by a guy who looks like he might be an accountant during the hours of 9 and 5 but tonight is so drunk that he can hardly stand up and keeps falling back into me. What makes it even worse is that despite the fact he’s taken my place against the stage he’s not even paying much attention, talking to a girl behind him and not even looking at the band. It becomes ever temping to make use of the large bit of metal and glass that I’m holding in my hand in a non-photographic way as I tire of him falling backwards into me as I’m trying to take some photos but I endure it for a couple of songs and then move out to the back of the room. The view from the back isn’t any prettier, with the aggression in the crowd even more noticeable. At one point I see a couple of guys being propelled to towards the back of the room, their arms entwined around each other as they brawl. Luckily I see them coming and move out the way, unlike the girl stood next to me who takes the full force of their momentum and gets knocked to the floor as they continue out the door oblivious to the impact of their actions.
It’s another late starting Thursday night gig, with Flipper not starting until after 11pm, so by midnight I know I’ve seen all I need to see; for better or worse, the full Flipper experience.
More photos on Flickr.
Flipper
Sixfthick
Vaginabillies
MGMT were really shocking when they played at The Tivoli at the end of last year; really terrible and disinterested, a band that had obviously spent far too long on the road. But in seemingly typical style the Splendour organisers obviously waited to see what songs were towards the top reaches of Triple J’s Hottest 100 in January and started seeing who was available to play at their festival. So, have a few months away from the rigours of touring and working on new songs reinvigorated the band? In a word, no. In a few more words, fuck me MGMT you really are the world’s dullest band. With time and key changes, the third song they play sounds like bad 1970’s prog rock but they then play ‘Electric Feel’, with ‘Time To Pretend‘ following straight after, which causes complete pandemonium in the crowd and plenty of people outside the D-ring jumping over the fence whilst security looks on disinterested. All-in-all it’s a thoroughly depressing experience.
I have a mostly love/hate relationship with hip-hop; I mostly hate the music and yet I love the challenge of trying to photograph it. Constantly moving and with microphones held close against their mouths it’s one of the hardest, if not the hardest genres to photograph well, especially when the lighting is less than great. And so while I will always struggle to say anything good about Hilltop Hoods’ music, tonight it’s actually kind of fun to photograph, even though it’s just two guys walking from one side of the stage to the other whilst shouting.
Photographing The Flaming Lips from the best seat in the house is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had when it comes of photographing bands. It’s complete sensory overload to the point where all you can do is stand there and admire the sheet bedlam with a big smile on your face and at times that’s all you can do as with all the confetti, streamers and bouncing balls it’s impossible to line up clear shots. A misunderstanding from the PR means I don’t make the best use of the opportunity. Having been told “first song, pick a side†I take it that we’re going to get kicked out after the first song so concentrate on trying to get photos of Wayne Coyne as he rolls around on top the audience in his inflatable ball instead of maybe thinking about moving out along the photo pit to get some wider angle shots. And then, with Coyne back on stage and the song ending, I move to the side and start packing up, only then noticing that no one else has moved so move coyly back towards the stage, but always looking over my shoulder for an irate PR rep to turn up and start physically removing photographers from the pit. It’s a shame as I don’t move into a good position to get a good angle for Coyne singing whilst perched on the shoulders of someone dressed up in a gorilla outfit, although by the third song I am confident enough to realise that I must have misunderstood the instructions and to move around the stage a bit more.
Afterwards I can’t stop thinking that I might as well give up photography because how is anything ever going to compete with being in the photo pit for 25 minutes of the Flaming Lips. How can I go from THAT to a show at The Troubadour or The Zoo? It’s a very sobering thought and one that I’m not sure I’ve answered yet having done a few small club shows around Brisbane since Splendour. There’s always next time, I guess.Â
All of the Splendour 2009 photographs are on Flickr and the individual band sets are in the following links:
All plans for an early start and a timely return to the festival site don’t materialise. The early start does happen but the time is spent editing Saturday’s photos, then thinking about making a move, waiting for other people whilst they think about it and then think a bit more about it, then have some food, and then give it a bit more consideration. Tough decisions as to whether see/photograph Dananananakyrod or The Middle East are rendered immaterial as their playing times pass by and White Lies also lose out thanks to the heavy traffic encountered en-route. So the day starts at a leisurely 3:15pm, with Friendly Fires’ set in the Mix Up tent.
I’m there having noted the amount of column inches and award nominations that they’ve been afforded but can’t say I’m impressed. Whilst they are badly beset by technical issues during the first three songs, which makes it very stop/start affair, you can’t help but get the feeling that young people will dance to anything.
Make a detour to see Bob Evans for something to do and am surprised that his second song sounds like something off ‘Wish You Were Here‘ and goes on for about 10 hours. At one point he moves over to the side of the stage and is on his knees on the edge playing his guitar with a gaggle of photographers pressed up against the stage and jostling for position to get close-ups. That he’s in near darkness doesn’t seem important to anyone so either everyone has mega-expensive high ISO monsters or they end up with a load of really underexposed photos. Whilst everyone is chimping to see what they’ve got, he strolls back to the middle of the stage and does it again (albeit further back), this time vaguely near some light. Sometimes laziness does pay off.
I will gladly admit that I never, ever ‘got’ Doves. And having seen them play live I think I can safely say that I will never ‘get’ Doves. And you know, that’s ok, because whilst others may sing their praises with all the superlatives under the sun and talk of ‘anthems’, to me they’ll always be plodding, pedestrian indie rock.
The Gutter Twins, however, are a completely different proposition.
It’s been a long while since I last got to see Greg Dulli play live, back when The Afghan Whigs were touring ‘Black Love‘ in 1997 to be exact and also a few years since I last saw Mark Lanegan playing alongside Dave Grohl with QotSA at Glastonbury. And so seeing the Gutter Twins play at Splendour is a really exhilarating proposition, especially when once again Brisbane is denied a festival sideshow from an international band.
Unfortunately the majority of Splendour are showing their true colours and have decided that their time would be better spent watching Grinspoon, so there’s maybe 100 people in the GW McLennan tent 10 minutes before they are due to start. Numbers swell a bit in the end but it’s still a criminally small crowd.
My excitement nevertheless makes up for those missing out, to the point where I forget to change memory cards and then spend half the first song scrabbling around on the floor of the photo pit in the dark trying to find a spare card.
It’s a completely sublime performance, and whilst most attention is no doubt centred on Mark Lanegan, who could sing the phone book and make it sound captivating, it’s very much Greg Dulli’s band and his songs, voice and playing are superb. It’s no surprise really when the Afghan Whigs always were one of the better ‘grunge’ bands around at the time and one whose albums still hold up today when so much of the early-mid 1990’s albums now sound quite dated and unremarkable. As well as songs from their ‘Saturnalia‘ album and recent Twilight Singers albums, the back catalogues are revisited, included magnificent versions of Screaming Trees’ ‘Sworn and Broken’ and the Afghan Whigs’ ‘Summers Kiss’.
It’s a tough shoot though, with the band playing sat down, eyes shut and with music stands and microphone stands in front meaning it’s almost impossible to get an unobstructed sightline. Sometimes when you photograph a band you have a strong idea of what you want to get, and when considering photographing Mark Lanegan I was inspired by some of Steve Gullick’s photos of him but the conditions just conspire against me.
All of the Splendour 2009 photographs are on Flickr and the individual band sets are in the following links:
